Yup, Dead Money

That's me. I should have had a sign on my shirt or something.

There were a little over 100 entries in the tournament tonight. It was a mixed bag of people, a lot of older guys, some younger, and about 5 women, me included. We got our table assignments, and I ended up knowing one of the younger guys at my table. Well, I only met him once or twice before, but in a sea of over 100 people, it's nice to sit with someone you know!

We were dealt cards for the button (and personally, I think our dealer did a completely shitty job of shuffling the entire time - he only did two split-shuffles each time. Not enough in my opinion.) I ended up in middle position to start out. I was exercising very good self-control, throwing away hands like J-9 suited, or even a K-8 suited, given everyone called ahead of me. I started seeing that the people at the table were playing quite loosely, thinking hands like A-5 in early position were something they should call a raise on. I decided to keep playing tight, then when a good pot came up, I'd be prime to take it.

When the big blind came around to me, I had a 10h-8h and decided to check to see a free flop. The flop was Kh-Ah-6c and I put in a bet of three times the big blind. I had two callers. I hit the flush on the turn with one opponent yet who showed a pair of Kings. I was OK with the 10-high flush, I just didn't think he had the J or Q. I think that may have been the only fucking pot I won in the short time I played.

See, the whole strategy of playing premium hands gets shot to hell when I get absolutely no premium hands the entire time I play. I threw away A-9, K-9 and similar hands because I didn't want to get my ass burned on a bad kicker. I did stay in one hand with a pair of Jacks and an Ace kicker, but my opponent sucked out a King on the river. I lost a bundle on that one.

So it was downhill from there. Blinds were $40/$80, my chip stack dwindled dangerously to $290, and I would be on the big blind soon. I decided to go all-in on J-10 suited. Everyone else folded, but after thinking, I had one caller (someone out of position). He called with A-8 offsuit. Now, what the hell? Did he think I was desperate and went all in for shits and giggles? Well, I was bordering on desperate since that's probably the best hand I had in about 45 minutes, but it's not completely shabby. Hell I don't think I would have called an all-in of that much for $290. But either way, that's how it went down. None of us hit anything on the board, so his Ace high held up. Pisser.

Dave stayed in another 45 minutes or so. I was watching people play at this table and it looked like I would have fared better there. First, the dealer was actually shuffling the cards properly, and people looked like they were playing decent.

Better luck next time, I guess - at least I'm still $400 on the positive side!!