I played in a tourny over the weekend and I ought to have my poker license revoked (if a had one that is). So here is the jist of the story: $325 buyin
48 players
super long structure (12 hour tourny)
top 8 cash
first place makes $5,800
I play well all day. Pretty tight in the beginning but once i got my aces cracked by K8 I totally loosened up my game. I mean why sit around waiting for good cards if that is going to happen right?? Anyway we get down to 2 tables. I have a pretty decent stack (about 25bb). I was chipping up pretty good thanks to this one guy. I totally had his number. He was super LAG and everytime he raised I wanted in that pot because i knew i could outplay him postflop. He always gave me credit for a big hand thanks to few monsters that I showed earlier in the day. So if the board had an Ace in it i was betting like I had it whether i did or didnt. He always folded.
I had another big hand with someone else. I will recount that now:
I'm in middle position, i look down at 2 jacks, i raise 3 times the bb. I get one caller, the guy in the bigblind. This guy was a pretty good hand reader. I had been with him most of the day and he made some sick reads. Anyway the flop came AJx. This was a dream flop for me if he had and ace. If he didnt have an ace i probably wouldnt get much action. He checked, I bet but not too big because i wanted to see where he was and try to get some money out of him. He called. Sweet...he had an ace, probably AK and thought he was trapping me or maybe he didnt raise because he was scared that i had ace jack? The next card was a blank. He checked again. Now do i want to bet small or big? I thought about it abit and decided to move all my chips in the middle. He made a great laydown with ace king and said "i think you have a set of jacks". Damn, anyone else probably would have payed me off in that spot. I still won a pretty big pot though.
So on to the hand that maked me want to kill myself.
I hadnt seen any good cards for awhile so when i looked down at QJ in late position i figued it was time for me to at least try and pick up some blinds and antes. (at this point we are down to 12 players and the blinds and antes are significant) Everyone is tightening up some because we are so close to the final table of 9. I raise and get one caller. I would prefer to have just taken it down right then obviously but oh well lets see what the flop brings. 3c4s5s . Action is on him, he bets and before i know what the hell i'm doing i am moving all my chips in the middle. It was as if something took hold of me and just did it! I had no hand and no draw. WTF?????? I didnt even THINK about what I was doing. So he thought about it for a second and reluctantly called. He probably figured me for an overpair but he had 6c6s which made him open ended and gave him the odds to call my over pair (which i didnt have!). It sucked so bad having to turn over that QJ. I stood up, told him 'good call' and started getting my stuff together. I had 6 outs. about 24% to win. well the turn brought a 7 of spades giving him a straight. i was drawing dead. as i was leaving i saw the river card was an 8 of spades giving him a straight flush. even if i had an over pair i still would have lost. that actually made feel a little bit better for some odd reason.
So after playing for 7 hours i was out in 12th place. Man that one sucked! Dumb dumb dumb. I think i got possessed or something. Why did i shove? What is wrong with me?
Anyway i will say this: I really feel like i got my monies worth in this tourny. Clive may rake alot on his cash games but his tourny entry fees are very fair. We were fed and treated to tourny with the best structure i have ever played. Yeah it was a little bit warm in his house and there was a really loud parrot behind me for awhile but over all...well done. It saved me a drive to coushatta.
The only negative thing i have to say is about the first dealer that we had. He was awful. I think our table was at a disadvantage in the first couple of hours considering that we saw less hands than the other tables due to this inexperienced dealer. For $325 you expect someone that knows what they are doing. However once it was broght to clives attention he remedied the problem and pulled the guy out.
Anyway I guess that all for now.
