FINALLY (2)

I finally managed to win a $20 SNG, on the 19th attempt! (Counting the game that was interrupted due to network problems). Finally, after no less than 7 second places, no third places and out-of-the-money finishes in my last three attempts, I actually ended first.

It was not easy, I lost two all-ins when it was heads-up, but both times my opponent had far less chips than I did.

The start of this game was actually extremely embarrassing. I played it like an idiot. I got 99 on the very first hand, raised to 100 and got reraised to 300! I called, and went all-in (for reasons unknown) on a flop consisting only of low cards. My opponent did not hesitate to call with his pocket aces, but the river was a 9...

After that it was relatively plain sailing. I survived a scare midgame though. At the level 50/100, one player raised to 400, got called, and a third player went all-in. I was behind him with KK! Though I was worried about AA of course, I had to call. To hopefully push the first two players out, I went all-in over the top (it was not much extra chips anyway). The original raiser thought for a while with his 99 but folded them, and the first caller folded as well. The all-in guy showed 77... The scare continued when a four-straight appeared on the table, but thankfully it did not fill up and this more than doubled me back up.

On the bubble I stayed mostly constant, made a small profit by bullying the other stacks, until two opponents went all-in and the short stack was eliminated. This left two big stacks (me and one other player), and a shorter stack, who however managed to get very close to me as the game went on. Eventually I eliminated him though, when I called his all-in with AQ. He held K9 and nearly made a straight, but fortunately again it did not quite work out.

The heads-up phase lasted 22 games, I had the upper hand throughout, despite my two all-in losses. One of those losses actually put him ahead of me, but I soon reached parity and then went ahead again when I went all-in on middle pair and he did not call. Afterwards as I said he won another all-in, but this only took him up to 5000 from 2500, and I still had 10,000. Eventually he went all-in when I held 88, I called and he showed 33. My eights held up and finally, finally, after 19 attempts, my first $20 victory was a fact. First place scores $100 at this level :-) My total net profit is now $1454.