Off and Running…well almost

The $1000 freeroll over at Bodog had been going well from the first round, after 15 minutes I was the chip leader having won a series on big pots, and I found myself moved to a table of fairly loose, timid players and went to work on their stacks. I was still in the top 5 overall at the 3 hour break with only 160 players remaining (99 get paid) when I was dealt 9s 9c in late position. I raised to 3 times the big blind and had two callers, the flop came down 7s 8c 9d. Fantastic! I had flopped top set, and had one hand on the chips already, but I was wary of the straight draw, if a 5, 6, 10 or J fell on the turn I would be in trouble, so I stuck my chips all-in expecting my opponents to fold their cards. The player on the Big blind called, he had a sizable stack – about 80% of mine and I couldn’t help smile at the thought of him turning over 88 or 77. He flipped over J 10. My heart sank into my shoes. He had flopped the nut straight, I had never even considered the possibility. I held my breath as the turn and river were dealt but the board didn’t pair up. Damn! I had lost most of my stack and had gone from a chip leader to a short stack in the space of one hand and I was now staring down the barrell of another non paying finish, but I dug in and managed to steal a couple of blinds with some well timed raises and staggered over the bubble, eventually being eliminated in 97th place at 6:20am. I had won $2 and was finally off the mark. That $2 had taken almost 4 hours of play to win and had been preceded by almost 30 other freerolls but I was delighted all the same.

The next day I put my winnings into a 5c/10c No limit Hold’em ring game on Bodog, hoping to maybe pick up $1 extra to enable me to enter one of the Single Table Sit and Go’s. Within 20 minutes that $2 was gone, bled away by a series of missed flops and poor betting decisions. Back to the freerolls I go, but at least now I know it can be done.

BANKROLL – $0.00