NLOP Championship 4: Turned Away

A fourth-place finish in a Friday afternoon combined with a strong showing Saturday night qualified us for the weekly National League of Poker championship tonight, for the third time in four weeks. Things started well -- maybe too well....

:00 IN: We begin in the big blind with J-Q. The flop is Q-3-3, and a man goes all in We dare to call, and he has little. We eliminate him with two pair, and double our starting $1,000 stack to $2,080.

:01 IN: Next hand, small blind - A-K! We double the pre-flop bet. Then A-K arrive on the turn and river. We gain another 600.

:03 IN: Third hand, a lowly 4-3. But we limp in to A-9-3 on the flop. When a 7-J follow, we dare to bet 70 -- and chase the table away. Another small gain!

We lose a bit after that, but reach the first break (15 minutes in) at $1,875.

:21 IN: We have A-8. The flop is 9-3-3. No one bets. K-9 follow. We bet 100 with two pair and an Ace, and it's good enough. We gain $650.

:31 IN: We have 10-9 of hearts. The flop is 5-Q-9. No one bets. 7-J follow. Still no one bets -- but our pair of 9's prevails for $1,500. We reach the second break at $3,325, in the top 100 out of 556 still playing (1,301 started).

:38 IN: We have 7-5 of clubs in the big blind. The flop is 5-6-8, with the 8 a club. We call a bet of 640, with a straight draw. The turn is Kc. We call a player's all-in bet for hundreds more -- and 2c comes on the river! We gain 2,640.

At the third break, we're up to $3,677 -- in the top half of the table, with 322 players left.

1:03 IN: We have K-K in the big blind, and double the bet. The flop is 2-10-6. An opponent goes all-in for 756, and we call. A-3 follow -- but our Kings are good enough for a $3,422 gain.

1:10 IN: We have A-2. The flop is 10-9-10. No one bets. 3-9 follow, again giving us two pair with an Ace. Our minimum 400 bet makes the table fold. Our stack increases at the fourth break to $6,476 -- in 62nd place, with 198 players left.

1:18 IN: We have 6-5 of hearts, and call an opponent's all-in bet for an extra 177. The flop is 6s-7h-Jh. Then the turn is 3h -- and holding a flush, we call another player's all-in bet. But that player has K-9 of hearts, for a bigger flush. Ouch.

That was the turning point of the evening, due to rising blind and mid-range hands which didn't fare well. It came down to....

BLINDS: 600/1200/125 ante

IN THE POCKET: A-9 of clubs

With only 1,300 left, it's now or never. We go all-in, and a few players call.

ON THE FLOP: 10-9-A

Two pair. We have to like that.

ON THE TURN: 3

Inconsequential card.

ON THE RIVER: A

We're confident we've made a big comeback with a full house -- until another player turns over A-10! A bigger boat brings a bad beat, and sinks our ship. But we finished 109th out of 1,301 -- our best weekly finish yet. If this wasn't a weekly championship, we would have earned points for next week.