Last night I played in a no limit hold em tournament in Hopedale, MA. Placed second to a good player, one I had not played with before. In fact, I have a lot of respect for all the players at the final table – minus one drunken dunce that lucked his way to the final table.
If you’ve been playing poker for a while, you know the type—and—the frustration you feel as each player tries to take him out and he keeps lucking out on every hand he plays. You know him…You flop a flush and a fourth card of that suits falls on the Turn or the River, and he turns over the Ace.
Anyways, in celebration of the Fourth of July Holiday, the payouts were doubled and we recieved 5K more chips (15K) than usual. So it was kind of deepstack, but, the blind levels were the same as usual (15 minutes).
It was a new venue for me. Same ‘ol Eastern Poker Tour poker players with the exception of a handfull of unknowns. $20 Buy in. Buffet.
Heads Up
Blinds were $20K/$40k. I was outchipped 2.5-to-1 (485k to 190k). I was not discouraged by being down that much. I knew that I could recover, and, indeed, had on several occasions recovered to emerge the victor. Given the hour of the day (11:45 pm), I did feel that my opponent would be shoving All In as frequently as possible.
First hand…
I am the Small Blind. Hole cards are 5s 3c.
Second hand…
I am the Big Blind. The Small Blind limps in.
I check my option with a whispy, “At least they’re suited.”