And a Good Time Was Had By All

My luck, she sputtered out at around 11:25 p.m. last night, as I put my T2207 of chips All In with a pair of 4s during the March 30th edition of the WPBT. I almost made it around the table but was called by "Minus790," who showed an off-suit J 10. The flop had another J and I was eliminated just outside inside the bubble in 19th 18th place out of a field of 109 players.

Thinking I had again reprised my ongoing role as Bubble Boy, I tried to sign off Poker Stars, only to be given the canned warning that I was still in a tourney, and I noticed my avatar, with zero chips, was still seated at the table.

It took almost a minute for me to discover that I had finished in 18th rather than 19th place, as the Poker Stars software apparently mulled over who had been knocked out first, me or a "Posner60," eventually deciding in my favor (sorry, Posner60). The difference being $0.00 for 19th and $26.16 for 18th.

A whopping $4.16 profit, or as Peg pointed out this morning, less than $2 an hour. Better than zilch, of course, but I'm more pleased with my play than with the money. I had a very solid game (he says immodestly) for almost all the 2 1/2 hours I was in the tournament. According to the stats:

Played 202 hands and saw flop:
- 5 times out of 25 while in small blind (20%)
- 5 times out of 26 while in big blind (19%)
- 26 times out of 151 in other positions (17%)
- a total of 36 times out of 202 (17%)

Pots won at showdown - 7 out of 11 (63%)
Pots won without showdown - 13

I was able to avoid all-ins all but three times (the fourth all in I was knocked out, see above). In two of those I had the best hand - pocket rockets in one case where I knocked out a pair of 8s - and in the other hand I went all in with off-suit Big Slick against a pair of pocket Js after getting pot committed pre-flop... a loose play with compounded mistakes where I lucked out when another K showed on the river.

Out of 202 hands that's the only loose call I can remember making. If I made an error, it was too conservative play late in the tourney, where I let a circa $7,200 stack get whittled down by blinds and antes to the point where any hand I played was probably going to turn into an all in situation. As it did. But the cards weren't there and I had made the decision to finish in the money if I could. And I did, if just by the skin of my teeth.

In 2 1/2 hours of play, I only sat at two tables, which I think helped. Being moved is disconcerting and distracting, and, after a certain amount of time all tables tend to fall into betting patterns, making play easier to predict. Both tables I played at had solid, conservative players. There was some probable blind stealing going on (even the tight ricoM pulled off a couple of bluffs), but in most cases a solid bet meant a solid hand. I only saw one Hammer play during the entire night, where someone (name now forgotten) went all in with a pseudo-Hammer, 7 2 suited. The table folded and he flashed his cards triumphantly.

Minus790, who eliminated me, finished 5th. A "GameC" finished first and collected $654.00. The Guinness-swilling Blogfather of Poker finished an impressive 4th.

A fun night, although I'm paying for it this morning. I'm looking forward to the next round, which I saw in chat is being planned for April.