Grinding to 5th

Wow. What a grind.

I had such a good feeling heading into our league event for January, and came away with a 5th place finish (which was a cash).

Had pocket pairs a bunch: 66, 99, 10-10 (twice), JJ, QQ, KK (twice). best Ace I saw all night was AQ suited, but had a couple of memorable hands.

Early on, had 66 in BB, and checked preflop.

Flop: J-x-x rainbow.

SB bets out and I ended up donking off a bunch of chips because I thought my hand was best--oops. Dropped my stack to about 800. Built it back up and then had this beauty.

Level 2 (blinds 25-50)
UTG, I hold 99 and raise and make it 150 total. Only SB calls.

Flop: J-9-9

BINGO!

Just PRAYING the SB makes a hand--ANY hand. Checked it on flop and turn, but finally had to try and get ANY value out of it on the river. I bet 200, but might have gotten more had I bet out more. Got a call, showed the quads and scooped.

Later: I have 10-10 in SB. Get a raise all in, I call, and the BB comes over the top for all his chips. Another 625 to call. I make the call.

BB has KK (ouch), original all in has KQ off.

Case K hits and I am back to 800. Rats.

We condense to 3 tables, I am 800, had to push with A-4 off as the blinds were 200-400 with a 25 ante. 1 caller and his QJ lost when an A hits--a needed double up.

Doubled up again when my QQ held up against an AQ suited. Back in business.

Didn't scoop any monster pots after that, but was able to pick up some here and there, and make the final table.

Ran my stack up to about 10,000 chips, moving with some nice hands in early position, but 2 hands at FT sealed my 5th place finish.

UTG, I raise with J-10 clubs. All fold to BB who goes all in for another 1300. My raise priced me into the call, he paired his Q, and won the hand. A dent in the stack, but not crippling.

Later, in early position with K-10, I raise, get 1 call, the BB goes all in for 700 more. I call, then the original caller shoves all in.

What's the play?

My K-10 is offsuit, and I had to put the orignal caller on at least an A-paint at best. At worst he flat called with a monster pocket pair.

I mucked.

Turns out, the caller had 99, the all in had 44.

My cards were live, and had I called there, I would have won the pot, and knocked out both players. The board made me a straight, and then a higher flush. ARRRRGHHHH!

Still, I make that lay down 10 out of 10 times. My K-10 just CAN'T be good against the 2nd all-in (at least in my thought process). That's a spot (in hindsight), that I should have gambled. 2 live overcards with the board still to come--wow. Huge spot. Huge opportunity missed.

So, 5th place finish moves me to a tie for 2nd in points overall, and in good shape for the Tournament of Champions, not locked, but in good shape.

Congrats to Dealerman--he finally closed the deal on a tourney, and locked up his TOC seat. And congrats to our girl Karen--he first final table in league play. The hand that got her saw her in the lead after the flop, but her opponent had a decent and very make-able draw, which he made. She played great, and I was very happy for her. She deserved a good finish, and got one.

Frankly, I was glad she got knocked out when she did...I know she has won other tourneys before, so she knows how to finish. Scary player when she has a stack of chips.

Blog may suffer a bit this week, as I will be on the NASCAR trail, but have plans to play tuesday night, as well as Wednesday with some of the NASCAR media folks...we'll see how it all plays out.

Good luck and good cards!
~M

PS--comment posting has been amended--no idea why I made it so tough for folks to leave thoughts. I know, I'm an idiot.