Well, that was nice.

I've made an amazing discovery: finding material to write about in a poker blog is easier if you actually play some poker. With that in mind, after an afternoon of watching the rugby 7's from Wellington, and a nice roast pork dinner, courtesy of my landlady finally getting around to fixing my oven, I sat down for a couple of multi table tournaments - a $4/180 and the midnight $2.20 Hold'em event on Stars.

The less said about the latter event, the better. With the blinds at only 25/50, and with my stack more or less at its initial 1500 chips, I tried a quasi-steal from MP, holding QJ offsuit, opening with a bet of 150. That was called by the buttons and both blinds (obviously, as usual, image means nothing in the early stages of these events). The flop was J65 rainbow, and the BB bet 50 into the 600 pot. I raised to 450, and he min-reraised. Can you say set? I knew you could. Somehow, I couldn't, pushed (I'm pot committed if I call, regardless), and went back to concentrating on the $4/180.

That had started well, when on the very first hand I had KQ♦ in the small blind, and saw a flop with five others. The KJ8 rainbow flop looked pretty good to me, with four limpers along. A bet of 60 into the 100 pot, folded two, so we were three handed. The turn was a 5, putting two hearts on the board (not a major worry) and 160 into the 280 pot got only one caller. A black 6 on the river, and second pair once again called (this time a bet of 300 into a 600 pot). So, I was immediately up to 2160 chips. The very next hand played out similarly. This time I had AJ on the button, hit second pair on the flop (QJ2, with two hearts) and eventually collected a smallish pot from a worse second pair (I didn't be the river, as there was certainly a chance he had QT, Q9 or similar).

Then I settled comfortably into folding mode for a while. With the blinds still at 15/30, and with just over 2000 chips, I opened UTG to 100 with AK. A small stack (340) pushed from late position and I called of course, expecting a race. Nope, Q7. Then came another success with AJ. I called a 3BB raise in the cutoff, hit my ace on the flop, and collected quite a lot from a MP player who overplayed JJ. Over 3000 with the blinds still 15/30.

My biggest fonkey moment, to use le mot de jour, of the tournament came with the blinds at 50/100. UTG+1, I (3700) raised to 300 with K♥Q♣. The cutoff (900) pushed, and I was faced with calling 600 into a 1350 pot. Getting better than 2:1 and figuring an underpair was quite a live possibility, I called. I just checked on PokerStove -- the call is better than break even against a range of 77+, AQ+, and only marginally wrong against 99+, AQ+ -- so I retract my assertion of fonkeydom. It felt fonktastic though, when my opponent showed KK, and I turned the straight.

There followed quite a long period of no cards -- and I languished at, or a bit below, average in chips. Things got worse at 100/200/25, when I (3800) raised to 600 from the cutoff with AQ offsuit, and was min-raised by the button. I had to call that, but folded after a flop of KJ8, reducing me to 2800, and putting me fairly much into “double up or die” mode. With only 2200 remaining, I got QQ in the cutoff. One limp in front of me, and I could easily have pushed, but got greedy and raised to 800 instead. Called from one of the blinds, and the original limper. I jammed the KJ4 flop, and the blind who'd flopped an OESD and had a big stack, called as well (correctly, getting 3:1). No nine or ace spoiled the party for me, and I was back in the running with 5500.

With 5000 remaining at 200/400/25 I got AK in the BB, and a 3700 stack pushed from UTG. I called, and was pleased to see QJ. Again I was “lucky”, or at least, not unlucky, and the AK held up, putting me over 9000. I got moved at that point to a very passive table, which suited me just fine. Several orbits in a row, I got a walk in the big blind. Now that can't be bad! My chip stack started moving gently upwards, as I was able to steal the occasional blind as well.

My big move came at 400/800/50. I (12000) got 99 on the button. All fold in front of me, and I bet 2000. The SB who had me well-covered, pushed, fast. I had a betting pattern read here, and called with some confidence. He showed 77. Again, my “no bad beats” protection seemed to be in good order. We were in the money at this point. Fromt there to the final table it was fairly dull stuff.

Hand for hand before the final table we had three micro stacks and two big stacks (one being me, fortunately) at our table, which made it really tough -- no medium stacks to steal from. Fortunately, I eventually picked up an ace in the BB when one of the micros pushed, and was able to dispose of his KQ. I arrived at the final table with 42K chips, in fourth place. Mainly, getting no cards, I stayed out of the way. We were down to five handed, and I was down to 33K, at 1500/3000/150, when I got AQ UTG. I raised to 7500, called immediately to my left, and then the button raised to 24K. Binds folded, and getting better than 2:1 if I pushed and was called, I did. To my relief, the original caller folded, and the button called. As expected, or at least hoped, I was in a race against 99, and flopped an ace.

Time to cut to the finish. Three handed had gone on for quite a while. I'd entered with 50K against two 100K stacks (I know, there are 240K chips in play, but this is approximate ok?) and we all see-sawed around for an extended period. At the critical moment (2K/4K/200), I (90K) held AK in the SB. The button (115K) limped, I raised to 12k, the BB folded, and the button pushed. Despite the evidence, I just couldn't find a fold. Sure enough, up against AA and no miracle for me.

It was fun though.