Poker, Football, and everything sports

When you've played as much poker as I have, you get to the point where any tournament I enter I enter to win. If I don't win, I'm either upset or I'm disappointed. If I plain and simply play poorly: pick bad spots, made bad calls etc., then I'm upset. If I feel like I played well and just hit some unlucky spots then I'm disappointed. Tonight, "fortunately" I'm disappointed. I'm gonna break down some hands I won and some hands I lost and try to give some insight on my thought process. Quick recap buy in was 120 bucks got 434 people I got out about 100th 4.5 hours in. We started with 8k in chips blinds at 25 50 up every 30 minutes. Didn't bother to see what first woulda gotten I'll post later if any1 is interested.

Ok good start up to 9.5k pretty quickly. Guy to my right raised to 200 I reraise to 600 with KK he calls. Flop comes 8 high he bets 350 I raise to 1200 he folds. I could have just called and tried to trap him, but I also thought if he had 10 10 or JJ he was reraising in that spot.

I'm at about 9.5k blinds 100 200 I'm in BB with KQ 5 people see the flop. Flop comes QJ5 two diamonds I bet 800 guy on the button raises to 2k. At this point I don't really know what he has but I decide to call and see a turn. The turn is another 5 two flush draws on board. I check and he bets 3k pretty quickly, leaving him about 3500 more behind. I count my chips and we're about dead even. I thought maybe he had slowplayed AA or KK preflop ,but the main thing I had him on was QJ, very outside shot of JJ. Bottom line, I didn't think I could beat anything he had, and he was too committed to bluff. I fold. He later said he had KQ as well. Nice play by him.

This next pot is my 2nd favorite of the tournament. Blinds still at 50 100. I limp with 76 hearts in mid position, guy to my left raises to 300 and I call we're heads up. Flop comes AQJ two hearts, I check and he quickly fires out 400. I put him on an A, but still call hoping to trap him if I hit a heart. Turn is a 7, and it goes check check. I was calling most any bet had be fired. This made me think he had a weak A or a Q. The river brings another Q no flush for me just a pair. However, its a great card to bluff on if he has an A. I bet 1100 around a pot size bet. He thinks for 30 seconds and folds the A of spades. I show 76 and rake the pot.

This next hand is my favorite of the tournament. Blinds are up to 150 300 I have about...13k. I raise to 850for the second straight hand with AJ. Small blind new guy at table had same size stack calls. Flop comes A109 rainbow. He checks, I bet 2k and he quickly calls. I was pretty sure I was ahead here. 5 of diamonds on the turn and check check. K of diamonds on the river bringing 3 diamonds on board. He goes straight to his chips and fired out 5500, the size of the pot. I was 98% sure I was good here. He would value bet less with a flush, woulda raised the flop with AK or AQ. Only hand he coulda had was 1010 or 99 for a flopped set, but I didn't think he had it. I call in 5 seconds and he mucks. The talkative guy at the table praised the call, so I was feeling like a deep run was definetly possible.

No big hands to speak of for a while I got moved to a new table. Couple solid players. The guy to my left played 1 hand an hour and was short stacked the whole time. With blinds at 200 400 I raise to 1500 with A6. He min raises 1200 more and I decide to call against my better judgement. The flop comes QQ8 and I push all in. Despite the fact that he mulled it over for 25 seconds and folded, I feel like I actually made a bad play. It was pretty easy to put him on a big hand preflop, the only hand he's folding is AK, AJ, 1010 etc. So I won, but not toooo proud of the play.

Ok so now I have about 22k blinds are 400 800. I raise to 2800 in early position with A7. I had been pretty quiet and not playing many pots, so thought I could steal one here. Unfortunately, tightest player in the world raises behind me for 1600 more and I sheepishly call. He has AK, and I flop a 7! It holds and I'm up to about 28k.

Unfortunatley, it starts to unravel here. Two hands later I look down at A10 of hearts and raise to 2800 again. Small stack pushes about 4500 more he's been playing really tight but I'm getting the odds to call. He shows QJ and its essentially a coin flip. The flop is great for me 832 two hearts, meaning he's down to 4 outs. Sadly, the Q of spades hits the turn, and I lose down to about 18k. If I win I'm up to about 37k.

The blinds run through me again, and now I'm down to about 16k with blinds at 600 1200. The big stack raises to 3k and the button calls. I have 99 in the sb, I almost pushed but decide to flat call and shove unders on the flop. The flop comes A33, and the big stack bullies us out of the hand. He shows AQ. I'm not stoked by how I played it, but I don't think I can justify an all in preflop the only other play was folding.

And now the final hand. I'm under the gun with 14k and decide to open shove with AQ. It folds around to the button who shoves for about 200 more, and he shows AK. The flop comes AQJ, and I'm surprisingly unphased, because I know there's two cards left. Sure enough, a 10 on the turn seals my fate. Really tough way to go out.

I'm disappointed right now, but I'm glad to get more live expereince, and make some good plays I woulda been too scared to do before. Hope to have more live updates to come. Thanks for reading the essay lol.