Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Look Before You Leap!

This past Saturday was the 5th event of the Cream City Poker League’s second season. The league is a group of people that I’ve known for quite some time that enjoys playing poker. To be perfectly honest, the event really isn’t so much about poker as it is about getting everyone together on a regular basis. That doesn’t mean serious poker doesn’t take place though!

The commissioner of the league was unable to make it to the event due to a car problem that happened on his way over to the host’s home. The hosts of the event, Jeff and Jen, contacted me and requested that I bring my chips and asked if I would “run the show” for the evening, which I didn’t have a problem with at all. I’ve run tournaments in the past, and I think that probably played in to why I was asked. I found my tournament poker chips, and it was off to Jeff and Jen’s!

The tournament went fairly smooth. No one at the tournament was brand new to the game so I didn’t anticipate any serious issues, and there were none. I did have a few hands that I’ll talk about here. The first hand involved myself and two others. I had about 4000 in chips (we start with 2000) and was in the small blind with A5suited. The person two to my left (UTG) raised to 200 chips. Everyone else folded to the button, the button called, and I called. The flop was: A-A-6. This is where I made my first mistake in the hand. I checked, hoping to trap a player with my trip Aces. The player UTG also checked and the button went all in for 1585 chips! I hadn’t anticipated that. I thought that one of the other two players would only bet, not bet their whole stack. So now I started thinking things through. If the button had an Ace I was almost certain to be beat. Also, if the button had an Ace why bet so much? The bet didn’t make sense. Also, I had another player to act behind me yet. If the button was bluffing and the other player had the remaining Ace then I would certainly be caught after putting my chips in to the pot. Red flags were going off everywhere, but I was looking at my trip Aces and ignoring the gut. Also, I should have considered that I would still have 3800+ by folding instead of putting my chips at risk. All that, and I still called. The UTG player went all in, and I knew immediately what the button had: 6-6 for a full house. Also, I knew that the UTG player had the remaining Ace, so I was beat all around. The board bricked out for both of the trip Ace hands, and the button nearly tripled up with his full house.

What I should have done to avoid this situation was to probably lead out with a small bet. If I had done that, the UTG player would have either called or raised, the button would have then raised, and my decision to fold would have been a no-brainer at that point. There’s almost no real downside for me either by putting the small bet out there. If neither player has an Ace (or full house) I’ll win the pot right there with the small bet, and they are unlikely to improve enough to call anything anyway, or if they have the Ace (or better) like they did I find that information out and am able to get away from the hand. After analyzing that I realized how poorly I played it to get stuck like that. Nicely done, Mr. McKnight (the button).

I never really recovered from that as I never found a good hand to get my chips in to the pot. I did find a really bad spot to get them in, however; and that’s how this post got its title. I was very shortstacked and in the small blind, and had made the decision before the hand was dealt that I would move all in if no one was in the hand already. I then had to record that someone was knocked out of the tournament. I was marking down that someone had been knocked out on the ledger when the action got to me and I declared “all in!” Jen, the Squirrel, was in the big blind and folded her hand. I turned over my cards and showed the 8-2offsuit. What I wasn’t aware of was the fact that another player, Angie, had called earlier in the hand so the hand wasn’t exactly over yet. Well, it was too late to retract my bet since Jen had acted, and Angie called me with her Ace-King. The board didn’t help me and off to the rail I went! What a donkey play on my part!

The rest of the tournament went off without a hitch. There was one other exciting hand that took place right at the money bubble. With 5 players remaining, the action went as follows:

Rock (Under The Gun – UTG) - moves all in as a short stack

John - calls

Adam - raises All In – he has more chips than anyone

Mark - then goes in to the think tank. After making the declaration “In a tournament there’s one hand that you have to fold that you would normally not fold. I think this is that hand” he folded QQ. Actually, that’s probably some good advice.

Angie - folded

Action back to John because Rock is all in, and John calls.

The hands were:

Rock: 3-3 Adam: As-Ts John: Q-Q

So Mark and John were both dealt Queens in five-handed play! Well, the board came:

x-x-Ten-x-Ten (I don’t remember all the cards. Sue me.)

flopping a Ten and rivering a Ten to give Adam the hand and eliminate two players.

The tournament wrapped up with Adam knocking out Mark in 3rd and Angie in 2nd place. I did discover that I made another mistake as fill-in commissioner. I paid everything out to all the players instead of keeping the required amount for the Tournament of Champions! Oops! Maybe I’m not cut out for this “running tournaments” thing after all. Oh well.

I also found out that Jen has some nice pictures from the event posted on her blog, Pocket Full of Squirrels, and she recaps a little of the action there, too! One more thing, I didn't realize until today that I didn't have the "comments" configured correctly, so if you'd like to leave a comment now you should be able to do so. Prior to today only blogspot account holders could post comments. Check it out!

I’ve got some good stories from a friend who was out at the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas for the next post! Only 25 days until the WSOP begins!! Woo-Hoo!

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