smilinjimt
02-10-2004, 02:30 PM
I started entering small hold'em tournaments (10.00 buy-in,20.00 unlimited rebuys thru rd. 4, roughly 160 entrants) about six months ago. Up until recently I had made final table twice and just missed it twice. My highest finish had been 8th. Sunday I made final table for my third time, and with by far my best chip count. The table was pretty balanced, the chip leader had twice what I had, and three more people had some more than me, but not that much. To the dreaded hand in question: I am one behind the button and am dealt AK spades. 4 seat raises all-in pre-flop, 17000. That amount was roughly 25% of my total, Okay, I can live with that. I hadn't seen 4 seat play before, but the few hands we'd played prior he'd played only one, folding post-flop. I read him as conservative, and gave him credit for a made hand, probably 10's or better. 6 seat called, very solid female player with more chips than I had. I read her as a made hand again, somewhere in the same range as the opener. 7 seat called all-in. I think he looked at the chips already in the pot and figured he'd never get a better return if he hit, I read him as a speculative hand. Seat eight folded and suddenly all kinds of options where screaming at me. I thought about going all-in, I wanted to, badly. Winning this hand with an all-in bet would have given me a gigantic chip lead if everyone called. Then fear started whispering to me that while I had the possibility of a great hand, I still had nothing that would win against three callers. If I didn't hit something I'd be out no higher than 8th place (350). Top money was 3200. Then I looked at just calling and betting if I hit. I was pretty sure that seat 6 would have put me all-in on the turn; I'd seen her do it twice earlier in the tournament, and both times she showed a high pair. I still should have called; I know that, but then fear said either one could have pair of A's or K"s already, I could be drawing into a monster. I asked for time twice. All my testosterone ran to my feet; I folded. At this point my thinking is live to see another hand. Flop comes, two spades Q7, 6D. Aaaaauuuuggghhh!! Turn, 2 of spades; I'd have made the nut flush. Worse yet, last card 5H. No one could touch me. Original bettor (17000 all-in) had pocket J's, beat seat 6's pocket tens. Seat seven folded his 10 and nine of hearts.
I made a bad decision and it rattled me. A few minutes later the suggestion was made to give everyone at the table 500, and then play on for top four seats to fight over the rest. After about 2-3 minutes of discussion, all agreed. I was thankful, this respite gave me a chance to collect myself. After the split we played down to the final five with me still holding good chips. Two other players were vieing for chip lead. The second high suggested we five split at that point again, with chip lead getting 900 and the rest of us 700. Once again after brief discussion we all agreed. I guess you could say I tied for second and won 1200, but ooohh...what could have been... /images/graemlins/blush.gif
I made a bad decision and it rattled me. A few minutes later the suggestion was made to give everyone at the table 500, and then play on for top four seats to fight over the rest. After about 2-3 minutes of discussion, all agreed. I was thankful, this respite gave me a chance to collect myself. After the split we played down to the final five with me still holding good chips. Two other players were vieing for chip lead. The second high suggested we five split at that point again, with chip lead getting 900 and the rest of us 700. Once again after brief discussion we all agreed. I guess you could say I tied for second and won 1200, but ooohh...what could have been... /images/graemlins/blush.gif