Bizarre, funny, almost tragic little Poker Story

Okay, tragic is kind of stretching it unless you're just starting online poker like me (and a starving college student!) and you think losing $24 is tragic.

I just played a Rio Sit N' Go Tournament at Titan Poker. $20+3 entry, 6 players. First wins $60, second wins $36, third gets $24, zilch for the rest.

So it gets down to four players. Numero uno took out the other two, and he's got a dominant lead with around $3300+ in chips. The second guy has something like $1600. I'd just been wounded in a hand that took one player out, and I'm at roughly $600, and then the fourth guy has just $450ish and is actually sitting out and had been for most of the game. Who the hell pays $23 for a tournament and then sits out, I don't know.

The blinds hike up to 100/200 right after my blinds, which means I'm likely about to be screwed, but so is my sitter-outter friend. Since I have no realistic chance of getting 1st, very little chance at 2nd, and the difference between $24 and $0 (3rd and 4th place) is bigger than the difference between $36 and $24 (2nd and 3rd) I decide I'm playing for 3rd. Turned out to be a great plan, because all my hands were garbage anyway.

Well I'm competing against a guy I'm ahead of who's sitting out... it shouldn't be so hard, right? I fold. I fold and I fold. I fold aggressively. I click that fold button really hard. Once the blind has gone around once, the big blind hits sitter-outer again. After this hand he'll be the next small blind away from being all-in, which is good timing because once the blinds come around to me, I'd be all-in as well.

But wait! 1sty inexplicably folds and the 2nd place guy just calls the sitter-outer's blind. Mr. 2nd place sees the flop and checks. He sees the turn and checks. TO THE GUY WHO IS SITTING OUT AND WILL AUTO-FOLD TO ANY BET. The river comes. HE CHECKS AGAIN. My mouth hangs open in horror as THE GUY WHO IS SITTING OUT WINS THE FREAKIN' HAND. Terrific. Now I'm behind and the blinds hit me, and I'm now forced to win a hand to make $24. I have a 2 5 in my hand and 9 4 3 flops. Oh, NOW Mr. 2nd place decides to freaking bet! I have no choice but to call. The turn is a 6. Hall-a-freakin-lu-jah. River is nothing and I survive with a straight. The blinds hit the sitter-outer again and he loses his all-in. I place third.

In summary, I almost lost $24 because a guy let someone not even playing take a pot. Freakin' A, man!

Mate, this is Cardschat not The Samaritans - you've only been posting 3 days but this is your 2nd tale of woe, and i though you'd done your dough on the last one?

It's not a tale of woe, it's a tale of survival. I was happy to get 3rd, it was the goal. It was explaining how I almost didn't make it because of something bizarre.

Yeah, I switched to Titan Poker partly because of the deposit bonus and deposited the last money I can possibly muster for now. If I blow this cash, I'm done, at least for a while.

I have seen this in tournaments. It was probably just the guy not realizing the player was sitting out. There is a chance that if you'd made the guy mad before, he was intentionally trying to screw you out of the money.

However bro, a few things.

a) You should not be playing online poker with $ you cannot afford to lose.. plain and simple.

b) You really should read up a lot on BR management. my strategy (which i didn't develop, but is widely regarded as solid BR management) is to only take 5% of your BR to any table at a time. If you double-up, move to a different table. (though you can quit up or down any amount at any time).

c) You should not play online poker as "a quick way to make some money". Go push around some home games that you know you can win for that.

d) I don't know how good of a player you are... but your recent losses tell me that either you aren't as good as you think, or you're just really unlucky while playing for too much money. I would ask that you really consider this. If you recognize yourself as not being a "great" poker player, you can improve your game.

Go to the Hand Analysis forum and check a lot of the situations in the threads there. Look at some of the hands that don't show the outcome of the hand... and see if you can guess the result right. ChuckTs posts threads like this sometimes.

If you know you need some work.. go to the library and check out some books.. read articles online, and read lots of threads in the Poker Strategy and Hand Analysis forums here.

I wish you luck man.. but really my suggestion would be to cash out all the money you have on poker sites.. read up, improve your game.. and come back when you have more cash to spare. I've built my BR from $25 to almost $70 in a couple weeks.