…The Cookie Crumbles

I have mentioned in earlier posts that, based on a tip from Yakshi, King of the Deuce, I have been playing some of the Double or Nothing Sit ‘n Gos at Stars. Survive to five players and you double your buy-in (minus the rake, of course). Initially, I was playing the $1.10 games, and since I was killing them, I decided to move up a level to the $5.20 games. Stars offers a turbo and non-turbo ($.20 more rake) variety, and I choose to play turbo with the thinking that the fast pace will make some players act out of desperation once blinds get astronomical.

I never get in a hurry with these tourneys because it is so easy to get into the money, or so I think. I try to limit my choices to either fold or try to double-up. So far, the skill level between the two levels of buy-ins doesn’t seem to differ much, even though my $5.20 sampling has me breaking even so far; but my sample is still very small.

My strategy may be flawed, and I can make such a statement because my tourney experience is so limited. However, what experience I do have suggests that I usually have little problem making it halfway through a tournament, regardless of size, so these tourneys do seem to be a good fit.

Last night’s tourneys were no different in results: lose one; win one. Yet, the first one took me into some interesting territory.

We were in Level II of play, which means we had played 3 hands so far (joke). Actually, it was more like 15 hands. I was UTG with KK and raised it to 4 X BB. I had one caller and the BB jammed. I had him covered, barely, and called. He had AK and you know the rest. It left me with $90 with the blinds on my heels.

Another level passed and I had folded naked Aces twice. Just didn’t feel right to push against the other stacks, especially since the guy who caught his Ace was to my right and the chip leader was on my left. With $50 left and the blinds of 50/100 two seats away, I had my hand, AcJc. My $50 went in with 6 players in the pot. *** RIVER *** [9s 3h Ah As] [9d]. One player had pocket Kings. With $350, I now had a little more breathing room, but still the blinds and antes would chew me up in no time.

I shit when the next hand came: AKoff. I jammed and had one caller with Ac10c. I caught a K on the river with no club drama and now had $920. A little more air in the lungs.

However, turbo tourneys wait for no one. We were down to seven players (I’m slightly amazed I made it this far). The blinds went up next hand, I got stuck paying the $75/$150, plus the antes, and I was looking at 655 in chips. Now was the time to play the A5off UTG+1. Having shown down with quality hands up to this point, I got a free ride and took the blinds and antes. I now had $970.

Drain and repeat. I’m down to 645 in chips at 100/200/20 with AK again. Everyone folds and I live to see another round with $1065. Drain and repeat. I get outkicked in the BB against another shortie and I’m down to 623 in chips. Next hand the same player jams and I have JJ in the SB. He has A 10off. You know the rest.

Am I disappointed? Hell no! I played chip-and-a-chair as best as I could. Some may think that I misplayed the first and last hands outlined, meaning that I should have been concerned with survival in each, and if so, I’d like to hear from you.