Ethical Decision

Last night I am in a hurry to play a quick multi table tournament before my volleyball game at 6:00 PM. I have some trouble logging on to Party Poker and then I sign up for what I believed was a 3 table tourney for $30 +3. It turns out it was just a 2 table tournament, but that's ok because I only have about 2 hours. For some reason it takes 15 minutes for the tournament to fill up and start so in the mean time I play some hands in the 2-4 Bad Beat Jackpot section.

My first hand, I post the $2 blind and get dealt 2-8 of clubs. Everybody is in even with a raise before it gets to me, so I figure I can call another $2 since I'm getting 1/2 price. Oops it was reraised before it got to me, so I call $4 more. Then it's raised again so now I have to call the other $2 because the pot's so big. I think there was over $50 in the pot and we hadn't even seen the flop yet.

Guess what..... the flop comes with two clubs. There's a bet and a raise before it gets to me but I am still getting great odds so I call the raise. A couple more callers. The turn is another club and I have an 8 high flush. I specifically remember a line from Small Stakes Hold'em that a flush will win most of the time (I am thinking of this because obviously someone had a good hand before the flop and I should beware of a high club out there). It's checked to me and I decide not to be tricky and just bet. It's called twice. The river is no help and not a club, so I bet again and get called by one guy. The final pot is $85. Goodness Gracious! what a nice way to win a hand.

So now I am up $58 after one hand and the tournament has not started. I pretty much stayed even from there until the tournament.

The tournament had some crazy players again that were caught in some really silly bluffs. One guy named IO10101 nearly bluffed himself out of the tournament against another guy who just called him down with Ace high. Somehow he survived to the win the thing.

I had really crappy starting cards for the most part. The funny thing was that when I had a good hand, I was really winning a shit load of money with them. I doubled up with a nut straight and increased my stack by 50% against IO10101 with AJ when I flopped two pair. I was comfortably among the chip leaders the whole way but the clock was beginning to be a problem.

I need to leave my house by 5:45 to make the volleyball game at 6:00. This is just a rec league so there is no real important reason to be there other than being there for my team. By 5:30 we are down to the final table and I have an average chip stack. The top 4 pay out. First place is $240 and fourth place is $40. I finally start to get some cards and get more aggressive as I am now trying to knock guys out so we can end this thing. I end up getting to the final 5 as a slight chip leader with $7500 of the $20,000 in play. It's now 5:45. What do I do?

I could start the all in mode, hope to get lucky and end it quick. I can go on auto post and safely assume I will out last at least one guy and get some money. Or do I stay and play it to the end possibly missing the entire volleyball game.

I decide I do not like the all in mode since the short stacks could just fold and I might run into a decent hand from one of the big stacks and be crippled. So I give up and go on auto post and leave for the game. I come back an hour and half later and find out I placed 3rd for $120. Not bad. My party poker account is now $840 a new high.

My next report will be on the games from Chris' wedding and the casinos in lovely Yuma Arizona.