Bodog's $25K 6-Max Tourney (Part 2 of 3)

In the last installment, I won a race to keep my hopes of cashing alive. Here comes the aftermath ...
_ _

Don’t piss me off.
Another guy at the table starts giving me crap for the river catch. You know, the usual: calling me a donk, calling me a suckout artist, calling all my bluffs. It shouldn’t have gotten to me, but it did. I hadn’t made a horrible play – we were both all-in before the flop. The card that saved me just happened to come on the river. Not that bad of a beat … I just won the race. And this guy is in my ear about it.

In hindsight, this might have been a ploy to put me on tilt. If it was, it backfired. I definitely got angry, but I start playing better instead of worse.

I noticed that he was calling all my bets, and so he caught me in a few bluffs and gave me even more crap for that. I decided I was going to use his read on me against him. Just wait for the perfect hand, and he’ll give up all his chips.

After a round or two, that perfect hand finally arrives. I pick up Ace-King suited under the gun. I raise the minimum to get some of the other players to fold, and they all fold to the guy, who is in the cutoff seat. He raises to the size of the pot, the blinds fold, and I decide to just call to set the trap. The flop comes with a King and rags. Beautiful. Because of his re-raise, I feel fairly confident that he was holding high cards. However, because he had caught me bluffing a few times, he had loosened up against me and was likely to re-raise without holding a monster. I therefore put him on King-Jack unsuited. Turned out to be pretty close.

I check the flop. He bets the pot (about a quarter of his stack), and I raise the minimum (half his stack). He moves all in, and I call. He shows me his King-Ten unsuited; I show him my Ace-King and take down the pot. Before he leaves, I type in “Get the (expletive) off my table!” That’s right … MY table. Now I can calm down again.

One Mighty Duck short of a Flying “V”
I pick up a pair of deuces on the button. It’s raised before the action gets to me, but I still decide to call. Normally I would fold ducks preflop if I couldn’t limp with them, but I felt that if I hit a set on the flop, I could send this guy packing. He was a solid tight-aggressive player, so if we both hit the flop he would play it fast and I would get his stash. Not to mention I had a mountain of chips in front of me and his raise wasn’t exactly enough to make me tremble.

The flop comes K-K-2. Almost two easy. He checks, of course, giving his hand away. If he had Aces, he would put out a feeler bet to see if I had a King. I bet the pot, knowing that he’ll move all in. I know this because I know he’s holding Ace-King, and if he thinks I have a King with a smaller kicker he expects to double up here. No way he puts me on pocket deuces – other than King-Deuce the only hand that can beat his at this point.

He proves me right. He moves all in, and I reveal my full house. The turn is a blank. The river is another deuce – just overkill at this point. I have four Mighty Ducks, and he has kings full. See ya …

Making the Money
I cashed in the tournament. Pretty hard for me not to, the way I had built up my stack. Making the money was fairly uneventful. I started stealing antes and blinds while my timid opposition waited for pocket aces, waited for others to go out. I knocked a few players out. Didn’t show down too many hands. Nothing worth noting in my log. The top 36 players out of the 317 entrants made the money. I just bullied the table until enough players had gone out. Easy as pie.
_ _

See Part 3 to see where I placed and how I got there.