How Easy It Is For The Best Hand To Lose

One night on Ultimate Bet I decided to test my skill, so I signed up for one of the numerous Free Rolls. When I registered there were only 452 players waiting to play. By the time the game started 452 players grew to 4958 players. A field of five thousand! This was becoming a real test of skill.

I know most players don't want to hear Free Roll stories when they are buying in to $100.00 SNG's and then getting a bad beat to a 5 7 off suit when they had A K suited. But this game for me was a skill test. I keep telling myself that I am a good player - and I do win consistently. I was looking to step up in the cash games I play online. I wanted to see how good I really was. What a great way to test your skills - play against a horde of donk players and see how long you can last and how good you really are.

I have played scores of Free Rolls before - when I was testing the site before committing any real cash to my account I wanted to see what kind of players the site had to offer. Many times you hear about the number of Fish playing online. I wanted to see if I was a Fish or a shark in this great ocean. So I tested the water to see if I could swim before I dove in and drowned. All the stats say only about 5% of online players win at all. I didn't want to be a statistic.

I had read all the articles about playing large tournaments. Sit be patient, and wait several blind increases before you do any serious playing. So I waited while most of the players knocked each other out. I got a few good hands nothing great. I just played each win as aggressive as I could and increased my chips.

I made it to one of the last 9 tables with 50,000 plus chips. There were 85 players left from the original field of five thousand. On my table were some big stacks: 178,000, 130,000 and one stack of 113,000. The 113,000 was the one I decide to go up against.

I was the small blind and it cost me another 800 chips to call since the blinds were at 1800. It was just me and the big blind in the pot, I had K 10 off suit. Decent cards when you're heads up.

The flop comes and it is king - 10 - rag. I got the nuts. What a glorious flop to have at this stage of the tournament. I bet 9,000 and get called. His call took me aback. I made this large bet because I thought my opponent would fold and we would go on to the next hand. I read my opponent and knew he had a king but I couldn't get a read on his kicker. But it doesn't matter because I have 2 pair. King's and 10's a great hand. I know his hand can not beat me. I am the first to act and I bet 32,000 which is all-in for me - he hesitates a few seconds - then calls. I am counting how much the total pot is going to bring me after I win the hand.

Two cards to come. An Ace of spade on the turn - no help to either of us. He is holding King Queen as I find out later. The River! A small spade hits. Now there are 4 spades on board and he has the Queen. I got knocked out. Number 84 out of five thousand.

The Pain of losing -- the Ecstasy of playing a good hand that loses. I look back and still say I made the right play. I could be wrong but those 100,000 plus chips would've put me in great position to make it to the top 30 for a pay out and a free entry to a $1,000 guarantee table.