My second day at Online Casino Malaysia wasn’t the rousing success that my fist day was, but that’s to be expected. To hit several sets, double up twice with pocket aces, and not suffer any devastating bad beats is not what usually happens in large tournaments. Last night was a trip back down to earth for me and my poker ego, although it certainly could have been worse than it was.
I got my 10k stack up to 16k before a rough stretch that got me back where I started. Then I got dealt pocket kings and bet 1500, although considering the circumstances I probably should have made a bigger bet. I got three callers and the flop had no aces or flush or straight draws, so I pushed all in. One called, and that one had a set of deuces. I thought that I had destroyed myself and was out of the tournament.
That was not the case, since I still had a couple of thousand chips left. I got lucky on the big blind, since the flop gave me a pair of fives and fortunately that was the best hand. A few hands later, I called with KJ and got two pair on the flop and another jack on the turn. I ended up winning a big pot with that and was back up to ten thousand chips and very much alive.
Alive, but not comfortable. I knew that I had to get more chips before the blinds destroyed me, and an all-in bet by a very loose player when I had a pair of 8s seemed like a great time to go for it. It turned out that I was up against J/7 offsuit, which meant that my hand was a lot better. The flop contained no jacks, sevens, or eights. The turn didn’t have any of those, but it did give my opponent what I think was an inside straight draw. After the river, the board had an ace, king, queen and ten so I lost.
Losing to jack seven once is bad enough, but those cards weren’t done tormenting me. In what was probably my most foolish move of the night, I called an all-in bet when my 6 gave me a ten-high straight. I was defeated by a jack-high straight, with the other card being a seven. That knocked me down to 25 chips but I won the next hand with pocket jacks and that gave me 175 chips. With A9 in the hole for the next hand, I had to go all in. The flop was 8-9-10, and an ace came later. Howver, 2 pair loses to a jack high straight and that’s what jack seven makes with that board.
The unbelievable losses didn’t stop there. I played one tournament where I was wagering bonus points that I won on Thursday night, and I got dealt pocket kings. With the blinds rising I decided to go all in and so did three other players. None of us was making an idiotic play – I was up against pocket tens, queens, and aces. The flop brought another ace and that killed my chances.
Finally, the last hand that I played last night was pobably the most disappointing. I had turned 25 points into 44 and called a bet of a couple of points with K/J. Then I called another, similar bet when the flop showed a king. When the turn card was a jack, and knowing that I wasn’t up against a very tight player, I re-raised a ten point bet all-in. My opponent called with a pair of kings and an ace kicker, and hit the ace on the river. I read that good poker play is playing the same way that you would if you knew what your opponent had, and I did that, but it’s still frustrating.
I’m undecided at the moment about whether I’ll play again tonight. It might be better to play in the morning instead to go up against people who are likely to either be college students or wasting time at work and are likely not to be very patient.
