LittleRedElf On His Recent Success – Faldo 5th in Rise Poker Tourney

LittleRedElf gets extra motivation from his cheering section.

Faldo wants preface this article by saying Faldo asked “The Great and Powerful Elf” to write something about his success over the last two straight NPP tourneys. As you may have noticed, Faldo was at a loss for words (accolades?).

LittleRedElf graciously agreed.

“The first thing I want to say is this: I do not play this league tourney any differently than I would the previous league $5.50 tourneys or any real money event.” [Ed. Note: Obviously Elf and thank you from the league for that. Faldo plays the same too (but that is what is wrong with Faldo’s game in the first place)]

“The first hand I was dealt was AK suited which I raised 3x pre flop, it did not hit anything but I took it down with a bet on the turn, then the next hand was KJ suited which hit the J on the flop.

I do not remember a lot of hands but I do know that I won the first 7 showdowns I was in which is very significant. I bluffed a few times in certain instances when I felt I could take down the hand.

There was a big hand against CPA where I held 77 and foolishly called his bets and caught a 7 for a full house on the river. He was very upset set at me for doing that. My contention about that hand is this:

I never made any moves except call his bets, including his all-in at the end when his AA was beat. He did not need to do that. The next hand I got QQ, hit a Q on the flop and got a lot of chips from somebody (I can’t remember, maybe Absea98) who had KK.

So yes, in those two hands and the final one with T3CHLADY who held 99 against my A/10 (I caught an ace on the river, like Barry Greenstein’s book), I was significantly behind pre flop and got lucky.

The hand with ThePunk75, I was holding 6/2 in the big blind I think, there was no raise pre flop and the flop was 663. The turn was a J and I bet a little chunk and punk called with his jack.

The river was the last 6 and I bet a little more than the pot, but only about a third of punk’s stack. He pushes all-in and of course I call with my quads. My point is: why didn’t ThePunk75 just call?

If I just have a jack, we split the pot no matter the size. Why push in more chips? Poker is brutal. We have all been on both ends of bad beats. It’s just the nature of the game. I’ve been fortunate the last 2 weeks.”
Regards, Dave

Thanks Dave! There you have it folks. You have to be good…and lucky. That’s poker.

But it sure helps a lot if you are as good as LittleRedElf. I speak for the entire NPP family when I say that it is a pleasure to play against you, Elf.

Speaking of lucky, Faldo finished 5th in a Rise Poker tourney finishing 5th out of 151.

The end came on a hand I thought I played well. Your opinion please!

I am 4th in chips in the SB with 9 BB’s left. The villain is 5th in chips in the cutoff with 12 BB. I look down and see (22).

UTG calls the blind, as does the villain and the button. What to do?

I don’t like a shove here. Not with (22). What do the NPP pros think? If I get heads up, I MIGHT be a coin flip and if there are multiple callers, which I think there will be at least two, then I am behind.

I call set-mining and if that fails maybe one or two of these mopes get eliminated. We take the flop as a family. I like the pot but obviously, but have to get lucky to earn it.

So that is not happening. It’s Faldo. The flop comes rainbow [4 7 8]. I check although a shove here may be a better option. The only problem is that the BB could have hit this flop and have me dominated.

But to my dismay, he checks as does the UTG player. The villain moves all-in and the button folds. I smell over-cards only and call, super relieved when the BB and UTG fold also.

The villain has (KJ) and hits a [J] on the river.

I built myself a big pot and got to the showdown as over a 2 to 1 favorite. I think the hand is a Faldo success story, except for the outcome which doesn’t mean anything.

Comments on this hand?