Tuesday, August 31, 2010

August Senior Championship: You're Too Modest

The August Senior Championship at National League of Poker had 944 players tonight. If we're posting this after less than two hours, you can probably guess our outcome....

:00 IN: We begin with A-Q, and double the blind. The table promptly folds, and we take the lead with 1,045 chips - but the way the first few hands play, it appears only one other "real person" is at the table.

:04 IN: We have 6-5. The flop is 7-5-2. We call small bets with middle pair, and it winds up being good enough to win the pot.

:15 IN: We're on the button with A-3 of clubs. The flop is A-5-K. Top pair takes it, and we gain $380.

:18 IN: We have 10-6 of diamonds, and decide to play.

BLINDS: 30/60

ON THE FLOP: 4-5-6 (suits don't matter)

A player ahead of us bets the minimum 60. With top pair, we're pleased to call.

ON THE TURN: 10

The first player bets 60 again. Now we have top two pair, and decide to bet accordingly. We raise to 220 -- only to see the first man re-raise to 1,300! That's much more than enough to put us all-in.

Without giving it much thought, we conclude our opponent is simply trying to bully us off the pot. That happens in online games a lot. So we call -- only to find our opponent with 7-8! He flopped a straight, then led us along to build overconfidence. With two pair, our only hope is to hit a full house on the river.

ON THE RIVER: 4

It's not a 10 or a 6, and we're stung. In July we finished this tournament in 25th place -- tonight, a lowly 830th. Ugh.

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