Four Consecutive Nights of Tourneys

I had the rare opportunity to play a full night of tourneys for 4 nights in a row. Given family life, I rarely play more than 1 night per week. This was a rare treat.

I did fairly well cashing in 21% of the tourneys entered and making 3 final tables (7.9% of tourneys played). Unfortunately, I did not win any of them placing 4th, 5th and 6th at the 3 FTs. However, I should have made it to heads up in one of those tourneys and I like my chances head up.

However, I was knocked out of that tourney on the hand outlined below. A little background first though. I had played very well in this tourney and chipped up nicely when we were down to two tables. I was second in chips with 146,000 chips, but the chipleader had a massive stack with over 500,000 chips. The other three players had small stacks with 25,00 to 75,000 chips.

PokerStars Game #8531695368: Tournament #43326817, $30+$3 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (4000/8000) - 2007/02/20 - 03:27:16 (ET)
Table '43326817 43' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: gthumb (75984 in chips)
Seat 3: K-Rock2525 (527263 in chips)
Seat 4: Dogbreath (146524 in chips)
Seat 7: charliehalf (34020 in chips)
Seat 9: dms3838 (20209 in chips)
gthumb: posts the ante 400
K-Rock2525: posts the ante 400
Dogbreath: posts the ante 400
charliehalf: posts the ante 400
dms3838: posts the ante 400
K-Rock2525: posts small blind 4000
Dogbreath: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dogbreath [Qh Ah]
charliehalf: folds
dms3838: folds
gthumb: calls 8000
K-Rock2525: raises 48000 to 56000

the button limps and the big stack raises it up to 7x the bb for 56,000 chips. I am in the big blind with AQs. This is a great hand 5 handed and I am torn here. There is a huge money difference between 5th and the top 3 spots. I have a great chance of getting to the top 3 spots given how short two players remaining. I could fold this hand and live or mix it up and try to build a big stack.

As I looked at the betting so far, the button either hand a monster or a weak hand by limping from the button. I thought K-Rock2525 sensed weaknesses and was simply making a move on the button. K-Rock had been raising nearly every hand once his stack was more than 2x my stack. This clearly looked like another move -- especially with the oversized bet. I decided that if I came over top here and he folded I would be taking down a 70,000 chip pot and really help to balance my stack with the chipleader.

I played to win and in hindsight this is one of the few times that is a mistake. I should have folded because of the two small stacks. This risk was not worth it given my large stack size. I had time to play patiently and I had been able to steal at least one set of blinds per round to at least maintain my stack. This was a clear fold in hindsight. If mine and the other 3 non-chipleader stacks had been similar in size then I made the right play by moving in, but with such a large differential between myself and the other stacks -- I should have folded.


Dogbreath: raises 90124 to 146124 and is all-in
gthumb: folds
K-Rock2525: calls 90124
*** FLOP *** [2s 6s Ks]
*** TURN *** [2s 6s Ks] [7c]
mcfarmer [observer] said, "spadeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
*** RIVER *** [2s 6s Ks 7c] [Qs]
mattster24 [observer] said, "spd"
Bull62 [observer] said, "spade"
aa_thief_aa [observer] said, "cha"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
K-Rock2525: shows [Qd As] (a flush, Ace high)
Dogbreath: shows [Qh Ah] (a pair of Queens)
mcfarmer [observer] said, "shipppppppppppp"
mattster24 [observer] said, "bink"
polyballer9 [observer] said, "booooom"
K-Rock2525 collected 302248 from pot
aa_thief_aa [observer] said, "boom"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 302248 | Rake 0
Board [2s 6s Ks 7c Qs]
Seat 2: gthumb (button) folded before Flop
Seat 3: K-Rock2525 (small blind) showed [Qd As] and won (302248) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: Dogbreath (big blind) showed [Qh Ah] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 7: charliehalf folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: dms3838 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Brutal way to go with the flush suckout and the myriad of railbirds, but that's poker.

I have provided the link here to the full tournament for any PokerXfactor subscribers.