2006 POY officially over

Last Friday was the last poker tournament that counted for points. Despite the holidays it was a pretty decent turnout with 25 players. My lead position was not in jeopardy as the The Emperor (#2) and Sizzle (#3) were not playing and they were the only ones who could potentially take over my spot. The more interesting meta-game was around the top 10 spots. Although I had > 300 point difference over the #2 spot, there was only a 200 point difference between #8 to #14, so there was definately a battle to get into the top 10 (which gets you into the Tournament of Champions). Read on for a couple of interesting hands and the results of this tournament...

Middle of the tournament, I had become one of the short stacks. I was also on the BB. UTG raises to 3BB. I believe there were two other callers. I have 9To. Given the pot odds, I easily call even though I had a pretty short stack. Flop is J95 rainbow. I'm first to act. It's certainly possible that someone has a J, but they still might fold if they think I have J9 or have them out kicked. The problem is that I'm a short stack, so they may not give me much credit if I push. I go all-in anyways. Given the pot size and my stack, I really don't have much of a choice. Even if I'm behind, it's likely that another 9 or T would win me the pot and I also can get a back door straight. UTG thinks for a few seconds and calls. Everyone else folds. He shows TT. The worse cards for me. Turn is a blank. But I catch another 9 on the river for trips. I double up. Lucky break.

After that I play pretty good poker and make it to the final table. I do well enough to make it to the final two. I'm 2nd in chips, but my opponent probably only has about 50% more chips than me so it's still close and one double up switches our positions. The blinds are 500/1500. I probably have about 30000 in chips and my opponent has 45000. My opponent is on the button and is first to act. He calls. I look down at AJo. I raise it 3000 more. I had been raising almost all previous pots since heads up and been winning them uncontested or after the flop with a continuation bet. He thinks for a bit and calls. Flop is A93 rainbow. I check. He goes all-in. The pot is 9000, so his all-in is a pretty big over bet. However, I was trapping him and it worked, so it's an easy call for me. He shows 9To. The turn is a blank. The river is a T. Argh! The same hand I sucked out on earlier came back to bust me. That's karma I guess.

So second place in this tournament netted me some cash and 188 POY points giving me a total of 2176. My goal was to break 2000 points and I did it. I would have liked to have the win as that would give me 5 total wins instead of the 4 I have now (even though 4 wins is the most anyone had this year since we started tracking).

The TOC (Tournament of Champions) logistics is still being determined, but it'll likely happen this month. The first tournament of the 2007 season is tonight and the new point structure is actually better and it'll be interesting to see what happens after a full year.