Freeroll comings and goings

OK—so freerolls aren’t that exciting, right? And you’re probably wondering why I’m wasting my time with them, right? That issue is definitely a whole other story of its own—surprise, surprise—you can read that story soon in an upcoming post!

So a few nights ago I was playing a 2000 person freeroll on Pacific Poker—by the way, probably my 2nd ranked place to play online. It was pretty late at night, and I had a relatively long day (tourney started at 10:45 central time). The entire thing was pretty uneventful to say the least—in fact, I was playing 2 other tables at the same time: PLOmaha, and 7Stud. There wasn’t much ado, until with about 250 people left, I caught AA. Now, many times when this happens in a tourney like this one, AA seems to win about as much as 2-7o…but it was about 12:30am, my eyes were heavy, and if the rockets lost—I could deal with it. I went all in (prob 5-6k in chips, blinds 500-1000), and I found 2 callers (both of whom had me covered). The subsequent flop was some kind of miracle from the sky…A-A-K. HUH!? I had just flopped quad A’s with a K—pretty unbelievable. In fact, I was so tired, I initially didn’t believe it. Pretty interesting how the hand played out, because I was able to sit back with all my chips in the middle, and watch the other 2 guys represent A’s knowing they didn’t have them. They continued to bet at one another (making me really wish I had significantly more chips to win with). Of course nobody caught that (if someone had made Royal, it could probably go down as the worst beat ever), and I went on to triple up.

From there, I hit a little bit of a rush, amassing a stack of about 80,000 chips in the next 20 minutes or so. And as quickly as I built it up, it all seemed to vanish.

I hovered right around the 80,000 chip mark for the next few hands, until from the BB I caught top pair. It was only a pair of jacks, and my kicker wasn’t great, but I still bet out. It came down to me and one other guy, who kept calling my bets. He winds up catching a K on the river, and his K-6o end up beating me. NOT sure why he stuck around, but I guess dumber things have happened. Because my kicker wasn’t that great, I didn’t push all-in, so I had about 40,000 in chips left.

At this point, blinds were up to something in the ballpark of 3000-6000 or 4000-8000, so I had to make a move soon. (down to about 25 guys…top 10 cash) The very next hand I was dealt 44. 2 guys made minimal raises ahead of me (to either 12k or 16k)…and I decided to make my stand: All in.

I actually got both raisers to call, and as I had guessed, they had high cards, no pairs. I was a slight favorite. The flop came 9-8-7…which most times would look really crappy, but since I was up against A-J, and K-Q…it seemed like I just needed to avoid those cards, and a 10. The turn came with an 8—still lookin good with 2pr. Then the river—a 7. Yuck! 2 pair on the board, and the guy with AJ had the top kicker…what a kick in the teeth. That busted me, and I finished 19th…still pretty respectable out of 2000 (even though its pretty loose since it’s a freeroll)…but I really wanted to cash. Oh well. Time for bed.

As I am a glutton for this type of punishment, I ended up on Full Tilt last night on their $20 freeroll. In my opinion, they need some higher stakes freerolls…but I really just wanted the competition. There were 900 entered. This one didn’t turn out as great as the Pac Poker one, but there were 2 hands worth noting. Karma seemed to come around and give me a few comebacks myself. Again it was late, and I was caring less if I busted, because sleep was looking better and better. I was dealt AJ, only someone with the Hilton’s stayed. With a flop of J-4-3, he went all-in, and I called. I figured he had me beat…but I wasn’t drawing dead. As if I called it to come, my J came on the turn, and a river K didn’t help him. I had doubled up. Just like the other night, this sparked a pretty good run. I didn’t turn it into a cash, or even a top 10/20 finish…I guess the lack of sleep caught up with me. But I did have one more memorable hand before it was all said and done. I have never made an opponent so mad, not even at a $30/$60 cash table, or high-entry tournament. It was pretty amazing how pissed this guy got at a free tourney. I was dealt AJ again, and had 1 caller of my raise. The flop came AA9, and I checked it…looking to see how he would play it. He made a pretty strong bet at the pot, and I came back over the top—all in. He must have been licking his chops, because he called immediately, and flipped over his flopped full house 99 with 9AA. Pretty nice hand. I really didn’t stand much of a chance. BUT…what would come on the turn…my J: giving me Aces full. THEN, and this is the card that turned the knife as it stuck out of his back, the river came with another J. It was flagrant spit in his face—and all I could do was laugh, because its not like it happened with high stakes. My opponent proceeded to weasel every profanity he could into the chat, even if he had to type them in one letter at a time to keep Full Tilt from blanking them out. I could only imagine how furious he was, and what he looked like at the time. (Animal from the Muppets is the first visual that came to mind)