with the boston metropolitan area doing its best impression of hoth the last 2 days and the two big playoff games to watch on tv, i decided sunday around two would be an excellent time to start up one of those poker tournaments i was talking about a couple of days ago. 504 entrants, and only 2 people would win a free entry into a $200+$15 saturday tournament. as you may have already known, i won the damn thing.

so, what did it take to win this almost-4-hour-marathon against people who don't have the moeny to play real-money tournaments?

luck. lots and lots of luck.

i know real early on i played jacks pretty much perfectly and doubled up, at which point i felt comfortable with the idea that i was going to make the first break. when i had a big enough lead on other people at my table, i tried to limp in with lots of marginal hands - marginal hands with 3+ limpers are pretty good, i think, because if you hit your hand you _will_ get paid off. anyways, that's what led me to the hand that defined my tourney - 46 clubs, which i limped in with... only to get raised up big time. and the player ahead of me called.

i figured it was time to gamble. my stack was no longer healthy compared to everyone else, and i had to make something happen. in other words, i was looking for luck and ignoring the advice i had been following up to this point - limp with marginal hands but don't call/raise with them, raise strong with good hands. anyways, i called the raise, 4 handed, with a flop of

** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, Ac, 7s ]

so i had an open-ended straight draw and a very small shot at a flush. check, bet, i call, raised all-in, fold, called all-in. so now i was looking at two all ins and a chance to triple up. i thought worst case i was against two pair, but most likely i was against two people with a pair of aces, giving me 8 outs + whatever the flush draw was versus 5 outs for either of the people ahead of me to improve. at least, that's what i told myself when i hit call.

turn was a king (diamonds, killing the flush draw), river was a beautiful 8, and i triple up to 15000+ chips. at this point, i thought i could really go far in this tourney.

i busted another player a little while later when we both were in with top pair but i somehow hit a miracle runner-runner straight to take all his chips. to be fair, i was betting and he just kept calling with his much stronger kicker, and i pushed on the river when my straight hit and he called to see his day over. the lesson? be more aggressive! also, don't get sucked out on.

i stole a few chips here and there, made a couple of bad mistakes, and was at around 22k chips when i was dealt Qh9h. i called a moderate raise from another player with a similar stack to mine, and saw a flop of 662, two hearts. the aggressor bet out fairly strong, but i decided to test him with a min-raise. he moved all-in after waiting a little bit. i thought about this hand. i didn't think he had a 6 or a 2, he was one to raise with fairly strong hands. i thought i might be against something like AK or maybe a middle pair. if he had 66, i was fucked, but i don't think 66 even crossed my mind as a possibility. anyways, again, only 2 places pay, so losing out in 31st versus 3rd is exactly the freakin' same. so i called.

he had AJ spades, Jh on river gives me the flush and i almost double up. see? luck is freaking huge.

i picked off a couple of small stacks when i got dealt AK and they pushed in front of me. having the chips to eat up small stacks is pretty helpful too... which again, goes back to the luck thing.

i picked off a lot of small pots and didn't get in a lot of action and watched people drop left and right. eventually we were down to ten. i had a slightly below average stack going to the final table, but i wasn't the shortest stack and i was in a decent enough position to make noise. of course, getting hit in the face with cards at opportune times really facilitated that.

i was dealt TT and doubled up against 44, knocking out the first person from the final table. i had a strong bluff when i got to see the 733 flop for free in the big blind and the small blind bet out. i raised him and he folded, giving me a nice 10k pot to bolster my stack. i had two people go all-in in front of my snowmen, making me think for a minute but eventually calling.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Kh, 8h, Ks ]

i won about 50k on that hand (against Q5 and 66, so i was winning preflop), which was nice because i was getting shortstacked due to a few ill-advised 'moves' (i think i told thad i had to stop making moves and get back in the kiddie pool at one point).

i had Qh6h and 51k chips when another key hand occured - i faced a minraise from the sb, which i called (a steal attempt, maybe?) flop came down Q62, two spades. i checked, hoping to raise. he checked behind me, which i thought was questionable. turn was a 5d, which kept my two pair at top-two still. unless i was against 34, i had the best hand. i bet, he raised. i reraised, he went all in. i insta-called, expecting AQ. river was a Qc, and my fullhouse beat... 3 queens with the ace kicker. i don't see how you don't bet on that flop with AQ... but obviously betting there wouldn't have helped him. i think he losese all his chips to me on that hand regardless.

so at this point i'm in 3rd place with 5 left. 3 stacks over 100k, one stack under 6k, another stack at 80k. i'm feeling good.

i'm feeling a crapload better when the 80k stack takes his 22 and rams it directly into my TT. now i'm in first with 4 left, and one stack has about 10k vs everyone else well over 100k. at this point, thad told me that i was guaranteed top 3, so i just had to focus on bouncing one of the big stacks.

the number of flops seen decreased dramatically once we were 4 handed. i was picking off pots when i could and showing lots of strength which won me a few hands that went to a flop. eventually the 4th place guy dropped out (but not before growing his stack up from 5676 to over 70k!) and i had this fun hand. dealt AhQh and raised it up. get reraised and smooth call, with a strong feeling that i'm in a coinflip situation, but still unsure.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, Ad, 4h ]

i bet really strong here, 14k. i get called. i'm fairly certain my opponent doesn't have an ace.

** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]

i bet 50k. opponent calls. i'm getting confused, but i'm fairly certain i'd be getting raised by hands like A5, A4, or AK. river is a 5c. now i have a full house and if my opponent has the case ace, we split it.

i go all-in. i get called by...

99.

all of a sudden i'm the 2:1 chipleader and i have won my entry into a saturday $200k guaranteed event (value: $215).

thad urged me to push all-in every hand after that, but i kinda wanted to win the whole damn thing. after 2-3 hands, i started pushing after the flop came down, and on the 3rd hand in a row of doing this, i was called by jack high. i had a pair of 3s with an ace kicker which held up, and i had won the whole damn thing.

so, looking back... i was really fucking lucky up to the final table. then at the final table i played really well - i upped my playing level and made good calls, made a few bad plays, made a bunch of good plays, and minimized the cost of my mistakes (another really huge factor in doing well)

looking forward, the 200k event on the 14th had something like 1200 entrants, a much bigger field than my 504. also, the playing level is ostensibly much higher, as these are mostly people who are dropping $215 to play in a poker tournament online. theoretically, better players. the real key is this: the winner last saturday took home $52k. and top 140 paid, with 140th getting $250 (or winning $35).

so i guess i know what i'm doing next saturday.