That was Too Fast

After all the hard work of getting into this tournament I felt I left a job undone.

I was excited, to say the least, to get going and have the opportunity to play with the top ten in the area. I made sure I was rested and I arrived early to get my money paid and just be ready to go. I did all of that and then some by reading my book about playing. All the last minute details were completed.

I drew my card and sat down in the number one seat of table four. I like the one or the ten seat as that does hide me from the other players just a little bit. After we got going I even put my earplugs in to listen to some music and just be patient. I had T$10,000 in chips and I was not going to play aggressive for the first 3 rounds.

I even played one hand and won the pot and that made me feel good and now I felt I was into the game. I was watching the number two seat as he was one of the top ten players. The other person was in the number eight seat and I have played against her before so I somewhat knew her game. The one next to me had position on me so I would need to learn what he was playing and be careful with my betting. Watching to see if he would raise me at any time.

The storm was brewing and I couldn't see it coming. The person in seat four was being somewhat aggressive and had won a few pots already. They were small but still he was playing somewhat loose. He was under 21 so I felt he was a little vulnerable.

I looked at my cards and I have AdKc and I raised to $250 to thin the field. I get two callers. The kid in seat four and a person in seat six. The flop comes Qd10dJs. It was raised to $500 and I re-raised to $1,000 and the kid goes all-in. The person in seat 6 goes all in. I am now stuck with a decision for my tournament life real early.

What do I do with this? I have a straight to the Ace. I can see the two diamonds and figure someone would try for the diamond flush but why all in? The other person might have a set? They wouldn't do this with a pair only. Wow, I struggled with this and decided with T$20,000 of chips out there already and my opportunity for a total T$30,000 I decided to go all in as well.

The kid turned over Kd9d for the straight to the K and flush draw. Then seat six turned over the AK for the straight to the Ace and then mine the AdKc showing the straight to the Ace. I needed two diamonds for the flush or no diamonds for the split pot. The turn comes 5h and the river comes xdiamond. Myself and seat six were knocked out of the tournament with the young kid getting his diamond flush.

It sort of felt unfinished being the first one out of this tournament. I struggled to get in and then it was over just like that. What did I learn? I have continued to talk to others about this and see if my decision to go all in was correct or should I have laid this down and fight another time?

You can let me know how you feel about this one. I am really trying to learn from this one for next time.

I came home and just relaxed the rest of the day since I had to go to work in the evening dealing cards. I have all of the obituaries out now waiting for the newspapers to get ahold of me to see what I owe them for putting this in their paper.

Have a fun day......