I'm strictly a penny ante player compared to everyone here, but I still like to play...addicted to gambling, but underfunded and stupid.
I've been playing on Poker Stars for a little over a year off and on...depositing $20 here, $30 there, never building it up to $100 before losing it all. I pretty much stick to SNGs in the $2-$6 buy-in range, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. I probably didn't play on PS for a solid six months or more because of losing, electing to play on free site NLOP instead. But, in the last two months, I've had a nice little run on PS that culminated in last night's tournament.
180 player, $10+$1 buy-in, 1st place pays $594, top 18 spots pay. The tourney gets down to around 70 players or so, and I've gone nowhere with maybe $1900 in chips ($1500 to start). I get KQ offsuit and a guy ahead of me with only about $700 in chips goes all in. Figuring this is a desperation move on his part, I call. Another player past me with $1400 in chips goes all-in behind me, and I call him too. First player turns over a pair of eights, the other guy has A-something small. Both have me beat at this point. Flop helps no one, I catch a Q on the river to knock both of them out. Sometimes the good cards come in clumps...three or four hands later, I've won three more hands (some just getting the blinds to fold to me), and I'm over $9000 and in 8th place.
Then I hit a long stretch of no good cards and slowly the blinds start eating me up. I might have only called the BB once, only to fold to a big raise behind me. My chip count is dwindling fast as we get down to 30, then 25 players. By this time I'm circling the drain near the bottom of the leaderboard. Finally we get down to 19 players, and I'm in 19th place with about $3900 in chips left and the blinds at $1200/$600, ante $150. There are two other players within $2000 chips of me, and it looks like it will be close as to who might have the blinds and ante knock them out first. The blinds come to me, but I don't get any cards and never see a flop. I'm down to around $1600 in chips now, still at 19 players. Finally on another table two short stacks face off against each other and one is eliminated, putting me in the money.
With nothing to lose now, I get bolder. I go all in with KJ offsuit, and have the blinds fold to me. I go all in again, get one caller and beat them. Again, good cards come in clumps. Within about four more hands, I'm up to $30,000 in chips. I eventually get up to about $60,000 chips and in the final three. Leader has about $110,000 and is being a bully, betting $15,000 on virtually every hand. I'm down to about $45,000 and the blinds are at $2500/$5000 and I'm the BB. Leader again raises to $15,000 and I've got K8 offsuit. I go all in thinking he's probably not that strong and might be bluffed out. He thinks, and then calls with A8. He catches an ace on the turn to finish me off in third place. I win $235, and the leader beats the 2nd place guy a few hands later. In retrospect, I probably should have folded and focused on trying to beat the 2nd place guy who was sitting at around $72,000 (turns out 2nd paid $396...I had no idea, as I purposely avoided looking at the payouts once I got in the money). Still, it was the most money I've ever won playing poker in my life. Last year, I won a satellite $215 entry into their Sunday Million tourney, but like an idiot played in that tourney rather than converting that entry fee into tournament dollars to enter smaller potatoes tournaments where I could have built up my stake.
The good thing is, since my last $20 deposit in mid February or so, I'm up $560. I've already made one withdrawal, and my balance is sitting at nearly $400 right now. Am I just getting better, or lucky? Probably a combination of both. Just about a week ago, I had a balance of around $150. I went on a losing streak, and when I do that I tend to enter tourneys with bigger buyins, hoping to recoup all my losses in one tourney. But the losing continued until my balance was down to around $40. I entered a six person SNG with a $38 buy in and won to get healthy again. This pattern repeats itself all too often, where I go into a nosedive only to pull out with a big win.
Oh well, if you've read this far, thanks for bearing with me. It just felt great to win that much money after nearly being dead in the tourney twice. Again, small potatoes to most of you but maybe it's a new swing set for my kid where last night I didn't have the money for one.
I've been playing on Poker Stars for a little over a year off and on...depositing $20 here, $30 there, never building it up to $100 before losing it all. I pretty much stick to SNGs in the $2-$6 buy-in range, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. I probably didn't play on PS for a solid six months or more because of losing, electing to play on free site NLOP instead. But, in the last two months, I've had a nice little run on PS that culminated in last night's tournament.
180 player, $10+$1 buy-in, 1st place pays $594, top 18 spots pay. The tourney gets down to around 70 players or so, and I've gone nowhere with maybe $1900 in chips ($1500 to start). I get KQ offsuit and a guy ahead of me with only about $700 in chips goes all in. Figuring this is a desperation move on his part, I call. Another player past me with $1400 in chips goes all-in behind me, and I call him too. First player turns over a pair of eights, the other guy has A-something small. Both have me beat at this point. Flop helps no one, I catch a Q on the river to knock both of them out. Sometimes the good cards come in clumps...three or four hands later, I've won three more hands (some just getting the blinds to fold to me), and I'm over $9000 and in 8th place.
Then I hit a long stretch of no good cards and slowly the blinds start eating me up. I might have only called the BB once, only to fold to a big raise behind me. My chip count is dwindling fast as we get down to 30, then 25 players. By this time I'm circling the drain near the bottom of the leaderboard. Finally we get down to 19 players, and I'm in 19th place with about $3900 in chips left and the blinds at $1200/$600, ante $150. There are two other players within $2000 chips of me, and it looks like it will be close as to who might have the blinds and ante knock them out first. The blinds come to me, but I don't get any cards and never see a flop. I'm down to around $1600 in chips now, still at 19 players. Finally on another table two short stacks face off against each other and one is eliminated, putting me in the money.
With nothing to lose now, I get bolder. I go all in with KJ offsuit, and have the blinds fold to me. I go all in again, get one caller and beat them. Again, good cards come in clumps. Within about four more hands, I'm up to $30,000 in chips. I eventually get up to about $60,000 chips and in the final three. Leader has about $110,000 and is being a bully, betting $15,000 on virtually every hand. I'm down to about $45,000 and the blinds are at $2500/$5000 and I'm the BB. Leader again raises to $15,000 and I've got K8 offsuit. I go all in thinking he's probably not that strong and might be bluffed out. He thinks, and then calls with A8. He catches an ace on the turn to finish me off in third place. I win $235, and the leader beats the 2nd place guy a few hands later. In retrospect, I probably should have folded and focused on trying to beat the 2nd place guy who was sitting at around $72,000 (turns out 2nd paid $396...I had no idea, as I purposely avoided looking at the payouts once I got in the money). Still, it was the most money I've ever won playing poker in my life. Last year, I won a satellite $215 entry into their Sunday Million tourney, but like an idiot played in that tourney rather than converting that entry fee into tournament dollars to enter smaller potatoes tournaments where I could have built up my stake.
The good thing is, since my last $20 deposit in mid February or so, I'm up $560. I've already made one withdrawal, and my balance is sitting at nearly $400 right now. Am I just getting better, or lucky? Probably a combination of both. Just about a week ago, I had a balance of around $150. I went on a losing streak, and when I do that I tend to enter tourneys with bigger buyins, hoping to recoup all my losses in one tourney. But the losing continued until my balance was down to around $40. I entered a six person SNG with a $38 buy in and won to get healthy again. This pattern repeats itself all too often, where I go into a nosedive only to pull out with a big win.
Oh well, if you've read this far, thanks for bearing with me. It just felt great to win that much money after nearly being dead in the tourney twice. Again, small potatoes to most of you but maybe it's a new swing set for my kid where last night I didn't have the money for one.
