Today’s hand of the week is actually a recap of a series of hands that I was involved in during a $50 buy in No-Limit tournament. There were 18 participants and the top 3 made the money. This article is written with the intent of showing how losing one’s focus, even for a second can make or break you in a tournament.

I managed to crawl into the final table, and I do mean crawl. With the blinds at $30-$60, I was down to my last $267 and was by far the short stack of the table. I had made some great comebacks in the past so although I was down, I knew I was not out. I arrived at the table on the button so I knew I had some time to wait for a good enough hand that I could double up with. Then it happened. Three hands into the final table, the table folded around to me and I went all-in with Ah-Qh. Only the big blind called with Ks-Js and I flopped an Ace to double up to just a shade over $600. 2 hands later, we were down to 8 players and I looked down at pocket Queens. Again, the table folded to me, I pushed all-in and the chip leader on the button was the only caller. I flopped a set of Queens and I was in business back to $1,200. Then in the big blind I looked at pocket Aces. One player raised to $200, another re-raised to $400 and I went all-in for my last $1,200. Both players called, my Rockets prevailed, the original raised was out of the tournament and there I was, in 4th place in chips with 7 people left! The chat box in the room became alive as the players were commenting on the greatest comeback they had ever seen. I thought to myself, the comeback isn’t complete unless I win this thing and I was in position to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, my run of good cards came to a screeching halt and all I saw was garbage for about a dozen hands until only 4 players remained. One more elimination and I would be guaranteed a spot in the money, quite an accomplishment considering where I had fought back from. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about myself although I did feel some fatigue starting to set in. I had been in this session for quite a while, at least 4 hours.

Then it happened. With the second short stack beginning to raise a ton of pots, I knew it was just a matter of time before I picked him off in a huge pot. Then, with the blinds at $200-$400, the following hand came up: I limped in from the small blind with the As-4s and this player raised to $800. I called quickly, and the flop came down Qs-6s-5h and I had flopped the nut-flush draw. The player checked and I checked behind him. At this point a free card is great as my stack was getting smaller. The turn card was the 10s, and I had the nut flush! I pondered how to play it. I thought if I made a small bet that looked like a bluff I could induce the player to act.
I bet out $400, trying to make it look like a bluff, and he fell right into my trap. He raised the size of the pot, and I clicked all-in as quickly as possible. He quickly called. He flipped up his two black jacks as I said to myself happily, “Nut flush.” He had been overplaying his hands against me for an hour, and was now drawing dead for all the money and I was about to move close to the chip leader. Then all of a sudden, after a blank hit on the river, all my chips floated towards him and my placeholder on the table flashed “eliminated”. What?!? What the heck is going on I thought to myself. I was furious and looked at the hand history.
It was only then that it finally hit me: I had the Ac in my hand, not the As. He had raised me all-in on the turn, and I hadn’t even looked back at my hand! I had just called off all of my chips with Ace high! How stupid was that? I was getting so full of myself that I hadn’t even bothered to correctly read my own hand.

So my night ended with a resounding thud. I didn’t make any money as I finished 1 spot shy of the money. Is there any worse feeling than that for a poker player? But I did learn a valuable lesson with all this. Online poker is a speed-oriented game with rapid action and quick calls. Use the time you are given to fully assess the situation and pay attention to the cards you are dealt!

Until next time, may the chips fall your way.

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