Feb 13th - €100+€10 NL Hold'Em - Fitzwilliam (Dublin)

Its not often I make a move in a tournament daft enough to ruin my chances of winning a prize but tonight was one such ocassion where a continued 'silly' bluff on my part cost me a third of my chip stack at the time and caused me to finish 11th in the tournament instead of comfortably at the final table.

The evening had started pretty badly as it turned out with my 4k starting stack being decimated to around 2.7k before the game even got into level 2. I then caught a lucky break.

Holding 9d-7d and with blinds at 100/200 I called a raise to 600, along with 2 other players, and we all saw a flop of Jd-8c-4h. I figured I was behind once the original raiser (first to act in this case) bet out 800 but figured I'd call in the hope of either another diamond or an illustrious 10 showing up on board. The other two players dropped and we were heads up.

Another Jack fell on the turn and hesitation crept into my opponent. Instantly I knew what to do. If he checked an all-in bet would surely push him off the hand as he must have A-K or A-Q. He did indeed check and I pushed all-in. He grumbled...flipped 10-10 in his hand and folded. Phew! I flipped my 9-7 and he smiled!

From then on, for a while, I could do no wrong. My hands hit and my chip stack increased to around 18k. I then got a bit carried away.

On the button four of us, including both blinds, saw a flop of A-6-6. I had the 3h-5h but it was checked around to me so I mini-bluffed and bet out 1500! The SB checked his cards and called. The other players passed and that should have been that for me but noooooooo! A 9 fell on the turn. 'How much have you got left?', I asked. '5k', came the reply. 'I'll bet 5k then', I said and splashed the pot with 5 green chips. 'I call', he said, and with that I thre my cards into the muck as he showed K-6.

So I'm down to 11k now which was still plenty but then got involved in a couple more pots, one where my 9-9 was crushed by an all-in for Q-3, and was down to 6k before you knew it!

On the BB I get J-2 o/s. With 3 of us in the flop is J-4-9. I bet 2k and am called. The turn card is an 8. I go all-in and am called by the button and his J-4. Pooey!! Out in 11th and its all over for another day.

Entries -> 47 - Place -> 11th - Loss -> €110 ($132) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$1726