My Best Finish In A Bounty So Far...

Oops forgot to do a screencap(was too darned giddy!)...

But I placed around 79th(very near the bubble, but have to play right?) in the tournament and managed to get 3 bounties.

Had promised myself I wouldn't enter anymore, because of my odds being better in ring games + the one I played b4 last night's was a travesty of justice(bad beat and all, *sniff-sniff*).

Anyway, I took the advice here and it worked this time, and I'll try it again after I make another buy-in(separate from challenge $).

I made 5x the BB bets pre-flop. And only when holding really good hands. I semi-goofed, by raising with 99 but managed to win that hand + bust someone out who was holding on to an A for dear life, so it doesn't really count as a goof, I just want to remind myself about it for later.

Anyway, only raising with really good hands worked quite well. My major mistake was raising and calling 2 all-ins(pre-flop), with Qh/9h, which I actually consider to be a decent hand. Was going for a Q high straight, Q high flush, and hoping that while hearts landed on the board, two of them would be A and K. It didn't work out that way but I did get a bit of a giggle from the guy who won...

Well, he had JJ. A perfectly great starting hand. No hatred from me so far. As I recall, they were spade/diamond. I know the diamond's right because he won with a diamond flush...

But here's the funny: I figured one of my opponents had a pair(just couldn't know how big) and one had an A + something else. The pre-flop all-inage was telling me pair + A/something or maybe a couple of pairs and if I was lucky they would be canceling each other out. I did consider folding, but with it being a bounty tournament, I dunno, got greedy.

Through the flop and the turn I was ahead. Two pair(both my laughable cards hit). He needed a 3rd J or a diamond to win his hand, because of the diamonds on the board of course. In my mind for some reason, it's better to be hoping for 3 cards from your suit to fall than one card from your suit or a 3rd and 4th from your hand.

But, uh, yeah. He laughed at my hand. Which would normally be fine, because I knew going in it wasn't the greatest, but again, was hoping he and the other guy were canceling each other out. Also, and I own it, got greedy(I'd have been sitting so pretty had I won, but that's a different story, and a fairy tale at that)...

But here's the thing; I figure, we're all pretty blind going in. We can guess, but going in blind right? So he couldn't know who did or didn't fold a raggedy J and I couldn't know who did or didn't fold bad hearts. And that's the thing of it. Also, realistically, had he not gone all-in pre-flop, he'd have been either powerless and forced to fold the JJ with the higher card on the board, or he would have been calling and sucking out majorly. Either way, JJ not exactly AA right?

It made me giggle anyway. Was down to a bit over 2k and brought it back up to over 8k in chips. When I finally lost, had K/Q os and my Q paired on the flop, I started betting and my opponent raised and I had to call(situation was that we were getting towards payout + the blinds and antes were growing, as they do). I had top pair with a K kicker. And it didn't hurt or anything when the other person won with top pair and an A kicker. So I said "gg", got some "gg"'s in return and left.

But now I'm left to wonder: Someone who shoves all their chips in with JJ pre-flop and they don't have to. Well, just out of curiosity, do they have a hissy-fit when the A pairs up and busts them? Or when another hand gets their flush or str8?

At that point they had more than 5k in chips and that was about average. I'm only wondering, was I the only one who got greedy? The only one hoping hard that the other two were canceling each other out? Was I?

It won't let me edit and I left out some 411(even with all those words, sorry)...

One went all-in(not for much), while the other went ahead and raised(as I recall and maybe I'll find them around, and they saved the history for a victory story, and get my facts straight). Again, bounties and greed(on my part, cuz yeah, I own it). You know what I was guessing about their hands at the time, and also I figured JJ was going after the bounty and 3 way I stood a chance and yeah I'm an idiot.

Anyway, I'm gonna blame Roy Rounder :P. Ages ago, when I knew how to play 5 card draw and was learning 7 card stud, had no idea about hold 'em starting hands, but wanted to play(way more players at those tables = more fun for me). There was a guy at the table who said he was a pro and playing with play chips for fun(I of course took the pro comment with a grain of salt). Then, because that particular table was a fun one(couldn't find any nice folks at my limit that day for some reason), he gave me a bunch of chips so I could keep playing and asked for my e-mail address, so he could send me some hand charts...

I get an e-mail from Roy Rounder(but I figure the guy at the table just put my e-mail addie in the box on Roy's site), and it's got a chart and well, even though I've since started to get a handle on playing positionally, I still occasionally fall back on his chart. Q/9 suited's a good hand on that chart. It's a bad habit, I'm trying to break it.

I have managed to make myself fold little pairs in middle to early position for ages now. Also, there are a whole bunch of hands with A in them that I fold, and I hardly ever play face cards unless they're paired, high, or high/suited, I don't play them(unless I'm BB and get to check).

Oh yeah, and I wanted to thank you guys for the 5x betting thing. It seems to be the magic number to clear the path somewhat. But I did settle down to standard bets and raises after awhile, when it looked like people could respect them.

Amending from b4, he needed a 3rd J or a Q and a 10, yeah that's right, or a diamond. There, now it makes sense.

by bounty u mean knockout tourney ??

i played one last nite too and played very loose and donkey like and ended up knocking out 5 people so i got my buy-in back but at the end my donkey moves cost me and did not make it to the money...

but yeah, the strategy i think is to NOT try to bluff too much as well as too overbet the monsters. it worked.