Busted

Thats the inaugural WilWheaton.Net tournament over, and I..., well I didn't do so well, though, for someone who's only been playing a month, and in their first tournament, I suppose 77th out of 96 isn't too bad.

I tried not to play too many bad hands - I saw the flop 60% of the time, and tried to push things occasionally, which was the thing that saw my demise; that, and my innability to spot the potential for a flush!

Things started well though -on the first hand I was dealt Js 9s; 5 of us limped in, 100 in the pot, and the flop was 8s Ks 4c. The others all checked, but with 4 spades I decided to push things along a bit and made a pot-sized bet. Three of them folded, one called. On the turn 5s showed up, and I had to decide how much to bet. In the small stakes games I had been playing, any big raise seemed to prompt everyone to fold, and I wanted to get off to a good start in the tournament. Unless the other guy was holding the Ace of spade, I had this hand won. He hadn't raised me on the flop, so I guessed he either had a pair of jacks, or maybe two pairs. I made another pot sized raise (300) in the hope of getting him to at least call, then I could try and raise him again, but he folded. Still, winning the first hand was a good confidence booster for me. Things got even better on the next hand - I was dealt As Jc, there were two raises of 80, I called, and there were two aces on the flop! I bet 300, but every body folded on me.

So I'd won the first two hands, obviously I was going to win the tournament :)

Things didn't carry on is this way unfortunately :(

The next few hands I folded on small pots, then along came something worth playing. I had 4d Ah, everyone folds pre flop bar one guy; he raises 80 and I call. The flop is Ts Ad 6s, I check to see what the other guy is up to, he raises 520, and I call. 9s comes along on the turn, he goes all in, and I realise I'm staring down the barrel of a flush. I fold, and lose 600 on the hand!

That leaves me with the short stack on the table. I play it tight, waiting for the good cards to come along. A few hands later a I get a flush on the turn, and everyone folds on me, but I pick up a couple of hundred.

Over the next few hands my chips dribbled away, blinds were up to 25/50, I made a few small preflop raises, and then folded as the flop gave me nothing. Then I thought my luck had changed, I picked up Jd Ac, there was a raise of 50, I called. Flop was Jh 6h Ah. Great, 2 pair, aces and jacks. Theres a bet of 50 across the table, I raise to 100, 1 fold, 2 calls. Turn was 9h, there was a bet of 200, I call. River is Kd, small bet of 50, I go all in. You spotted what I missed? There were three hearts on the table after the turn weren't there? I run straight into an Ace high flush, game over!

You can reads Wil's (far more eloquent) words about the tournament here.