Not much poker to report during the shortened holiday week. I decided to play an online tournament using my Player's points from one of the online sites. Because the tournament entry is "free", I usually expect the competition from a tournament of this type to contain lots of loose players. I thought that this may be good practice to play a couple of these prior to the WSOP just to get some practice in patience and trying to maneuver through extremely loose play. The tourney I got in had just over 1100 players, and I managed to work my way to 13th place. I was pretty satisfied with my play. I may do one or two more of those prior to the WSOP.
On Friday I received an email from some friends that I play poker with and bowl with about a poker tournament at a picnic at a small town about an hour north of me. I decided that for the $75 it was probably worth getting some practice in live tournament play. I hadn't played in a live tournament with a significant number of entries since I was at the Taj Mahal in January. I made the trek north and met Jeff, his wife Jen, and her dad Mike at the picnic. The tourney was supposed to start at 11am, but there were some problems with the people who were supposed to supply the tables, chips, and dealers, and we got started a little over an hour late.
We ended up having 42 participants. We started with 2 tables of 10 players and 2 tables of 11 players. We started with 700 chips, and rebuys were allowed at any time you were under 500 chips. For $20, you received 500 chips. Also, at the one-hour break everyone would be allowed to add-on 1500 chips for $20. So basically, the plan was to just stay alive during the first hour to get to where you would add on the 1500 chips. That worked pretty well for me as I only played one hand in the first 50 minutes. While on my BB, several players limped in so I was able to get a free look. I had 9-4offsuit so I was more than happy to see the flop for free. The flop came down:
Tc-9c-4c
giving me bottom two pair. I led out with a 125 chip bet (slightly more than the pot), hoping to win it right there, but I was pretty sure that any large club would call me. I was banking that no one flopped the flush, and since that's a 119 to 1 shot I was willing to get all my chips in here if necessary. It proved necessary as four players proceeded to call until it got to the small blind who raised it to 300. I moved all in for my remaining chips, which was about another 200 on top of that raise. That got some people to fold, but I did end up with two callers. Since everyone was all in, when the cards were turned over I was up against:
Jc-Jx and Ac-x
I was hoping that with all the calling that was going on that meant some other clubs were used up, and regardless of that being true or not, no clubs (or Jack) hit, and I nearly tripled up. This was nice, but during the last 10 minutes prior to the break I gave back 900 of the 2200 I had in front of me with some "not smart" play. In a tourney like this, with the rebuys and add-ons, the play is going to be REAL LOOSE in the first hour. I knew that, and laid off some hands that I might have played, but near the break I got heads up in a couple hands and, although I missed the flop, tried to follow up my pre flop raises with bets, and found myself getting called. When it's real loose you just have to resolve yourself to playing premium hands. I knew that and still tried to make some plays. That's something I may need to pay close attention to in a couple weeks.
After the break, the play moved more toward my style, and although it was still loose, because of the fear of being knocked out I was able to lean on some shorter stacks. I lost just under half my stack in a pot that worked out completely wrong for me. Mike was at my table with me, and we've had some history playing at the same tables in tourneys, so I knew to try and avoid him in large pots unless I was holding a lock. I had already seen him call a player down to the river after flopping a pair of twos and picking up a 5-high flush draw on the turn (he was holding the 5), so I knew that in the hand I'm about to explain I knew I was in trouble as soon as we had a pot. A player on a shorter stack had limped, and it looked like he was preparing to move all-in. Another player limped, and Mike limped. I looked down and found As-Ts. Now, that's not a great hand, but I was willing to play the short stack for all his chips for it. Since the other two players limped I figured setting the short stack in should either:
A. win the hand right there and I'd pick up the blinds and three limp-ins, or
B. get me heads up with the short stack, who I was more than willing to play with my holding
Well, I raised to isolate, and everyone folds...except Mike. He calls. As I said before, I now knew I was in trouble. As soon as that happened I knew that no more of my chips were going in to the pot unless I made my Ace. I wasn't even going to put a chip in if a Ten flopped as top card. That's how sure of how much trouble I was in. Well, the board came Jack high, and he checked it all the way down as did I. He turned over QQ. I was actually quite surprised he didn't bet at all. Initially, I thought he may have had AK, AQ, or TT because he wasn't betting with the Jack on the board, but all those had me beat anyway, but when I saw he had an over pair and didn't bet it I was just confounded by the play.
That cost me half my stack, and then I didn't see too many cards after that. I ended up lasting until we were down to two tables of ten, and I got my chips in with AQoffsuit and with a flop of A-Q-T I was initially pleased, but it was bet, raised, and reraised by three players at the flop so I was relatively certain that KJ or a set was in play, and unfortunately I was correct (KJ). The straight knocked me out as no A or Q hit the turn or river. I believe I ended up in 17th or 18th place, not that it really matters, since they both paid the same...$0!!
While I didn't have so much luck at the tourney, Mike went on a rush, and Jeff was playing steady and they both made the final table. The tourney was paying out the top 6 places. Mike took 8th, just missing out on some cash, and Jeff was able to get to 4th place (Jeff's "Degree All-In moment" should be pictured here), which paid $300 I believe. Jen had gotten knocked out by some loose calling station right before I got eliminated.
Jen and I were talking while we watched Jeff and Mike play, and we both agreed that we had the "itch" to play some more, so a game ended up getting put together to play a tourney over at Jeff and Jen's. Mark (Ig), Anne, Mark, Peg, Pete, and Angie all were able to make it, so we got a nine-player tournament started just after 8pm. Let me tell you, that may have been one of the craziest tourneys I've played. After almost an hour, we still had all 9 players. Mark and Pete got knocked out shortly after that, but then we stayed at 7 players for a long time. With blinds moving about every 15 minutes, and the average stack size not changing due to the lack of players dropping, it became a contest of all-ins with short stacks. Now I don't like to see a tourney where it just becomes all-ins, but I don't think that with the way this tourney played out it could have been avoided. I was doing all right early on, but I became short-stacked as the blinds moved up, I was able to win an all-in or two, and as players were getting knocked out I got extremely lucky against Anne when I was holding Kd-Jc. I backdoored a flush which gave me a lot of chips to work with. Peg and I got heads up, and although I lost my first attempt to knock her out with an all in I got lucky on my 2nd attempt holding 7d-6d by making a straight against Peg's hand to win that tourney. The tourney was a lot of fun and lots of fun conversation. I hadn't realized that I didn't tell them my new name on PP's website, so I gave them that information so they had it. My new name is taken from a character in a series of books I enjoy. Angie was pressing me on some questions about the books, and I don't think I answered all her questions before the topic got changed. Angie, if you want some more information about those books just shoot me an email and I'll answer whatever you'd like to know.
Angie and Pete took off near the end of the tournament, so when the tournament was done we decided to do some dealer's choice poker. We played $.25/$.50 limit 7-stud, Razz, and Omaha. It was almost 2am when we decided to call it a night. It was a lot of fun as I think everyone was picking up some of the nuances of the games (myself included). To give you an example in our last hand of Omaha, at least two of us (myself and Mark) read our own hands wrong and were playing them based on what we THOUGHT we had and not what we actually had. It's easy to do in Omaha. Razz really seemed to be a challenge, too. Razz is tough on you mentally. You're always trying to figure out which upcards your opponents aren't playing while continuing to guess whether that next card is going to sink your hand. Mark really likes it though as he's earned himself the moniker "the Doyle of Razz". All in all a good time. When it's for small stakes like that it's always a good learning experience and still keeps it fun.
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