WSOP Freeroll (or my love/hate relationship with AJ)

Today I played in a promontional freeroll over at Full Tilt. We were playing for 1 seat in the WSOP. Here are the highlights as they appeared in my notes.

I started the tournament with 1500 in chips, blinds at 15/30 and going up every 8 minutes and 1663 players. This was not going to be easy. First hand I was dealt AJo and so my relationship with this hand began. Flop came and it missed me completely. I decided to try a bluff but it's a freeroll and no one was backing off. Hit AJo again when the BB got around to me. Of course the flop missed me but this time I folded. Level two came and went with nothing worth reporting.

On level three I won with 66 and was back to T1525 and then I helped the short stack triple up when his hand beat my AQo.

By the start of level four I was down to T850 and I finally get AKo. I raised the minimum and everyone folded. So much for taking down a big pot. Later my JJ got beat by 55 and I was down to T450. I was looking for anything to double me up.

On level five the song "Mr. Brightside" from The Killers came on and the only bright side I could see was that no one had shown up to cheer me on. I was down to T370 when I was dealt QJ of spades. I went all-in and was called by AQ diamonds. DAMN, I figured I was gone but a J on the turn and a Q on the river helped me to double up. Then I got KQo and min. raised to see everyone fold once again.

START RANT This is where I have to get something off my chest. A lot of players didn't show up and Full Tilt does not remove them. Eventually the no-shows are blinded out but it's a pain in the ass when only
3 people at your table are actually there. END RANT

While still on level five my luck started to change and April, from Not a Poker Blog, gets a lot of the credit. She showed up in time to see me get put all-in with AKo. I was against QQ. The flop came all spades and I started to get excited because I had the King of spades. Turn came Ace of spades and I doubled up. Level six was uneventful and I found myself at the first break with T2400 and 776 players left.

Level seven started and blinds were 60/120. The players who never showed were starting to be blinded out and that's when it happened. MY COMPUTER BLEW UP!!!!!!!!! By the time I got back on, we were in level eight and I had been moved to a new table. That's when AJ showed up again but this time it came through. I was up T3065.

By level nine the card started to get cold. We were down to 358 players and I needed to do something. I ended up all-in with 10Jo and rivered my straight. My chip stack was at T3365 when my first big screw-up happened. It was level ten and I had AQo. For some reason I couldn't let it go and I was down to T965.

My notes died for a bit and when level eleven started I had, somehow, gotten up to T2340 with 195 players in the running. This is when I got THE HAND!!!! I was dealt JJ and I believe I raised. I had one caller and we saw the flop.....wait for it...........rag.........J.........J!!!!!!! I checked and got exactly the response I hoped for. He made a large bet and I raised him all-in. He had to call and he doubled me up. Unfortunately I was still well below the average with T5200. At this point I had been moved several times and was getting a little dizzy. I kept April informed as to my whereabouts through good old AIM where we had moved our chat and, when I was finally moved to table 98 she thought it might be good luck (my player name is April98).

Of course it wasn't meant to be. After the second break was unlucky level thirteen and my love/hate relationship with AJ came to an end. This time it was suited and I was all-in. I was ahead after the flop came JA6 but another 6 at the turn killed me. My all-in had been called by A6 and I lost to a full house. By the way, AJ was the hand that took me out in the blogger tournament as well.

I finished in 126th place. Not a bad showing considering I never got my chip stack above the average and I did have a string of cold cards. I probably could have been a little more aggressive in the early rounds but it was a freeroll and only 1st place paid. Everyone wanted it and most bluffs were being called. My thanks again to April for the support, it made the tournament much more fun.