Round 3: The Deliberator

At the start of Round 3, I was already in danger with only 4K in chips. I needed to double up and fast. With my limited stack size relative to the blind levels, my choices were largely all-in or nothing. At the start of the round, I was reasonably fortunate that I had four or five hands before being the big blind. This meant I had a few chances to select my all in hand. As luck would have it, on my big blind everyone folded to me but I happened to have pocket jacks. Can’t tell if that was fortunate or not! Then, the very next hand when I was the small blind, I was dealt pocket kings. This time I was able to go all-in and had one caller. I ended up winning that pot and had a little more breathing room, but was still largely only making all-in decisions. The next 20 minutes involved me simply folding and holding on to my money. I had one more all-in hand that the aggressor folded to me, bringing my stack size around 14k. At this point, I was feeling a bit better about my position. I didn’t have a large stack, but I had enough to do some damage. However, even with 14K and the blinds at 600/1200 and moving up fast, I still wasn’t participating in hands that I wasn’t ready to go all-in. Finally, my last hand of the night was dealt. I was in middle position with pocket sixes. I thought for a while about folding, but since the table had been relatively passive, I decided to be more aggressive and bet 3K. The rest of the table folded except for the big blind. He raised me to 5K total. At this point, my three choices were fold, call, or shove. I decided to simply call, which is rare. I did this because I was in position and had put the aggressor on either a higher pocket pair or a big A. Calling rather than shoving allowed me to see the flop and, if there were no aces, shove or fold to a bet if there were. That call left me with almost 9k and the flop was dealt. It was 2, 3, 4 rainbow. Besides hitting a set, it was one of the better flops for me. The big blind bet 2k and I shoved for almost 9K. The big blind thought for a second and called showing pocket aces. This was not a surprising hand, but meant I still had about 6 outs. The next two cards were dealt but they didn’t help, and I was eliminated. All in all, I felt I played the hand correctly, but was still sad that I was eliminated.