My First World Championship

I admit the title is a bit misleading. Most of you will now be expecting to be regaled of stories of Vegas and the World Series of Poker, but that is going to have to wait until June 2006 at least. However, last week I won a $300 one table satellite on PokerStars to enter the $2,500 Main Event of the World Championship Of Online Poker. It was the biggest buy-in for any tournament I had ever played in, and with 1,500 other entrants and a projected first prize of a whopping $900,000 I was suitably excited. So to me, it certainly felt like the World Championship and I prepared according…

With 5,000 starting chips and first level blinds of just 10-20 on a 30 minute clock, I resolved to play patiently but not too passively. Against these better intentions I played about 4 of the first ten hands with middling hands like Q-Js. I failed to connect with any flops and I was down to 4,600 when an interesting hand developed.

Trademark raise

A player who had been consisting open-raising up to 60 (he had made this raise on at least a third of the hands) made this same trademark raise and all folded round to me on my Big Blind. With 40 more to call, and Jd-9d in the hole, I decided to see a flop. The flop came down a juicy J-J-6 with one club. I checked and he bet out 150. I quickly doubled the bet and he quickly called. At this point I started to dwell on the idea that he may have had a stronger Jack. Now the turn card came down 10c and I checked [J-J-6-10 with two clubs]. He bet 400 and I still wasn’t sure where I was (maybe he has a Jack, maybe he has an over-pair or maybe he wants to take the pot off me figuring my post-flop re-raise to have been a bluff). Perhaps the best play here would have been to re-raise and see where I was at, but my instinct told me to call so I did.

The river card was a very ugly Ace of clubs [J-J-6-10-A with three clubs]. Now I was losing to a Jack with any proper kicker but also to A-A as well as the less probable backdoor flush or straight. I checked again now he very quickly bet out 985. I had just under 4,000 chips left and my initial thought was to fold and wait for a better spot. But I hesitated as this was no small decision and a correct call would mean an investment of 985 to win 2,500 and even an incorrect call would not leave me crippled. Going back through the hand, there was something that smelt a bit fishy about the sizes of his raises and the timing of his actions and I talked myself into a call. To my delight he flipped over Qd-3d – a total bluff from start to finish!!!!! Now up to 6,500 all was going to plan, until...

Getting paid

“Mr Q-3” continued to raise most pots and play in a very unorthodox way – in fact deliberately so, leading me to comment to my dad who was watching that “if he hits a hand he is going to get paid”. I never should have opened my mouth. Two hands later, Mr Q-3 open-raised to 60 for the umpteenth time and I found A-Ko on the button. I re-raised making it 200 to go. The Big Blind called as did Mr Q-3. The flop came down Ac-Qx-5c (I had Kc). I certainly wasn’t in love with the flop and reasoned that either player could reasonably have A-Q or even pocket 5s. Both players checked to me and I made an exploratory bet of 300. The big Blind folded but Mr Q-3 quickly raised to 935. Rather than stopping to think things through, I just thought “this is Mr Q3 he probably has a flush draw or a weak Ace” and so I quickly re-raised him all in for his last 2,000 and he flipped over...pocket Queens (which easily held up).

Give him fair credit, he played this hand nicely, and his table image paid off, but I was crushed. I acted too quickly and I decimated my stack. It took me a while to regain my composure and although I still had plenty of chips back (2,500) and I managed to rebuild my stack further (3,500) I don’t think I mentally recovered. Over the next 90 minutes I made a few incorrect reads, managed to pick up some strong starting cards but no strong flops and just two hours into the competition I was down to 1,500 when the end came.

Need I tell you who dealt the final blow? Mr Q-3 continued to raise almost every pot and when he raised my Big Blind I decided to take a stand with 8-8. He called holding A-K, the turn bought a King and that was it for me.

Overall, a disappointing performance but some valuable lessons learned for next time around!

Until next time…

All the best

David aka "thekid08"

20 September 2005

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