Well I had a very profitable weeekend at the tables so I figured now would a great time to begin blogging about it.
I got up early on Saturday morning (Aug. 2) and I drove the 3+ hours to Coushatta Casino all by myself. :( Dawne (my gf) and Lucy (my dog) were going to go with me but Lucy hurt her leg last week while plying with one of the cats so we figured it would be best for her and Dawne to just stay home.
I arrived at the casino around 10:30am which gave me enough time to check into my hotel, freshen up and head over to the poker rooom.
Ahhhh the sound of poker chips!!!! God I love this game. I registered for the tournament which cost $230 and started at noon. I like this tournament, it suits my playing style. I have played it 4 times now and I have cashed in it every single time. We start with 8000 in chips, the blind levels last 20 minutes for the first 4 rounds then 30 minutes after that. Overall the tourny last about 7-8 hours depending on when we decide to stop playing and chop the pot. (Usually around the final 4 players). This tourny draws a little over 100 players each week so the prize pool is about 21k.
I grabbed a quick bite to eat just before the tourny then drew my seat card and sat down at my table. Unfotunatly I drew a table that I knew would be one of the first to break. Basicaly that meant that any table image that I worked to cultivate would be worthless when my table broke and we were all sent to different tables. What this meant is that I would not waste any chips on "advertising" in order to gain more profit in future hands.
Things were pretty uneventful for the first hour or so. By the first break I was still at about 8000 chips, I had not chipped up at all but the blinds were still so low that I was not worried at all.
Sure enough after break I began picking my spots and chipping up. To be honest I don't remember any key hands, I had no major double ups and I never had to put my tournament life on the line. I just slowly and steadily built my stack, always staying well above average in chips by using good hands or well timed bluffs. In fact that is always the way it has been for me in this tourny. Slow and steady all the way to the final table. (In future tournys I will jot down some notes on interesting hands so that I can post about them)
Once we got down to the final 2 tables I began getting more aggressive. As usual everyone else tightened up because they so desperately wanted to make the final table. I was able to pick up alot of blinds and limps to further build my stack. Once we were down to about 12 players I really started applying pressure and was able to go into the final table with a very healthy chip stack. One key had I remember is being in the big blind and it folds around to the smal blind who min rasied me. I called with I think a 78suited with a plan to take the pot away regardless of what the flop brings. The flop did not hit me. I remember it had king. The small blind bet into me and I moved over the top all-in with nothing. I had him covered so I was basically forcing him to decide if he wanted to end his tourny so close to being in the money. You know he might even have had a king but he layed it down because he sooooo badly wanted to cash. He said "That was a gutsy move". I smiled as I raked a decent sized pot.
On to the final table...
Of course right away someone suggested chopping the pot right then for about 2k each. A few people were for it but as I have done many times before...I held out. I told them that I would be open to a chop but not just yet. We kept playing and knocked out 1..2..3..4 players. Once we were down to six players the idea was brought up again to chop. I said I would be willing to but not for an even chop as I was second or third in chips at this point. Basically first got $3100, 2nd and third got $2800. We finished around 6:30pm so all in all not bad for a days work. That's about $430 per hour! Did I mention how much i love poker????
Afterwards I had a terrible headache. I almost always have bad headaches after long tournys. I am concentrating so long and doing so many mathmatical calculations that my brain just hurts! I hit the buffett and then headed up to my room thinking I might clean up and rest and then hit the $2/$5 table later on. That didnt happen. I watched a movie (Mr. Woodcock) talked to Dawne on the phone then attempted to get some sleep in that concrete bed!!! ( Not the Tempurpedic that I am used to thats for sure!!)
The next morning I woke up early hoping to get in a few hours at the $2/$5 table before my next tourny. I was also hoping that there would be some people at it that had perhaps still be there from the night before. Hopefully they would be very tired and give me some of their money!!! I bought in for $500 at a brand new table so no sleepy people that I could see. A few regulars and about 3 donaters. I spotted them right away and tryed to play pots with them. I only had time to play for about and hour and a half but in that time i made about $200. Most of that came from this guy trying to buff me out of a pot. By the river I had only made second pair but there was something about his $75 bet that made me think he had nothing and was just trying to bully me. I called it and sure enough...it was all mine! Plus it showed the rest of the table that I would call them down if I didnt think they had it and not to try and push me out of pots. I cashed out and got ready for my next tourny.
This buy in was only $150. The structure was the same but it had a much flatter payout...it paid the top 20%. There were 140 people i think. This was a private poker tourny for a league from Houston. I am not going to spend alot of time writing about this other than to say that the majority of these people did not know how to play very well and many of them had no concept of poker etiquitte. It was painful. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to just get put out of my misery so that I could go and play the cash games whick I knew were getting juicy by the minute as these awful players were busing out of the tourny and heading over there. Ahhh but my competiveness wouldnt let me so I kept on grinding away and eventually got my aces cracked and went out in like 13th place for $220 (inlcuding one bounty). Considering I played that tourny for like 6 hours it was a HUGE waste of time.
All in all it was a great weekend though. I can't wait to go back. And I can't wait till my next blog! This is fun!
I got up early on Saturday morning (Aug. 2) and I drove the 3+ hours to Coushatta Casino all by myself. :( Dawne (my gf) and Lucy (my dog) were going to go with me but Lucy hurt her leg last week while plying with one of the cats so we figured it would be best for her and Dawne to just stay home.
I arrived at the casino around 10:30am which gave me enough time to check into my hotel, freshen up and head over to the poker rooom.
Ahhhh the sound of poker chips!!!! God I love this game. I registered for the tournament which cost $230 and started at noon. I like this tournament, it suits my playing style. I have played it 4 times now and I have cashed in it every single time. We start with 8000 in chips, the blind levels last 20 minutes for the first 4 rounds then 30 minutes after that. Overall the tourny last about 7-8 hours depending on when we decide to stop playing and chop the pot. (Usually around the final 4 players). This tourny draws a little over 100 players each week so the prize pool is about 21k.
I grabbed a quick bite to eat just before the tourny then drew my seat card and sat down at my table. Unfotunatly I drew a table that I knew would be one of the first to break. Basicaly that meant that any table image that I worked to cultivate would be worthless when my table broke and we were all sent to different tables. What this meant is that I would not waste any chips on "advertising" in order to gain more profit in future hands.
Things were pretty uneventful for the first hour or so. By the first break I was still at about 8000 chips, I had not chipped up at all but the blinds were still so low that I was not worried at all.
Sure enough after break I began picking my spots and chipping up. To be honest I don't remember any key hands, I had no major double ups and I never had to put my tournament life on the line. I just slowly and steadily built my stack, always staying well above average in chips by using good hands or well timed bluffs. In fact that is always the way it has been for me in this tourny. Slow and steady all the way to the final table. (In future tournys I will jot down some notes on interesting hands so that I can post about them)
Once we got down to the final 2 tables I began getting more aggressive. As usual everyone else tightened up because they so desperately wanted to make the final table. I was able to pick up alot of blinds and limps to further build my stack. Once we were down to about 12 players I really started applying pressure and was able to go into the final table with a very healthy chip stack. One key had I remember is being in the big blind and it folds around to the smal blind who min rasied me. I called with I think a 78suited with a plan to take the pot away regardless of what the flop brings. The flop did not hit me. I remember it had king. The small blind bet into me and I moved over the top all-in with nothing. I had him covered so I was basically forcing him to decide if he wanted to end his tourny so close to being in the money. You know he might even have had a king but he layed it down because he sooooo badly wanted to cash. He said "That was a gutsy move". I smiled as I raked a decent sized pot.
On to the final table...
Of course right away someone suggested chopping the pot right then for about 2k each. A few people were for it but as I have done many times before...I held out. I told them that I would be open to a chop but not just yet. We kept playing and knocked out 1..2..3..4 players. Once we were down to six players the idea was brought up again to chop. I said I would be willing to but not for an even chop as I was second or third in chips at this point. Basically first got $3100, 2nd and third got $2800. We finished around 6:30pm so all in all not bad for a days work. That's about $430 per hour! Did I mention how much i love poker????
Afterwards I had a terrible headache. I almost always have bad headaches after long tournys. I am concentrating so long and doing so many mathmatical calculations that my brain just hurts! I hit the buffett and then headed up to my room thinking I might clean up and rest and then hit the $2/$5 table later on. That didnt happen. I watched a movie (Mr. Woodcock) talked to Dawne on the phone then attempted to get some sleep in that concrete bed!!! ( Not the Tempurpedic that I am used to thats for sure!!)
The next morning I woke up early hoping to get in a few hours at the $2/$5 table before my next tourny. I was also hoping that there would be some people at it that had perhaps still be there from the night before. Hopefully they would be very tired and give me some of their money!!! I bought in for $500 at a brand new table so no sleepy people that I could see. A few regulars and about 3 donaters. I spotted them right away and tryed to play pots with them. I only had time to play for about and hour and a half but in that time i made about $200. Most of that came from this guy trying to buff me out of a pot. By the river I had only made second pair but there was something about his $75 bet that made me think he had nothing and was just trying to bully me. I called it and sure enough...it was all mine! Plus it showed the rest of the table that I would call them down if I didnt think they had it and not to try and push me out of pots. I cashed out and got ready for my next tourny.
This buy in was only $150. The structure was the same but it had a much flatter payout...it paid the top 20%. There were 140 people i think. This was a private poker tourny for a league from Houston. I am not going to spend alot of time writing about this other than to say that the majority of these people did not know how to play very well and many of them had no concept of poker etiquitte. It was painful. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to just get put out of my misery so that I could go and play the cash games whick I knew were getting juicy by the minute as these awful players were busing out of the tourny and heading over there. Ahhh but my competiveness wouldnt let me so I kept on grinding away and eventually got my aces cracked and went out in like 13th place for $220 (inlcuding one bounty). Considering I played that tourny for like 6 hours it was a HUGE waste of time.
All in all it was a great weekend though. I can't wait to go back. And I can't wait till my next blog! This is fun!
