My birthday yesterday was brutal at our bi-weekly poker game. I went—despite the fact that it was also Barbara and my anniversary—because I’ve been in the lead for Player of the Year for a couple of months. As it was, I managed to earn just enough points to hold my closest contender to a tie, despite having gone into the night with a 17-point lead. I kept making bad calls.
To make up for it, I decided to focus today for a bit on a game I played back in October of which I’m a bit more proud. I was playing a $5.50 re-buy satellite tournament to one of the weekly $700 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) qualifiers. There were only 75 players in the satellite but the number of re-buys eventually pushed the prize pool to $1,185, which paid out $100 to second through fifth place and $85 to the sixth-place finisher (in addition to the winner, who got a seat in a tournament with ten guaranteed PCA entry, hotel, and expenses packages).
I hadn’t played many of that type of tournament back then and wasn’t keeping an eye out on how the prize pool was building past the guarantee, so I made (at least) a couple of mistakes in my strategy and ended up two places short of any money. That’s certainly not what makes me sort of pleased with my play in this tournament.
I entered as the second 10-minute level (15/30) was beginning. My second hand looked like it was going to get me off to a great start: 
that I played into two double buy-in players ahead of me who shoved with 
and 
. The 
was a little scary, seeing as my 1,500 chips were all-in and I tend not to rebuy, but the aces held up and I tripled, with the other ace holder just ending up even.
I lost a bit on hand 7 running 
into a flush but made my way up to nearly 6,700 two hands later as my 
pulled a set of fives out of a 
board that had two slightly smaller all-in stacks (
and 
) both all-in on the flop looking for straights and full houses.
The game continued on in that way for nearly two hours (re-buys ended after an hour of play). I went down and up again, and by the last hand of Level IX—with the blinds at 200/400 and a 50 ante—my chip stack was up to 11,000. There’s been eight players at the table for about five hands since the last bust-out. Three players were in the lead, evenly-spaced at 5K intervals between 20K and 30, and the rest of us were bunched down between 8,700 and 12,700 chips. The short stack was on my right, the big stacks were all on the opposite end of the table from me. It was my big blind and I was dealt 
. The UTG player with a stack just barely smaller than mine called, as did the short-stacked small blind. I stupidly shoved and was called by UTG. The small blind folded. Cards went on their backs and UTG had . Neither of us hit anything on the board apart from a pair of sevens. Big Slick took down 22,616, leaving me with 55 chips as we entered Level X.
50 chips went to the ante on the next hand. My last 5 chips were the small blind (which meant I was about 295 chips short). The only caller to the large stack in the big blind was the least of the big stacks, in cutoff position. It wasn’t looking good for my 
as the flop came down 
. The big boys checked through as the turned 
gave me a pair and a on the river paired the board. Nobody put any more money in, and my pair of threes beat the and 
, giving me the antes (400) and another 15 chips. The big stack, with an ace, got 1,190 chips. Didn’t really seem fair but I was still in.
I picked up a slightly above-average
on the next hand. The largest stack (UTG+1)had raised to triple the 600 chip big blind and the second-largest stack (UTG+2) three-bet him to 4,800. Now, normally, I wouldn’t be going all in with an off-suit jack and ten but I was pretty sure on the button I was going to be the only caller against a high ace and with my 50 chips in the ante I only had 365 left. Sure enough, it went heads-up, and I won another reprieve: 
gave me a jack-high straight, my opponent had for nothing better than ace-high, and I picked up 2,160 chips.
By the time the big blind got back around to me we’d lost our big stack to table balancing and the guy on my left who’d almost knocked me out had eliminated the short stack, putting him at over 33K. I had just over 2K. My big blind (still 600 chips) special cards were 
. The cutoff player with about 11K raised to 2K and the small blind called, leaving 16.5K behind. I almost-called with 1,960 (what I had left after paying my ante) and crossed my fingers.
Again, it was a pretty ugly-looking flop: 
. Nobody liked it, or the on the turn or the on the river because they checked it down. I, on the other hand was pretty happy aqbout that eight, because it paired my hand and against the cutoff’s and the 
of the small blind it was good enough to pop me up to 6,180, which was 112 times what I’d had six hands earlier.
By the second hand of Level XII (500/1,000/100) I’d been moved to another table that contained a couple of the players from my previous table although there were only seven seated. I was down to 5,450 and in the cutoff position when I was dealt . The players ahead of me folded and I raised all-in. The three players left to act had me covered by factors of 10:1 (button), 6:1 (small blind), and 2:1 (big blind). Nobody else at the table had less than 10K and the median was over 25K. My only caller was the big blind with 
. The board rolled out 
which might have been worrisome if I hadn’t been holding half the tens in my hand. I doubled up to 11,900 then picked up another couple thousand on the next hand with a raise holding .
Another player had been eliminated by the start of Level XIII (600/1,200/125) fifteen hands later leaving us with six at the table. I was once again the big blind with 12,475 chips left after my blind was out and a not very appealing 
. The cutoff stack was about twice my size and raised to 2,550. Action folded to me and I decided to take a stab with my unsuited connecters, figuring nobody was likely to put me on sub-average hand like that when I was risking nearly a fifth of my chips. The 
flop gave me bottom pair and not much else but I bet at it with 2,400 and drove off the other guy. I was up to over 17,500. My next hand the same size bet protecting a semi-bluff heart flush draw () on the turn () drove off the big blind/big stack (60K) pushing me over 19K.
I lost a little ground over the next seven hands as the antes and blinds chewed away but picked up when the button hit me next. I bet 2,400—double the big blind—after action folded to me and the only caller was the big blind (once again, the guy who’d busted me to 55 chips). The flop was 
which was ugly for me but he checked and I did too. popped out on the turn and he put up a bet of 2,400. I called him. The board paired on the river: . He checked. I had a third of my stack in the pot already. He flipped over and my two pair picked up a pot of almost 11K, putting me over 21K. A four hands later netted me a few thousand more when I made a bet after a 
flop.
Four hands into Level XIV (800/1,600/150) I had 23,675 chips before the antes. I was at the same table I’d been at since my last move, there hadn’t been any more additions or eliminations. The button was on my nemesis who had about 25K in chips. The small blind was just under 30K; the big blind was just over. UTG was the short stack at 16K. I was UTG+1. Our big stack in the cutoff was down a bit from his prime but still well ahead of any of the rest of us, with 54K.
I picked up another iffy hand: . UTG folded and I raised to 3,200. The button called and the blinds folded. Another fine flop dropped: 
. I bet 1,600 into the pot of nearly 10K and got a call. showed up on the turn, I pushed another 3,200 in, and my opponent folded. I collected 12,900, putting me at 31,625 chips, exactly 575 times what I’d had 59 hands earlier.
Of course, inexperience will out. I almost immediately dropped down back down to the low 20s, then made back some ground, and was sitting on about 28K when we consolidated to the final table. I was the short stack, with most of the players in the 30s and 40s, one at 53K, and one at 82K.
The second hand at the final table (and the first of Level XV: 1,000/2,000/200) I took a hit with 
on the button trying to push the blinds out with a 5K raise. Three over cards on the flop () and an 8K bet from the big blind turned the pusher into the pushee.
I didn’t play any other hands until my last. By then there were only eight players; two 50K stacks had collided with the marginally-larger’s queens holding out against a suited ace-king. When the big blind next came around to me I picked up . Everyone folded to the small blind who shoved 32K in. I know (and knew) that an off-suit A4 doesn’t even have average odds in an eight-player game: it’s only going to be the best hand 11.3% of the time; picking a winner at random from a hat gives you a 12.5% chance. But I called and the small blind showed . We had a decent chance of a tie (21.5%) if a bunch of high cards showed up, but he was a favorite to win at 55%. A diamond four-flush on the board would be great for me, or just about any cards below eight that might give me a straight.
What I got was . A couple of diamonds, sure, but I’d need both the turn and river for a flush. Aces were no help to me. A couple of fours would give me a a set. My chances of a win were down to about 4%. If another ten and another nine showed up, we’d tie, but that was almost as unlikely as a win.
A on the turn showed the way to another potential tie, putting an open-ended straight on the board. There was no way I could win, but if a seven or a queen showed up we’d split the pot, essentially earning three blinds each (600 chips). Unfortunately, one of my low cards () picked that moment to show up and I was out in eighth place. The guy who finally knocked me out went out in second and got $100. The guy who just about knocked me out won the seat in the qualifier and finished 199th out of 276 there.
What’s the moral of the story? It’s a story about poker, there is no moral. No lesson, no words of wisdom. I just got into a tight situation, played as well as I could and was very, very lucky. Despite my almost certain elimination halfway through the tournament, I managed to make the final table, and my best attempt bar one at making it to an actual tournament. [A couple of days earlier, in a no-re-buy satellite to a European Poker Tour Vienna qualifier, I made it to heads-up with David “dhilton12” Hilton—the second-place finisher at the 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Cebu event—with a 2:1 chip advantage (I still lost). But there were only 17 people in that tournament (higher buy-in) and I didn’t get clobbered down to 5 chips over the ante. He finished 93 of 145 in the qualifier, with 9 packages to Vienna, another twelve players getting 530, and one player getting 440.]