comeback

Hot on the heels of my momentous 3rd place cash, I played again to try and develop the card-classification/positional strategy. In the meantime I'd read-up from several different sites on "card-classification" and read those instructional pages on the poker network's own sites, some of which had some good tips and are well written. This time I was going to play the classifications properly particularly at the start, 9-handed...Unfortunately, I was not in the game long and I was all-in!...and was beaten. I had AQ from under the gun and so I raised it up 2x the BB. A raise came from the puck of 4x the BB. I called and the flop was Q, 10, 8. I bet half the pot and they went all-in. I'm still surprised I went all-in at that point, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but when I saw the hole cards I was pleased: They had QJ suited without a flush draw. That positive feeling left swiftly with a 9 on the river that I didn't see coming. I turned away in disgust that my cashing-streak, of 1, had ended.

When I turned back I was surprised to see I was still in the game; of course I was now big blind but I only had 40 chips and the BB was 50! I think I was a bit embarrassed to still be in the game with such a small stack and that was compounded when I'm given my own pot on the table! Still disillusioned from my beat, it barely registered that I won the side-pot. Although my stack had tripled, I was still down on most by an order of magnitude. Now small blind I didn't even look at my cards I just went all-in - yet another side-pot won. Without a glimmer of a hope, and a willingness to leave this game, I go all-in on the terrible 64 I've been dealt. But fortune favours the brave and I have three 6s after the flop and my stack in now over 800.

Still the short-stack, I pull myself up in my chair and start to really concentrate on the game. I play tight, start to get some good cards and start to win a few hands. Using the card-classifications as strictly as I can remember them I start to claw chips back and eventually came second. I have double euphoria; my first 2nd and a great come-back when all was lost.

After it all subsides it strikes me what a poor heads-up game I played. Maybe I could have won it...nah, I'm happy to have cashed from there...