An Early Exit

I ran my starting stack of 3,000 up to 4,500 early by winning a series of small pots, but after losing chips about 500 at a time with 99, AK and AQ I found myself back under 3,000. I slowly dribbled off more chips and found myself with just over 2,000 chips about and hour and 20 minutes into the tournament.

Then I picked up TT on the button and the first player to act raised the 50 chip big blind to 175. Two other players called which was uncharacteristic for our table. It was up to me next. I was most worried about the initial raiser since he could have a big hand. Since the other two players just called it was unlikely that they had a pair above TT. On the previous hand the initial raiser won a pot going all in on the flop with 66 one pair against another player who missed a draw so I knew he could have a small pair which would be the best case scenario for me.

I thought about just calling, but up against 3 opponents unless I hit a T on the flop I was probably done. There was 600 in the pot and I figured if I moved all in I would almost certainly win right there and increase my stack by 30%. Also I thought there was some chance I might get called by an underpair which would be perfect.

So I moved all in and instantly got called by the initial raiser. Yikes! When the cards got turned over and I saw that he had AK I was pretty happy. I thought with the speed that he called I was probably up against a big pair. I was about 55% to win the pot before the flop, but an A came on the flop and with no help on the turn or the river I was out in about 3,490th place.

My Next WCOOP event will be $215 Limit Hold'em on Tuesday at noon.