Chasing Chris Ferguson

Hard Lesson Learned

Well, I took my newly found wealth and entered a Full Tilt Poker tourney called the $26 Token Frenzy. It was a $1 HE tourney with 493 entrants. I recorded my total of 59 hands as I played and the run down is as follows:

40 Hands folded right off due to no hand with a chance! There were hands like 9,2 unsuited and all such as that.

12 Hands folded from being BB and no hand came or having to give up the ghost on weak hands to players that went All-In or bet their heads when it was not worth the risk. One hand was a Bad Beat as I had pocket Queens and called some hefty bets of 640 and 1440 and the betting player’s All-In of 140 with the table bringing 4,8,9,9,K and my opponent had a K,6!

6 hands won. My, My.

1 hand ended the game

Of the hands folded due to heavy betting, a 2,3 hand off-suit would have won 300 chips with a straight, a 10, 8 of diamonds would have won me 3350 chips as I would have had trip eights, and a K of diamonds and 2 of clubs would have won 1450 chips by becoming two pair. The worst hand was a BB hand of 10,8 of clubs that I folded to and All-In bet where my help from the table would have come as two 10s on the Turn and the River. I would have taken 3800 chips for that one. Had I stayed on these hands, I may have may it to the money but I will never know. And, as I have been told before, it is best not to play these hands as you have no promise of them making.

The hands won paid me 1845 with K,Q off-suit that became two pair, 600 on BB with A,7 of Spades and ended with 3 Aces, 200 with BB of K,6 and I won with two pair, 700 with pocket Aces and 5060 (All-In) with a Flush and 300 with nothing but a 10,7 on BB that became a pair of tens. As you can see, I took an All-In win in the beginning and 3 more when blinds were really low and the big one came later from an A,K of Spades that turned into a nice flush with a lot of table action. The last win I simply had BB of 240 and no one stayed and SB was all in with the end of their stack.

The losing hand was a Q,J of Hearts and I was SB and called (150 + 150) with 630 chips left after the call. There were two callers in with me and the flop came as a 5 with an Ah, 8h, so I called a 300 bet and had 330 chips left. The Turn was a J and I figured WTH and went All-In when someone bet 300 again. the River was a 5 and I was out as an opponent had a 5,3 in his hand and took all with trips. If not for that 5, I would have won the pot with my Jacks.

I finished #136 of 494. Not too bad for a first real money tourney but it cut my bankroll in half. I am going to take Jeff’s suggestion once again and stick with the play money tourneys for a while! $Maxiecat$