NEAR MISS

My prolonged losing streak is intact despite a strong showing in the Sunday Million at PokerStars. I was playing great with no missteps and a steadily increasing chip stack. I was picking up a lot of dead money by raising as the first bettor from the button. Only once did I have nonsense - 83. Every other time I had a midling ace, a small pair, two big cards, or some such hand that warrants a raise in that spot. I laid down A9 and 44 to reraises from the small blind, but then I called off all my chips with AT and he showed Th9h which doubled me up. The big blind finally called me out and said that I'm getting a bit too comfortable taking his big blind. His next blind, it again folded to me, and I made my standard 3x raise but this time I had QQ. He put an LOL into the text box but it was the new guy in the small blind who decided to play back at me. He showed KdTd and I took him out when my pair held up. The table immediately broke and I found myself starting anew with strangers.

I had a nice $50k stack and not too long after arriving, I got dealt KK in second position. The UTG player bumped to $6k and I just called since he had more chips than me. Why isolate a guy who could be on aces? I was rather hoping that my action would induce someone to try a squeeze play. The button called the $6k then the small blind pushed all in with a stack smaller than all of ours. It got back to UTG and if he called instantly, I would have had to consider folding. Instead he went into the tank for several seconds. Now I began wondered if he was hollywooding with aces. He went all in and the decision was mine. I figured one of these guys had aces and I was out of luck. Still, if all that thinking wasn't an act, then UTG almost certainly has AK and I have a chance at profiting on the hand even if the small blind has bullets. I made the crying call and saw exactly what I had hoped - the blind had AA and UTG had AdKd. Of course, I would have rather seen QQ or AK from the small blind, but as it stood, I won a side pot of $9k even though it would have been much, much nicer had the aces not shown up.

I had a nice $59k stack now with lots of poker to be played so I just sat back and waited for good spots. I found a good spot when a player raised from 3rd position as I had KK on the big blind. He had a stack size and table position that suggested he was willing to die with the hand, so I gave him that opportunity by putting him all in preflop. He showed the QQ and again my kings went down in flames when the queen hit the board.

I was now around $23k and not nearly as comfortable as I had been all tourney long. I got the long-awaited AA but in second position with UTG opening with a raise. That's a tough spot. If I raise, it totally kills the action. I really need to play aces for value at this point, so I'm willing to gamble a bit. I called as I did before with the kings. The button called and we took a flop three-way. My stack was going in no matter what came - I was just trusting the aces to hold up. UTG bet into us on the JcTc6d flop, suggesting the over pair. I was ready to go heads up so I pushed, which made the button fold. Of all unlikely UTG raising hands, this joker shows Qc9c - he flopped the open ended straight flush draw, putting my aces at a slight but acceptable disadvantage. The turn paired the ten, then the river came 3c to end my day.

Sure, I could have raised him off that hand preflop, but aces are so rare and are such a big favorite against any other hand, that I routinely look for ways to get more money involved while still retaining the best of it. Even with his miracle flop, I was still 50/50 to win $30k on the hand rather than the $7k I would have won by avoiding a flop. So, I would definitely say I played my A-game, great patient poker, and gave myself a real good chance of going deep. When kings and aces fail to win the big pots, eventually the chips are going to run out.