Chasing Chris Ferguson

After 3 hours and 17 minutes, we were down to four players in a $3+30c 7 card stud competition.  We started with 72 players, and at this point, I was b-e-h-i-n-d…but then I had  been through most of the tournament.  In the first hour I managed to keep a few chips in my stack and was ahead of the average but after that, my fingernails were in the wall, and they gradually broke one by one. 

Eight places were paid and when we were at 10 players, I was low player on the totem pole with a little over 2K in chips.  I figured to be the bubbler if not the next out.  I did what I do best, I pitched, not because I was trying to make the $$ but because I’d been in bad card mode forever.  I think we were at $300-600 level then or possibly $200-400.  The next thing I knew, we were hand for hand, and then I was in the big bucks…guaranteed $10.80 for 8th.  A round of hands went by and I picked up K-K, raised it, figured to be out on that hand…whoops, the Card Fairy looked the other way and I won it.  I was up over 4K, still in the ghetto in chip stacks.  I won another one, and then two players went bust.  My payout had jumped to $15.12.

I was kicking myself - pretty hard - because twice I got married to a hand in a heads-up situation, and  all I had to do was hit FOLD but my mouse appeared to be glued on CALL.  Idio-so!  I knew I was beat, yet I bludgeoned my opponent with extra chips.  I can’t even blame that on the Card Fairy.  Just stoopid poker player mentality.  Of course I had my share of ugly beats, where three of a kind of are smashed and dropped off the edge of the highway only to be ran over by a semi that lost control late in the night.  One hand that kind of made me sick, I started with a 9 high straight flush draw in clubs, had a four card straight flush draw on fourth street, caught a pair of 9’s on fifth, and couldn’t beat an all-in with Q-Q by the river.  I’ve never understood why those hands are heart grabbing, breath stopping glitches in the main stream of poker hands for me…they really aren’t any different than any other hands, except you have so many outs that it appears you can never make them.

But back to the present, at the point that it was four handed, I had 9590 in chips, compared to, 19265; 35429; 43716.  I picked my spots, no stealing from one player at the table, he ran me down when I started with Q-Q-4 and he started with A-10-8 (off suited), but I had more chips at that point.  When we hit the 1500-3000 with 300 ante limit, I was the chip leader.  The long and short of it is that I won this little beauty and pocketed $64.80 for my time.  My bankroll then was $97.84

*****

That was yesterday, I just played a $1.50+15c LH tourney.  This is the reason that poker players go crazy - I know because I’ve watched them do it for some 28-29 odd years - I don’t believe these hands affect me to the insanity level anymore, they sure as hell used to, now it’s more like a joke…granted, a sick joke…but a joke.  And don’t think this guy didn’t pay every step of the way to get there (he even raised it pre-flop).

At the beginning of this hand, I had 1150 in chips, the blinds were at 50-100, I was (typically, like everyone else) card dead.  I raised to 200, dwalkster made it 300 with, obviously, the best hand.  The blinds folded, UTG called 200 cold, I called the raise.  The flop gave me everything I wanted, and I never slowed down.  dwalkster didn’t either and was all-in on the turn for 190 of the 200 bet, and winning a 2330 pot on the river.

I was definitely crippled, made a run with K-10 off and threw it away on the river (some checking going on in that hand) and finally threw my last $60 in with A-6, got both blinds in with me, and had the best hand to the river when Q-2 snagged a Q.  I think I signed the E/O list when I got in that tournament.

Bankroll now at $96.19.  I believe the micro tourneys are my fav right now and that’s where I’ll stay for awhile, trying to build for bigger and better days.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.