Hat Trick!

Over the past weekend the last qualifying event for the Cream City Poker League (CCPL) took place. It was hosted at my place, and the turnout was a little light, as I had anticipated with the warmer weather starting to arrive and my location being so far southeast for most of the players. The final number of players was 14, so we started with two tables of 7 players each.

We settled in for what turned out to be a relatively short evening of poker. The event was over by 10:30! The last couple of tournaments had gone until close to midnight so I thought this tournament got done very quick when compared to other CCPL events.

Our table started with a complete flurry of action in Level 1 unlike action I’ve seen in any of the prior CCPL events. The table had myself, and to my immediate left, a loose aggressive player who we’ll call Player A. Almost on the opposite side of the table from me was a player who plays very solid and has had consistently high finishes in all of the CCPL events he has played (we’ll call him Player B). To my immediate right was a player who I think plays selectively aggressive, but I think overplays some weaker hands. I’ll call him Player C for this blog. I don’t want to say that the other players were of no consequence as I think most of the players in the CCPL are decent players, but myself, A, B, and C, were involved in almost all of the early action.

Before the tournament had started player B had indicated to player A that he was going to just limp in, or call, all of player A’s hands in the first two levels. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t want to see a whole lot of that since that would squeeze me between the two of them if I also got involved in hands with them. Our CCPL events start with blinds at 10 and 15, and during the first three levels you have the ability to rebuy once if you lose your whole stack. Very early in the tournament, player A was in the Big Blind so player B limped, and when it got to me I saw I had pocket Tens. I raised to an absurd amount for the level, 125 chips. Everyone folded back to player B, who also knows me well, and after thinking for a while, folded what turned out to be two over cards. I showed the Tens and we moved to the next hand. Well, on the very next hand I got dealt AK (also called Big Slick), and decided to raise the same absurd amount with only one other limper. Once again everyone folded and I showed the hand. On the hand following that I got a pair of Queens. Once again I made the same absurd raise. I just figured eventually someone would try to play back at me. One player called and I won when I moved all in on the flop and showed the Queens as I collected the pot. I took a hand off when I got two terrible cards, but on the hand following that I got a pair of Tens again. There was a limper ahead of me, so I raised to 125 again, and this time, player A made a small raise right behind me. It got back around to me, and knowing that I had a rebuy available and I still did have a decent hand I moved all in. I was called immediately and was shown…pocket 9s! I had the lead! My hand held up, and Player A had to rebuy.

Well on the very next hand, player A and I got mixed up in a hand again. This time I limped with Th 9h, and player A made it 125 to go (now the standard raise I guess). I made the call and the board flopped a pair with two hearts. I had to act first, and since player A had no rebuy available I decided to move all in, since unless he has a big pair (or trips, although that was unlikely) he would have to fold because he would be out. Even if he had the overpair I had the flush draw. Well, player A called with his QQ and his hand held up to win the pot. I still had the chip lead though since rebuys get you only 75% of what we initially started with. In the meantime, player B has been commenting on my ridiculous play so far. Player C has been quiet, but he keeps getting raised off every hand he tries to play by me. Well, a couple hands later, I get a pair of nines and with a limper in the pot, player C made the minimum raise before me. I knew that player C would play the hand, but with my Nines I didn’t want to see anyone else play so I reraised a healthy, but not too large, of an amount. Player C called and the flop hit the board as: T-9-x, giving me a set of 9s. Player C moved all in and I called instantly, showing the 9s. Player C had AQ, and was drawing to a runner runner straight. The odds of doing that are 68 to 1, so I was pretty confident my hand would hold up, and it did. This gave me a significant chip lead.

I was getting ridiculous hands throughout most of the evening. I got AA against an opponent who always bets top pair and rarely folds it and won a significant pot there. Even when I wasn’t getting good cards I still made hands. I was dealt Jack-8 and got it in against a short stack at the bubble. He had Ace-Jack, which is a hand where he’s about a 70-75% favorite to win. I made a straight at the river to eliminate him. It was unreal what I was catching for hands and boards! Eventually, my pair of 8s in heads up play held up against my opponent’s Ace-Ten in the classic race situation (all in preflop), and I won my 3^rd CCPL event, and my 2^nd in a row. I was extremely happy with my results this season, having won 3 of 7 events, although as I mentioned that night, I think any of the CCPL players that had drawn my seat on Saturday would have won the event as I was getting an incredible amount of good hands. I’m looking forward to the CCPL Tournament of Champions, where I hopefully can cap off a great season! I’m off to Virginia for a week, so I don’t think I’ll get any live poker action for the blog for next week, but you never know!