$2 ... I cant believe it, lets rewind a little. Sat
Night , 1.30am, Barter is playing in a multi
tourney. Im still up wondering how im going
to play in the paradise poker tourney starting
at 3.30am. The plan to is have a nap, and wake up.
Barter's tourney is $2 multi sub qualifier for
the wsop ! $2 tourney, has everyone gone mad ???
Frage was playing $5 stt. I ended up sleeping through
the day, but barter hung in till 4.30 to win a seat,
the top 3 got $100 seats in a monday morning multi.
Funnily enuff, 7th place got $2.40, a 20c profit on
3 hours of work, asian sweatshop kids would demand
a higher rate.

So the catch is barter cant play in the multi , coz
he has work, and since my work and playing poker
are one and the same, he asked me to play.

Ok its 9am start for the toruney , or so im told,
9am comes, it starts at 10, ghey. Could have slept.
10am, tourney kicks(wrong word) off. Absolute poker,
$1500 chips , blinds are gradually increasing but
happen every 10 mins. 280 ppl top 2 get wsop seats.

Get little to start off with. In fact the notes on
barts must be this guy is a rock, fold to everything,
coz i cant get anyone to call a raise. Later AK, Js,
AQ all go to wast coz everyone folds. Start playing
6-7s and raising with 3-2. Play "absolutely" clinical
poker, just picking up pot after pot, with little heat,
win a nice pot when my Qs take an AK short stack out,
and im dbl average. Here i sit for ever it seems.

17K in chips was dbl average, now its almost average,
and now its below average. But at least there are
only 3 tables left. In fact the card drought im on
is getting ridiculous. Cant i pick up a hand? constantly
ppl move all in, and im forced to raise with j-3 to pick
up the blinds and stay alive. Now the guy on my
right is the most aggressive player, which would
sound like thats good positioning but he raises my blinds
every time. Every time, from the sb, and the button,
relentless. Now i could move all in over the top with junk
but his raises are so big, that hes committing himself
to call me. Down to 2 tables 15 ppl left, times are tough,
im almost 1/2 average. Series of raise and folds.
I move all in and get called for the first time. Arggh
A-5 vs 7s, flop 9-3-2, - 7 (oh god) - 4 oh my god !! Rabbit
out of the hat. That stroke of luck keeps me going for
a bit longer.

Cmon where are my cards, still nothing. Key hand comes up
at the end of the 2 tables. I have k-9 on the button,
aggressive guy just limps which is weird i suspect something
fold. Flop comes k-9-x, he takes out two ppl with his aces,
and my k-9 woulda doubled me up , argggh.

Aggressive guy is on my right again, basically for the last
50ppl we have been in the blinds together , ffs.
He raises again, i have 4s, decided to call
1/3 of my chips off, flop comes A-Q-3, he puts me all in
i fold, he shows A-10, dang . Good fold, but the idea
was right, try and make a steal if he missed, but he didnt.

Now i have come up with a new strategy to deal wiht aggressive
guy, its important sometimes to get more info by talking. I get 3s in
the bb and instead of calling, his over raise, before he
gets the chance to raise , i say im all in if u raise. He
thinks about it and he folds. Then i manage to use this trick
when i have crap another time, and buy a free blind. But
i get no cards, literally and am virtually dead. And someone
always seems to raise. I pick up an A high, get called by
a K high and then dble up. Here is where it all goes mental
in a short space of time, i keep re-raising the aggressive
guy with A-k, and Js and another hand, and suddenly im back in
it. Soon after i take out the 4th guy wiht A-5, and its
3 handed , 2 ppl get to go to the world series. Oh my
god. Which means barter will be going to the wsop ! In all
my attempts totalling up 6K, to get into the wsop this year,
i have never even got this close. Unbeliveable. Does
this affect the way ive played up to now i hope not.

But then as quickly as i rose up it can all come crashing down.
3 handed i have 170K, aggreesive guy goes all in for 145K ,
3rd place guy 100K has folded, i have AQ i make the call,
he has 4s, hits trips im crippled. Cant pull another miracle
out and just like that vegas on a $2 ride for barter disapears.
I coulda folded and grinded out the other guy. But AQ was
too good to pass up, and i thought about it later, and I
had to call. Either 50-50 or quite possible dominated.
Unreal, surreal, so close and yet. Yet if the goal was
to come in the top 2 why not fold, and let him dictate
the play till the other guy has to stand up, but thats
bs, coz im not folding aq 3 handed to a maniac, when
i think its the best hand, i cant and i wont.
But now there may be no world series...

:(  ¶ 10:11 PM