One of the hands you should always play is AK, suited or not. In today’s tournament I only got them once. With the big blind on 240 I raised to 900, almost 1/6th of my total chips at that time. 1 player called. Flop gave me pair of aces with the highest kicker. Again I raised, but I got re-raised immediately pushing me all in. I was thinking he was trying to bluff me so I called pretty quick. He showed me pocket 9’s, not bad with my pair of aces, but very bad if you know the flop gave a 9 also. So here I am with my top pair and high kicker against 3 of a kind. In a few seconds I went from many outs to only 4 (runner-runner KK or one of the remaining A’s).
The turn gave me nothing so only 2 outs left and the river wasn’t good for me too. So far my tournament for today, finished on the 315th place.

I started out pretty good today, at first lost a bit, but the steadily worked my way up to the top 100.
Once I played 2 and 5 off suit on the big blind and one player was trying bluff me after the flop. He would have succeeded if I hadn’t have a straight draw chance. The turn gave me the straight and I checked to see what he would do. As expected he raised to get called by me. River was a K, which was good for me trying to push him all in. I made a value bet of 400 and he re-raised me with 1500. I waited a bit before going all in and putting the ball back in his camp. He certainly didn’t expect this and after 20 seconds he was pushed to fold as his time ran out.

So far the tournament, now for the real money, as you know I won $2 last Friday with my 10th place. If you don’t know, you should read my ‘In the money’ post to catch up.

Saturday I made my first appearance on a money table, which didn’t went well to be very honoust.
I started on the micro tables SB/BB $0,01/$0,02 with $1, half of my prize money. Within 36 minutes I lost it. I knew it was time to quit playing that day .

Sunday I picked up my guts again with my last $1. At the start I picked up pretty bad cards, so didn’t play at all, only losing my blinds. Then I made a few gambles but lost a few cents.
I always managed to stay around the 90 cents until I received KQ hearts. Being the small blind, I raised the big blind hoping to steal the pot. 4 players called my raise. Flop made me very happy with KKK.  I wisely checked to see who will bluff me. Player next to the big blind made a $0,21 raise, next player folds, my turn. I made a call after 10 seconds waiting and the big blind folds also. Two players left, me having the nuts. Turn was a queen, which could be good to him as this was a high card. Again after a few seconds I checked to let him think I had bad cards. He immediately raised pushing him almost all in. I quickly re-raised him for the 12 cents he had left, also telling him I could have a better hand then him. He called and when the cards were shown he even didn’t waited for the river, he immediately left the table knowing he was beaten with my four-of-a-kind kings. I actually felt bad for him afterwards, but he would have done the same to me if he had the chance.

The good news about this was that I once again had $2. A bit more actually, but I played a few more hands to see if I could make a bit more. I said to myself that I would stop playing whenever I’m reaching $2 exactly. So I did. Back at Friday level. Saturday I actually felt bad after my loss, but the next day I was the king (four times literally )

Playing for real money is something different than playing for fun.

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