Sometimes Skill is Secondary...

After a run of improved tournament results without actually hitting any real big money, last night I finally managed to hit a sizeable score.

The Crypto £15K (as usual). Twenty minutes in, there was an odd hand. I call a minimum raise on the small blind with 87s. The three cards in the middle are 776. I check (looking to check raise) and the button bets 30 into a pot of 240. This annoys me (though I'm mostly annoyed because I didn't bet out) but I raise to 120 to signify strength so the sandwiched players will pass, but not enough to lose the bettor. It goes to plan and the turn is a 2 (which puts 2 clubs on the board). I bet 300 into the pot of 480 and the other guy calls. River is an off suit 4 so I go all-in for 650 more, He has lots more chips than me so I'm hoping it's not going to scare him off. He calls with K8 and I take the pot. He had no pair. At no point did he have a draw to anything and yet he called me down, even at the end when he couldn't beat high card Ace!! Thanks for the double up, dipstick (Valmont is his name).

Another double up happens when my pre-flop raise with KQ gets a flop of QQJ (I'm hitting trips nicely so far) and I take out an AJ.

Sometimes you have to bet when you may not have the best hand to find out where you are, especially if there's a chance you could take a pot immediately. Such an occasion arose when I saw a free flop of 962 rainbow when I had J2 in the BB. There were 4 of us in the hand and the pot was 400. Now, there is a chance my pair of twos is good at the moment, as this is a flop which may not have hit anyone. Also, a check from me may allow someone else to bet - a bet I could not call. So I bet, hoping to win the pot right there. I try 300, which could be viewed as being too much (3/4 of the pot). The reason I did this is because we were still fairly early in the tournament (first hour) and so the chaff had not yet been sorted. These fish tend to call any small bet to see another card, so I wanted to scare them off. Unfortunately fo me, the last player to act went all in over the top of me. Did he read me for a steal, or did he have an actual hand? Who knows - but at least I knew where I was in the hand and so could fold, but it did cost me 300 chips. Maybe fewer chips would have had the desired effect?

The very next hand was of note for a very simple reason - I wasn't paying attention properly. I'm on SB and call 3 limpers with 65s. Five see the flop of J43, giving me an outside straight draw. I'm first to act and I've recently been coming out and betting draws from the blinds, to try and take control, rather than let someone else push me off the hand. However this time I think I must have still been thinking about what happened on the previous hand, so I checked, as did the two who followed. There is then a min bet of 100 and a call back to me. I call the 100 (pot is 700 at this point), BB folds and then the next player goes all in for 1070 chips. Original bettor folds, next player (Valmont - the muppet from earlier) calls and it's back to me.

I quickly try and do some maths in my head (that timer doesn't half move quickly when you're trying to calculate things). There was about 2800 in the pot and I needed 970 more to call the two all in players. Odds of nearly 3/1. I assume I'm behind but that I have 8 full outs to win, so I think I have just about the right pot odds to call (this is very marginal at best) so that's what I do.

The turn is a King and I wait for the final card to fall. Except that it doesn't. In my haste to add chips up in my head, I failed to notice that Valmont was not all in at all - indeed he had me covered. If I check, and he bets (which he's liable to do - betting into a dry pot would be something I expect him to do) then I have a horrible call to make. I'm so annoyed with myself for making the error of calling the all in that I have a 'sod it' moment and go all in, hoping Valmont will fold and thus at least protect the 2500 chips I have left. Thankfully, he does fold, the river is another Jack and the all in player shows 44 for a full house. As far as badly played hands go, I'm not going to get much worse than this.

I see a free flop with one other player (Truckone) of T76 (2 clubs). I have Q9 but decide to make a semi-bluff at the pot with my gutshot draw. It gets called and the turn is a red 6. There's nearly 2000 in the pot and the other player has 5500. I go all in for 2835, because I put him on a flush draw and I want him to fold, which he does. I'm up to 4785.

A few hands later and I see another free 3-way flop with JT. Cards fall 633. SB checks, I check and Truckone bets 400 at a pot of 1200. This looks like a steal and, knowing I pushed him off a previous hand, I reraise him all in (3600 more). To my horror, he immediately calls. Crap!. He turns over A8, so he was trying to steal, but he also correctly read my reraise as a rebluff, and thought his Ace high was good (which it was at this point). However, turn comes a Ten and I double up to 9620, which puts me 20th of 96 entrants still left in.

With the blinds at 1200/2400 (antes 300), and my stack at 8900 after posting the SB, I make an awful play. It's folded round to the button who raises my SB all in (he has me well covered). For some reason, I think 'blind steal' and call with A2. Even if I had thought it was a blind steal, A2 is an awful hand to make a stand with. He showed JJ and I hit an Ace on the turn to double up.

Next level (1500/3000) and I'm on the BB with KK. Early limper, min raise by cutoff. I push all in and the limper calls with AQ. He flops an Ace and I'm down to under 1BB left. Seems like any Ace is good tonight :-)

The next hand I'm all in on the SB with JT up against TT. I hit a runner-runner straight to get a lifeline. Two hands later it's folded round to me with 75s, so I go all in, everyone folds and I nearly double up just by winning the blinds and antes.

Three minutes later and I get KK again. This time I flop quads against the guy whose JJ I beat earlier and his AT is no good. This takes me up to 5th out of 16 left in and I'm flying. He gets some revenge when I foolishly reraise his all in with A5 and his A7 holds up, though as he's shortstacked it doesn't hurt me too much.

I then get lucky again when I reraise on the BB with K2. Admittedly I'm being aggressive as I only have 5BB left but this was a lunatic move. My reraise means he only has to put 10,000 more chips into a pot of 43,000 - calling with any two cards is the right move. Incredibly, he folded. After I expressed my surprise he said 'sorry, I clicked the wrong button'. I think this is bullshit and that he was stealing with rubbish, but doesn't understand pot odds enough to know that folding was wrong. Anyway - his loss.

I grab some blinds with JJ before the misclicker goes all in on my BB. It costs me 11000 to call him with a pot of 30000 and I decide to defend with Q2s. I'm pleased to see a flop of QJJ but his T9 gives him a straight draw which he hits on the turn. However, next hand, my QQ hold up against QT and I'm up to 60,000 chips and the final table!

I win one pot and then get 66 in mid position. An early position player goes all in for barely more than the big blind. There's already 21,000 in B+A in the pot so, technically, there's a case for reraising all in with any two cards (provided everyone behind you folds). As it is, my pair makes it an easy decision and his AQ doesn't improve. I now am in 2nd place of 7.

We lose one more player and there is one guy with 234,000 chips, with the rest of us between 70,000 and 95,000 (I have 85,000). I am on the button with AK of clubs. The player immediately before me goes all in and has me covered. I call and he shows QQ. I pick up a flush draw on the flop, in addition to my overcards, but get no help and I'm out in 6th, with £600 finding its way into my account.

So, analysis. It's my best MTT result for a while (and puts me in profit since I started recording results properly in a spreadsheet) despite the fact there were certainly five and maybe six hands that I played badly. Add this to the fact I got crippled with the first really good hand I got and you can see that Lady Luck was stroking me seductively in this tourney. Let's hope she deigns to continue her dalliance with me in the future.