75 chips

I have posted several comebacks in the past, but I think this has to beat them all: at one point, I had 75 chips left with six opponents still in the game. I ended the game with 13,500 chips (it was nine-handed, FTP).

The game could have been a relatively short one: this happened after 49 hands and 35 minutes.

But let's start at the beginning. I limped with 44, called a minraise and got a flop of AQT: fold. Completed as SB with K4, ended up calling a small river bet with a pair of fours, my opponent had made a set with 33 on the river. Limped with 33, checked the flop, on the turn I made a bet (board was K74-6) only to find that one opponent had acquired third pair with the 6, while another had an oesd now.

T9s as BB. Bet out when I made top pair on the turn, board 752-9. One caller. River was a 4, I check-folded. He bet 300 here, the pot was 225. A suspicious bet, but I was worried about him having limped AA or something. Why else would he call my turn bet?

Called with Q5o OTB to be in position, but had to fold to a flop bet. This left me with 910. Then I limped 66, flop was Q42 and I bet 180 into a 240 pot in third position. Thankfully, all three opponents folded: 1090. After the blinds passed, I raised with KQo in MP, all fold: again 1090. A few hands after that I got KQs UTG and bet 240 (4xBB) but both blinds called. The flop was 972 and the SB bet out, so I had to fold: 850.

With QJs as SB, I bet out when the turn gave me a flush draw and both opps had checked the 887 flop: they folded. As BB next time, I got to see a flop of KJ7 and both opps checked! So I bet small on the turn 2, one opp stayed around with his oesd (he should have bet the flop of course) and checked it down. Now I had 1230 again, blinds now 50/100.

Then, a round later, disaster struck. I got KQo OTB, it was folded to me. My M was 7. I decided there was no point in just raising, and pushed. I guess this is extreme. Anyway the SB called with 55 and his pair held up. Fortunately, he had 75 chips less than I did....

This is when the real fun started.

I folded the next two hands, then got 44 in 2nd position and called. The blinds were now 60/120, so there was not much else I could do. It was folded to the BB, who had... 44. So we shared the SB in this hand, and now I had 105. I folded the next hand (97o), but then I was all-in as BB! However, the SB, with 1730 chips, refused to call 45 into a 165 pot. Let's just say that it is clear that he does not understand much about poker. He said he had 7-2, but that is hardly an excuse, obviously.

Now I had 165 chips, down to 105 after paying the SB (I cowardly folded 65s to an early raise). Two hands later I got Q4 and it was folded to me, so I just limped (remember that I still did not have enough chips to pay the big blind). UTG limped and the SB raised, so I thought that was certainly the end.

The flop was KKQ.

My opponents had AJ and A5. Now I had 420 chips again, and it was all uphill from here... I pushed on the very next hand with KQo, no callers: 600. I folded 7-5 as BB to an early raise, and then got A7o as SB. OTB called for 75 chips (he had lost with 66 to KK on the previous hand) and I pushed, only to be called by the BB with... K7. Unfortunately, the first caller did beat me, so I only got the side pot, keeping me stable at 600. But two hands later I pushed T6o when it was folded to me, and two hands after that QTs. Nobody called. Now I had 1080 again!

One opponent was predicting around this time that I would win the game. I did not believe this for a moment, but shortly after this I beat AJ with AK (1810), then later got a free round (1610), pushed 99 without callers (1810), then 55 (1810), and then this particular opponent was nice enough to call my push with A6 while he only held 65s. Now I had 3720 chips with five players left.

This is when I started to get lucky ;-) I flopped a full house as BB, checked it until the river. My opponent finally tried something, bet and also called my minraise: 4940 - I was chipleader now. The same opponent was nice enough to call my river bet a round later with air (QJo, board AKK66 - he was probably hoping to share the pot), again the hand had been checked down although I had made a flush on the turn: 5660.

He really was a horrible player, he also gave me a lot of free rides during the tournament by folding his SB to me.

As SB I made a straight on the river. But worse was yet to come (for my opponent): in the next round as SB, I minraised and was forced due to pot odds to call his all-in. He had AJo, I had K4s, but I made a flush on the turn. This put me into the money. Then, a couple of rounds later, I limped with T9o and was forced, again, to call the all-in of the BB, who had... T9s! Nevertheless, even though he held the suited cards and I did not, I was the one to make my flush on the river.

Finally, the heads-up phase was determined by a hand where my opponent raised preflop, I flat called with AK and flopped a straight. I checked it and he pushed with 55(on a QJT flop...), and that's all she wrote...

PS: this marks another event that has not happened in a long time, probably not since early September: I won two SNGs in a row. Last time this happened, I was playing for $20 and $30, but let's not let that spoil the good feeling...