A Chip and a Chair: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
by Poker Don of Predictem.com
While playing in a tournament of champions at my local casino, I had a great run of luck as I found myself in the top 16 with 30,000 in chips, well on my way to making another final table.
Being local and all, I knew many of the remaining players and at this point in the tournament, making a mistake with any of them can not only cost you your chips but you tournament life as well.
And go figure, I made just that kind of mistake and before I knew it, I was all of the sudden down to 3,500 in chips and needing “a hand” to change things around.
With the blinds being 1000/2000, the next hand that had any value whatsoever I would need to go all-in with hopes of adding to my stack and preserving my tournament life for at least one more set of blinds.
The next five hands were absolute crap so I was forced to fold. Then I receive AK unsuited knowing that this may be my last chance to make anything happen. I then push all-in and behind me there were two callers and the blinds which made a nice fat 13,500 chip pot.
The flop comes A K 7 with blanks on the turn and the river. I WAS ECSTATIC. So I miraculously drag down a nice pot wondering to myself wouldit be too much to ask for one more good hand?
The next hand that I get is AJ suited, which is a fair hand and one surely worthy of playing out of the big blind. All the players fold except for one, “Big Mike” who’s poker reputation is a bit loose, but lucky.
It’s time for the showdown. He flips over A5 of diamonds.
I’m feeling good about this as my J out-kicks his 5 but to my dismay, he hits two diamonds on the flop. I thought I was DONE. However, as it turns out, the turn and the river are blanks so I luckily drag down another pot.
Now I’ve got a respectable amount of chips in front of me and I’m no longer sweating being the next man out.
Feeling lucky after getting two winners in a row, I expected to not get much for a bit and lemme tell ya, I was way ok with that. I was just happy to not have to start driving home at this point!
So, the next hand I get is AK suited. Could this really be happening? AK suited is a nice hand, albeit “Big Slick” is the biggest bust out hand in poker. Many get overconfident when they hold it but truth be told, YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKEA HAND!
Being in the little blind I get to watch 3 players limp in then I come over the top pushing all in but I don’t get any callers.
A few hands later I get Q 10 suited with a Q K 10 on the flop so I of course move all-in and get not one, but two callers! One player has an ace and the other has a king. On the turn I hit another Q giving me the full house and the river is a J so in summary, they get bumped and now we move to the final table.
When we get there I get lucky and am the button so I get to see a lot of hands before I must play a hand.
Approximately 5 hands in I get A6 suited. One player moved all in for 50,000 and I call as well as another player.
The flop comes A 6 K..Unbelievable. Play is checked to me and I move all-in with my last 50,000 and am quickly called. When we show our cards one player has AQ while the other has AK, OUCH. At this point, I’m standing up putting my coat on ready to leave before my head blew up. So as I’m getting ready to give my “good luck” handshakes to the other 2 fellas, the turn comes a 6 and I now have 250,000 in chips and I am the chip leader.All this after I was down to almost nothing.
A few short hands later we are down to two players and I have a 3 to 1 chip lead when my opponent moves all in. Looking down at my hand I see I have A8 suited so I call before his chips come to rest.
All blanks on the flop and on the turn I hit an 8 and another blank on the river. My opponent had A6 and was drawing dead as of the turn.
The point of this story is that winning is fun but many players would have pushed all-in when they had been beat down and seemingly had no chance of winning. By not giving up and getting “a little” lucky, you too can come back and dominate the final table.
Like they say in baseball…”It ain’t over till the fat lady sings” and in poker, as long as you have a chip and a chair, you ain’t dead yet.
