Lodge Results for Sunday 01/08/06 - Week 9

Well 2006 has started out with a bang. I had my best finish so far at The Lodge with a 2nd place finish. Still that is 1st loser. I still want to get a 1st. I have my 250 points required for an entry to the tournament of champions so I can relax about that at least. No spectacular hands this week, just I rivered people on four hands and cracked AK twice and almost cracked AA until he showed them before I could call his all in. I had a J10s and would have rivered the straight. I came to the final table short stacked soon after taking a beating with AQs and the flop came Q85. I am one behind the button and the small blind goes all in and is called by the big blind. I have top pair with top kicker and the board is rainbow so I call with half my stack, T290 in chips. Small blind turns over QJ and big blind turns over 85!!! Nothing hits and she triples up.
That is the beauty of no limit hold 'em, you are never out until your chips are gone. I was as low as T300 when the blinds were 100-200 at the final table with 8 players and came back to finish 2nd. The only problem with that is luck plays a much bigger part because you have to wait for the cards or go all in blind when you are forced. I did leave unsatisfied with my heads up play, and I remember my final hand I had A8s with about 1/4 of the remaining chips and I push all in and my opponent has 55 and catches another 5 ending my tournament.
Overall a good tournament and I got $100 in gift certificates to go with the $20 I won last week. Not a bad rake for a free tournament and a $4.25 iced tea.