My 15 Most Memorable Poker Hands (Part 4)

Hand #6 - To Gamble, or Not to Gamble? - 4/21/2019 - $10 Turbo MTT - Ignition

This hand is from the same $10 Turbo MTT as Hand #13. It is the second hand of the final table. The seats and chipstacks were as follows:
UTG (Player 291) - 404,928           (6.7BBs)
UTG+1 (Player 36) - 524,136         (8.7BBs)
UTG+2 (Player 50) - 1,312,380      (21.9BBs)
LJ - (Player 107) - 420,432             (7.0BBs)
HJ - (Player 200) - 265,094             (4.4BBs)
CO - (Player 420) - 929,278           (15.5BBs)
BU - (Player 356) - 139,918           (2.3BBs)
SB - (Me, Player 242) - 645,019   (10.8BBs)
BB - (Player 112) - 1,738,815        (29.0BBs)

The blinds were 30,000/60,000/6,000. So, as is typical for a turbo tournament, the stacks were extremely short and the players should be playing aggressively. However, as a counterpoint to that, the payout jumps were fairly large, giving some value to patience.
1st place - $1,085.05
2nd place - $797.50
3rd place - $606.10
4th place - $462.55
5th place - $325.38
6th place - $261.58
7th place - $197.78
8th place - $133.98
9th place - $90.91

Anyway, player 36 moved all-in for 518,136 chips, and everyone has folded to me in the SB. I had been dealt J♥ J♣ and I had a big decision on my hands. I currently sat 4th in chips, and losing this hand would put me on the short stack, where I would be likely to finish in the bottom couple of places. Winning would put me closer to the leaders, but still only 3rd in chips with the table leader on my left. Additionally, I had just passed through the blinds, meaning that other players would likely be busting before I needed to make any further moves. All of these factors led me to seriously consider folding my jacks and try to wait some short stacks out.

That being said, J-J is just too far ahead of the villain's range to justify folding. Even giving him a tight range of {22+, A8s+, ATo+, KJs+, KQo, QJs}, pocket jacks have 63% equity. And if I'm folding in this spot, I'm practically guaranteeing a 6th place finish or thereabouts. Yes, I may bust in 9th place, but I need to give myself a real chance of making the top three, or even winning the whole damn thing!

After all of this deliberation, I called, the villain showed A♥ Q♣, and we were off to the races. The board came J♠ 6♦ 5♥ 9♥ 7♦ to give me a winning set. Player 36 was eliminated in 9th place, and my chipstack grew to 1,271,155. I would go on to win the tournament and the $1,085 prize!

Hand #5 - Am I Good Enough? - 7/1/2011 - $125 Nightly MTT - Orleans Casino, Las Vegas

In 2011, I had the amazing opportunity to deal at the 2011 WSOP in Las Vegas. It was eight weeks of nonstop poker, and it was incredible! During my time there, I had the opportunity to play a lot of the local tournaments like the Wednesday night HORSE at Green Valley Ranch and the nightly $75 entry tournament ($125 on Fridays) at the Orleans. The Orleans tournament had a good long structure without being too high of a buy-in. I played in it 5 times, chopping once for $405, so I essentially broke even.

My parents came to visit near the end of the series and my Dad and I went to the Orleans to play in the nightly tournament. It was a Friday, so the buy-in was $125. Early in the tournament, I was sitting on 12,925 chips (slightly up from the starting stack of 12,500), and I was dealt 6♥ 6♣ UTG. The blinds were 100/200 and I raised to 475 chips. Three players called, including both blinds. The flop came Q♣ 6♠ 4♥ and the blinds checked to me. I bet 1,150 into the 1,900 chip pot, and only the SB called. The turn was the 8♥ and the SB checked again. I bet 2,300, and he called again. The river came the 2♦ and the SB jammed his remaining 5,900 chips into the pot. I was definitely surprised by his all-in and I sat back to think. We hadn't been at the table for long, but my impression of the SB was that he was a competent player. I had shown strength throughout the hand, and he still shoved in on me. So he wasn't expecting me to fold; he was expecting me to call.

So what could he have? He called from the SB, knowing already that the pot would be multiway. He then check-called the flop and turn. He would raise the flop with a strong queen or two pair, and he would have raised preflop with a big pair. And I don't think he shoves the river with a queen. A set of fours that he slowplayed was possible, but I felt like he would likely check-raise the turn with that hand. I spent about two minutes mulling my decision, which feels like an eternity at the table. A draw seemed like the most likely holding, and when I looked at the flop, both 7-5 and 5-3 flopped a straight draw. Unfortunately, BOTH of those draws got there.

Honestly, I was pretty convinced that I was beat, but I said out loud, "I'm just not good enough to fold this" as I tossed in my call. The SB showed 7♣ 5♣ for a turned straight, which decimated my stack and left me with only 3,100 chips. I would hang around for quite a while afterwards, but I never got back to a healthy chipstack, and I was eliminated in the middle stages of the tournament. My Dad would go on to bubble the tournament (finished 20th, and the tournament paid 18), so we both went home disappointed.

Hand #4 - Semi-bluffing Maniac - 3/24/2007 - $10 Deep Stack MTT - PokerStars

After cashing in my first Deep Stack tournament, I couldn't wait to play in another. Six weeks later, I finally had the opportunity. 951 players entered the tournament with 81 being paid. We had just made the money late in the sixth hour when this hand came up. With the blinds at 800/1600/75, I had 71,338 chips, good for 44BBs.

I was dealt J♥ T♥ in the CO seat and raised 3X to 4,800 chips. Falcon_CMH (189,904) was on the button and min 3-bet to 8,000. Being completely priced in, I called. My plan to tread carefully went out the window after the flop came K♣ Q♠ 6♦. I checked with my up-and-down straight draw and Falcon bet 10,600. Falcon was been aggressive to this point, so I decided to check-raise in the hopes of taking the pot down right there. I raised to 30,400, but Falcon called. The turn was the 4♠, and I realized that my only chance to win this pot and avoid losing over half of my stack was to shove my last 32,863 all-in right now. If he called, I could still catch an ace or a nine to win, but if I checked, Falcon would probably jam and force me to fold. Falcon went into his timebank, and I was sweating bullets. He finally folded and I boosted my stack to 112,738 chips! I would eventually lose a coin flip with A-T against 8-8 to bust in 20th place for $52.30.