All in, All in, All in, it must be a freeroll!

I decided to play in a freeroll this evening. Pokerstars had one (with about 8000 players) and I decided to give that a go. On the first table I was at, one player went all in six times in a row. When someone finally called them (I could not call a cab with the cheese I was getting) they had 8s 6h and they went out soon after. My stack went up and down, and I was comfortable when a player on my new table decided to do the all in routine. On his/her fourth consecutive all in I had Ad Jd and decided to give it a go. They turned over pocket queens and my tourney was over. I know I should have waited (the very fact that I am writing this and not playing in the tourney is proof of that) and if I had had to pay to enter then maybe I would have been more disciplined but as it was I suffered from the most unforgiving error you can make in poker, bad timing. It is vital. What would have been a superb steal worthy of a world champion becomes a rather embarrassing exit from a tourney because your opponent had the one hand that they could call you with and there is no worse felling than, when asked how you went out of a tourney, you have to reply “Going all in with Q 6 off suit”.

So here is my challenge to you all, tell me your most embarrassing moment (It does not have to have been at a poker table (come on people, try to be a bit creative here!)) and I will award a virtual prize to the best of them!

Multi Table Mayhem!

Having had a hectic few weeks when I have not had time to play poker, I decided to use my day off in a productive manner and have been playing as much poker as I could. I have played a couple of SNG’s and had made the money in them both. Having come third in an eighteen seat tourney I was feeling confident and when a freeroll appeared I thought “What the hell I may as well give it a crack!” and registered. I had noticed that it was Limit Stud Hi/Lo but I was thinking that as it was a freeroll I literally had nothing to lose. This I now admit was a mistake. I would advise any normal person to avoid playing multiple tables of different disciplines as it is very difficult to get your head around what to do when a window appears and you only have a few seconds not only to decide whether to call a raise in early position but also to remember if As 2d Kc is worth playing in this format of poker (it usually is unless the raise is massive).

After half an hour of this I was down to about half two thirds of my stack (not good in a thousand plus player tourney) in the Stud game but I was also down to about half my stack in a SNG at NL Hold’em and this one I had paid to enter! I made a simple decision and dumped all my chips in the freeroll off to the player who had been most friendly when I joined the table (I know this is not really fair on the other players but as I was leaving the tourney my chips had to go somewhere). Back to playing one discipline I picked up my game and finished third in the NL Hold’em tourney (this is beginning to become my standard position in eighteen seat tourneys) I may not be quite back to winning ways yet but at least I am making money!