I hate paying taxes. It would be nice if they just sent you a bill every year but instead they just take it out of your paycheck before you even see it and then, like a crack addict, they want more every April. To steal a bit from Chris Rock, that’s not paying taxes, that’s check jacking.
So in an effort to stick to “the man” we scheduled a poker tournament for April 15. I’m not usually a winner at these events because my game is more focused on cash games but it’s a cool way to get a bunch of people together so we try to do one once a month or so. Buy in is $50 and it’s limit Hold ‘Em for the first few rounds and then it goes NL. Somehow I made it to the final table with only one win the entire evening. On the first hand of the night I had 22 in late position and I got a set on the flop. Everything else, I lost with. KK, TT, you name it. I lost with the best pre-flop hands. Again, I’m not sure how, but I played tight enough to make it to the final table.
It was a slow process but the table slowly got smaller and smaller until I had made it into the money (3rd place). I was short stacked but I just tried to keep out of anything less than a monster opening hand. The blinds were eating me alive and having everyone fold to me wasn’t helping to do anything other than to keep even. Finally the third place person dropped out and I was heads-up. I couldn’t buy a hand and again the antes and the blinds were killing me. Finally, I got a playable hand and went all in. My opponent matched me and even though I had the nuts going into the last card, he ended up with a straight and I walked away with $600 for second place.
I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence but the last two SNG tournaments I’ve played in, I’ve won first place both games. As I said earlier, I don’t really consider myself to be a very good tourney player but somehow I seem to be doing well enough. I guess I’ll have to read one of my tourney books at some point so I can identify all of my mistakes 🙂