FAQ

In an online tournament (37 entries) last night, I had a good run of cards and worked my way deep into the final table.

3-handed, I was in a virtual tie for 2nd, although the villain – for purposes of this blog, I’ll call him “Chris” – had just slightly more chips than me. We both had 18-20 BBs remaining… no need to panic.

Along comes Ace-Queen, both diamonds.

AQs is too good not to play 3-handed. Yet, with my long history of troubles with the Big Chick (a/k/a Fucking Ace-Queen (“FAQ”), a/k/a the combo that seems like it has ended more poker tournaments for me than all others combined, a/k/a the most unprofitable combo of all time, a/k/a I can feel the tilt starting as soon as I see the cards), I still get the heebie jeebies every time I see it.

One way to avoid making post-flop mistakes is to open jam. Winning the blinds and antes with an overbet here will slide me up to 2nd place, and I should have good equity against a calling range if it comes to that. To hell with GTO!

JAM!

Chris’ timer ticks down for a bit, and he does call.

Thumbs up for me. His call seems a little bit light for that spot, with no fold equity and slightly behind every low pocket pair and A-x combination. Chris has plenty of chips to work with after folding. But the rules allow it, so we move on with high hopes to the flop.

Well now, this is fantastic! Could it be that my long and tortured curse with FAQ has ended?

On the other hand, would I even bother with a blog post upon winning this pot?

Does Chris know what an emotional dagger some Random Number Generator is about to plunge into me? Is it actually random?

Have I forgotten that the main reason I don’t play much tournament poker is they always seem to end abruptly?

Like this.