Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October Senior Championship: Out, Then In


The frustrating thing about online poker is that you can be physically "at the table," yet be unable to play because of network or connection problems.  We faced that a bit Tuesday night, during the monthly Senior Championship at National League of Poker.  Let's see if it affected us....

:00 IN: We have 2-A, but a connection glitch makes us fold it when our turn comes.  That's good; it wouldn't have won the pot, anyway.


:15 IN: After folding several promising hands which missed the flop, we have 5-4 of spades in the big blind. We choose to defend when a player doubles the bet.  The flop is J-5-10, and we call an "insta-bet" of the minimum 40 with bottom pair.  The turn is 10, and we call a similar bet.  The river is 2, we do it again -- and our stubbornness pays off, as our 10's and 5's win the $540 pot! (Our opponent had K-2.)


:22 IN: We lose the connection again, not regaining it until the half-hour break.  (That'll teach us to try to check Facebook during hands we don't play.)  We don't lose any money in the meantime, and hit the break with $1,110 -- in 221st place out of 405 still in the field.


:38 IN: We have 9-9 in the big blind.  The flop is 5-4-3.  A player goes all-in, and we fold.  Good thing; a 3-7 straight winds up taking the pot.


:39 IN: Now comes K-A in the small blind.  We double the bet, and it leads a player to go all-in for 278.  We call with another player.  The flop is A-4-2, and we dare to push ourselves -- 532 more with top pair and top kicker.  The opponent calls -- but our foes have merely Q-5 and 3-3!  The turn is K; the river is 10, and we claim a huge $2,398 pot.


:41 IN: We have 8-A in the next hand as dealer.  The flop is A-K-Q, and we call a minimum bet of 150.  The turn is 8 -- and when someone "min-bets" again, we raise to 450 with two pair.  Two players call. The river is 4, and a player goes all-in for 295.  We dare to call it -- and get rewarded, as the opponents have A-J and A-9.  Our two pair gains $3,295 more!


:43 IN: We come right back with A-Q of spades.  Our doubling of the blind leads to a player going all-in for 1,055, which we call.  The flop is 4-3-4.  We bet 200 in continuation, which makes the remaining player in the hand fold.  The pusher has A-10!  The turn and river are J-9, all around his kicker card -- and we win $3,395 more.


:45 IN: Next hand brings 4-A (with no raising this time).  The flop is 8-A-J, and we offer 330.  A player raises all-in for only 77 more, so we take the offer.  He only has K-7.  The turn-river are J-10, and we knock someone else out to the tune of $974.

That makes four pots won in five hands (we folded the other early), winning close to $10,000!  A quick check of the scoreboard shows we're up to fifth place, at 8,005.


1:01 IN: After trying a few promising hands which missed the flop, we have A-9 on the button.  The flop is 2-A-4, and we lead out 500 which gets called.  The turn is 2; everyone checks.  The river is a potentially dangerous 5, but everyone checks again.  Our opponent has 7-7, so our Ace prevails for a gain of $2,575.

At the second break, we have 6,555 -- down to 24th place, but still well up the ladder.  Only 112 players remain.


1:20 IN: After more promising hands fall short, we have Q-A of hearts on the button.  A man with a huge stack doubles the blind and we're tempted to push in response -- but instead we play it safe and call.  The flop is Jx-4h-4x.  Players check.  The turn is 5 and not a heart -- and we fell forced to fold when a player bets.  (Their cards were never shown; maybe we should have pushed in the first place?!)


1:31 IN: With rising blinds and antes, we have 8-A on the button and go for it.  We push all-in with 1,555 left.  Two players call -- one with J-J, the other an overriding A-9.  The flop is 5-A-4, followed by 2-6.  Our kicker isn't strong enough, and we're eliminated.

Final result: 78th place, out of 859 players.  It's our best showing in one of these NLOP tournaments in several months, and would have made us money in a live poker room (only the top ten won money i
n this game).  Had we handled a few hands a bit better, who knows how close we would have come?


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