One Last Cash Game

So it was Saturday night in Tunica and I had just run a big Ace with my short stack into AA again and was OUT. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed to have finished up the weekend with ZERO tournament cashes. - $340 - $550 -$340 = -$1230 OUCH. Taking into account the cash game success I was still down for the weekend... -$1230 + $148 + $328 = -$754 ...but not out. Lance, a poker buddy of mine, also played in the Friday and Saturday tournaments. Unfortunately he also didn't cash and at this point we were trying to figure out a way to play some poker together. The cash games at the poker room were jammed and the waiting list was crazy long. So we decided to put our names on the list and try to get into a satellite table. We waited about 15 minutes for enough players to show up, but a bunch of poker degenerates started crowding around. The tournament director (TD) picked out 9 players for the table (which included Lance and I), but unfortunately a bunch of players stole our seats. I was pretty furious at the TD for allowing this to happen. So what do we do now? Answer: Wait.

After what seemed like forever we finally got a seat at the $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em (NLHE) table. Lance is used to playing higher stakes, but the $2/$5 table wasn't opening up and I didn't have the bankroll to play much higher. So we took our seats at the $1/$3 table and immediately started to upset the balance of the table. We tried to convince the table to have a manditory 1 or 2 orbit straddle, but they were a bunch of bumps on a log. A typical straddle is where you essentially place out a double big blind in the position just in front of the big blind. In this case it would be $6. Well in Mississippi poker rooms they allow you to straddle from any position. Since the table wouldn't straddle Lance and I decided to start taking turns posting the straddle pretty much every hand. I have to admit though that Lance probably posted more than I did. We were talking, joking and drinking with the other players at the table, but it was clear that some at the table didn't appreciate our tactics as players started rotating in and out frequently.

I had been playing and raising a lot of hands early on, and was pretty much breaking even. I was in the straddle again and a young player raised up my straddle from $6 to $20 when I looked down at KK. I quickly made it $60 to go and he just as quickly called. The flop was all small and I bet $100. He went all in over the top for less than $100 more and I had to make the call. I flipped over my kings and he held his hand tight. In cash games you don't have to show your hand. I don't mind showing mine especially if it is strong, because I don't want to slowroll a player. However, not showing is standard practice in cash games. The reason he held his hand was because he had jack shit and I collected a very nice pot.

After collecting a number of other pots I was sitting pretty as a $400 winner very early in the game. Lance on the other hand was probably stuck about $100 or $200 early on, but looked like he was having a blast. He was playing just about every pot and was raising a high percentage of those times. We were drinking, doing shots and generally just having a great time. It certainly didn't hurt that we had both pretty much stayed out of each other's way in this crazy straddling mess we had created... but the inevitable was bound to happen.

Lance raised it up to $20 preflop and I called him with KsQs. I believe there was one other caller and we took a flop. The flop came out Queen high and Lance bet again. I think he bet like $40, I called and the other player folded. The turn was another small card and Lance fired again. This time it was like $75 or $80 and he only had $100 or so left. Typically in a random spot like this I figure I'm beat and get away from the hand, but Lance was playing crazy. I said something like so we are going to play real poker now ehh? Lance did a lot of talking, joking around and laughing as I waited to make a decision. He made it pretty clear that the last $100 was going in on the river. He said he put me on QJ. Pretty damn close. LOL. Normally when a player calls out a hand like that it is because they want you to fold said hand, but as crazy as we were both playing who knows. I was about 50/50 on folding or calling with the intention of calling the river. In the end I decided not to stack off $200 hoping he was running a crazy bluff. I only had $60 in the pot so I folded my KQ face up. Lance showed me the lovely 5-2 off for a delicious pair of crappy 2's. LOL. Nice bluff Lance.

I didn't let him know, but I was a little upset at myself for folding. I could have nudged up pretty close to the $754 number I needed to break even for the weekend. Ohh well. All the talking seemed to be trying to lead me to a call. Normally this means fold your hand immediately. Well played Lance.

The rest of the night was just a steady decline in chips for me until I ended up cashing out as only a $2 winner. I had a lot of fun so I guess chalk it up to entertainment. How did it all go wrong? Nothing really special. No single big pot. Just $50 pot here $75 pot there kind of stuff. I can't remember much. One hand I tried to trap a very nitty girl with a flush on the turn, but the 4th club came on the river and my flush was only 6 high so I had to lay it down when she lead out at the river.

Toward the end of the night a guy that looked like a fat Saddam Hussein sat down on my left and proceeded to play some awful poker. He was stacking off a lot of chips light and was probably stuck $300 early, but won it back and then some. I called him down in one hand with top pair crap kicker, and he showed me top pair with medium crap kicker. UGH. I think it was like K6 against K8 and the 8 played. After that hand I just sort of locked it up. It was probably about 5 am at this point and we were all getting a little on edge. In one hand I went to call a raise out of the straddle with 6-2 off and pulled it back. I had the calling chips in my hand, started placing the chips on my straddle chips, and then pulled them back. It was clearly a violation. I was pretty drunk and tired, but I knew what I did. For some reason the dealer didn't make me keep the chips out there. Anyway, this kind of upset Saddam. I got a warning. Something later on pissed off Saddam again, but I can't remember what it was. We were playing like 5 or 6 handed maybe at this point. Saddam was upset with the dealer for something, and brought back up the hand where I pulled my chips back. I remember saying something to him like, "Just relax man we are drunk, it is late and we're having fun."

Anyway he did simmer down a little, but all his ranting and raving was a total buzz kill. Shortly after this scene we decided to call it a night. I went back to the room to crash and Lance went to play more blackjack. Surprisingly his decision ended up being the wiser of the two as he ended up winning back all his losses and then some.

WSOP Tunica Event #5

I was pretty disappointed with my finish out of the money the night before, but was so amped up for the noon event I couldn't sleep much past 8:00. It also didn't help that my Tunica trip roommate Riggs talked in his sleep. I think he was making a deal with the devil for winning rolls in craps, but I couldn't make out much. Sounded like Spanish. After a quick Awful Waffle breakfast with Riggs, Nate and Becky I was ready for some LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!! I really felt like I was going to play well in this tournament. I was feeling very confident and loose, and my play mirrored this. The tournament started with 905 players putting up the $340 entry fee. They ended up having to close the cash game area to accomodate the extra players. Even after doing this they still had 125 alternates waiting for enough eliminations to get in the game. Well I was not one of those alternates. I signed up for the Saturday tourament on Thursday when I arrived. I was the 5th player to sign up. LOL.

The tournament started with some familiar faces at the table. In the first event the guy on my left was a nice older gentlemen who was playing unbelievably tight. You couldn't get a greased bee-bee up his ass. He was giving my loose aggressive style some constructive criticism, but nothing all that nasty. Well low and behold the same guy was sitting on my right in this tournament. 905 players in the tournament and I'm sitting right next to the same guy from Event #3. What are the odds? Honestly this was a great thing as he played way too predictible. On my left was an old man in his 60's and he was playing a little too tight as well. There were two players at the table that I knew were going to be tough. A younger "internet" kid, and a good olde boy in overalls. They got involved in a big hand where they both had the nut straight on the turn, but the internet kid had a flush redraw and spiked it on the river. This was a huge pot at this stage of the tournament. He never slowed down either and was up to probably 35k before the 1st break. I was picking up just about every pot he wasn't and we were both clearly controlling the action at the table. It also didn't hurt that we were both sitting at the head of each end of the table.

I had about 25k when we finally collided. He had raised the last two hands when this hand came up with the blinds at 25/100/200. I watched him look down at his hand and give it a little shrug. It was almost like Jeeze I have to raise it again and he made it 600. I got the feeling that he didn't have a huge hand, but the jury was still out. I looked down at Q♥J♥ and decided to finally see a flop with this guy in position from the cutoff. Everyone else folded and the table captains were heads up. We stared eachother down as the flop came out. He tried to look like he was in a coma. I tried to do something similar. He took a peak at the flop and checked it after a little pause. I took my turn now taking a peak. J♦J♣Q♦. Holy flopped boat batman!!! I mean whatever. I decided to think about it for a second, to look like I considered stealing. Then I checked. The turn was the 8♦. He thought for awhile and put out a weakish looking bet of 1250 into the 2000 pot. I thought with my loose image this would be a good spot to pop him up quickly. I made it 3000 to go. On the internet this is so standard both players could literally have complete air. I was hoping that an advanced player like himself would pick up on it an repop it. He started trying to bore a hole through me while I stared at the middle of the pot like a zombie. The longer he thought the more I knew he wanted to re-raise it. At this point I decided talking to him would probably lose him, but a weak tell might induce the re-raise. So let's see how many books this guy has read. A frequently reliable tell on a weak player is when they are trying not to look at you, but they feel the need to take a quick peak every once in awhile. Their body is turned slightly away, but their eyes look up and then dart back away because eye contact is just too much. I put this tell on, and after about a minute (which is an eternity in holdem) he re-raised it to 12,000.

This was such a big re-raise I decided moving all in was the best play here for several reasons. The main reason was I felt like there were many hands that would call the all in on the turn, but not a big bet on the river. After a short time he called and showed 88. Wow what an absolutely brutal turn card for him. All the work and thought I put into the hand probably didn't matter. The turn card was a complete cooler for him, and that was that. I was 98% going to the river and the case 8 didn't hit the felt. I honestly did not narrow his hand range much until he called on the end. Before then we could have been just "playing the game." He asked me if I could count out my chips so he could get a feel for the size of the pot. It was right at about 50,000. He started berating himself for stacking off in a 250 big blind pot this early in the tournament. It was definitely a cooler type of hand, but I played it about as well as I could. If I flat call in any spot during this hand it is very unlikely I will get him to double me up.

After this hand it was clear who was going to be the table captain and I was ready for the role. I started playing what seemed like a lot of hands, but I was only playing cards that were playable. I knocked out a couple of short stacks on my left and right. Yes, I knocked out the uber-tight player on my right. It was a pretty sick little trap I sprung with 7's full in a blind vs. blind hand. He didn't play it bad, but I played it perfectly to get him to commit all his chips on a dead flush draw going to the river. Going to the 2nd break I had 65k in chips and expected the good time to continue heading into Level 7: 50/300/600. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Two seats were open to my right and left and they were quickly filled with two old codgers. The player on my immediate left had over 40k in chips and the one on my right had about 20k. The player on my left was a long time smoker with a hole in his throat. The old man on my right came off as a sweet old man. Well what he did to me in the next hand was anything but that.

The hand started with him raising it to 1800 from early position. I re-raised to 4000 with QQ and everyone else folded. The old man pulled back his 1800 and flipped out 4 pink chips to make the call rather quickly. I didn't put him on AA or KK here. He didn't seem the type to get tricky. The flop was a beauty Q J 4. He checked and I checked. The turn was a 9, and he quickly bet 5000. I quickly moved him all in and he quickly called. I immediately feared the straight, but those hands seemed unlikely. I thought he was going to show me a smaller set, but he rolled over AK. He called off another 10k in chips with two overs and a gutshot. Wow. It just seemed so strange. If I could avoid him spiking one of the 4 remaining tens I would have about 85k in chips. 91% of the time I would win the hand in this spot, but the dreaded 10 peeled off on the river. It was my first real beat of the tournament and this one really stung. I stared at the 10 for a solid 10 seconds before I said a word. Then I looked up and the dealer and said, "Did that just happen?" I tried to keep a smile on my face, but I gave serious consideration to leaving the table for a break. I was absolutely fuming. I still had around 40k in chips, but there are were so many more options with 85k in chips.

I tried not to let this bother me, but only a few hands later I raised from early position with K♠Q♠ to 1800 still a little steamy. I think I got like 3 callers. The flop came out T♠9♦4♠. I fired a slightly tilty bet of 5000 into the 6k pot, and it folded to a short stack with about 15k in chips who moved all in. I almost insta-called, but I pulled back the reins. I needed to call 10k more to win a pot of about 26k. The pot was laying pretty big for my flush draw with two overs and a gutshot. Even if he had a set I was getting the right odds to call. If I lost the hand I would have had less than 20k though. I felt like he could have been making a short stack play with only a single pair so I called. As I pushed the chips in the middle I said, "I think I'm a small favorite in the hand I call." He showed 66 which was the best hand, but a 2 to 1 dog to my huge draw. The turn was a red deuce, and I started complaining, "Here it comes brick, brick, brick, brick." and... WHAM the Queen of clubs one of my 18 outs reared its ugly head. Thank God! Negative reinforcement - Works every time!

That pot put me back around the 60k mark, but shortly after that hand I was moved to another table. After the first couple of orbits it was clear the new table was full of solid players. One player was the winner of Event #3 Mike Ratcliff. This was his second WSOP Circuit win. I don't care who you are that is impressive. He played very, very well at my table. Nothing real special just zero mistake poker. I on the other hand was completely card dead. Although I had an above average stack my chips started bleeding away. Finally I found a hand in early position. I raised it up with QQ. One player called and a short stack pushed in with enough to barely make it a raise. I re-raised all in to isolate, and the other player folded. The short stack showed KK. If I lost the hand I would be down to about 30k, but I spiked a Queen on the flop and collected the pot. I suppose the poker gods were evening things out. This put me at 58k heading to the dinner break.

With 290 players left the average stack was 31k. I had about twice the average stack, but the next level would cost 6k every 10 hands, and in 40 minutes it would cost 8.5k every 10 hands, and then 11k every 10 hands. Pretty similar situation to the night before. Except this time the payout structure wasn't as flat. $920 for 63rd, and $4600 for 9th. It was kind of unfortunate that they only paid the top 63 out of 905 players (typically it is about the top 10%), but there was nothing holding me back pay structure wise. As far as my cards went that was a completely different story. I had one playable hand over the next two levels and completely blinded down to 30k in chips heading into Level 13: 500/2000/4000. I was pretty much road kill at this point. 7.5 big blinds and less than 30 hands until I was broke. It was now short stack ninja time. I was forunate enough to pick up 99 in middle position, but got no callers. Then finally first to act I pushed all in with AQ, and it folded around to the big blind. He was a real nice guy with an english accent. We had built a nice little rapport playing together for the last few hours. He said, "I haven't looked man. I'll look at them one at a time for dramatic affect." He was a jokester nothing nasty here. Also, I wasn't too concerned as my hand played very well against two random cards. He started to look at the first card and I shouted, "Deuce, Deuce!" He replied, "The first card is not good for you." I said, "An Ace?" He replied, "Yes." He started to look at the second card and I said, "Ace?" Purely as a joke and he replied, "Yes." I said, "Are you kidding me?" and he said, "No sorry man" as he rolled over two beautiful mother F-ing Aces. Deja vu all over again! I was reliving my Friday evening nightmare situation again. For those who don't remember I'm about 8% to survive the hand in that spot. The flop was Jack high, and the turn was a Ten. I needed one of 4 Kings in the deck to survive, but I didn't catch it. Once again I had fallen short of the money. When I looked up at the board there were 105 players listed left. Still pretty far from the money, but a respectible top 12% finish.

This one hurt as it was my last tournament of the weekend, but I felt like I got my money's worth out of the last two tournaments. Thankfully, there was enough time left for another late night cash game...

WSOP Tunica Event #4

After picking up a nice profit in the cash games Thursday night I decided to give Event #4 a try at noon on Friday. There were 469 players that put up the $550 for the event. My style of play at the beginning of the tournament was significantly tighter than the previous tourney. Mostly because I didn't have even a remotely playable hand. No suited connectors, no small pair, nada! The tournament has a slow early structure so this wasn't really a big problem. Just before the 1st level was complete a familiar face sat down at the empty seat of my table. It was the guy who finished 6th in the tournament I finished 4th in last year. He remembered me and the race he lost to me with AJ against my 66. We remeinisced for awhile which passed the time nicely as the table was rather quiet and I was card dead. He had just come off an 11th place finish in Event #3 so it was clear he was on his game. We pretty much avoided each other at the table, but I don't think it was intentional. Anyway, the boredom finally got to me and I decided to call with Q♣9♣ from late position after a raise to 350 and 3 callers. The flop came out K65 with (2) spades. Everyone checked to me and I decided to try and steal the pot. I bet 1100 and only a small girl called from the big blind. She had literally been winning every pot so I was a little worried. The turn missed the flush draw and she checked to me. I had a feeling she was on a flush draw. I decided to check and if the river bricked and she checked I would bet 2100. The river was a non spade 7 and she checked it to me. I fired out the 2100 bet and she went into the tank. This scared the crap out of me. What could she be thinking about she has a busted flush draw right? LOL. After about about 30 seconds I realized my line was a little suspect. She called after about a minute of thinking with T♠7♠. UGH. Nice call. My plan would have worked with no T, 7 or spade on the river. That happens about 2/3 of the time. A triple barrel bluff would have probably got it done, but I would have had to commit a significant chunk on the turn and river to get it done. Ohh well I still had over 6k or so.

I was talking a lot at the table, but playing tight. I don't really know what my image was, but after that clear bluff it couldn't have been good. With the blinds still at 50/100 I raised to 400 from the 2 hole with KK. Only the big blind called and we saw a flop. It was a gross 8 A 3 flop. He checked, I checked behind. The turn was an 8. Check, Check. The river was a beautiful King. He quickly checked and I started counting out some chips. While I was doing this he started grabbing his chips looking ready to call just about any bet. I picked up on this immediately, and decided to count out some more chips. I decided to pick a ridiculous number for the 900 pot. The same bet as the bluff earlier 2100. So sexy. He pretty much insta called the 2100 and flipped over his crappy Ace with authority. I guess he thought I was bluffing. I quickly showed my Kings full and the dealer said, "Holy crap." I guess everyone thought I was bluffing. LOL.

This was the last highlight I would have for awhile as my chips started blinding off. Beginning of Level 3: 8600, Level 4: 7450, Level 5: 6850, Level 6: 5000, Level 7: 5350. Finally late in Level 7 (50/300/600) I doubled up and then some to 13,800 with QQ against AJ and had some breathing room. Shortly after this double up I got moved to another table. I immediately smelled some wicked B.O. It was the guy to my direct left. Brutal. Then I noticed the clear table captain. A tiny Asian guy that was flipping chips around like a ninja. I had position on him, and had a feeling we were going to tangle soon. Still in Level 7 I raised it from the 2 hole to 1800 with 66. Not a normal play for me, but the limping police were clearly out at this table, and the tiny Asian guy was in the big blind. The action folded quickly to him in the big blind and he flatted after some hesitation. The flop was a relatively nice 5 4 2 rainbow. He checked and I bet 5000. He thought for a long time, asked for a count from me and raised it to 10,000. It was 5k more for me to call, but that wasn't an option. I shipped my chips in and he quickly called the 3k or 4k extra I had. The hands were turned over and I had him in really bad shape as he showed AK. I'm sure he was thinking he had 4 more outs with the 3, but those were dead tough guy. I was about 75% to win here, and somehow my hand held up. LOL. Too much internet poker. After this pot I was up to about 30k and ready to go on a run.

After picking up some nice steals I won a race for about a 25k pot with my JJ holding up against a short stacks KQ. Winning races against short stacks is an absolute key to winning no limit holdem tournaments. Losing them doesn't hurt a ton, but winning them gives you a momentum that is just unexplainable. I was cranked up to about 70k when a short stack pushed for about 18k from early position. It was the last hand of the 800 and 1600 blinds with a 200 ante. It folded to me in the big blind and I made the relatively easy call with AQ. He showed 99. Time to win another race with a short stack right? Wrong! The 9's held up and my momentum was completely squashed. Instead of having 92k I was sitting at 52k. Boo!!! Man I could have really done some things with 92k!!

We went on dinner break at this point of the tournament. I had an hour to stuff my face with some crap Harrah's food and return to the tournament. While on dinner break I noticed the upcoming levels were getting brutal. Level 11: 300/1000/2000 (6000 pot) Level 12: 400/1500/3000 (8500 pot). Even though I had more than the chip average of 39k (120 players left) I still had less than 10 orbits before I was broke. I was going to have to pick up some hands or start taking some risks or I was going to get blinded off from this tournament. Taking risks seemed kind of stupid when I noticed the payout structure scrolling on the big screen. The top 45 got paid, and 45th place was $2200. 9th place was only about $3000. This was the flattest payout structure I had ever seen. It put an absolute premium on just cashing, which affected my play significantly.

The first hand off the deck from the break the action folded to me in the hijack and I looked down at 88. I made it 6k to go. The small blind raised it to 15k with about 10k left behind. Normally my chips would be in the middle so fast it would make the small blind's head spin, but my remaining 46k in chips were glued to the felt. I felt 88 played well against his range, but I didn't want to take a race at this juncture. If I lost I'd only have about 27k and be in big trouble. If I won I would have 77k and not be all that dominant. I showed him the 8's and he showed AQ. This hand was a sign of things to come.

I went completely card dead at this point. I think I only played one real hand after this. There was a raise from early position and I flatted with 99. Normally I'm all in over the top with 10 big blinds in this spot, but again the payout structure. My read on him was that he was strong, but was it AK strong or QQ? Let's call and see a flop. The big blind called and the flop came Jack high. The BB checked and he bet pretty big and I folded. I just felt he had QQ for some reason, but I may have had the best of it. I decided to play small ball and try to get a read on the flop. Probably just a stupid play in the long run. Trying to play small ball late in high ante structure no limit holdem tournaments with a short stack is a recipe for disaster. Every book says you need to press the action or fold. Well every book isn't dealing with the flattest payout structure in the history of tournament poker!!!

Somehow I survived until there were only 55 players left. Only 10 left to go until the money and a juicy 1600 profit. The blinds were at 500/2k/4k and I only had about 30k left. A player in middle position raised to 12k and shipped it all in with AK for my last 30k. The action folded to the big blind (a small Asian lady) who re-raised to like 70k. The initial raiser folded and I flipped up my AK. She looked at my hand, paused for a few seconds, stood up and slow rolled the hell outta two freaking Aces!!!!! Wow I have incredible luck. I was 8% to survive the hand. Lovely. I was dead after the turn hit the board and that was that. 10 hours of poker with nothing to show for it but a story of how bad I played at the end of the tournament. After this I vowed to never let a payout structure dictate my play again! I decided to skip the cash games for the night, and get some rest for Event #5.

Late Night Cash Game

Immediately following my poor showing in Event #3 I decided to play a little $1/$3 NLHE. I wasn't going to make the same mistake of buying in for the minimum this time. I decided to buy in for $300, and hoped to have similar results to the earlier cash game. Well unfortunately things didn't go the way I had planned initially. I never could seem to get anything cooking and my stack seemed to hover between $250 and $350 for hours and hours. I started playing at about 6 or 7 and it was going on midnight. I was determined to grind out a win, but even though I wasn't winning I was having a really great time. I felt I was really holding my own at the table and eventually I was going to win some big pots.

Well it took a bluff to get this started. A new player at the table sat down on my right in a Redskins jersey, and he was clearly a confident player. He had just missed cashing in the noon tournament, and was talking it up with anyone that would listen. The player that was in his seat before was a really cool guy that I talked with the entire time, but this new guy didn't seem as nice. I could tell he was a deep thinker, so I decided right then if a good spot came up I would try to run a bluff. The big bluffing pot came up with Mr. Redskins straddling in the first position. This is where the player places down double the big blind, and is last to act. I was the first to act and looked down at AQs and decided to make it $20 to go. One other player to my left called and Mr. Redskin called from the straddle. The flop was a total air ball for my hand and it checked around. The turn was another brick and Mr. Redskin decided to lead out for $25. I felt here if I was to raise it to $75 that he would make me for the overpair and throw his hand away. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The other player quickly folded. You could tell Redskin was a little frustrated, and when he folded his hand he said to me, "Bet your hand dude. You don't need to be all hollywood... just bet your hand." Well I wasn't going to do it, but after that speech I had to show him the bluff. He was pretty pissed after that. I think he was leaving the table anyway for a higher stakes table, but he left pretty quickly after that bluff.

After making that move I knew I would have to play a little tighter, but the players at the table kept rotating out. So it didn't really matter. I seemed to be the only one willing to play late. The players that were rotating in were visibly drunk, and I ended up winning a huge pot off one guy with KK. He raised from middle position, and I re-raised from the straddle. Picking up a big hand in the straddle is crazy profitable. Usually people think you are just defending your straddle. He called my re-raise and the flop came like 9 high or something. I bet big and he moved in. I got a count and it wasn't much more. I had to call, but figured he flopped a set. I was wrong. He had nothing and his cards went flying in the muck when he didn't improve on the turn and river. I said, "What did you have?" and he said, "Nothing I'm drunk." and left the table. I picked up a couple more pots off the drunk fish, and ended up clearing a $350 profit. I didn't get back to my room until 3 am, but it was worth it. I decided at that point I was playing in Event #4 the next day, errr I mean that day...

WSOP Tunica Event #3

After my quick cash game score I was absolutely stoked to play LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!! The tournament drew 509 players and I started with a pretty good table draw. The players there were allowing me to see a lot of flops cheap which I love to do. I was creating a very loose and aggressive table image, but my chips weren't really going anywhere as I hovered around the 10k starting stack for the first level. Then in Level 2 (50/100) building the loose image finally paid off. I raised it from the 1 hole with AJs to 350 (I told you I was playing loose), and got one caller from the SB who was also playing very loose and not particularly deep (about 5k). The flop was a beauty AJ4. He checked I bet 650 he quickly called. The turn was an 8 which turned out to be a cooler. He checked and I eyed his stack and let out a moan. He said, "Go ahead and bet your AJ, I know you have AJ." So I decided the best move would be to listen. Why because F him I've got a loose image. I bet 1150, and he moved all in for 4k total. He kept saying if you have AJ you are good, which scared the hell out of me, but I just couldn't get away from the hand. There was 7250 in the pot and only 2850 to call. I was pot stuck. If I lost the hand would have dropped to about 6 or 7k which I didn't mind. I called and he showed the dead man's hand AA884 which was crushed by my AAJJ4. I was a 95% favorite to win the hand. The river was a complete brick, and just like that I was up to about 16k.

I was pretty much stuck at that number playing loose aggressive until a crushing hand struck at Level 5 (25/150/300). After a couple of EP limpers a tall thin gentlemen with about 12k raised to to 1400. I looked down at JJ from the hijack, and decided to flat it and see a flop. I wanted to trap him into losing chips with an AK continuation bet on the flop into my loose image. This isn't a typical play for me. Usually I would make it 4k to go to prevent any other callers, but my image was so loose I didn't think it would accomplish much. I was hoping to get a heads up in position with this guy, but what happened next made the hand tough. A new player at the table with a lot of chips flatted from the Button, the BB called and the one EP limper. We were going to a 5 way flop. Crap. The flop came out 8♦ 2♦ 2. The BB checked, EP checked, and the initial raiser shoved it all in for 10250. OMG what should I do in this spot? The pot had 7400 in it before and now it had 17650. 1.72 to 1, I need 37% to call. Time to put him on a hand and make a decision. Let me tell you it took awhile. The likely hands are either AA, KK, QQ, TT, 99, AK or A♦K♦ with some total bluffs. I was thinking most likely KK, QQ or TT or A♦K♦ with a small chance he was figuring everyone missed with a small to medium pair If I called and won the pot I would have about 28k which would have given me a lot of room to work. I still had about 15k so if I lost I would still have 5k and about 17bb's. I felt like I was beat, but for some reason all my chips got pushed out into that pot. I just couldn't pass on the lure of chipping up to almost 30k. Everyone else folded and he tabled QQ. I had a 10% chance of winning the pot, and the Q's held. If he tabled AK, TT, 99 or 77 I look like a genius, but in the end I think I deserve a dunce cap. I knew he was strong, but I just couldn't couldn't fold the hand. I went against my read, against my poker sense and tried to be "that guy" that chips up early in the tournament by playing loose aggressive. Well guess what "that guy" gets bounced from tournaments just as frequently.

So I was down in the dumps, but definitely not out. I needed to find a hand and go with it as the blinds had jumped to 50/200/400 and I only had about 4100. The final hand came quickly starting with 4 limpers and I looked down at Ad5d. I didn't take long in shipping my chips into the 2700 pot. This is a pretty standard short stack move. I only have 10bb's and an M of less than 4 so it is go time. Stealing pots like these is essential unless of course you can pick up a monster to double up. The first limper thought for awhile, and eventually moved all in for only about 2k more than my total. Everyone else folded, and he tabled 66. I was in bad shape with only a 30% chance of winning. The board completely bricked out, and the 10,500 pot was shipped to the 6's. The end result was good for the 6's, but I think his decision is marginal. I think a high percentage of the time I induce everyone to fold and pick up 2700. Even if I don't then I will still probably double up 30% of the time. In the end a positive EV play, but unfortunately I was out early of my first tournament of the weekend.

(Thursday) A Quick Start and A Quick Exit

Well I decided to wake up early and get off to a quick start for Tunica so I could make the Noon tournament. I left Norcross, GA at 5:00 am EST and arrived at Harrah's at 9:45 am CST. Made the trip in just under 6 hours. Impressive. I made my way upstairs to where the tournament was the year before, and was unpleasantly surprised to see that the area was closed off and under construction. For a second I thought, "Oh my God I came on the wrong weekend." LOL. Thankfully the area had just been moved, but it was a scary couple of seconds. I quickly signed up for the Thursday's tourney, and Saturday's. I had a feeling that Saturday's tourney would be huge, and I was right.

At this point I had two hours to kill. I decided to try the buffet which had been newly remodeled. Unfortunately, they hadn't remodeled the food as it was just as horrible as last year. After a couple of trips to the bathroom I was ready for a cash game. LOL. The poker room was newly remodeled and looked really nice. They had probably 20 or 30 tables in the new poker room and the walls were decorated with large framed photos of poker greats. I definitely picked up some ideas for decorating my poker room a little better. I decided to make the min buy in at a $1/$3 table, and would immediately regret the decision. I should have bought in for the max!!! After donking off a few chips early I decided to see a flop after a UTG raise followed by 4 callers with 66. The flop was a beauty J 6 2. The UTG raiser bet again, and after a couple of folds I re-raised him and he moved me in with only AJ. Unfortuntely I didn't have enough chips!!! The hand would have of course played out differently if I had 300 in stead of 100, but I think I could have picked up a pot bigger than $250. After winning that pot I only had about 15 minutes before the start of the tourney so I decided to make a quick exit. It was time to play LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!!!

Some Internet Success

Well after weeks of futility and complaining I finally stopped the bleeding online with a win in a 90 player KO SNG. Not the big score I was looking for, but a win none the less. Players were just giving me their chips early on in the tournament. Some of the calls and plays were so obsurd, but I'll take it. This further reinstates my theory of niting it up early in this tournament. The play is just so bad you can wait for free chips. No need for deep thought and fancy plays on the donks. I played extremely well at the final table. Picked my spots well, and really controlled the action. The heads up match was tougher than it needed to be. My opponent was really holding the deck early on, and it wasn't looking good. Finally I had to take a stand and go with a read on a betting pattern. I made a nice play to induce a fold, and that really turned the tide as he started to laydown and wait for a hand.

I played very aggressively after the flop to get a 3 to 1 chip lead. I think he had, had enough and open shoved with a weak ace when I had 99 in the BB. He caught an ace and just like that we were even. This is all pretty standard here, but I frequently let players back into heads up matches in spots like this. An argument can be made to just keep chipping away. I got a decent chip lead again and he open shoved 90k and I had 180k. He seemed to be getting impatient. At least that was my read. Also he hadn't been open shoving his really strong hands. So I decided to call with A4. He had QJ and my hand held up. Later on I checked his stats online and he has an 11% rating. I can't believe it took me that long to beat this guy. LOL. Ohh well a win is a win.