The tournament was nip and tuck(fard)

I played in the Tuckfard poker tournament again tonight and made the final table! Of course, we only started with 11 runners, but who's counting?


The Tuckfard is a fun tournament with other bloggers and friends.

This was my third time to play with this group. A couple more times and they might make me an honorary tuckfard. I believe that would be a good thing. We all started with a T1500 chip stack.

When the blinds were 20/40, I had ♣A ♦A in the small blind. Nanuliam raised to 120 from the cutoff seat. I raised to 300 and SuzieQ folded around to nanuliam who called. The flop was ♥6 ♠4 ♠6. I bet 400, a little less than half the pot, and nanuliam raised to 1030 and was all in. I called and he/she showed ♠5 ♥5. The board bricked out and I now had 3500 in chips. Presto was definitely not gold this time.

Later I had KK and raised after a limper (Carson) and the small blind had called. They both folded. I guess they could tell by the look in my eye. Or, then again, maybe they just had bad cards. Later when the blinds were 80/160, it folded to me in the cutoff seat and I raised to 460 with JJ and everyone folded.

After that, I played passively unless I pretty much had what I thought was the best hand. The blinds were still fairly low, and I just tried to stay out of trouble.

I won a 2000 pot when the blinds were 100/200. From the small blind I called 100 more with ♠J ♣Q. Three of us saw a flop of ♣6 ♣4 ♣K. I bet out 200 and shockerkitten called. The turn was beautiful: ♣5. I got cute now and checked as did shockerkitten. The river was the ♠9 and now I bet 500 into a 1000 pot. I was trying to create the illusion that I was afraid of the flush, but when he didn't bet it, I was trying to steal the pot. He called and mucked and my second-nut flush was good. My stack was up to 4045.

When the blinds were 150/300/25 and we had four players left, my stack was 4545 (second place) and the shortstack, donk_tuckfard moved all in for 1150. I reraised to isolate with ♠A ♠10. Everyone else folded and he turned over ♠Q ♥K. According to the odds calculator, I'm a 61.35% favorite, but somebody forgot to tell the dealer. A king came on the flop and his hand held up. Besides failing to win a 2850 pot, I could have eliminated a tough opponent. Oh well.

When we were down to three players, donk_tuckfard was again short stacked and he and I were all in. He had ♣A ♣5 and I had ♣10 ♠K. This time he was 59% to win, but the flop came with a 10 and my hand held up. He was my third bounty.

We began heads-up play -- Shockerkitten had 9730 and I had 6770. He whittled me down to 4320 when I picked up ♦A ♦K from the button. I raised and he called. The flop was ♥2 ♣7 ♦9 and I moved all in. Shockerkitten turned over ♣10 ♥9 and I needed help. It didn't come, so congrats to shockerkitten. Nicely done!

Some of the tuckfards are going to Al's bash in PA later this week. Here's wishing them safe travel and a good time.