The 7th Greatest Blogging Poker Player

I have finally hit the big time. As of last night, I am the 7th best poker player in the blogging universe. I played in the DADI IV event last night on PokerStars. There were 57 bloggers for a 6-handed NL Texas Holdem tournament. This would be my first time playing against the other bloggers. 6-handed holdem is not my specialty, but I have done pretty well in the 6-handed S&Gs on PokerStars, so I felt I had a chance. Read below for what happened, but be pre-warned there is a bad beat at the end.

I started out at a fairly passive table that had JoeSpeaker, and a few other names that I recognized. I did a lot of limping in and slowly built my stack to about 1800. I limped in with 54o from the BB and flopped trip 5s. After some slowplaying, I won a nice pot putting my stack north of 2300. About 10 minutes later, I picked up QQ. Blinds were 25/50, and the guy to my right raised it up to 150. I reraised to 450. The flop came Q high all hearts. I was getting ready to make a big bet, but the initial raiser pushed all in, and I insta-called. I was worried he may have a heart, but he had second pair with no heart. I knocked him out and ran my stack north of 4000. 5 minutes later the table broke, and I was moved to a new table.

I landed at a super aggressive table that had Doubleas two to my right, and the chip leader to my left. Lifesagrind was also there, and was raising to 3x nearly every hand. I did not like where my seat was, the size of everyone's stack, and the overall aggression level. I figured that limping was no longer an option, as I would surely get reraised by one of the big stacks. I also figured if I could catch a hand I would get it paid off. I sat for what seemed like 1/2 hour without seeing a decent starting hand or a flop. Doubleas was attacking my BB everytime it folded to him. My stack dropped down to about 2000 while I was basically just watching the table. I watched Doubleas win a big pot with AA then pick up JJ on the next hand, get all-in preflop and lose to AQ. Then he built his stack back up to 4000 through some more aggressive play and what appeared to be a lot of restealing. I picked up AKs in the BB. Blinds were 100/200, and Doubleas made his typical steal to 600. I rerasied to 1800 and he folded. I picked up QQ in the BB, and BoobieLover who was the chip leader to my left reaised to 600 (3x), it folded to me, and I pushed all-in. No call. Then I got JJ UTG and raised to 800. I got reraised 2000, and pushed all-in. I was up against 99, and knocked another player out. My stack was north of 4000 again, and we were down to about 15 players left. I raised to 4x with AK UTG and got no callers.

Then I picked up AA in the BB. It folded to Doubleas, who raised 3x to 600 from the button after everyone folded. The last time I came over the top from the BB for 3x his raise he folded. I wanted a call this time, and I figured it would be hard for him to fold to a min reraise, so I raised to 1200. Doubleas called. I figured I would push in on any flop, and when the flop came KQx, I was not left with much of a choice, so I pushed all-in. Doubleas called with K9o. I won and crippled his stack down to about 650. He was eliminated a few hands later in 12th. Boobielover got knocked out, and lifesagrind who was now on my left had something like 35000 chips. We got down to 7 players and started hand to hand play to reach the final 6-handed table.

When hand for hand started, I was in 6th place with about 6500 in chips. Unfortunately, there were 3 players at my table, 4 players at the other table, with the chip leader on my left. 7th place had about 5ooo in chips, but the other table did not seem to be pressuring him (sometimes even folding around to his BB). I waited for a big hand hoping someone would bubble out, but hand for hand play just kept going and going. Right before the second break, I was down to about 2500 in chips, and picked up 77. I pushed, and got called by the chip leader with KJs. I dodged a ton of bullets, and doubled up to over 5000 in chips and back in 6th place.

Play continued for a while after the break, and nobody was getting eliminated. I figured one more double up would get me to the final table. I picked up A5o on the button and pushed in for close to 5000. Lifesagrind went in the tank, but eventually called with A3o, and the button folded. If I could dodge a 3, it appeared I would make the final table with some chips to work with. Flop came Q62 rainbow. A 5 dropped on the turn, which I thought was great because a split pot was now off the table. I actually though lifesagrind was drawing dead here, but to my horror a 4 dropped on the river, giving lifesagrind a runner, runner inside straight, and I was out in 7th as the bubble boy.

The tournament was eventually won by bdidde, and lifesagrind who took a huge chip lead to the final table got third. I felt like I played pretty well, though probably not aggressive enough for 6-handed. If I win the pot I was eliminated on, I would have had over 10,000 in chips and be in 4th place at that point. My table situation sucked for the hand for hand, so I guess I can be happy as the 7th best blogger for now.