RakeTheRake Freeroll

I recently finished 145th in the RaketheRake.com monthly freeroll on Full Tilt Poker. The win was enough to net me $30 for my zero dollar investment, but I must admit I am a little disappointed in the finish.

At hand #55 I was able to double through to t2,800 when I was dealt 99 UTG and limped in for t60. The action folds to MP2 who raises to t123 total. Everyone folds to me including the blinds and I call the t63 more creating a pot totaling t336. The flop comes 5 4 3 and I check. My opponent bets out t234 and I raise to t600. Right now I feel like I have the best hand and my check-raise here was to extract more chips from my opponent. He has over t10,000 and the second highest chip stack at our table has t1,560. His action has been raising every hand preflop and betting out on the flop regardless what the board brings. With only t632 left after the check-raise I am happy to win the pot right now; I am also willing to call an all-in shove as this would not be an uncommon reaction to my check-raise from this player. As expected, my opponent moves all-in for t10,423 and I call my remaining t632. The Turn and the River bring a Q & 3 which is no help for my opponent's A T.

After the double up I took down a couple small pots and stayed out of the way until hand #66. I got dealt pocket Aces followed by Big Slick which both ran good and stacked me up to t3,700. The action got quite from me until 30 hands later when I was dealt A J in the Hi-Jack. With the blinds at t50/100, I raised to t300 and the table folded around to the big blind who shoved all-in for t1,370 more. I called, and a J on the flop won the race against his 8 8 giving me a t5,890 stack to work with.

For the next 150 hands I stayed around 7-9,000 chips. It seemed that every time I would win a t2-3,000 pot I would loose one the same size a few hands later. I was never really able to accumulate chips like some of the other players however, I was making enough not to feel a lot of pressure from the blinds. On hand #191 I was dealt pocket Kings on the button when a UTG+1 player shoved all in for t7,397. My Kings stayed clear of his A-7 of clubs and brought me up to t13,018, the second largest stack at the table. I continued folded an orbit until the following hand occurred:
I started the hand with t8,992 and the blind structure at t400/800/100. I was dealt A J in MP2. The player in UTG+1 (t15,848) raised to t2,400. This was his 4th raise in the row with no resistance or calls. I decided that I needed to make a stand with just over 10x BB and shoved all-in. With t4,500 existing in the pot I am more then happy to take it down preflop and give myself over a 50% stack increase, instead, the action folds around to the original raiser who calls with J T. Three hearts on the flop give me the best hand and I double through to t19,824.

In the next three hands the guy who called me with JT was able to take ~t5,000 and make a little over t14,000. Unfortunately this was enough to cripple me in the follow hand:

The blinds are still t400/800/100 and I am in the big blind (t19,524). The hi-jack (t25,435)raises to t2,400 and the villain (t14,174) calls on the button. The small blind folds and I have A K looking at t6,900 in the pot. I am certainly not folding and I do not feel that either player is that strong. In this spot I am usually making a squeeze play and moving all my chips in the center of the table. Taking down this pot preflop will bring me over t25,000 and even if I am called I have a hand that can have decent show down value. The original raiser folds and the villain (who just smooth-called prior) calls the all-in putting his tournament life on the line with J 9. The pot is now t42,548 and I am 60% favorite to win this hand. The flop comes 8 T T giving him additional outs and creating a coin flop situation. The Turn is the T which is a good card for me. My percent to win goes to over 60% again as now only a 7, Jack, Nine, or Queen are his only outs to win (an 8 would split). It seemed like an eternity until the 9 was finally dealt on the River. With that pot I would have had a solid amount of chips, able to put pressure on the table and start building a decent stack for the final table. Having such a large stack would have also kept me out of trouble a few hands later when I called an UTG shove with pocket Nines and my t4,000 stack. The UTG player had almost 20k and which would have been an easy fold if I had 50k in chips. However, needing to make a move, I took the chance but could not best KJ os eliminating me 145th out of over 2,200 people.

Over all the tournament was a lot of fun, and the win definitely helps me reach my goal of turning $100 into $500. I hope to qualify for more of these tournaments in the future and go a little deeper next time. It would be nice to blog about a final table experience or even a take-down. Until then I will stick with grinding out the micro-limit Sit 'N Gos and continue to work towards my goal.

Until next time,
y.