Patience Pays Off

Played a one-table sng tonight and put my patience training to good use. Made a move that didn’t work out and found myself on a grimly short stack. I knew that I would have to pick the right spot and get lucky when I did. I *made* myself be patient even though the blinds were gigantic compared to my stack (100/200 and I had ~650 in chips). I stole some key blinds and was dealt 77 in late position when the chip leader made a miniraise under the gun. The thing is that in this one-table structure, that miniraise wasn’t so mini to anyone, even him. Also, he’d proven himself to be rather steal happy since taking the chip lead. I put him on a rag ace, or maybe JTs. So I said to myself, “No matter what the action is, I’m pushing.”

It gets folded around to the guy in front of me, who calls the raise. This leaves him with about 400 chips. I find this odd and take a bit of time. I finally decide that *he* must have some kind of rag ace as well, since he would probably push all-in with a pair, even a low one. (Higher buy-in players might be unaware that Ax is “the nuts” at these levels.) I decide I have the best hand. I push all-in.

The chip leader takes his sweet time. Now I’m positive my read is good. Finally he calls. The other player involved calls as well, and I’ve got him covered so he’s all-in too. We turn up the cards, and I feel as smart as Phil Hellmuth thinks he is: both players hold a rag ace. The other all-in guy holds A9o. THE CHIP LEADER HOLDS A50!! (This kind of play explains why he will soon be out in third place.) Anyway, my sevens hold up (incredible, right?) and I triple up and make it to the money.

The point of all this is that I never would have gotten to this triple-up opportunity if I hadn’t used the patience I’ve been working on recently. So yay, me! Somebody give me a cookie or a medal or something. Oh, and by the way, I ended up going on to place first.