I always complain about always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, but not this time! So it wasn't the biggest field or the highest buy-in that I have ever played, but I did at least get my first ever online tournament victory. The have this Big Daily Double thing every night on full tilt where they charge a little extra juice and reward you for doing well in both tournaments combined. I played in both of these tournaments and I happened to not only cash in both of them, but also made the final table in both of them. For everyone that cashes in both tournaments they give out 3% of the jackpot that has been accumulated for them to share. The person with the highest average finish gets 2% of the jackpot amount. Also, anyone that makes both final tables gets to share 20% of the total jackpot. If you happen to win both tournaments you get 75% of the jackpot! I double cashed (along with 3 other people), had the highest average finish, and made both final tables (I was the only one) so I ended up getting 22.75% of the $18,709 jackpot for a total of $4,228 on top of my tournament cashes of around $3,200. The best news of the day was that I thought I was probably down around $2-3,000 playing cash games for the day, but I ended up winning $313 somehow. So I ended up having almost an $8,000 day seemingly by accident (since I hardly ever play tournaments and am not really sure why I decided to sign up for those two)!
Having such a good day was very welcome after having a poor showing during my trip to LA. I ended up losing about $4,000 after expenses, but it could have been much worse...and much better.
I played one of the most interesting hands I have ever played live while I was there. I'll try to keep it short. The game was 10/20 NL and the first player raised it to $60 and 6 people called including my self with pocket 7's from middle position. The flop was 7s 4d 3s and the original raiser checked. The player to his left went all-in for $360, I called and so did the player behind me. The original raiser now announced that he was all-in! He had about $4,500 more in front of him and now the action was on me. First of all, it is tough for me to put him on 65 since he raised under the gun. Second, him making such a huge over bet in this spot seemed very strange and it could mean any number of things. He could be going crazy with a big pocket pair (most likely AA if he is an idiot and panicked), overcards and a flush draw like AsKs, an underset of 4's or 3's, and occasionally the nut straight with 56. Without giving it too much thought I just decided there was no way I could fold top set here and I said I call and he instantly looked sick. The guy behind me thought for a bit and folded and now the guy that I had just called asked me if I wanted to make a deal such as running it twice or some other deal we came up with. The dealer announced that we could not run it twice and no deals were allowed. The other player made the dealer hold off dealing the turn and river while we discussed this further. He asked me what I had and I told him I had a set, to which he responded by asking me if I wanted to "just save the additional money (the $4500) and play for what was in the pot?" Of course I said I did not want to save the $4500, because I was now certain that I had the best hand. After I told him this he announced to me that he had the nuts and asked me again if I wanted to save the extra $4500 and play for what was in the pot. I immediately said "Yes!" and he agreed that is what we would do. The dealer was fine with this and dealt the turn and the river which were both blanks and he tabled 56 for the nut straight and drug the pot. Shew! This guy was so worried about how poorly he had been running lately and how he "just knew" he was going to lose the pot as soon as I called that he gave (rather saved) me a gift in the form of $4,500 in cash! Yes, I could have sucked out and won the pot, but he is a huge favorite in the hand and what is the purpose of playing in the hand if you don't want to get all of your money in with that situation. Oh well, I am glad he was playing on scared money (in the most literal sense I have ever seen). So that is how LA could have been worse....
It could have been better had I not gotten rather unlucky in some other rather large pots. The one that left the most bitter taste in my mouth was basically the last hand that I played. I played the tournament the first day I got there and didn't cash so I was immediately in the hole and fought the whole time to get out of it. I only won one day I was there, but it wasn't enough to get me back to even. I was determined on the last night we were there to get winner on the trip even if it meant I would have to play a long session (I wouldn't really play super long to just chase getting even, but it was a good mindset to have I think). Anyway, I was stuck about $2,000 for the trip and I was finally starting to play good and I had a fantastic table image. I knew if I could just make a hand I would always be able to get paid off. About 5 hours into my session (about the time I usually quit) the guy on my right raised it to $80, I reraised to $220 with AsAc, he reraised me to $700, and I put him all-in for $1710, and he very quickly called me. This is a pretty standard spot to get in when someone has Aces and someone has Kings so I just assumed that was the situation here. We didn't turn our hands over and the flop was 3 small cards that were all clubs, the turn was an off-suit king), and the river was the 8s. Even though I thought there was a pretty good chance that the king on the turn beat me I was still pretty sick when he turned over KcQc! He put $1710 in preflop with KcQc and just flopped a flush like he was supposed to. Oh well, that was about all I could handle for the trip and I left a few hands later accepting defeat on my trip to LA. Had I won that pot I would have been very close to being even on the trip, but sometimes it just doesn't work out like that.
The action was absolutely fantastic in LA and I need to make more frequent trips there, but I just really hate the drive over there.
Cliffnotes: I did poorly in LA, but I more than made up for it by running good and winning my first ever online tournament.
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