Luck Changing? Finished 2nd in MTT

I've been playing very little poker over the last month, in fact I averaged 60 games a month from January to July of this year, and have only played 15 games from August until today (including tonight).

It was a 79 player MTT on Pacific888.com and I went into it with very little expectations, but hoping the rest had done me good and I could approach the tourney with a new attitude; not expecting that every good hand I get will be sucked out on. Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of luck on the way.

I could have made an very good start, if I'd been loose enough to play 6-4 off, as I would have made Quads by the river - but there was no action in the pot anyway, so I probably would not have got paid.

My first decent hand came when I picked up pocket Jacks in the BB. The pot was raised by a very loose aggressive player in mid position, and was called two spots later. As the saying goes, there are three ways to play Pocket Jacks; all wrong. I had decided that the best move was all-in, so I pushed. It was insta-called by the initial raiser, and the other player opted to get out of the way.

I was amazed when he turned up Td-7d, maybe he was bored, or had to be somewhere, but I couldn't have hoped to see two better cards up against my J's (well, apart from 7-2 off).
He hit a Ten on the flop, and I got a little nervous, but the 4 on the turn left him with 2 outs on the river and luckily my J's held up and I doubled up.


We had gone past the first hour break and were approaching the bubble. I was sitting in the BB with J-8 off and was able to see a free flop, which came Jack-high (J-7-2), so I decided that just making the money was not good enough, I wanted to win, and pushed my remaining chips into the middle (too often I play too tight at the bubble and, although I often make it through, I'm so short of chips that I've no chance of winning). There was a couple of folds, but I was insta-called by the button, who flipped up J-7 for 2-pair. That was it, I thought my tourney was over, until I got an amazing stroke of luck on the turn, the 8h for a better 2-pair. A big suck-out and my opponent must have been seething, but it's nice to be in this side of the fence for once.


That double-up saw me through the bubble and to the final table. There was one massive chip leader (close to 60k), me with just over 20k and 3 others with around 10k-15k each. The blinds were now massive and in order to win I was going to have to steal, and if called, get lucky - that's exactly what happened.

I picked up A-7 suited in the SB and it went call, call, fold and I decided this was an ideal stealing position, so pushed. I had one caller covered and could afford to lose to them, but the big-stack decided to call and the shorter stack folded. Thankfully it was a very loose call, with Qc-Jc (I suppose he was feeling invincible with his massive stack).

Now, according to my 'law of internet poker', there was no way my hand should hold up (I had the best hand, and even had the suit covered), but up against a massive stack he should suck out almost 100% of the time. But not this time! The flop came down As-4h-7h, and I had made 2-pair and he had no draw. Another 7 on the river gave me a full house, not that I needed it, but it was nice.


I was now chip leader, and decided to let the rest of them cut each other up, and picked my spots to raise pre-flop with big hands. I never got into any trouble or called an all-in by a shorter stack. We got down to the last 3, and I could have ended it in once hand. I had K-7 suited and would have liked to have seen a flop, but there was a raise and re-raise ahead of me, so I had to lay it down. All the chips ended up in the middle and they turned up pocket Queen's and pocket Jack's respectively. Of course, the flop comes down K-K-9-T-4, and I would have won the tournament.

As it stood, my heads-up opponent now had a 3/2 chip lead. Heads-up didn't last very long, as I was card-dead. I'd raise, he's call, I'd miss the flop and c-bet and he'd come over the top. It got to the stage where he had a 4/1 chip lead and I picked up A-4 suited - of course I pushed and he called with A-8. The flop came down 8-8-J and it was all over.

It's never nice to get all the way to heads-up and lose, but I was pretty happy with the way I played. Yes, I got lucky in spots, but you need that if you're going to make it all the way. I think I was only ever all-in, with a chance of busting out, 4 times in the tourney - three hands I've highlighted here , and the very last hand.

Oh well, it's by far my best MTT result in a long while, so onwards and upwards.