NLOP Championship 7: Mountain Cllimbing

We're on an amazing run in the afternoon "turbo tourney" at National League of Poker -- finishing in the points (top ten percent) six games in a row! Five of them this past week were top-20 finishes, out of about 500 players. Two of the five were final tables! So we earned more than enough points to qualify for tonight's weekly championship tournament -- and it was quite a fight:

:24 IN: Several early feelers with moderate hands have been overwhelmed, leaving us in the big blind with 550 chips. We have Q-J and call -- then feel compelled to push when the flop is Q-Q-9. A player calls with two clubs, and he makes a flush on the river. But it's the Jack of clubs -- so we escape with a full house, and a bounce back to 1,100.

:42 IN: We've been diminished to 550 again, and hold 7-7 in the big blind. When a player raises, we go all-in. The flop is 3-6-8. But then 6-9 come -- and a straight on the river saves us, to win $1,500!

:55 IN: Again in the big blind, we have 3-5 of hearts. When a player raises, we fold a potential all-in bet -- and sadly, the flop is 3-5-9.

1:00 IN: We're down to 125 skinny chips, with an ante taking 50 of them off the top. We push with Kh-Jc. The flop gives us top pair with Jh-4h-9c. Then hearts come running on the turn and river, giving us a flush to return to 800.

At the one-hour break, we're still pedalling uphill -- but still have 700 chips, with 243 players left from a starting field 1,382.

1:12 IN: We're about to face a make-or-break big blind with only 450 chips -- but the NLOP computer moves us to another table. Thank you!

1:14 IN: We push our remaining 300 chips with Q-9 of diamonds. The flop is 9-5-9! Then a 5 on the river gives us another full house, and we're back to 1,275.

1:16 IN: We dare to play J-10 of diamonds, even after a player doubles the minimum bet to 1,200. The flop is 9-Q-2, with the Queen a diamond. We push all-in with an open-ended straight draw -- and are handsomely rewarded when Kd comes on the turn! We win a $4,650 pot, and finally have some breathing room.

1:19 IN: We have A-Q in the big blind and limp in. When A-3-J come on the flop, we bet 800 -- and the only player remaining in the hand folds. With antes added, we're up to $6,350!

1:23 IN: We have 9-8 of clubs, and still want to get into hands small. We call, as do a couple of other players.

ON THE FLOP: 7c-9d-6c

It's top pair -- and an open-ended draw for a straight flush! An opponent with a huge stack then bets $11,111. With a lot of options at our disposal, we call to put us all in. The opponent shows K-Q, so we're in the lead.

ON THE TURN: Qs

Now we've lost the lead -- but we can still win the hand with a club, 5, 9 or 10. By our count, that's an outstanding 19 "outs" out of 44 possible cards in the deck. And we've come back from the brink before tonight....

ON THE RIVER: 3d

....Only not this time. High hopes fall short, and we finish in 119th place. Only the top 12 win money in this tournament -- but in a casino, we would have claimed a payday for a top ten-percent finish.

(There was a Ministry Moment in this tournament, but we'll hold that for another post.)