5hrs and 19mins...

Last night I had a massive headache... but the good kind of headache.

I decided to enter into a higher stakes poker tourney online last night. I was usually just playing in the $5 and sometimes $10 range, but was curious to see how the play was at the higher buy in levels. I was looking around last night with not much else to do and I came across a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000 in a $30+3 buy in no limit hold 'em tourney. This was pretty good bang for the buck so I decided to enter.

However I had already missed the opening bell of the tourney! Not to fear, on some tourney's they'll allow alternates to join in and take the place of people who get knocked out within the first two blind levels. So I was successful in making my way into the tourney. This was shortly after 8pm Calgary time.

What happenened over the next 5hrs was something I couldn't quite comprehend. I was playing my "A" game poker for most of the hands. Rarely risking much if I didn't need to, and making sure my chips were in the pot when big pay outs were to be had. I fought and battled through many band hands and bad beats. But I did have some great hands that unfolded well for me. Some lucky, some more than lucky and some just great skill :) well.. lucky skill perhaps.

I recall one hand as we were getting down close to the money, I had AK and found myself going all in and up against, yikes... KK! The cards started flopping and I'm chanting "ACE ACE ACE" and thank god and Ace did hit! I had just doubled up and was looking good as I now was within top 10 of the further remaining 50 ppl.

422 people had entered the tourney and therefore pushed the prize pool for all payouts above $12,000. Not too shabby! And as long as I didn't do anything stupid I was at least guaranteed some money as we soared through the final 50.

So I was now in the money and feeling pretty good. Stealing some blinds as the competition got down to the nitty gritty. I was on my game, only risking it when I needed to. I did have 2 hands though that I can recall where I was on full bluff and my opponent thought long and hard before folding. I could read what they had, but damn... tense moments and I was hoping they weren't going to call with their crappy hands (but which would have been far better than mine!).

Now we're into the final 20 and I'm not doing anything too stupid, too many large chip stacks at my table. 8 of the 9 leading chip stacks were at my table! It was crazy. Nobody was really willing to risk a whole lot, and most of the hands that ended up getting played were two great hands but only 1 winner.

Final table... holy crap, is this really happening. I'm aware that the payouts are going to start getting quite nice at this point. And I'm now in 8/10 at this final table with my chip stack. So I'm only going to risk it for solid gold. I manage to steal some more pots and secure myself with chip stack 5/8 as another couple players bite it. I'm doing ok. And then it happened. The turning hand. I'm dealt J10 offsuit. There are 3 of us in the pot, the flop comes Q 9 8. Hmmm... I do believe I've just flopped the nut straight! However, there are also two hearts out there now. So I'm a little concerned. I check the bet, the player to my left checks and the player to my right bets the minimum. I come over the top feeling this guy might have a little something or is perhaps on a draw for those dang hearts. I raise it up big. He simply calls. I'm concerned now that he is indeed on a drawing hand. The turn card is a 5, not a heart. I go all in for the rest of my stack which is not a very impressive amount but I'm called very quickly. The cards are flashed before the river is shown. He has KK. I have him licked. Nothing is going to save his baken now! I have now crippled his stack and doubled up. I have taken chip lead and am sitting quite pretty.

I play very carefully now not wanting to lose my lead, but not wanting to risk too much either to maintain it. Another key hand came maybe 30 hands later. I had K10 and was dealt a not so hot looking flop of A Q 7. I make a minimal bet as I'm in bad position and try to represent an ace at least. He calls and now I know he has an Ace at least. The turn of course, is heaven for me. I just made the damn straight! I make another minimal bet and he calls. His stack is now VERY small. So the river hits with garbage and I push all in and he calls. He was holding two pair off the flop with his AQ. My straight takes it down and propels me into a commanding lead over the now reaminaing 5 players.

The next 2 players will killed off by the other players at the table. Holy cow. I'm I seeing this correctly? I'm not only at the final table of this huge tourney, but I'm now final 3!

I battle with these other two players for quite some time. I manage to make a couple of good hands and maintain a fairly good constant threat, taking good chunks out of them when need be.

Then it happens, the two other opponents are all in and I get the hell out of that hand. The smaller of the two is eliminated. I'm beside myself. I am now headsup with a slightly smaller stack then my opponent. I make a couple decent plays right of the get go and take down a couple good sized pots to make us more or less even. This battle goes back and forth for a few more mins.

Linkin Park is blarring in my headphones as it is now quite late in the household and everyone else is asleep. But not I!

I have a really good idea of my opponenets playing style and feel very confidnet in this heads up battle. But then it happened. I'm not sure what the heck was going through my mind, but it was nothing too great. I made a horrible move. I pushed a huge stack of chips in when I had bottom pair off the flop and somehow thought this was going to scare off my opponent. He didn't buy this and came out gunning with his top pair. OUCH. The rest of the cards flip and there is no help for me. I have been eliminated from the tourney.

However.... I have just placed SECOND in a HUGE tourney. I scroll down to see my winnings, just to make sure as I knew exactly what I should be getting based on the payout listing on the main tourney page. And yup... there is was. Tourney profits after my $33 entry fee... a very nice and respectable $1,861.50! Cha ching!

So it was now 1:19am and my head is hurting from all the concentration. It took me until freaking 4am to finally get to sleep. Partial excitement, but also just crazy bad headache which I popped some pills for.

And then of course I wake up at 11am today, load up my internet schedule to see if I have any flights booked in the next few days (hadn't all week long) and boom. There it is. A flight for tomorrow morning at 8am. OUCH! That means a 5:30am wakeup. I'm gonna be slightly screwed trying to get to sleep tonight. And the best part, I'm off to the prairies where it's blizzarding tomorrow! Woo hoo, a few hours in wonderful Estevan SK! So yeah. That's my excitement, time to go and get a few things ready for tomorrow's excitement.