My best week to date

I'm continuing the theme of talking about past events that have happened in my short poker life as I build up this blog. Eventually I will catch-up and talk about current events.

My best week to date in poker occurred between the dates of 24th June to 3rd July 2005. It is no understatement to say that this week really changed my poker 'career'.

Friday 24th June.
I logged onto Paradise Poker to see what tournaments are about to start, as I fancy playing one. I see that there is a multi-table tournament about to start to 40 seconds time. I quickly register without reading the tournament details. The entry fee was only $4, so I think 'What the hell'. This was about 9pm in the evening. As the tournament starts, I notice that it is actually a satellite for a larger prize money tournament starting in a few hours time. I decide to keep on playing and see how far I get. The top 13 players qualify. Yep, you've guessed it - I qualified from 428 entrants. The trouble is I had to wait until 2am for the tournament to start. Fortunately it was a Friday, so I thought I'd wait up and see how far I get,
2am finally arrives. There are 548 entrants, and the top 60 get paid. The tournament had a guaranteed prize fund of $50,000. It was also a rebuy & add-on (R&A) tournament which meant you could buy more chips if you want, but they were at $30 a shot. A bit more than I had intended to pay. I thought I'll try and see how far I get without rebuying. Anyway, I did very well. To cut a long story short, I finished 45th for a prize of $135, and that was without making a single rebuy or add-on.
I didn't get to bed until around 5am, but it was worth it!

Sunday 26th June.
I played in the ITH monthly tournament. This is a monthly tournament run by the www.internettexasholdem.com website, and is for regular posters of their forum. 55 players entered. I got off to a good start early on as I had a rush of good cards. I seemed to get lots of pocket pairs, which turned into sets. I caught so many in that tournament, more than my fair share.
Anyway, there was one hand that will live in my memory for a long time. If I said this was the week that changed my poker life, then this was the hand that really kick-started it. We were down to the last 3 players. Myself, McFoldem & Suited_Pair. Suited_Pair had a sizeable chip lead over us and was really playing well. She was really bullying us with her big stack. I had the lowest chip stack and needed to double-up fast. I then got dealt AQ. Now my memory of the pre-flop action is a bit hazy, but suffice to say myself and Suited_Pair were both all-in. I think I pushed and she called, but it may have been the other way round. She showed AK. The flop was AKQ. We had both made 2 pair, but she was ahead. The turn was another Q. I think I almost fainted at this stage!! The river was a worthless 3 thus doubling me up and taking the lead. It was a cruel blow. There were only 2 queens left in the deck, and I hit one of them. A few hands later I knocked Suited_Pair out when my pocket 6's turned into yet another set.
I was heads-up against McFoldem with about a 10-1 chip lead. I had played McFoldem on a number of occasions and we have had some battles between us. I have a lot of respect for him and know what a dangerous player he is. I knew I'd need the big lead. Fortunately my luck continued and I kept getting good cards. McFoldem told me afterwards that he just kept getting poor cards and couldn't do anything against me.
So, I won the tournament, which obviously I was over the moon about. My prize for that was $87 (I only paid $5 entry fee). There was also another prize for winning which was awarded by Matthew Hilger, who runs the website, and that was an automatic entry in the $100,000 guaranteed tournament at Paradise the following Sunday. The usual entry fee for this is $300.

Sunday 3rd July
I play in the $100,000 Guaranteed tournament at Paradise. 290 players entered with top 30 positions being paid.
I start off well and get some good hands. I don't remember too many of them, but I recall one hand which helped me early on. I held QQ and raise pre-flop. I get a caller. Flop is TTx (can't remember the 3rd card). Other guy goes all-in. Does he have a Ten? If so, I'm beat. He has me covered, so if I lose, I'm out. I think for a long time about this, and deduce that if he had hit his set, then surely he'd slow-play it and try to get more chips from me. I decide he must be bluffing. I call, and he shows 55. My queens hold up to win the pot. I do well early on and move up as high as 10th place. Then the cards run dry for a long period. My chip stack dwindles, and we get near the bubble. There are about 60 players left. I decide to not take any chances and try and squeeze into the money. I decide the only cards I'm going to play are AA and KK. I do pick up AA, win a pot and get a bit more breathing space, but the blinds are rising, and I drop down again. As people are getting knocked out, I become more cautious. I remember folding TT and JJ. (If I'd have played the JJ, I would have met AA and got knocked out). Eventually the 31st player gets knocked out, and I'm in the money. I have virtually no chips left to speak of. I get knocked out shortly afterwards playing A6, and get called by a guy who didn't have much more than me with K3. The people watching me believed he was on tilt as he had lost a big hand previously. It was a bad call by him, but he got lucky and caught a 3 whilst I was unimproved. I finished in 29th place for a prize of $552.

So, in the space of a week, I made $774 for the price of only $9 in entry fees. This not only increased my bankroll by a nice amount, but it also gave me the confidence in my own game.

To some people, this may not seem a large amount. But when you're starting out, this is a fortune. I hope that one day I will look back at this and laugh, and say it was peanuts. I hope I'm winning bigger sums regularly in the future. But for now, I'm very pleased.