SNG.....again

It's been a long time since I've played sit-n-go tourneys at Party Poker. I just got out of the habit, and when I went back and tried to play a couple, felt uncomfortable. The blind structure goes up so fast compared to MTTs, and the pressure to play is much higher than ring games. Hands I wouldn't dream of playing in a ring game or even an MTT are must plays in a SNG.

I played one last night, and got bounced out in 9th place when I overplayed a questionable hand. So I played one more, thinking "If I lose this one I am going to stay away from SNGs for while longer." Ring games are easy money, so why commit 40 minutes to an hour playing a game that you don't particularly enjoy?

In game 2 the story was different. I managed to pick up quite a few pots, but dropped back down to 800 (the starting point at Party, which sucks balls compared to everywhere else) when someone caught a King on the river to beat my Ace high. What the hell was he calling with king high for? I guess some people think a blind can NEVER have a good hand.

Anyway, I was struggling with 5 left and hefty blinds when this hand happened.

***** Hand History for Game 900434688 *****300/600 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (PL) (Tournament 5569677) - Tue Aug 31 21:00:15 EDT 2004
Table Table 11114 (Real Money) --
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: DuggleBogey (970)
Seat 3: joejamesjr (365)
Seat 5: Bond_JmsBond (1430)
Seat 8: NBiggershaft (4380)
Seat 10: beancounterj (855)
beancounterj posts small blind (150)
DuggleBogey posts big blind (300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DuggleBogey [ 9s, 3d ]
joejamesjr raises (365) to 365joejamesjr is all-In.
Bond_JmsBond folds.
NBiggershaft folds.
beancounterj calls (215)
DuggleBogey calls (65)
Creating Main Pot with $1095 with joejamesjr
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Jd, 8h, Td ]
beancounterj bets (490)
beancounterj is all-In.DuggleBogey calls (490)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Tc ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Qh ]
Creating Side Pot 1 with $980 with beancounterj
** Summary **
Main Pot: 1095 Side Pot 1: 980 Board: [ Jd 8h Td Tc Qh ]
DuggleBogey balance 2190, bet 855, collected 2075, net +1220 [ 9s 3d ] [ a straight, eight to queen -- Qh,Jd,Td,9s,8h ]
joejamesjr balance 0, lost 365 [ Js Ah ] [ two pairs, jacks and tens -- Ah,Js,Jd,Td,Tc ]
Bond_JmsBond balance 1430, didn't bet (folded)
NBiggershaft balance 4380, didn't bet (folded)
beancounterj balance 0, lost 855 [ Ac As ] [ two pairs, aces and tens -- Ac,As,Qh,Td,Tc ]

I was almost FORCED to win this hand. I was the big blind of 300 when someone went all in for 365. Even though I had 930 you still have to call that. Then beancounter went all in with his AA. If he had raised all in pre-flop with AA, I would have folded. But I can't blame him for slow playing it, because he was basically already heads up with me. But by the time he raised all in for another 490, I just had to call 490 to get into a 2075 pot. With an open ended straight draw that's an easy call. More than 4 to 1 pot odds with 8 outs. Roughly that's 33% to hit my straight. Especially if you consider that winning the hand put me in the money.

From there it was easy. TOO easy. NBiggershaft foled to EVERY raise down the stretch. He put himself in such a huge hole that he won two all-ins and still had no prayer. I took the chip lead on the very next hand and never gave it back. NBiggershaft got his money by luckily hitting trips three hands in a row, taking a player out with each one. Once he had the huge stack he had NO IDEA what to do with it. Admittedly I'm not the best big stack player, but this guy was horrible.

The only hand he won was when I put him all in for his 1230 with my A2o against his K3o. His flopped 3 beat my flopped 2 and he doubled up. But on the very next hand:

***** Hand History for Game 900449870 *****
DuggleBogey: vn
400/800 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (PL) (Tournament 5569677) - Tue Aug 31 21:04:31 EDT 2004Table Table 11114 (Real Money) --
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 1: DuggleBogey (5540)
Seat 8: NBiggershaft (2460)
NBiggershaft posts small blind (200)
DuggleBogey posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DuggleBogey [ Ts, Th ]
NBiggershaft raises (600) to 800
DuggleBogey raises (2000) to 2400
NBiggershaft raises (1660) to 2460
NBiggershaft is all-In.
DuggleBogey calls (60)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Qd, 7s, 3h ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5d ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 9h ]
Creating Main Pot with $4920 with NBiggershaft
** Summary **
Main Pot: 4920 Board: [ Qd 7s 3h 5d 9h ]
DuggleBogey balance 8000, bet 2460, collected 4920, net +2460 [ Ts Th ] [ a pair of tens -- Qd,Ts,Th,9h,7s ]
NBiggershaft balance 0, lost 2460 [ Ac 8d ] [ high card ace -- Ac,Qd,9h,8d,7s ]

I think he finally caught on to the fact that I was being aggressive, when he folded 6 hands in a row after paying to see a flop. By then it was too late. He had too few chips and my cards were too good.