Harold Returns From The Poker Graveyard

Our poker group played our weekly tournament last night. We had nine players at the start, and the top three would finish in the money. As is the usual pattern lately, Danimal's wife Ease was on a tear. She's won quite a few times in the last few weeks. I was able to bluff a monster pot away from her by representing pocket jacks when I only had a 7-3 offsuit in the pocket; but other than that, she was winning pretty much every major contested pot.

Anyway, we got down to six players and I was somewhere in the middle as far as chip stack size goes. I called pre-flop with a K in the pocket, and I got a K-high two pair on the flop, but two spades also showed up so I put in a moderate raise. Ease called, and Walter was all-in after he called. A blank showed up on the turn, so I raised it up again, and Ease, who had a big chip stack at this time, called me. I put Ease on a spade draw, so when another spade hit on the river, I figured she made her spade flush, so I checked and Ease went all-in.

Although I though she might be bluffing the flush since she had the big stack at the table, I decided to fold, mostly because Walter was all-in in that hand which meant that I'd be able to see Ease's cards anyway. Well, she had the flush, so Walter got knocked out and we were down to five players.

Although I was happy with my fold, the battle left me with only 3500 or so in chips and the blinds were at 500/1000. A couple hands later, I got dealt a K-7 in the small blind, so when everyone folded to the blinds, I went all-in in an attempt to steal the big blind. Unfortunately, Jenny, who was in the big blind, had A-K. She had 300 less in chips than I did, so when she called me and her A-K held, I was down to 300 in chips at a point in the tournament when the blinds were 500/1000. In other words, I was beyond dead. I couldn't even cover the small blind at that point.

Due to crappy cards, I had to wait until the big blind rotated around to me. Luckily, I got dealt an A-4 spades in the pocket when the big blind reached me, so I was all-in with my 300. I hit a spade flush on the river and tripled up. I doubled up a few times more, and pretty soon I was right back in it. Jenny took Charlie out, and we were down to four. A few hands later, I called Corrina's all-in with an Ace high, and my ace held.

Ease then took Jenny out, so Ease and I were heads-up. I was pretty short stacked, so Ease was able to dispatch me fairly quick and win yet another tournament. But I was more than happy to finish in the money after being virtually dead with a mere three black $100 chips when the blinds were 500/1000 and there were still five players in the game. It was my biggest hold 'em comeback to date.