Things were less pleasant as the action continued. The best hand I saw in the next few orbits was a pair of snowmen out of position in a hand that the Eurodonk managed to double up on. At the same time, the Ice Queen was showing why I’d feared her as she snapped up a couple massive pots. She managed to bust one of the more annoying players at the table (a guy that tanked on calls so often you’d think he was timing out) and seriously crippled another
The next time I played a hand, I was in the Big Blind again. Action folded around to the loudmouth (unsurprisingly with a Jersey location) and he 3x-bet, the ice queen folded and the Eurodonk pushed all in for not quite a 3x bet as well. My cards were not amazing (10d-8d) but the loudmouth had been caught once before trying to bluff with nothing after things had been folded around to him. I called with a smile. (read on after the break)
The flop came out 10s-2d-8c for a quick two pair. I certainly didn’t think he had a pocket pair and was pretty sure I was best. At the same time, I didn’t think he’d fold as he probably wanted to finish off the donk. I made a healthy bet and sent the action to him. His reply was… confusing. He pushed in about 4 times my bet… it so completely smelled of a bluff to try to push me out that I would have called even without top two pair. I pushed all in…
He tanked forever, using up most of his time bank before folding. In my opinion he was committed and should have pushed even if it was a bluff, but no matter.
The donk had a K-5 and got no help from the turn or the river and was out. The moment my cards were revealed he started railing in chat about what a bad player I was to call his initial bet with a 10-8 suited and what a luckbox I was etc… I simply replied A: I was BB and had money in already and B: you’ve bluffed several times in that situation. Don’t blame me if you’re predictable and I pay better attention to the table than you do. He managed to get in a retort of “fuck you queer” (apparently winning and having a smurf avatar makes me gay?) before the Ice Queen chimed in with…”and C: Your play has been looser than my sister” Predictably that set him off on a swear fest while the rest of the table erupted in laughter. He was hard tilted now and only lasted another half orbit, finally pushing all in and losing to the Ice Queen in a hand that erupted in a further burst of profanity and probably a bunch of reports.
Players still seemed to be dropping on other tables at a much faster rate than ours. It took another two orbits before we lost our next player, the scandi taking out Luigi (so called because he was wearing green in his pic and was sitting next to Mario) before we were broken up a few hands later. At our new table the Ice Queen was thankfully absent, but I still had the Scandi in position on me. The only other player at the table that I’d noted before simply said “solid” which was incredibly vague (thanks a lot past me.) I tightened up for a few orbits as the fast pace continued, taking a small hit when I folded big slick facing an all in on a very hostile board.
A few hands later I found KsKc on the button. There was a lot of action on the hand and we finally saw the flop 5 handed. Ad-Kh-8s, first and second to act both came out swinging with a big bet and a reraise doubling it. The scandi folded before the guy on my right called after sweating for a bit. I have to admit I was a little worried, but I could also very easily see these guys just each having Ax-8x and they both had stacks much smaller than mine. 9h came out on the turn. They were a bit slower this time, but it followed the same bet-raise-call pattern before I called as well. Thankfully there was no chance of a flush suck out when a 2d came on the river.
This time first to act checked, the guy on his left pushed all in with what he had left and got two calls. Incredibly the first to act folded after all of this, having pushed in a ton of money on a flush/straight draw I guess? When the second guy flipped his cards it turned out he had pocket 8s, the guy on my right mucked and I took my chips with the trip kings. Success!
Unfortunately for the rest of us, the next guy moved to the table was the chip leader he had about triple my stack and significantly more than the rest of the table. It didn’t take him long to start throwing it around either as he started forcing the smaller stacks to go all in if they wanted to play. Thankfully he was a little more leery of me, but I still took a couple of small hits before the interlude…
When we came back after a break the play slowed down a bit as we neared the bubble. The scandi managed to knock someone else out with a set of over set hand, but other than that we seemed to all be just trying to squeak onto the last two tables and make the money. Then, shockingly enough, it actually happened as we were redrawn for the showdown.
I got into it on the first hand post bubble with KdQd vs two others on a board of Qh10h9c. One of the guys pushed all in and we called. The turn was the Ad, I was a pussy and checked, as did the other guy. The river was another Ace and we double checked again, we all flipped at once and I was happy to see that I’d beaten the other guy who had a J-10. Unfortunately a pair of jacks doesn’t beat quads and the all in guy flipped over pocket Aces.
To be concluded…