What is a Fenderkid?

Today started just like any other with me dumping $75 on three small tourneys. After losing 2 on bad beats and a third to someone who called my all in on a flush draw I was needless to say somewhat aggravated. There was a $10,000 guarantee getting ready to start that I had decided not to play in. I was gonna watch some t.v. with the wife instead. Well, as it turns out she wasnt feeling good and decided to call it a night early.

I jumped in the 10K and regretted it within 10 minutes. I really didnt feel like sitting here for 4 hours to try and win this thing. Luckily, I picked up cowboys a few hands later. I was on the button and raised 5 x the blind. The player UTG called. I was sure she had aces at that point. The flop came three rags and I bet out the pot. UTG check/called me. The turn came and againt UTG checked. I bet the pot. She moved all in. Here I am thinking she has aces but dont feel like mounting a comeback if I fold so I call. Turns out she had played 5 6 to the raise and was actually holding mid pair. Good for me. I doubled up and decided maybe I wanted to play after all.

Well, 3 and 1/2 hours later I found myself at the final table second in chips. The chip leader had 285,000 of the 550,000 in play and I had 86,000. Everyone else fell between 10,000 and 45,000. The chip leader had no idea how to play his stack and raised like 15 blinds in a row. After this people were moving over the top of him at will and he was calling them down with hands such as J 9 off. Soon, he was short stacked and most everyone was even stacked with 7 players to go. I knew all I had to do was watch these players throw chips around and I would be in the top 3. Soon that was the case. I played hands as I got them and soon the former chip leader was out in third.

I was short stacked by about 400,000 to 150,000 but felt good I could take this thing home. I ran over the leader for a solid 10 hands or so until I had taken his chip lead and had him 300,000 to 250,000. Then, as I always do I made a mistake. With the blinds at 6000/12000, I raised from the small blind 36,000 with J 2 suited. He called. We saw a flop of 5 J 8 rainbow. With about 80,000 in the pot, he bet 75,000. After a few moments, I decided he was betting mid pair. I pushed all in. He thought and thought until his hand was about to auto fold and finally called. His hand; J 9. The turn didn't offer any salvation and I found myself short stacked 500,000 to 50,000. The blinds also jumped to 8000/16000 at that point. I made a valiant effort at a comeback even tip toeing over 100K at one point, but the blinds were just too much and I was seeing hands like 26 off and 9 4. With my last 50K,I pushed all in with 6 7 suited. He called with a less than perfect Q 3 off and hit he Q on the flop to end it.

393 players entered the event and I felt pretty sore at coming so close to a win only to get second. I will say however, that I couldn't stay too angry considering second did payout $1600 compared to the $2500 first place. Ya, an extra $900 would have been nice but I got a 5,925 % return on my $27 investment. Where else can an investment get a return like that in under 5 hours?

Ok, so its been like forever since I wrote any thing at all. Well, there is good reason for that. I won a few small tournaments in the last few weeks but lost every penny of prize money plus another $1,000 or so out of my pocket. I was beginning to wonder who I had killed in a previous life that would lead to such bad karma. I have seen more 2 outers and 1 outers hit on me in the last two weeks than I ever thought possible.

Here is the story of the straw that broke the camel's back. Luckily it happened in a $1/$2 NL game instead of some monster stakes table; where I most likely would have have pulled out my 12 gauge and pumped a few rounds into my computer. I wont bore anyone with the measley details except to say I was already a good $300 down for the day when this hand broke me. I had stepped back down to the $1/$2 tables because I just couldnt get anything going at the $2/$4 tables. My thought process was "how bad could a bad beat hurt me at these limits," right?

Ok, so I had been sitting in for about an hour and a half or so when I looked down at A 9 diamonds on the button. I raised my standard raise of 3 x the Big blind knowing it was gonna get called because the table was full of the "mentally challenged" type players. So the flop comes down 3 4 5 all diamonds. I am hating this flop. These retards were totally capable of playing a hand like 6 2 suited or 6 7 suited in any position. I bet out the size of the pot and everyone folds except one player. He pushed all in for about $165. Now, I'm not rich, but I am totally ready to pay this guy off if he flopped a str8 flush to my Ace high. Besides this, he had slow played most of his monsters up to this point so I am thinking at most he has a weaker flush than me. I call. He turns over J 2 diamonds. Great! I was right; a weaker flush... for now. Wouldn't you just know that the river was the 6 of diamonds giving this douche bag the str8 flush. After screaming profanities at my computer for a solid 60 seconds I look up in time to see the guy tell me how stupid I was for calling his all in. "How do you call that?" he asks. Here is my question...how the heck don't I? The guy hit his 1 outer and tells me "I made the wrong call..."

The last two days have showed me the first ray of hope in a few weeks with a couple of sng wins and some really decent tourney finishes. I pulled out of the hole I was in and it just feels good to be even.