Damn Pride!

Titan Poker has set up a short-handed SnG for the MSR All-In Poker Podcast. It's a simple $1.05 buy-in, winner gets a token into a monthly tournmanet (where the winner of THAT tournaments gets a token into Titan's 25K Guaranteed Tournament). Second Place= $3.00, 3rd= $1.80 and 4th= $1.20. Unfortunately, as it stands, winning a 2nd token means nothing. So going into the SnG I was aiming for 2nd. Now the problem with that, is that this is a SnG with people I "know" from the podcast's message boards.

I do pretty well the entire SnG, and end up getting heads up the chip leader (I think 6500 vs 2500) and was torn. I wanted to go for the cash, but pride was on the line as well. If this was a bunch of strangers, I would have slowly donked of chips, raising then folding. But since these were people that I talk to and play against on a semi-regular basis, and compound that with the fact that my opponent is a psuedo-celebrity on the podcast (finshed 11th I believe 2 or 3 years ago at the WPT Finals @ Foxwood AND won entry into this years WSOP Main Event on Full Tilt), part of me wanted to win.

I've played my opponent before (weekly tournaments, the Token SnG and once heads up- beat him in that one heads up match) and it feels good to play well against him. The first half of heads up battle I was trying to win, but discussing with him if I should throw it. He said he didn't want to win if I was going to throw it, so I decided to try for first (still torn, but was trying to win). He's win some chips back and I'd knock him back down, then I'd double him up once or twice and knock him back down. I think I had him as low as about 1100 in chips. In the end, he developed a strong read on me, and was able to avoid pots, where he didn't hit anything. And with my aggressive style, milk chips out of me when he did. The worst was when I hit 2 pair on the turn and double him up. I think on that turn he got his Straight (he may have had it on the flop). I think I picked up something too, but it wasn't until after the match that I realized it. So, I'm sure we'll face each other again, I'll see if I can use that to my advantage. In the end the 2 pair vs Straight, was the beginning of the end. I doubled him up two more times, giving him the chip lead and I never got it back. He had me on the ropes, once where I started to fight back, but was quickly swatted down and knocked out. Of course, I am now claiming that I threw the match for the money :)

I managed to get the top money spot of the SnG by finishing 2nd, which was what I wanted going into it, but my pride took a pounding. I'll see you again Yo. Count on it.