I came 15th in 2nd Annual BC's Women's Poker Classic

Well I did it! I played a NL Live Poker tournament and

waded through a field of 300 women and came in 15th place for $1600 in winnings. My buy-in was a live satellite tourney for $80, so this was a very exciting big win for me.

It was a gruelling 9 hours of play with many times hanging in there by a thread.

I was often only 3-4 blinds (combined BB & SB) away from going out.

There was one particular hand that was the ultimate turning point for me and was really quite lucky and not skill...I don't even know how it could happen.

I'm UTG I have 7,000 chips left, blinds are 4000/2000. I look at my cards and have Q,10o. I decide to push all in and see if I can steel the blinds, even though I have a whole round of ladies who could possibly call me.

Well, I get unlucky (or should I say lucky) and get called by a slightly larger than medium stack in MP and a medium stack on the button.

They turn over their cards, MP has K,K, The button has A,Qs...I am totally dominated and figure that was a bad push on my part and now with 39 people left (30 are in the money) I will be out.

The flop comes
J, 3, 9 rainbow

Turn comes
5

River comes
K

Giving me, the underdog, a straight, a triple up with blinds too to 27,000 chips and the whole table staring at me with disbelief.

That was the turning point for me and helped me make it through another 24 women.

Vegas Cat

Congrats. Sounds like a very scary situation. Although the play wasn't the smartest you were starting to loose chips and needed to make a stand, this might not have been the best spot, just depended on your card history of late and if you thought that was going to be your best hand.

Sometimes it better to be lucky then good, this was one of those times. Nice job surviving and making the money

Wow...sounds like the blinds were either hopping up pretty quick or you just couldn't catch a break to bring you to a comfortable stack size...
How long were the blind levels?

Big congrats, and well done Vegas Cat!

Nice one, v-cat.

BTW, with an M of 1 you have no fold equity, so your steal was never going to work -- but I imagine you're far happier with how it actually turned out.

way to go . next one you will be ready to win the whole thing

Wow,, WTG veags cat,, congrats>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> buck

Good job...a very nice comeback

I love it! What a great win for you. And of course with the classic suckout river card. Good for you!!!

Hmm..I didn't have much fold equity, but I must have miscalculated when I wrote how much chips I had...I seem to remember my M was just less than 3, which still is pretty pathetic, but yes I was definitely happy with how it turned out.

Vegas Cat

Congrats

I have always said that to get in the big money in a MTT u always need to muff out at least once. Plus u must have played well to get there in the first place.

Well done

I got a few low pockets (I remember about 4 of them) in the early to middle stages of the tourney, and it always flopped an A or face card on the flop and typically someone with a bigger stack would bet at it and I simply had to fold.

Yes there were a few times where I feel I could have played something better, and so I am sure I could have had more chips built up. I think overall I played ok....much of the end 3 hours I had to work hard to maintain my position and it wasn't luck...had to pick the appropriate moments to push depending on my position and who was are wasn't in the pot already.

I will need to play a few more tournaments, this is my 3rd live large multi-table tournament in my poker experiences, I am definitely more comfortable with cash games and nonraising blinds. I've only played a few SnG online in the last 2 years....about half a dozen.

So I think there is definitely room for me to improve my play, and possibly do even better next year.

I was lucky in the 3 hours in that after patiently folding subpar hands with my low stack, a good pocket would come when I most needed it. I got dealt alot of A,K, J,J, A,Q A,10 whenever my chips got to around M 2.5. Course it would have been nice if this happened when my M was at 5 or 6...and kept building up...but the blinds would come around after 20-25 or so hand before I'd get another A+ or so.

Vegas Cat

Congrats, Cat.

That was played in Vancouver, wasn't it? Do you live in the area?

Congrats, enjoy your winnings.

I live in the tri-city area and my favourite place to visit often is Vegas.

Vegas Cat

good job sounds like u played well.

I know a couple of people that played in the Breast Cancer fundraiser tourney last year. Do you play that one?

I'm in south Van myself

nice job!!! next time take first

I think I came 77th or 76th...basically the very bottom of the top 30% of a field of 252 women.

It was my very first live tournament (or multi-table tournament) ever and also I had only recently, at the time, started playing at live cash tables a month before that.

I was nervous, intimidated, easily bullied, very TIGHT, didn't know how to protect my hand, etc. I let myself get blinded away and went all in with pocket 6s with the BB (also short stacked) calling me with pocket 5s. She got a set on the river and I was out.

I have moved along way from that newbie poker play .

When I sat down at the tournament yesterday, I felt very comfortable, ready to be aggressive, ready to protect my hands, ready to reraise if necessary, ready to read the other players...things I did not know how to do before.

When we got moved to other tables and there was a big stack at the table, I felt no intimidation at all....I knew there were many ways they could have got that stack and not necessarily because they played any better than me...they could have got it with some with aggression, some with luck, some of it with skill, many different factors.

I would just watch and see how they played to make an educated guess as to what type of player they were...the big stack just meant I had to be a bit more careful in betting if I was ever against them.

In any case, being a beginner last year and playing hundreds of more hours since then...., I was very happy last year at coming in 77th..I just wanted to come in the "two digits" that was my goal that year and I achieved that.

This year my goal was to prove that I could come ITM and the final table after making it to the top 10 in the satellite.

Next year I definitely would like to make it to the final table, I feel I am very capable of it...and with another year of playing experiences...and maybe trying more multi-table tourneys online...I will have "trained" that much more and become better at minimizing my mistakes and maximizing my poker skills.

How did your friends do in the tourney?

Vegas Cat

I think one came in middle of the pack somewhere, but the daughter of one of my coworkers apparently came in 5th.

Let me know if you're going to play another local tourney; I'll try to come out and cheer you on!

Congratulations! Well im surprised the table stared at you with disbelief when you were short stack and was BB next hand. Most players would of pushed in that position. Good thing luck was on your side (never is with me lol)

There is a 250 MTT at the River Rock on March 17...$330 buy-in...but I think I will take a break and practice with cheaper buy-ins first. There were some things in the 300 MTT that I felt I could have played much better, so I'd like to practice online MTTs a bit.

Do you play local tourneys, live casino cash, or just home tourneys, or both?

Cheers,
Vegas Cat

I have played local tourneys and won, I have played online and won, I am looking forward to when I can go to Tunica or some other casino and get in small buyins to get some experience there.

I haven't ventured to the casinos yet. I've been to River Rock but find the thought of playing there intimidating yet (which is probably a good thing!).

So for me it's almost exclusively online.

But it's cool to find someone else on this forum that's local!

Well done and congratulations! Hope it's the first of many cashes.