..a bad error which turned out not to be crucial ..and another error which helped me considerably.
Stars isn't my favourite place to play open sngs.
I've mainly been sticking to private games or ring games in recent times.
I haven't played much poker at all in the last few days.
Anyway, my bankroll has been looking healthier lately and tonight I just fancied a sng. I entered a 18 seater $10 tourney.
Nothing happening from my seat but there was some early loose action elsewhere at the table.
One player - he eventually made it to 2nd place prize - came right over my AQ
3XBB preflop raise with a 21XBB re-raise. Hmm ok. Checked him up on sharkscope and without wishing to sound disrepectful, I found him swimming in a bowl there.
He continued to make monster raises when any sort of pot was building
and made a big stack.
I had very poor cards and any good situations were scarce. I made a couple of steals to keep up but the game was a frustrating one. Moreso because at least 4 of the players at my table were very loose. All I could do was watch the piles of chips swapping around.
I couldn't find the right openings, and couldn't make chips.
Here's an early hand that had me blinking a bit:
PokerStars Game #19593255342: Tournament #101953273, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/08/13 - 17:16:09 (ET)
Table '101953273 2' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: mrdutch2 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: ceejay777 (1600 in chips)
Seat 3: khublaydan (1740 in chips)
Seat 4: chino-pepino (1100 in chips)
Seat 5: ghostlite (1870 in chips)
Seat 6: VPCC (1440 in chips)
Seat 7: 7letters (1400 in chips)
Seat 8: MKnopfler (1590 in chips)
Seat 9: Itschgo (1260 in chips)
7letters: posts small blind 10
MKnopfler: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 7letters [Ad 2s]
Itschgo: calls 20
mrdutch2: folds
ceejay777: calls 20
khublaydan: folds
chino-pepino: calls 20
ghostlite: folds
VPCC: calls 20
7letters: folds
MKnopfler: raises 180 to 200
Itschgo: folds
ceejay777: folds
chino-pepino: calls 180
VPCC: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qh Ac]
MKnopfler: bets 420
chino-pepino: raises 480 to 900 and is all-in
MKnopfler: calls 480
*** TURN *** [Ah Qh Ac] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Ah Qh Ac Kc] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MKnopfler: shows [Td Th] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
chino-pepino: shows [Kh Tc] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
chino-pepino collected 2270 from pot
My stack wasn't growing. I was getting to the point were I'm preparing to shove hands - each time I faced raises infront preflop and just had to wait it out.
Only 7 players were left in at 150BB and I was the low stack with just 920 chips in my stack. I shoved with a Q9 from the SB. The BB looked the strongest player at the table in my mind. He folded and I welcomed the addition of the blinds to my stack.
On the following hands I'm facing raises, I have one opportunity UTG to push with and 8high and I fold.
I get to check a BB with another 8high holding. I miss the flop completely and I'm forced to fold to a raise.
My best hand for quite sometime arrives...it's a T8o, I'm small blind..
I fold to a 1000 chip raise from the big raiser I mentioned earlier.
Next hands, 4-3o then 6-2o, no openings, I'm down to 820 chips and the blinds have just gone up to 100/200.
UTG I shove with a QJo, one caller, I pair a Jack on the turn card and double up versus an A8s.
A little later, more blinds come my way when I shove an Ax from the cut-off and I'm up to 1840 chips.
6 players left now and I have 9-8o in the BB. I check and see a flop which is
8 high. With a big stack as my opponent I consider pushing my whole stack but decide to make a smaller raise. It commits my stack anyway should he play on. He re-raises allin with a pair of 5's and my pair of 8's hold.
Things are now looking better and next hand I move allin when a loose player makes a raise infront of me. The stacks behind me fold and my stack is now
4405 chips, blinds 100/200 + ante 25
5 players left now and 4 cash spots. I'm holding up. Big stack is the loose one and the player to my left is the best player. I'm staying away from these two.
The other two players aren't being so troublesome and both seemed to have tightened up at the bubble.
At 400BB, I have 4430 chips, there is a big stack who has 10k, two stacks similar to mine and a small stack at 2600.
This is when I make my first mistake. I limp in with small connectors from the SB only the BB is in the hand. No further bets and at the turn, I'm looking to check it down. I open a THF page to read a post and check the turn, check the river. Oops! I just checked a flush on the river - completely misread the board
Not done that for a while. Ok, a few chips lost there, if he was going to call a river bet at all, then it would of been a small one I'm certain -but I give myself a wake-up and focus fully on the game again.
I think my next mistake is a bit more interesting.
I'm now 2nd in chips...
I occasionally like to put in an immediate check - an instantaneous one -
my hand is irrelevant when I do this but it might possibly make an opponent at least wonder for a second -
why I checked so fast. It's nothing really but I may do that infrequently.
..and for reasons unknown to myself, this is what I intend to do from the BB should the hand pan out that way.
I hover over the 'check' box.
The player UTG (the good player I mentioned) makes a raise. The graphics change and I make an accidental click that falls on the 'call' box . I try to untick the box in a hurry but it's too late, I call 800 chips with T3. Well, you can see below how my accident became a happy-accident.
I stacked the strongest player at the table.
I made it to the last two and chips stacks were even heads up. The loose-aggressive player to my right became less
loose and less aggressive when there were just the two of us, and I won the game for a very pleasant $72.
PokerStars Game #19595170502: Tournament #101953273, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2008/08/13 - 18:33:09 (ET)
Table '101953273 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: jrjack jr (5022 in chips)
Seat 5: nonjeton (3590 in chips)
Seat 7: khublaydan (12808 in chips)
Seat 8: 7letters (5580 in chips)
jrjack jr: posts the ante 25
nonjeton: posts the ante 25
khublaydan: posts the ante 25
7letters: posts the ante 25
khublaydan: posts small blind 200
7letters: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 7letters [
]
jrjack jr: raises 800 to 1200
nonjeton: folds
khublaydan: folds
7letters: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [
]
7letters: bets 1200
jrjack jr: raises 2597 to 3797 and is all-in
7letters: calls 2597
*** TURN *** [
] [
]
*** RIVER *** [
] [
]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
7letters: shows [:Tc
] (a full house, Tens full of Threes)
jrjack jr: shows [
] (a pair of Tens)
7letters collected 10294 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10294 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 6d Td Jh 3s]
Seat 1: jrjack jr showed [Kd Qd] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 5: nonjeton (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: khublaydan (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: 7letters (big blind) showed [Tc 3c] and won (10294) with a full house, Tens full of Threes
I wouldn't of made that call against a player who I considered
to be a good player and who had a decent stack.
Looking at the hand afterwards, I am getting good odds to call here (about 2.4 to 1) At that stage of the game, how do you feel about calling from the SB?
An eventful SNG- I made two notable errors 
Real poker players don't cry....
