"Living on Prayer"

This Monday I played in a nice tournament with 27 players. I made the final table when I experienced the Bon Jovi song "Living on a Prayer". I am sure every poker player has heard or song this tune during a tournament. We were down to 4 people, so I was in the money. Of course I like that. To my left was a huge stack of chips. I was in the small blind with 89 of diamonds. The blinds were 500/1000. I raised it to $3K. The big blind (chip leader) calls. The flop comes ten of diamonds, jack of diamonds, and jack of spades. I bet $2K. The chip leader raises it another $2K. I immediately go all-in. I mean seriously I have an open ended straight flush draw, a possible straight, and a flush. The chip leader immediate calls me and turns over JT for the insta-boat. Crap I am praying for the straight flush. The prayer was not answered. Thanks a lot Bon Jovi.

It was a fun tournament. Everyone was bitching about the amount of starting chips and the blinds structure. Hell I loved it because you played cards and could not gamble aggressively with chips. We started with $1600. To me it played exactly like most SNG's I have played on-line. I was patient. I played aggressive when I need folks to drop their drawing hands. I played sly when I had the nut, maximizing my chips. I managed two bluffs and both worked. I think I made one mistake where I limped in at the final table in early position. Of course I was raised and I basically donated money. I ahd one lay down which I will never know if it was good or not. I had a straight, but the board showed 4 spades. I had the 9 of spades. There were three better spades available and the player to my right popped a pretty good raise. Upon review I think he stole the pot from me, but it was to early in the tournament to risk half my chips.

Absolutely a great time! I did not take enough beer! At the final table I definitely wanted one more. Another funny thing was the table thought they picked up a tell on me because I looked down at my chips three times in a row after a nice flop. It may have been a tell, but I won the pot. I then continued to use that movement even when I had a weak hand. I definitely need to work on making sure I have no tells.

Well sports season is about to kick in, so poker will be taking a back seat. Hopefully I can skip baseball practice once per month and continue to play in the Cedar Park series. I would like to win the bracelet. Hee Hee!

I will continue playing freerolls when I can. Finished a few spots out of the money last night.

Play on!