My Worst Collapse Ever!

I'll get to the glory of Saturday in a second, but first I have to mention the total screw job I just got. And I have to warn you that this is a slightly profanity laden post. I took today off, but since I've been doing so well I decided to play a few small multitables. I played a $22 heads up matches, a normal $55 tournament, an $11 tournament with 10 minute limits and a $22 with rebuys.

The only one worth discussing is the $11. I totally dominated this piece of shit tournament the whole way though. We started with 1,103 players and by the time we were down to 100 players I was in first place. I stayed in first place all the way down to the point there were 10 players left. At one stage I was so far ahead that the player in second place had less than half as many chips as I did!

With 10 players left we were at two tables of 5 players, the blinds were 5000/10000 with a 1,000 ante and I had 350,000 chips. The first player to act who had about 100,000 made the minimum raise to 20,000. Normally the minimum raise could mean a big hand like AA or KK, but this player had been at my table and I'd seen him make raises like this before. I was in the big blind with QT and I decided to put him to the test. There was 35,000 already in the pot and I figured he's almost certainly fold in an effort to make the final table where the payouts get really big.

But he had KK and instantly called. I'd lost some chips but I was still in great shape with twice the average stack. On the next hand I was in the small blind and everyone folded to me. The big blind only had about 100,000 and the blinds had just gone up to 6000/12000 with a 1200 ante. I had Q5 which isn't much, but again figuring I would only get called by a premium hand I moved all in. My opponent instantly called with 55. Pocket fives? Really? That's enough to risk all of your chips?

I didn't manage to hit my Q and I lost another big chunk of chips. Meanwhile the guy who had the pocket fives had been talking smack to me for the past 20 minutes. I'd been raising frequently because that's what you do to accumulate chips when you're in the lead. He kept telling me to "slow down" and warning me that I was going to get caught stealing. I hadn't said anything or done anything other than just play aggressively. I can't remember exactly what he said after I lost that pot, but it was effectively ha ha you suck. And then a few other people joined in! BASTARDS!

I was pissed about losing those two hands (and most of my chips) and while I very rarely type anything at all in the chat box I couldn't let these jokers razz me without a response. I was ready to start informing these mother fucking, $10, two bit players who they were dealing with. I was about to tell them that the first place prize in this tournament (which was $2,700) wasn't even my biggest win of the past 36 hours (there's a little foreshadowing). I was about to let them have it.

But, before I could type anything I picked up AQ. I moved all in and sure enough got called by AJ. I figured I'd be right back over 300,000 and in command again. I'd show these jerks what was what! And then a J came on the flop. Another one came on the turn and I was out. Crap!

From first to out in 3 hands! The dollars involved here weren't staggering. While first was $2,700 which is nothing to sneeze at 4th was about $700, 6th was less than $500 and 9th was only $65 more than the $99 I got for 10th place. But still. That was monumentally annoying and this wasn't one of those situations where I had no choice and would do the same thing over the same way 100 times in a row if given the chance. There were plenty of plays I could have made differently.

Very therapeutic to write out my frustrations. I feel better already.

On to the good news! To make a long story short, since it's late and I'm losing blogging motivation, I finished 4th in the Supernova freeroll on Saturday! I think I mentioned how great I played in the $55 tournament on Thursday and I can say that I played fabulous up until the last few hands in the $11 tournament I just mentioned. That was not exactly the case in the supernova tournament.

I didn't play poorly by any means, but I just got the most unbelievable run of cards that I can remember. About every 20 minutes I'd pick up a great hand and someone would move all in in front of me. Pocket queens in the big blind. Boom, someone moves all in with tens. Aces on the button. Someone with AK raises and calls my all in. Short stack in the big blind. My A3 beats their QJ. It was great. I feel like any average player could have made it to the final table with all the breaks I got.

The only hand where I dished out a major bad beat was (oddly enough given today's result) playing 10 handed at two tables of 5 (we started with 1,015 players). I was in the big blind with 170,000 chips (average was around 150,000) and I picked up Q8 suited. The blinds were 4000/8000 and the player in the small blind raised it to 24,000. He was an aggressive but sensible player who had about 100,000 chips total and while Q8 was not much of a hand I decided to move all in. This is a spot where the cards were not particularly relevant and it was the situation, not the cards that dictated that I move all in.

Believe it or not almost everyone plays about as tight as you could imagine when you only need to lose one more to make the final table. Even though those schmucks were calling me down left and right today, I was about 75% sure this guy would be folding. But he had a real hand, AQ. I was in bad shape and looking like I was going to be in last place chip wise and then...BING! 8 ON THE FLOP! I was in 1st place and we were down to 9.

I ran into pocked aces and lost half of my chips two or three hands later. But I played well and worked my way up and eventually finished in 4th. When I finally went broke I was in bad shape chips wise and all of the remaining players were very strong so I didn't feel the least bit bad about my finishing position. I won another $500+ playing SNGs while I was in the early stages of the supernova tournament so it turned out to be a $3,200+ day!!!

I've really been on a great run lately and I wish I could take a few days off to enjoy myself, but it's back to the grind tomorrow! Those FPPs won't generate themselves!