A Chip, a chair, and a couple of prayers...

...answered, that best sums up my Friday night at Four Aces Charity Poker Room last weekend.

79 players in my normal $35 buy-in, 20K "deep-stack" event. Not much eventful, on my end, for the first hour and a half, yet chipped up to 35K at the break after busting a shorty in a set over set confrontation. There was one hand that was really interesting on many aspects, and I'll detail it best I can here.

UTG young punk open-raises to 1200 in middle of 50/100 level, and gets the 2 players to my immediate right to call. Almost call with Q-J here, but figure that even if I hit here, I'm probably in a lot of trouble...so I dutifully fold.

Flop of 7-4-2, all hearts, hits the board, and our action just picks up. UTG raiser bets out 2500, and Teri (solid player who I've played with at World Tavern before) min-raises to 5K. Player on left smooth-calls the raise, and while UTG player goes into the tank, I stand up and talk to the dude sitting on my left...who had already gotten up from his chair to watch the action.

"What do you think they have?" is asked of me, and I tell him, "Not sure who has what, but I'm guessing that (UTG) and the lady have a set and an overpair between the 2 of them...and other dude has a non-nut flush or the nut draw".

Once in a while, I get these things right - UTG shoves all in for 18K, Teri take a minute before calling, and other dude insta-calls for less. UTG has KK (with one heart), Teri has a set of 7s, and other guy has A-hearts for the nut draw. Board runs out black and low, and a set of 7s wins a monster pot early in the tourney. Difficult laydown there if UTG makes it - and from playing with him before, surprised he didn't make it. Tough to go very far when you get your money in with only one out, though.

Lose a couple of pots, get moved to another table, and a crippling hand hits me. Correctly read an early raiser for a K-Q/Ace-rag hand, and 3-bet all-in with 8-8. Small blind calls me, but am unfortunate to run into BBs 9-9. Board runs out 7-7-7-4-9, and I'm down to 4.5K, with blinds going up to 1.5K/3K the next hand...gulp!

A couple of hands later, I see A-9, and shove in from EP - 10-10 and K-J end up all-in and have me covered, but an Ace on the river saves my tournament, and more than triples me up. Take down a couple of pots afterwards, and get moved to another table, sitting at 34K.

Shove with 8-8, again, after 2 early position limp-ins at start of 2K/4K level, only to run into the SB's K-K. Board runs out, but the prayer is answered when I spike an 8 on the river to steal the pot, and run my stack up to 80K. A little justice is served later, on another hand that merits some debate.

Guy I sucked out on previously open shoves for his last 25K after shorty UTG shoves for her last 10K. Player on my right smooth-calls, and I look down to see A-K. Hmmmm...this is where reading the player sometimes is more important than what I'm holding. I know player on my right is a real loose player, and is likely to be holding something like A-10, A-rag, K-Q, or even a hand like 3-3 in this spot. I also know that he believes me to only raise with a monster in this situation - and will probably fold hands like A-Q, A-J, and pairs like 2-2 through 9-9 if I shove. Sensing a chance to play for an 85K pot here, I shove all-in, and after a minute or so in the tank, the other caller folds his hand. He tells me it was A-Q, but I'm thinking it was some kind of pair there, based on his reaction when the cards were turned over. Anyways, 2nd all-in player gets his revenge on me, when he flops a set of 4s to take the pot down, and eliminate a player. Soon after, down to 2 tables.

Merge to 2 tables, and steadily chip up until we finally merge to final table (5K/10K blinds) - sitting at about chip average of 150K. No great hands one way or another, but with the blinds rapidly moving up, at 30K/60K level I am forced to shove for last 200K from SB with K-Q - A-2 (big-stack) insta-calls me, and when neither of us improve, am eliminated in 5th place...for about $155. Not a bad few hours of work.

Then again, that was nothing compared to the next night....