mixed bag

First, the good news, I played in a $20 ten man last night and won again. I honestly can’t remember many details from that tourney, though, except that I made a good call on the last hand with a 6-high flush (4 hearts on the board, 6h in my hand), and my 2-1 shortstacked opponent (6500-3500) only had the 2h.

Now, the bad news, before that tourney, I entered a 26 man tourney last night to practice for tonight (the monthly, live 50-man in my neighborhood). The results did not go well – I totally tilted off and went out in 24^th place. The funny thing is that I got tilted without even being in a hand!

This was a strange tourney that starts off with ultra deep stacks (5500 chips, blinds 10-20), but after 3 rounds the antes start kicking in and it gets pretty fast in a hurry. I was playing tight and not getting any of the right cards in the right positions (A5s, but UTG, KTs late, but facing a raise. Low Pocket pair early, limp, then let go after a big raise). This had me mildly irritated, but of course nothing I had ever seen before, and stacks were big enough that I had plenty of time.

What was bugging me was this total donk who was playing every hand and then flopping monsters, over and over and over and over. He would play K5 suited and hit the nut flush on the river. He played 34o, against a raise, and the board comes 25xA for the wheel on the turn (and the A on the turn gets opponents putting lots of money into the pot with AK). He had no regard for card quality or position, he was playing every hand and winning many of them. Then he started pushing people around with his big stack, and if he got everyone to fold, he would show his cards. Sometimes he would show total crap that he had bluffed, and of course this would piss me off, but what really got me pissed is when he showed KK twice in a 6 hand span. I’m sitting over here folding 9-4 and 7-2 and at least three occurrences of J-3, and the donk who doesn’t know how to play is getting KK twice in one circle of the table! Dammit!!!!

After showing the second KK, he pushes someone out of some other hand, but doesn’t show. He then says “from now on, you’ll have to pay to see them”. I reply “too late, I already know how you play”. His answer “that’s my plan”. Like he has a plan – his plan is to play too many hands and luck into the nuts over and over.

Soon after this, I finally got a playable hand, QQ in the big blind. Donk limps in (of course), so do two others. I make it 4x the big blind. (Could have been bigger, but I wanted the donk to stay in). Donk calls (of course), everyone else folds. Before the flop, I’m thinking “please just show me a third Q so I can take this guy down”, but my wish is not granted. Flop comes 8-7-5, no suits. I’m in the blind, so I lead out. Pretty big, too, I think. (need to check the hand history for the details, they are fuzzy right now, still tilting). He calls. Great. I’m already overheated, though, from all the previous action, and I barely care at this point (how could I put him on a hand anyway, he played every hand!). Turn is dangerous – a 6, I don’t even care anymore, I push all in, fully ready to go broke on a pair. And I do – donk flips over 8-9, offsuit, and I’m drawing nearly dead. Gone in 24^th place out of 26 entrants.

To review, donk limped in early position with 8-9 offsuit, then called a 4x raise with it, flopped top pair with a gutshot (9 outs to beat me, and 8, 9, or 6), and hits the gutshot on the turn. Sweet Jesus.

They say knowledge is power, I think in poker sometimes it’s a curse. 6 months ago I wouldn’t have even noticed what cards he was playing, and would have been sitting happily folding waiting for my big hand.