Monday Night Muck Em 3rd Place

Last night was my weekly local poker game.  The rules changed slightly allowing one additional add on for half the starting stack if you have already added on and lost all of your chips before break.  This allowed for more money to go into the payouts.

We had several new players this week which also increased the size of the payouts.  It also had me thinking a little extra trying to figure out each of the new players. 

About a quarter the way through the game I was collecting pots, and had built onto my original buy in slightly.  I was folding hands that would hit on the flop and play hands that would not.  One player was getting short stacked and started playing aggressively every hand.  I took my shots at him and lost in coin flip races.  With the aggression he showed I thought I would be a ways ahead.  He actually had the hands when I put him to the test.

By break I was down to 3500 chips with the blinds at 500 1000.  I had taken 1 add on after I busted to that player. 

When we got back from break I had to make a move.  I was in the BB right away and folded waiting on a better hand.  The next hand I had A5 suited.  Four people limp called and I shoved.  Everybody folded.  I was surprised, and had some chips to work with.

The next hand I got KJ.  The player that I had lost most of my chips to before made a decent raise.  By this point I had seen him do this with air several times so I called.  The flop came K 6 6.  He bet slightly less than pot.  I had about double his bet left so I moved all in, thinking that he would make that move with any K or even a mid pocket pair.  Once again I was wrong.  He had big slick.  Lucky for me one of my 3 outs caught on the river, severely crippling him, and giving me a fighting chance.

He went out shortly after and we combined tables.  One of the new players at the other table took 3 people out in one hand.  We were down to 6 with 4 getting paid.  The 6 of us played and played but nobody would go out.  The chips moved all over the table as the blinds kept increasing.  Each of us at 1 point were down to 1 BB left.  It was the best short stack play I've ever witnessed. 

At one point the short stack was all in, in the BB.  I looked down at pocket K's.  One player raised and I went over the top.  He folded.  The short stack ended up catching a straight to stay alive and almost quadruple up. 

I was down to 1 BB on 3 occasions before we got the first bust out.  Most of the time I was sitting with 2 BB's.  Then the worst thing happened.  The blinds went up to 5000 10000 with a 1000 ante right as the BB was getting to me.  I had just enough for that 1 hand with 5 players left.  It folded to the SB who called.  I don't remember what he had, or what I had.  I did win.  The next hand the BB was all in by being in the BB.  It folded to me and I called with a 7 3.  He had pocket K's.  I was back down to a little over 1 BB again.  I made a play at the pot a couple hands later with an all in move where everybody folded when I got an Ace again.

Finally a couple rounds later the new guy took the bubble boy position putting the rest of us in the money.  We had another player bust out shortly after.  I took the plunge next as I tried to push my A9 in the BB when the SB raised me.  He had AQ.  My 9 hit on the turn but a Q on the river sent me packing. 

The game was over a few minutes later.  At the end of the game with blinds at 10000 20000 with a 5000 ante, the winner only had about 5 BB's when he had all the chips.  It was amazing how well everybody played short stacked as we got to the highest levels.

I got over double my buy in even after my add on.  The game got over an hour later than usual so I did not get to play any online last night.