PS 10 SNG 50/50 T $1.08 End 2nd Won $2.78

Poker Stars is changing its Double or Nothing (DON) 10 player matches where the top 5 divide up the pool evenly, to a 50/50 format where the pool is divided up by 1/5 of the pool plus .03333 cents per 100 chips. I had a very successful set of cards my 1st play and won $4.11 instead of the usual $2. Since then I've been up and down with mixed play. At the $1 level they have two options: 1) $1.11 is normal play and 2) $1.08 it Turbo where the blinds increase every 3 minutes instead of the usual 6 minutes. What that means with the 50/50 system it is a bit harder to recoup your losses when you bust out of the top 5, as you can make the top 5 but only pick up 25-30 cents instead of the DON 85 cents. I played way too long last night and was really too tired to keep playing but I didn't listen to that and paid the consequences of sloppy play. Anyway that's not the main point of this post.

Today I decided I'm just doing a quick HU on Full Tilt and one 50/50 on Poker Stars, then do some other stuff I want to do and back to poker later tonight. I manged to win my FT HU and was feeling good about poker today and moved over to a PS 50/50 Turbo. On hand 6 in EP2 I woke up to KK and thought, nice, a good chance to pick up some early chips!! Blinds were 20/40 and I Open-Raised 2 1/2 BB (100), enough to likely build some pot (at this level players like to play) and not scare folks away plus if an Ace falls on the flop and I feel I have to get away from the hand it won't be too hard to do. There were 3 callers including the SB.

The Flop was 7d 10h 6d. Not bad for my K's. I bet 230 into the 440 pot, HJ calls and rest fold. Turn 5d. This is where everything I was hoping for begins to fall apart. The board has 3 diamonds, 5, 6, & 7, making possible a flush and even a straight flush as well as just an ordinary straight. I do have a 2nd nut high flush draw, so it's not all bad. I check and HJ bets 240 into the 900 pot and I decide to just call. I didn't feel raising him would do much good and if he has a flush down I don't want to dump too many chips into it and I do have that 2nd nut high flush draw that I felt was worth checking out on the River.

The River was 3h. Not likely to have changed much but opens up a possible straight from the low side. Here is where I go off the deep end. I check and HJ goes All-In with their last 790 chips. At this point I only have pocket K's against possible straights and flushes and the HJ's going All-In most likely indicates he has the flush, which if I'd hit the draw could make calling him worthwhile, otherwise my best bet is to fold, lick my wounds, and live to fight another day. BUT NO, I decide to call and he shows 9d 4d, indeed having hit the flush on the Turn. I'm down to 100 chips and feeling very down and definitely on tilt!!! BUT as you see in the title, the story does not end there!!

I'm not going into the details, but a lot of luck with All-In's and some patience folding with so-so cards and low chips let me build my chips back and become a winner. I liked the graph from Poker Tracker so am inserting it here: