My First Online Final Table

Up to this point I had played quite a few multiple table no limit hold’em tournaments. I hadn’t made a final table yet, but had been down to the final two or three tables multiple times. I had always ended up with a short stack in the later stages of the tournament and never was in a position to vie for one of the top spots. I had to pick a decent hand and go all in and try and double up to build a decent stack, but always picked the wrong time when someone had me in a bad position. Well my luck finally changed in a tournament I played in.

I entered a low buy-in tournament  with 582 other people. It was quite of few people for a tournament, but I really liked the first table I was at. In this particular tournament everyone started with 1000 chips with blinds starting at $10/$20. I found myself at a table where I felt very comfortable at because everyone seemed weak in their poker skills. Lots of people were limping in and not raising. Betting was very weak, meaning people were betting the minimum bet after the flop etc… which told me that many at this table were inexperienced. I played my typical tight-aggressive game, and raised the standard 3-4xBB when I found a good preflop hand. This allowed me to isolate against 1 or 2 weak players where I was able to double my stack pretty quickly. It was tough starting with 1000 chips, because if someone hit the flop and I didn’t it would be hard to bluff them off and it would hurt my stack. Thankfully this didn’t happen and I played well for the first hour. I slowly moved my way up to the top 30-40 spots after the first hour and really liked my position.

Since I am writing this well after the fact, I don’t recall all of the details, but I was playing well and luck seemed to be on my side. This was a change from my previous attempts at cracking the final table. If you haven’t played in a low limit buy in online tournament, you won’t be able to believe all of the people that through in their chips with weak hands. This allows a certain few people to build up these huge chip stacks very fast. I swear after 20 minutes, someone will have 6-7 times their initial chips. Like I said before, I don’t remember all of the details during the middle of the tournament, but I had some good cards and was able to get my chip stack up to the average. Once the blinds increased to a size that meant I would have to put a lot of chips relative to my stack to play a hand, my chipstack diminished down over a little while. I found myself down to around 4K in chips with blinds at 400/800. This is not a good situation, and I was way shortstacked. I got a hand of K9 of clubs and decided to go all in since 2 more were in line to bet. Well the big blind called me JJ. This wasn’t looking good. But luck was with me this tournament, and I hit a 9 on the flop and a King came on the turn giving me two pair and beating the big blinds JJ. At that point I thought, maybe this is the time luck is with me to make the final table. If you haven’t played in a tournament, you will find out that luck does play a role towards the end of the tournament because lots of heads up all in’s are occuring with race conditions. A race condition is basically a 50%-50% odds, which occurs with one player have two high cards, and someone with a smaller pocket pair. The odds are pretty close to 50%, meaning you need some luck hitting these to survive.

Well after that all in, I was able to build up my chips to around 16K and was in a decent position with 3 tables left. With the big blind being high, the pots were big, so if you got good cards, it was easy to build up your stack. With two tables left, I was moved to the other table. I find myself with the chip leader who had 174K chips. I couldn’t believe it, but with his chip stack so high, he was playing a little loose and I was able to keep my stack up. I was surviving, and it seemed like everyone else started to fall out. I kept thinking I was going to go next, but I learned a good lesson from my wife who plays online also. Just keep patient and play good hands, and don’t try to make something work that is a long shot. I ended up practicing what she said (she has won a lot more money in tournaments online than I have) and even though some of the blinds really chopped my stack, I picked my hands and was doing alright. Well, after a little while I made it to the final table. The final 10 people all vying for the top prize. I tried to loosen up my game some since the blinds would hurt your stack if you don’t stay afloat. I actually got some really good hands at the final table and found myself in the final 4. I was really happy and the final four of us played for a long time. The chip stacks started to even out, and we were all around the 100K chip count. A few all ins happened, but no one would get kicked out.

Well I can’t remember the previous hand before my last, but I lost half my chipstack and was in a bad position. I was in the big blind and the first guy to bet raised the pot up to 28K (big blind was 10K). I was at about 68K in chips and had QJ offsuit. I decided to go all in because I had the feeling the raiser didn’t have a strong hand. Well I was right, he had J6. I had a pretty dominating hand. The flop came and it was a J and two rags. I was looking pretty good. Then my luck decided to turn against me and a 6 fell on the turn and I was out. I played pretty well and my instincts and reads were very good. I just got outdrawn in the last hand. I was happy with my performance, but I could have been in a good position to win the tournament if I would have won that hand