POKER HAND #30

MY TOURNAMENT WIN: The biggest tournament I myself have ever played in (just 17 players) took place last night, and I won it. Here's how it happened.

We had one table of 9 and one table of 8. I was at the 9 handed table.

On the third hand I picked up the A-A under the gun. Not much thinking to do here, I immediately went all in for about 25 bucks that I'd accumulated after starting with twenty. Had two callers who I had covered, Eric Noble with the Jd-10d and Ben Yaster with the A-K offsuit. I knocked both of them out to quickly become the chip leader.

At that point my plan was working great, as I wanted to get some chips early and watch other players eliminate each other. I did just that.

Finally a bunch of people got knocked out and with $80, I was the chip leader at the final table, with a kid named Jon right behind.

At the final table with that kind of chips I played extremely tight. Then this hand came up.

I picked up the Q-J offsuit in the big blind and called a small preflop raise by my buddy Nick Horton.

Flop came down Q-10-8. I had top pair with a straight draw. I'm not too fond of those combination hands, especially against a player like Nick Horton who only raises with the goods. He bet about 60 percent of his stack, and at that point even if he had me beat I was going to try to eliminate him because he only had like $15 in front of him.

Naturally he had the A-A.

An A came off on the turn which meant another queen would no longer win the pot for me. Then I hit the joker on the river, a 9 which gave me the straight and eliminated Nick. Sorry, buddy.

The only notable other action at the table was when a freshman named Eli went all-in on a flush draw. The kid Jon I mentioned, upon calling starting yelling at the kid, "Don't draw at me."

When Eli in fact did not draw out on him, Jon continued to yell "Don't try to draw at me." I said, "Actually the right thing to say would be 'nice hand'."

Whatever, I wasn't in the hand. But let's just say I remembered that comment and wasn't going to be intimidated by this kid even if he was the big stack.

At this point we were five-handed.

The players were Gilad, who I often play with, Scott Goldberg, another excellent player, Jon, and a kid named Evan who I'd never played with but had a sizable stack and was obviously a good player.

After Gilad was almost knocked out, he doubled up three or four times and Scott Goldberg became the low-stack. Scott was eliminated shortly thereafter.

Then the following hand came up.

I picked up the 9-9 on the big blind. Gilad raised $20, which I simply called. I had him outchipped but he had enough to make him a real threat.

The flop came down A-9-4. I had flopped the set. Hallelujah! As soon as I saw the flop I immediately went all-in. Three reasons,

1) There was a flush draw out there and if he had it I wanted him to pay huge to hit it.

2) If he had the A he was representing, he would have a tough call. And the better the kicker, the more likely the call.

3) I didn't believe he had top set because he would have more likely limped with the A-A, which is, as you've seen, never the way I play them.

He took his time deciding whether or not to call. To try to entice a call, I began tugging on my hair and staring him down. Something must have worked, because he called with the A-10 and he was dead to all but two running cards. And that's how I knocked him out.

With that I became the chip-leader and we began three-handed play.

Before long the following hand came up.

I picked up the Kd-10d on the big blind. To my right Jon limped in. I instantly smelled a rat, because he had almost never limped in that spot. While I was going to raise, I instead checked.

The flop came down K-2-3 rainbow. Jon checked, which I again didn't like. I bet to see where I was, and Jon smooth-called. I hate that play by him because after limping people ONLY play the A-A that way. It's so obvious.

The turn came a diamond, so I had picked up a flush draw. Any diamond on the river would make me a flush.

Jon checked again. He might as well have put a sign up that said "I have the A-A." Well, he had just given me a free card and he was absolutely baffled that I checked behind him. It's just fun when a check pisses off your opponent.

The river was a diamond, and now I had the second nut flush.

Inside I was jumping for joy. He went all-in and I called.

He said, "Do you have the flush?"

I said, "Nope, I just have a King..." and then said, "Wait and 10 of diamonds. Looks like I do have the flush."

Naturally he had the A-A.

I claimed I didn't even see the flush on the board, but I lied. But hey, that's what you get for yelling at some freshmen not to draw at you.

I don't like bullies, and I like them even less at the poker table. So I took his money, as it should have been.

Frankly, I hated the way he played that hand. And he deserved to be knocked out for that reason.

Going into heads-up with Evan I was pretty exhausted and offered to split the pot with him even though I was the 2 to 1 chip leader. When someone gives you that kind of a deal, you'd be a fool to take it cause somebody (me) who wants to get away from the table that bad will likely make a bad decision.

So he said, "If you really want, I'll split it, but I'd rather just go on playing."

I said, "That's fine." He was clearly a good player, but hey, I had the chip lead.

Five minutes later after some aggressive moves by him, he was the chip leader, and I was not a happy camper.

As the short stack, when I picked up the 9-8 offsuit I moved all in, and he quickly called. Mind you, I had a good number of chips at this point and probably didn't need to make that move but I honestly was pretty tired and I didn't expect him to show me the Ah-Kh.

Fortunately (very fortunately, though he's only a 64-36 favorite there) the flop came down 8-9-K and my two pair held up to make me the dominant chip leader.

He went all in on the next hand and I was only too happy to call with the Ad-2d to win the thing.

So there it was. A good night for me.