So Stupid

January was supposed to be the month. The month where I buckled down, played a straight game, and worked the $10 SNGs where I've had success before, and that my bankroll can support. And don't get me wrong, I've done that to an extent, with a reasonable amount of ITM finishes, and a barely positive ROI.

But I've also been hitting the $25 No Limit tables, and to the tune of a net loss. Surely, my somewhat apathetic attitude of late to the SNG grind, and the excitement of $50 pots is largely the reason. I've done decent at $25 NL, but no surprise, the variance can be quite high I've found. I won't bore you and commit the poker blogger sin of elaborating on how two flopped nut straights were run down by two full houses for bad beats in large pots.

So tonight, after dropping an unhealthy sum of money at $25 NL, reducing the online portion of my total bankroll to "holy shit" proportions, and half on a tilt, I did perhaps the stupidest poker thing I've ever done. The worst sin. The big one.

I took the dwindling remnants of my account, and found the highest buy-in SNG I could afford: I went for broke. All (or most of) your eggs in one poker basket = bad.

Now, "broke" for me, ended up not being enough for a $100+9 SNG, so I settled on a $50+5. And for someone who's only ever played $5, $10, and $20's (and had a horrible run at the $20's), $50 land was an intimidating and stupid place to be.

I'll try and spare you most of the gory details of the tournament, because I know how disinteresting that can be to read sometimes.

***

So I sat down, and realized what I was doing and the error I was making. I was considering standing back up and hitting a $20 table, but unfortunately the table filled, and I was greeted with T1000 in chips. "Here we go, you dumbass" I thought, immediately trying to compose myself. "The damage is done. Try and play smart."

I limped and chased a few promising hands right off the bat, cursing my loose play so early, and found myself the short stack with just over T800 midway through level 1. Then in the BB, I found KT of spades, and called a small pre-flop raise. The flop came QQT, with just one spade, giving me queens and tens, with decent kicker, and a small chance at a backdoor flush. At this point the pre-flop raiser threw out a few hundred chips, any other stragglers folded, and I didn't like it one bit, but made the call. The turn was another spade, and my lone opponent pushed all-in, with exactly the same amount of chips that I had.

Now, perhaps I should have considered the call a little longer, but with such a small pre-flop raise, I wasn't putting this guy on a high pocket pair. The other options were: he could have a Q, he could have AT outkicking me, or he could have crap and be speeding and trying to bully. In hindsight, I should have obviously folded. I called the all-in, spiked the 5th spade on the river, and felt DAMN lucky to have not lost to his pocket Jacks.

The chip leader far and away now with T1940, I made some notes to myself to play slow and smart, never chase unless pot odds were well in favor, and to consider that I had 1/5 of the chips, and not to blow that.

At this point somewhere, a loose fool pushed all-in twice with garbage and managed to double up both times, rivaling me for the chip lead, then losing some of that back to other players, then giving me all the rest when I flopped TPTK with AJo, and Mr. Loose Fool couldn't get away from his pocket Sevens. Up to T3190 now, and beginning to feel pretty confident of making the money, though still fearing what must surely eventually be a tournament ending bad beat.

At the end of level 3, I flopped an open-ended straight draw, in which I only held the bottom card, and did well I think by getting away from it, even though the bets facing me were small. The turn hit the upper end of the straight for me, and I was glad that I was no longer in the hand actually. It didn't make it to showdown, but the chances of me being beat were quite good, and with a clear chip lead at this point, I think it was a smart play to get away from a hand like this.

Then, on the last hand of level 4 (down to just 5 players now), I got VERY lucky with KQo. The flop came Q82 rainbow, and my T150 bet was called slowly by a lone opponent. The turn was another 2, and feeling confident that my opponent didn't have a deuce, I made a strong T250 bet, liking my chances, and hoping to take the pot right here. I was raised another T250, I called, and the river was a beautiful Queen, giving me queens full of twos. I value bet T400 into the T1600 pot, was called and shown my opponent's pocket Eights which had had me beaten all the way until the river. Up to T4400 now, with closest stack at T2000.

Eventually, I moved up and down a bit, but ended up knocking out both the 4th and 3rd place finishers, taking me up to T7200 in level 7.

In the T400 big blind, I get just called, and I check with K9o to see a decent 876 flop. Having the dominating stack, and having outs with two overcards and an open-ended straight draw, I bet T400, get raised to T800, and I cautiously decide to call. The turn card is a King, giving me top pair, and I push all-in and am called. The river comes a blank, and my Kings beat my opponent's Eights for a glorious and stupid $250 win.