The Poker Gods Have Finally Smiled Upon Me

Yes, the poker gods took a little hiatus but returned to my part of the world yesterday. After entering yet another tourney on Stars with the intention of keeping myself entertained for an hour or so I ended up playing in it and winning the damn thing. I have been obsessed with winning this tourney for months now. I have finished 2nd twice, came in 3rd 3 times, 5th twice, 9th, and a handful of 10-18th place finishes, but the coveted 1st place just never came.

Started out like any other tourney, not very exciting. I seem to play a few hands early and then shut down and go into tight mode in this thing. The play is horrendous and you can accumulate chips by being extra patient and wait for your spot. It's not hard to get paid off nicely with your good hands. I got to the first hour without a hitch. Sitting a little under average and about 86 people left.

Second hour was a roller coaster. Got up quickly to above average and then slowly bled off chips for a half hour till I blew all but 800 chips or so on a race with a shorter stack. I obviously lost that race and was I believe 51st our the 53 remaining. I had a full round before the blinds came around so I tightened up and hoped to see something pretty before the blinds caught up and I would be pretty much forced to push. Sadly nothing came and I was in the BB w/ T8o. Got to the flop cheap and saw an 8 hit and pushed. three callers and was happy to see another 8 on the river and I tripled up to over 3200. From there the cards were not cooperating and I got moved to another table with someone from FCP. I got dealt AA shortly after the move and got a couple callers on a big raise and one caller when I pushed with my flopped set. I was now up to around 10K and was looking to hit the money.

In no time at all we were down to 18 and in the money. Nothing to get excited about but I felt a little good about it since the day before I finished 19th and 24th. Sadly I don't remember much of how it all went down from here to heads up but I remained patient and made sure not to put myself into any sketching situations. Soon enough we were down to 5 and me and the other guy from FCP were still alive and running well. With 2 people from FCP on the FT we had some railers from the site cheering us on. I think knowing people are watching who know me makes me play better. Makes me not make the usual dumb moves I make in the end game. My boy left in 4th or 5th after his AQ ran into Ben's AA. He was pissed but there was no way to think he had AA in that spot. Unlucky, nothing to hang his head on.

I ended up heads up with Ben. I will state right off the bat I hate heads up and the pressure to be here at this juncture again made me uneasy. I wanted to win this. I am tired of 2nd. I like the the second place $ but for me, I wanted to win. I have not won anything over 18 players in a looooong time and I wanted it badly. Luckily Ben was very passive. Usually I get heads up with maniacs and I can't get any decent cards to fight back and eventually push with crap and lose. This was different. I was getting terrible cards and he had the deck hitting him in the face every hand for the first 20 minutes of heads up but since he was passive he would fold to many raises and fold to me preflop a lot so I knew I was not in any rush. We started off pretty even, then I was down to around 50K to his 220K, then I get back to around 100K. It was a teeter-totter for a good 40 minutes. But the time came after taking the lead and then blowing it that I had almost given up. I was dealt A8 and pushed my 90K in. He insta called and I though I was done. He flipped over 88 and I knew I made my one stupid move. But right there on the turn was an Ace and I sucked out and had a good chip lead. Two hands later I flopped a trip 7's and took all but about 14K of his chips and then finished him off in the next hand to win.

It was a good feeling. I liked my play all up to the push with A8. I still had plenty of chips and no reason to do it but I was on tilt and was getting tired. But I am happy to have some money to play with online and happy to get that monkey off my back. Here are my personal stats on the tourney to prove how tight I am. Also, before heads up my won at showdown was at 89%, a 45 minute heads up match killed that.

You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #9085015484).

453 hands played and saw flop:
- 27 times out of 120 while in small blind (22%)
- 35 times out of 118 while in big blind (29%)
- 28 times out of 215 in other positions (13%)
- a total of 90 times out of 453 (19%)

Pots won at showdown - 26 out of 38 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 90