Saturday at PKR

Yesterday was the beginning of a new 12-week “season” of Saturday tournaments, and I was anxious to get to work defending my points victory from last season. The day had a good start, as I walked in the door just as the tourney started, and looked down at A-Q. I raise, get a few callers, and the flop comes A-Q-X. I bet ¾ of the pot and get two callers, but both fold to a turn bet. After adding 30% to my stack on the first hand, the day started going to hell. I got outdrawn on three times in about ten minutes (A-Q against my K-K, etc), and made a couple bad plays as well, translating to a couple rebuys. I won a nice little pot towards the end of the rebuy period, however, to put me among the chip leaders at the table.

Sadly, the outdraws hadn’t ended yet, and after the rebuy period ended I fell victim yet again. The latest one took almost all my chips, leaving me with only $1,200, with blinds $200/400. I need to find a hand to play, and quickly. I’m only two hands away from the big blind, and running out of time, when I look down at A-K. I shove my paltry stack in, and get four callers. The other three guys check it down to the river, and the board shows five unpaired cards 10 or lower. I know someone has to have Q-10, a small pocket pair, etc, and I’m halfway out the door. Hard to believe, but my A-K actually holds up, and now I’m back to over $5K again. I go from out the door to in the game!

I must say that hand gave me a big confidence boost, and my luck started turning around as well. I picked up A-A shortly after that to win a decent pot after Raj pushed in with a very short stack. A little later I doubled up when my A-K outdrew Q-Q, and I was back in business. I took the momentum and ran with it, playing some of the best poker I’ve played in a while. I made some nice bluffs, some nice laydowns, won a key race or two, and all of a sudden I find myself heads-up against Big Dave, who had been the monster chip leader for most of the final table. He was late for an engagement of some sort, and asked if I wanted to chop. We were almost even (I think he had me outchipped $94K to $91K), and I agreed. I was really in the zone and would’ve been more than happy to play it out, but I’ll almost always chop heads-up if the other guy wants to (and we’re about even). Dave played a great tournament (as did Chad, who finished third), and deserved to be there at the end. I hope he becomes a regular.

It was a solid start to the new season. I’ll be missing next week’s tourney to go play in a big one in Benson instead. Then I’ll have my work cut out for me, as by then I’ll probably be down to fourth or fifth in points. Then again, I love a challenge! As the saying goes, “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.”

See ya at the tables…
Rick