Sit N Go Tournament at the Rio

The day before my $1500 NLH Tournament (event 39) I played in a few single table satellites. You start off ten handed and play down to a single winner. It is typical for a deal to be made once down to a few players but usually it is divided among the final two.

In one SNG we were down to 3 players and I was the short stack when they made a deal to pay 3rd place the buy in back. We all agreed and I proceeded to chip away at the two larger stacks. Eventually, I climbed into and out of the lead and was in 2nd place when another deal was proposed to split the winnings 3 ways evenly. While considering the deal, I looked down at KTc in the small blind and decide to conceal my strength by limping. The big blind raises preflop and I make the call. The flop is QJx. I bet, he raises all in, and I call. He turns over AQ for top pair, top kicker. I have an open ended straight with a backdoor flush draw and have him covered. The turn is an A giving him top two pair but makes a straight for me. He groans and I beam. The river card is a Q giving him a full house, Queens full of Aces.

Moral of the story: Take the deal when presented if you have scrapped your way into bargaining position.