Turbo Charging Into The Cash...Or Just Creeping ? You Decide.

Firstly, a quick apology for those screenshots in my last piece. I promise only to use them again if they are interesting !

Having little under an hour to kill this morning, I opted to play a quick game on ‘Stars to see whether my good fortune could continue, and add to my winning start. I had a couple of options; low level cash, a short handed STT, a heads up clash or a turbo STT. I opted for the latter. Also, with time being an issue, as I was expecting visitors, I chose to play one of the lowest stakes, the $3.00 + 0.40 NLH game, which, unlike most other hold em games on PokerStars, features ten players at a table.

The turbos start at the usual 10/20 blind limit with a stack of 1500 chips, but the blind levels are of course significantly shorter, as is the time bank. This, coupled with the low stakes makes for almost instantaneous action, and this game certainly delivered that in abundance. Although personally, I didn’t play a single hand in the first level, we lost a player in the fourth hand, with his 10 high flush draw called by a set of 4s on the flop.

My first playable hand came in level two, with the blinds at 15/30, where I picked up a very welcome pocket pair of bullets. I watched in glee in late position as no less than three of my opponents limped in. I made it 210 (7* BB) to play, and was a little concerned to see two callers, but none the less was happy to see a rag flop of 7c 5d 2c. It was slightly worrying to see “swayne11” push his entire stack in, but chances are often few and far between in Turbos, and although I knew he could well have had some powerful hands, such as a set, flush draw, straight draw etc, I felt on this occasion to show some bottle and made the call, thinking at best he had either an overpair or a draw, certainly not a set if he wanted any kind of value. Either way, I was delighted to see his pair of sixes, which suffice to say, the board gave him no favours, and I doubled up.

Although a couple of short stacks were on the verge of dropping out of the running, some loose play from the chip leader “baslagendijk” doubled both of them up, and the game was still very much an open thing. In the fifth level, I was happy to see 99 on the big blind, but less so when the button pushed all in and the small blind pushed over the top. To make the call would have cost me two thirds of my stack, and I made what I considered to be a fairly routine fold. However, I felt sick to the stomach to see their hands of 44 and 88, especially when both an 8 and a 9 fell on the flop.

By the time the sixth level had come around, half of the starters had fallen and the blinds were up to 100/200. The short stacks by now were at the stage that it was all in or fold, and I encountered a particularly barren spell of hands, certainly nothing to call these players with, and my stack took a hammering as four out of five of my big blinds were stolen from me.

Down to four players, I see 55 on the button, and push my remaining 2200 into the pot, and am called by “Amitville” with A10, who is similarly stacked, and thankfully I win the race, and am into the cash. With the blinds at 300/600 with an ante of 50, it is again a bit of an all in fishfest, with any meaningful raise being almost half of a stack. After passing chips around a bit, I make a play from the button with QJo, and my all in is called by AKo, and although I was happy enough to see live cards, neither hand connected with the board and I was out of the tournament.

On a positive note, I have cashed in two from two, and this tournament was less hard work than the previous one I played. The bankroll grows by a massive $2.60 (profit, the prize for third place was $6.00), and although this equates to little more than a half pint of beer, the account has increased to a total of $27. From small acorns… !

Thanks for reading,
Mountain Man.