Due to a rainstorm, there were only 19 at this tourney, when there are usually 24 or more. Limped into the final table after being critically wounded a few hands before, and went out on hand #91 as the first casualty at the final table. The notebook seemed to keep me away from all-in fever: although I had my share of all-ins and offers to go all-in, I only made one poor judgement call involving the magic words.
A player who'd been antagonizing me (in the poker game only, we had friendly chit chat outside the game) raises my limp, and I go into the flop. I flop a pair of kings, which is the high card on the board. He bets big, and I call. There's another king, he's first to act, he bets and I call. Last card is a jack, and the board now reads something like K, 9, 7, K, J with no possible flush. I'm sitting on trips waiting for one more stupid bet, and he goes all in.
Do you see the straight on the board? I didn't till we flipped our cards. In one hand I went from healthy-big to crippled. In retrospect, I could have put him all in on the turn, and he would have been in a position to double the pot in exchange for his open-ended straight draw.
I was catching a lot of nice cards all evening, but only because I was willing to wait for my moments. Looking at the notebook, I see that I didn't get much above my original stack until hand 60, and prior to that point I yo-yo'd between break-even and worse, but never got myself into serious trouble.
My life as a big stack lasted for precisely 3 hands.
At the tail end of my night, I go all in at 2.2 BB, and get two callers. I have KTs vs 58 and K7. 48os was also at the end of his rope, so didn't have our bets covered. BB calls just so I don't auto-steal the blind that little stack doesn't have covered. If they were suited, I was the 45.2% favorite. If they weren't, I was the 52.0% favorite. I forget if they were suited, sorry.
The tiny stack rivers his trip 8s, and by the time we're done, the board negates my T beating the BB's 4 and it is a push. I go out 2 or 3 hands later.
Final hand I'm the BB and announce an all-in as BB times 1.2 without looking at my cards. Madame is gracious enough to raise everybody else out, so it's at least a race. She's got two overs to my two unders, and nobody pairs up.
A very enjoyable evening. Five hours of poker flew by in a twinkling.
