Royal Flush Poker

This hand at 32RedPoker.com was the final one in a string of hands which caused the collapse of my chiplead, and tournament.

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Letting such a dominant position slip away from you in a tournament is hurtful enough, but this was a particularly painful way to be eliminated. I found myself in the big blind with 15,000 of my previous 30,000 chips left, and looked down at (A,K). My opponent had 15,300 chips and had been the same player who I had clashed with in two pots shortly beforehand.

My opponent raised, making it 4,000 to go, and I decided I should move all in. This would give me the best chance of forcing him off a middle to low pair, but I might still get a call if he was holding a hand such as (A,Q) or (A,J) due to my loose image. He swiftly called, giving my the chance I needed to get my chips back to 30,000 and leave the nightmare of the previous few hands behind me. My opponent turned over (9,9) which was surprising, but I was delighted to see the first card on the flop was a King. This immediately made me feel relaxed as a meaningless looking (8) and (10) followed to make up the flop. The turn card was a (6) and you can imagine my horror as the (7h) hit on the river, completing his Straight.

I would probably play the hand the same way if I had the chance again, as I knew his range of calling hands included hands I had dominated as well as coin flips, and I wouldn’t think he would have raised as heavily as he did preflop if he had (A,A) or (K,K). I had played to my best standards all night, and this was the final and most painful hand, to unravel all that hard work. Poker can be ruthless though, and I at least had an exciting and memorable game.