The Rise and Fall of Julius' Chipstack

If my cash game is currently shambolic, I appear to be on a bit of a heater in tournaments at the moment. My last 5 entries in £50+ tournies have now brought 5 consecutive cashes for a finishing position run of 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 3rd, all in fields of 20+.

Last night involved scrapping for dear life in the first 4 levels, before having the quickest chip accumulation I’ve ever experienced, before blowing my huge chip lead on the final table with a mixture of bad luck and over-aggressiveness. Pretty much the story of the Roman Empire then.

EARLY STRUGGLES
I call a re-raise with AQ and miss, and then re-raise a raiser with AK and miss. Before I know it I am down to 1.5k from my 4k starting stack, and seemingly following Sir Mike out of the early exit door. I scrap away, and find good spots to stick my stack in and steal some blinds.

At one point it’s folded round to me and I shove with 2♠3♦. I decide to add some speechplay, so say “well I guess at this stage my range in an unopened pot is any two cards in the deck”. Sonny immediately says “Yeah, right”, which helps massively, because not only does it mean I know he will probably fold, but I think that convinced Professor Jalfont to chuck AT in the big blind. Phew!

THE RISE
I’ve never won so many chips in such a short period of time. I’m still fighting away with my 2k when the following sequence occurs, almost in back to back hands:

Hand1
Sonny raises a limper to put me all in, and I see the best hand for several orbits KQ off. I decide to call all in with it as I only have 5 big blinds. It luckily holds against Sonny’s AJ. Chip count = 4k

Hand2
I call a raise from Uncles Paulie when I am in the BB with Kd10d. Flop comes a pretty tasty QdJd10s so I check raise all in and Paulie calls with the nut diamond draw. I fade another diamond. Chip count = 8k

Hand3
2 limpers and I make up the SB with Ks10d.
Flop comes Kc 2d 6h
Uncle Paulie shoves and I make the call with top pair. He has gutshot straight draw and doesn’t get there. Chip count = 16k

I make some steals and continuation bets and get up to 25k when the following hand occurs.

Hand4
New guy to the table with big stack makes it 1k from the SB. I find JJ in the BB and make it 4k to go. He calls.
Flop is all rags
He shoves for 11k and I instacall and beat his KQ. I think showing down the terrible hands earlier on earned me the chips there, as the other players had mentioned it to him. Chip stack = 40k

Final table time

THE FALL
I go into the final table with about 60% of the chips in play, so I decide to dominate the table, and put people to decisions while they are out of the money. This works fine for a while and then the wheels begin to come off.

Hand5
I make is 2.2k in early position with A9 (blinds 400-800) and the BB goes all in for 2.4k. Obviously I have to call, knowing I am probably toast. He has AJ and I don’t get there.

Hand6
Shazbo shoves for 2.5k from the button and I call her blind in the BB because her range should be huge. It is - she has QT, but unforunately I find T7 which is pretty much the worst holding I could pick up, as i am dominated. She wins the pot.

Hand7
Sonny shoves UTG for about 3k. I raise it to 8k to isolate with AJ on the button. He has KQ and I bust him.

Hand8
UTG limps for 1.2k and I raise to 5k to put him all in with 77. He makes the loose call with A9. This soon morphes into a house and I have lost some more of my empire.

5 left - we are on the bubble - I am still chip leader (just).

Hand9
Blinds are now 800-1600. Folded round to Professor Jalfont who shoves for about 12k in the SB. I squeeze out KK and snap call his AQ, but to my horror an Ace falls on the flop and I lose the 24k pot. Starting to feel it’s not my night.

We are now in the money - 4 left and I am now in 3rd place.

I make a few moves to maintain my stack. 4th place chip stack gets eliminated, so I am now short stack myself.

Hand10

Jalfont limps for 1.6k and I decide to make a move, and shove in the remenants of my Empire(now only 10k) with 5♥9♥. The big blind looks me up with AT and I don’t draw out.

Final prize is £160 for 3rd and some useful points. I am almost certainly top of the league in the UKPT race when it is published next week.

Tough to evaluate that final table performance. I don’t think I really made many mistakes, although perhaps I over-cooked it on the agression front.

Of course the killer hand was the AQ v KK hand, which would have restored my chip empire to its former glory

“Et tu Professor Jalfont?”