Another Almost at Fort McDowell

Traffic was horrible as I was trying to get my last minute Christmas shopping done. Instead of fighting it, I decided to head up to Fort McDowell until it subsided.

The tournament is a $20 entry and I think I started with 1650 in tchips with my early bird bonuses. 1st round of blinds is 0-25 and 25-25 so at least it gives you a little time.

I started out well. I got some good starting cards and missed a couple of flops, but bet ath them anyways and took them down.

One guy bought in 3 times and kept moving all in with middle pair or top pair and getting beat by an overpair. Including once by me when I had KK.

I won another big pot when I had 9-10 of clubs on the button. The flop had a 9 and 7 and 8 of clubs clubs. So I have top pair, a (straight)flush draw, and a normal straight draw. I made a small bet on the flop and got two callers. The reason for the small bet, was I didn't like my reverse implied odds and also I didn't mind if these guys came along for another card. If a high card that's a club hits I might get some action later. An Ace hit the turn so we all checked. The river was a 6 which made the board 6-7-8-9-A. One guy went all in for a small amount and the next person called. I didn't like this because I thought there might be a Jack-10. I couldn't talk myself into folding so I called and one person had the 5 and the other had two pair. I won a huge pot and was now chip leader at my table.

Here's a mistake??? Later I had A-10 of diamonds on the button. A woman doubled the blind early and I reraised. She called and we went to the flop. I believe the flop was Q-10-8 all clubs. She checked and I thought about putting her all in. When I was counting her chips, she grabbed them all and was threatening to call me. For some reason, I believed her, so I checked. The turn was a non club and she checked again and I checked. The river was an Ace of spades. This time she bet the 1800 she had left and I called because I had 2 pair. Of course she had K-J for the straight. This took away my chip lead. I guess she was willing to put her chips in with an open ended straight draw against a flush board?

Another hand I had AQ unsuited. I had just won two hands in a row with raises preflop so I didn't want to raise a third time and have someone come over the top so I just called. There were 3 to the flop. The flop was Q-5-3. The old man on the end went all in with just a few chips. The next guy went all in as well. Fuck, I have top pair top kicker and a lot of the table has been playing like idiots. The problem was I didn't have a read on the 2nd all in as he was pretty new to the table. I folded. The first guy turned over Q-9 and the second guy turned over 5-3. The first guy hit his 9 for two pair and won a big pot. I avoided a train wreck.

Question:
At what point do you start to gamble and steal with any two cards and hope to get lucky? I think it has to be before you get to 4-5 times the big blind. With 40 or so left, I was just under the average chip stack, but I could only survive 2 orbits with the blinds and ante's. Is it better to wait for decent starting cards before throwing them all in the middle or do you just take the chance when everyone else was tightening up? The only way I was going to win any money was to double or triple up.

Hey I almost forgot. My cards went cold and there just were not many steal opportunities so I was getting blinded down. When I am in my final desperation mode with about 4 times the blind left, I am sitting in the 10 seat to the right of the dealer. The tournament director is wandering around and happens to be standing right behind me. I am dealt JJ, however while the dealer flings the card to me, it catches on a really bad paint job on the felt and flips up about 45 degrees. It quickly lands face down and I truly believe that no one else at the table saw the card but me. That is except the tournament director who saw it. He says, "Whoa what was that a Queen or some kind of face card? You know the rules, we have to turn that card up and make it the burn card." So of course my replacement card is a 3. I mutter to myself and fold. Of course my jacks would have held up and probably doubled me up as well. I lost my all in bet a few hands later and I was out in about 18th place.