Fold Dummy?

"And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd, cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud, and I know that you'll use them, however you want to..."  -Anna Nalick- (Breathe - 2 AM)


Good morning everyone.  From the instant that I heard those lyrics by Anna they connected, and they have become very relevant since I began writing this blog.  I'm saying this to inform you that today you're getting a poker post and you'll be getting your ramble on Wednesday.  I had an extremely disappointing finish in my freeroll tournament yesterday, and I'm hoping that if I type it out here right now, it will help me to release it - I need to remember it like a fire burning in the pit of my stomach, but I need to let it go also...

Yesterday I played in the Riviera's weekly freeroll tournament.  There were 28 of us and the top 10 would be receiving $250.00 each (unless we reached some sort of 'chop' agreement).  A chop occurs when there in an agreement among all of the remaining players in a tournament to divide the prize pool in a different way than was originally intended.  The tournament had no entry fee (i.e., freeroll).

After more than 2 hours of playing, we had reached the final 14 players, and after this hand the blinds were going to be raised to 3,000/6,000.  I would have about 5 hands left before all of my remaining chips would automatically go into the pot as the big blind.  The girl three seats to my right went all-in.  I looked down to see A J suited on my turn.  Although a few moments earlier I had decided that I would try to wait it out and see if I could backdoor a 10th place finish or a chop, A J suited looked very good compared to the hands that I had been seeing, and I was no longer sure if I could limp to the finish line.  I had seen this girl call a shove earlier with A 5.  I pushed my chips all-in from the button.  The big blind flipped up his pocket fives when he folded.  The girl said that she was happy to see that fold by him when she flipped over her pocket threes.  The board obviously didn't bail me out, so I lost the race and finished in 13th place.  Yes, somewhere in the past few minutes, another player had busted out from the other table.  Right after I got knocked out, the other table had another all-in, and the 12th place finisher busted out.  So now the tournament was going to its first break, with only ELEVEN players remaining, and ten scheduled to get paid.

I promptly left because I did not want to stick around and hear AT THAT MOMENT that the remaining players were going to chop the $2,500.00 prize pool eleven ways.  I would be surprised to hear that they did not chop it, and even if they did play on, could I have survived FOUR MORE HANDS?  I took the long walk out of the back of the Riviera and it wasn't until I closed the door of my vehicle that I YELLED 'the word' - it was unplanned and I was surprised at how loudly it reverberated in my closed vehicle.  I had played one hand in the second round of the tournament and got everyone to fold preflop.  I had shoved A J from the small blind, only to be called by A J from the big blind (we got our chips back after the board ran out).  I had shoved my A K suited after a shove from the player before me, who had shoved his Q Q.  The flop came A K 10, but no jack showed up to help him.  And I played this hand, A J suited, and lost this race to 3 3...  EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING to finish with $0.00 instead of $250.00 (or whatever chop they agreed to, if they did so)...  Second guessing myself, would I have lasted, would I have busted, would they have chopped the prize pool twelve ways if I had folded, even if that meant giving just a little bit of money to 11th and 12th places???  Earlier in the tourney, when the girl mentioned above had a big stack and faced an all-in from the short stack to my left, she folded A Q face up because she likes the guy (this was before she had crippled her stack with the A 5 call) - that hand will stick in my memory also...  "I would have called anyone else" she said...

Anyway, poker is a lot of fun...  I am bracing for this weekend, when the football games on my parlay cards will CERTAINLY be just as entertaining as the action at the poker table.  "The hardest way to make an easy living..." Doyle said - well said Mr. Brunson.  I hope that all of you have a great day and I'll see you again on Wednesday with my ramble.