Eurolinx Freeroll

On Sunday, our buddy myst got Eurolinx to hold another freeroll. This time with $1000 in purse, and a $100 bounty on myst himself.

127 players signed up.

Things went well early on... in the first two hours, I lost only one pot that I was involved in, and my stack got up to close to 10,000 from the starting 2,500 in chips.

Here are the key hands from early on:

I'm dealt 34 clubs. Blinds are 15/30, UTG raises to $90. I'm on the button, so I call. Flop comes J 2 5. UTG checks, so I check to get a free card. The turn is an Ace, giving me the nuts (so far). He bets $200. I flat call. River is a 4. I still have the straight, but it's now more obvious. He bets another $200, and I raise to $700. He flat calls, and shows AA for trip aces. If I had known he was that strong, I would have put him all-in on the turn and he would have called. But still a good start.

About 6 hands later, blinds are the same. I'm dealt 99. I flat call in middle position. The same player whose Aces I cracked raises to $90 again, and I call. Flop comes 9 K 5. He leads out $150, and I flat call again. Turn 4. He bets $250, I put him all-in and he calls with KQ. He's drawing dead, and I'm up to $5500.

One hand where I slow played AK instead of raising: Blinds are 25/50. UTG raises to $200. I decided to flat call. A middle position player goes all-in for $3000. UTG thinks long and hard, and calls. I decide my hand is no good, and fold. MP had AA, UTG had AJ. AA wins, and I escape unscathed.

In the last moments, when we were down to about 30, I had to go into all-in mode to pick up the blinds since I was low stacked. I pushed any Ace, and any two face cards, and didn't get called. I folded pocket fives in early position... I'd rather go all-in with two face cards than a small pair... why? I never win the races when I have the small pair!

ZachJackDad, a local player, got switched to our table. Everyone folds around, and he raises to $4000. I have A4 in the BB, and I go all-in for $8000 total. He has no choice but to call, since he priced himself in. He shows K4. Flop is 4 3 3, turn 7. It's looking good... but a 4 on the river makes it a split pot. That $8000 I should have won would have made a big difference.

After pushing all-in about 7 times, I finally got in a race. I went all-in with 66... I had no choice, being low-stacked. I got called by AK, and of course the flop was AKJ. I didn't catch one of my two outs and I was eliminated in 13th place (the tourney paid the top 10).

It was fun to play a tournament like that, where most people take it seriously even though it didn't cost anything.