One Step Up, Two Steps Back

Tonight I played in Step Four, using my ticket worth $215, and I came in a lovely 9th place. Out of 9. Sigh. In both of my previous tourneys I had doubled up early when I had big pairs and other players had smaller pairs that they couldn't fold. This time around, I found QQ in the Small blind and decided to just flat call a button raise to 80 at the 10/20 level. Normally, I repop here, with no intention of folding, but this time around I wanted to slow-play my Queens, and trap the button for some more chips. The big blind also called, and we saw a J-8-5 flop with two spades. I checked, as did the big blind, and then the button bet 175 into the 240 pot. I flat-called, and then the big blind check-raised and made it 500+ to go. the Button obv folded, and it was decision time for me. Unfortunately I didn't think about it for long, pushed, and got called by his flopped trips with 88. That left me with 80 chips, which i managed to triple to 240 on the very next hand (AQ on the button), but within a few more hands I was out.
My mistake in the QQ hand was not taking enough time to consider what the big blind could be repopping with. Even if he was only raising with a King-hi or Ace-hi flush draw I'm about 50/50 to win. If he has a flush draw with the 8 of spades I'm barely ahead (I had the Q of spades so that was not an out), and that's also the case versus the 10-9 of spades or 7-6 of spades. Plus I only had 255 chips invested in the pot, so if I had folded I would still have 1250 or so. The other thing I needed to consider was the flop itself. In the previous two tourneys, all three times I got it all-in versus a medium pair on a small-card flop. This time, the flop's highest card was one rank below my pair, and the big blind's big raise should have suggested to me that he was neither fazed by the Jack nor by my flat-calls pre- and post-flop. So really, the only hand I had soundly beaten was Ace-Jack. It's a difficult fold, but it's a fold I could have and more to the point SHOULD have made considering the stakes.
After that debacle I decided to start again at the beginning and played a 500 FPP Step One tourney. After a bluff gone bad (hard to bluff the guy with the nuts, good thing for me i checked the river), I was down to 800 chips early. But after that, I caught fire and went on to crush the table, finishing first and winning a Step Two seat. I then played Step Two, got lucky early on when I stacked KK with my QQ on a Q-hi flop (eerily reminiscent of earlier, but in my favor this time around), and maintained one of the top two stacks all the way into the money. I donked off a bunch of chips with 4 players left, but then got them donked right back (Ace-2 is NEVER ahead of my all-in). Shortly after that, though, the prettiest hand in poker did me wrong, as with three players left, I called a button push with Ace-King of Spades and lost to his Ace-8 off when an 8 flopped. (God Damn Eights). That hand crippled me, and I finished in 3rd a few hands later, giving me yet another Step Two ticket. So far, I've invested $21 and 1000 FPP's and I have a Step Two seat. Back to the grind...

Another Step Up !!

Tonight, I decided to use my ticket for Step 3, a $82 buy-in sit-n-go that paid the top two finishers a Step Four ticket worth $215 and paid 3rd, 4th, and 5th another Step Three ticket. Well I RUN GOOT. About 10 hands in I got QQ UTG, made a raise to 80 at 10/20, and got called only by the big blind. The flop came 6-5-3 with two clubs, I bet 100, got check-raised to 300, pushed, and got called by his 77. He missed on the turn and river and I doubled up early. Since 5 places paid back at least the buy-in, I decided to play pretty tight after the double-up, and maintained my stack for the next level or two. I raised coming in several times, and the only times I got played back at were when I had low pairs, which I naturally folded. It was down to five players (so we were all In The Money) when the key hand of the tourney came up. I raised to 900 at 150/300 with 10-10 UTG, and the button pushed for about 2200 total, which I called. He flipped over QJ off, and I won the conflip, which gave me about a 2-1 chip advantage over each of the remaining players. After that I re-tightened, raising only when I was not going to fold to a push and settling for letting the smaller stacks fight it out for the other top spot. Eventually one of my opponents doubled up and took a big chip lead, but fortunately I had position on the shortest stack and he was loathe to challenge me. On the final hand, the big stack limped, the shorty pushed with 33, and the big stack woke up with QQ and won, giving himself and ME the Step Four tickets !
So now I have a ticket worth $215, and my total investment so far is $21 plus 500 FPP's. Not Too Shabby. I have been playing very solid sit-n-go poker and have been fortunate to get action on my big hands. Let us hope the string can continue ! !

On To Step Three !

Tonight after work I played in a Step Two satellite on Pokerstars and WON a seat for Step Three worth $82 ! This was one of the more interesting sng's I've played, as there were two players involved in the sng who were from the same town (in a foreign country) and after about ten minutes of play I could plainly see that they were colluding. They were inolved in a lot of pots, and there was a lot of chip movement between the two players - on a lot of hands one would raise, the other would reraise, and the first would fold. Fortunately for me I picked up KK a few hands in and got doubled up by 10-10 on an all-undercards flop, and then got JJ in the blinds and was able to get it all-in vs. 55 on a 222 flop, giving me a sizeable stack early. I managed my stack well, and because of the two aggressive guys, I played pretty basic poker with a few timely bluffs mixed in for balance. I also gained from the fact that I played both the KK and the JJ hands very fast, so when I played other hands full speed ahead it looked to the field like I had a monster. Four-handed, we had one extremely tight short stack who played NO hands, and fortunately for me he was SB when I was BB and he gave me a LOT of walks. When he finally busted I had a slight chip lead, and I was able to use my knowledge of how my opponents were betting and my tight image to maintain my lead. On the final hand, the smaller stack of the two min-raised the button (which he had done a bunch of times), I repopped with 66 in the SB, and he snapped off the call with QQ. Luck was on my side however- the flop came A-7-6, and my trips held up. That hand was the only time I got my money in bad, and it turned out good. And "cheaters never win". Next up - Step Three !

Going for the PCA

Pokerstars is once again offering packages to the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure, except this year they have come up with a great way to give even low-limit players like myself who can't cough up the 10 grand a chance to get a seat. They are offering Step tournies, which are 9-player sit-n-go's in which the top 2-3 players win seats to the next "step". The buy-in for the cheapest one starts at $7.50, and if you finish in the top two you get a seat for the next round which has a $27 buy-in, until after six steps you get to play in a $2100 sit-n-go for a PCA seat. Probably the coolest thing about the Step tourneys is that they pay out 4-6 places, with the top two being seats to the next round and then the next place or two being seats for the same step you just played, so that if you make it through a few steps and then come in 3rd or 4th you don't have to start all over again at the beginning. (for more info click here).
I've played several times, and am going to post my results so far here. Hopefully I will move higher and get that seat ! !

played 500 FPP buy-in Step One - finished 9th (AQ all-in on an Ace hi flop - guy hit a flush)
played $7.50 buy-in Step One - finished 1st - won a ticket for Step Two worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 3rd - won a Step Two ticket worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 5th (lost with KK to AA all-in preflop) - won a Step One ticket
Played Step One - finished Out Of The Money
Played Step One - finished 4th - won $1.50
Played Step One - finished 3rd - won Step One Ticket
Played Step One - finished 2nd - won a Step Two ticket thanks to a rotten beat - Ac8c chipleader beats 99 short stack all-in preflop - board came 9-7-6-x-10.

total investment so far is $21.00 plus 500 FPP's, and I have a Step Two ticket.