Normally in this space, I discuss about a memorable hand I was involved in. Well, this week, I’m slightly changing up that format. Instead of one hand, I am going to talk about a tournament I recently played in and won, and describe some of the key hands that enabled my victory.

There are several ways to approach a tournament. Some players like to take an early chance in the hopes of doubling up and having a chip advantage. I don’t really believe in that method because you can find yourself out of the tournament very early on and what’s the fun in that? I will get into my tournament strategy during one of my strategy articles in the future. But basically, I like to see some cheap flops early in a tournament when the blind structures are most-friendly in proportion to the starting number of chips I have. You don’t win championships by busting out early on so I tend to pick my spots and establish a semi-tight image which I can se to my advantage later on. With that in mind, on to the key hands:

There were 51 players in the tournament which had a $50 buy in plus $50 optional re-buy within the first hour. We each started with $3000 in chips. In re-buy tournaments, you tend to see lots of sloppy play early on because players know if they bust out early, for $50 more, they can get back in. At my table were 9 players, 2 of which I recognized as being fairly solid players, three players who seemed like they didn’t know what they were doing and two others I had no opinion of. The first few hands, I didn’t really see anything that was playable so I just folded around waiting for something good. Then, about 15 minutes into it, I picked up 9h-10h on the button. Three players limped in with me and we saw the flop. The flop was 9c-9d-As giving me trips with a decent kicker. I had to believe at this point I was in the lead. The small blind checked and a middle position player bet $300 and was called by another limper and myself. The small blind folded and there was $1000 in the pot.

The turn was the 9s which gave me quads! What good fortune. Now all I had to do was wait to see what the two players ahead of me did. Unbelievably, the early position player went all in for his remaining $2500 and was instantly called b the other player! I knew I had this hand in the bag so I obviously called. One player flips over Ah-10d which the caller had pocket 5’s!?! See, I told you thee were some clueless players. They were both drawing dead so I tripled up and took in a pot of over $8500. They catapulted me into the lead of the tournament, a situation which I would not lose for the remainder of the tournament.

About 45 minutes later, the second key hand occurred. With the blinds at $100 - $200, I was in the Big Blind and I looked down to see two black Kings. I figured I could just sit tight and see what happened with the players acting before me. Then it got really strange. An early position player who was short-stacked with about $2000 in chips moved all in. He struck me as a pretty solid player but as I had over $11,000 in chips at this point, I wasn’t overly concerned. Then he was called by the player on the button who had about $5,000 in chips and the small blind who only had $3,000 left. Why the small blind didn’t just go all-in I don’t really know. I wanted maximum value in this hand, so I immediately pushed my entire stack to the middle of the table. The other players groaned but I forced the other two callers all-in as well. So we took the flop four-handed with 3 players all-in with $15,000 in the main and side pots. Everyone turned their cards over.
Under the gun player A-K offsuit, middle position player A-Q offsuit and the small blind A-J offsuit. With 3 of the aces out there, I was a favorite to win the hand and when the case ace didn’t turn up, I knocked out 3 players and had a commanding chip advantage of close to $30,000 in chips.

Finally, it was a heads up situation for the title. I love heads up situations as I feel I can play with anyone in this situation. Heads up is a much different situation than in a full table. It differs because:

• Any two cards become playable
• You tend to be more aggressive and steal pots more frequently
• You can really trap your opponent when you have a monster.

I went into the heads up with a 3-1 chip advantage and I had no intention of relinquishing my lead. The first 15 minutes, there wasn’t much of a swing in the chip counts as we were feeling each other out. I was very familiar with my opponent who I will call John for the purpose of this article. We are involved in cash games all the time so there wasn’t much he could do that would confuse me.

After about 10 hands or so came and went when the final hand of the evening occurred, 5 hours after we started. I looked down at the 10h-Jh, one of my favorite hands. The Blinds were at 3,000 - $6,000 and John raised two 24,000 to go. This was pretty much on par with his style. I called and we saw a flop.

The flop was 6h-7c-8h giving me an inside straight draw and a flush draw. As I contemplated how to play this, John thought for a minute and checked. I found this to be odd because he very rarely ever checks a flop after a pre-flop raise. I could either bet out here and risk being check-raised or just take the free card and hope to make my draw. I decided to take the freebie and I’m glad I did. The turn was the 9s, giving me the nut straight. Before I could even think about how to get all of John’s money on this hand, he made my decision easier. He bet out almost his entire stack! Seeing his pot-commitment, I raised him all-in and he called in a flash. He shows his pocket Queens and he is crushed by my straight. Why he chose to give me a free-card, I will never understand. Perhaps he thought I would bet out and he’d come over the top. Very big mistake but a good one for me as I walked away with the tournament win and over $2000 in winnings.

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