Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 162
Location: Plano
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Merlotgirl and I played in the biweekly $550 tournament hosted by TJ Cloutier at Choctaw Casino this past Sunday.
30 players.
30 minute blinds
10,000 starting stack
Antes start in level 4
Paying top 3.
$15,000 prize pool.
TJ Cloutier (who is now the spokesman for the Choctaw Casino Poker Room) was the first player to bust out when his flopped 2 pair runs into a full house, about 5 minutes into the tournament. He wasn't at my table (but there was a $550 bounty on his head) so the player who knocked him out (a dealer from Winstar) was freerolling.
I knocked the second player out of the tournament and doubled up about halfway through the first blind level. It folds to me in the Hi Jack seat and I rase 3XBB with 10 10. The BB calls. Flop comes A 7 7. BB checks, I throw out a 3/4 pot sized C Bet. and the BB calls. Damn. He has an Ace, I need to shut it down now. The turn is a Q. He checks. I check. River is the prettiest 10 I ever saw. He makes a pot size bet. I triple it. He pushes all in. I insta call. He slow plays his 777AA flopped full house, into me hitting a bigger boat on the river. Sweet!
I mixed it up a few times with the player immediately to my right (who played about 80% of the hands) he would either limp and call a raise, or raise to begin with virtually every hand. I had one big hand with him when my Kc Qc flopped 2 clubs. I called a sizable c bet by him. The most beautiful card in the deck fell on the river (Ac) giving me the nut flush (and the nuts on this unpaired board). He bet about 4,500. I took half my 500 chips and half my 1,000 chips and spilled them over the bet line, making it somewhere in the neighborhood of a raise to 11,000 or so. He folded, saying he had a set of 9's. I don't beleive him.
This guy's stack went up and down like a roller coaster. He had a pretty significant stack when he got into this hand with another player. He limped UTG. 3 other callers until it got to the short stack, who put about 2/3's of his stack in (raising about 5X the BB). Guy thought about it...then came over the top for about 3 times the guys raise. it folded to the original raiser, who couldn't get his chips in fast enough. Original raiser showed JJ. Overbetting LAG shows 2 4 off suit claiming he thought he could push the guy off his hand. Uhhh....he had more than half his chips in the pot already. Not sure how you came up with that play. JJ doubled up (and eventually made final table).
I get moved to Merlot's table. Blinds are 400 / 800. UTG raises to 2,400. I wake up with AA in MP and reraise to 6,000. It folds to UTG. He goes in the tank. Asks me if I'll show him my cards if he folds. I tell him..."My wife's father told her never to show anyone your cards unless you have to." He says...that's her, not you. I say "Goes for me too." Then I remember what we talked about at one of our bootcamps. People want to call. They just need a reason to. So I looked away...looked nervous...scratched my face...anything i could think of to get him to call. Finally, he laid it down. Grrrr....
I get moved to the other table. We're down to 2 tables, and my stack is dwindling. I'm somewhere around 16 - 18 K. Blinds are 500 / 1000. I'm BB with Q 9 offsuit. UTG calls. It folds to the SB who calls. flop comes up with two hearts and Q high. SB checks, I bet 2,500. UTG Pushes all in. I go in the tank. I don't beleive he's got a bigger Queen. He would have raised with AQ, KQ and possibly QJ. Why play QJ or Q 10 out of position. He could have flopped a set. I doubt it was 2 pair, on the pretty raggedy board. His bet would leave me with about 8K if I lost. I thought some more, and decided he most likely had heart suited connectors and was trying to push me off the hand on a semi bluff. I thought for another minute or so and decided I was pretty sure i was ahead. So I called. He had 8 10 of hearts, and missed on the turn and river. whew.....that was helpful.
Merlotgirl and I both made final table. One of the relatively shorter stacks asks if everyone can agree to a “save” Where 4th through 9th get their buyins back, and they recalculate 1st, 2nd and 3rd. One player, the big stack at the time, an old rancher says no. He is the only “no”. I have no problem with this…he has friends at the table, and they say he never chops. That’s fine. The second biggest stack, mentions that it’s bad karma not to…and off we go.
A few hands later, I have KK and raise under the gun, the rancher (immediately to my right in the big blind) goes all in. I insta call. He has QQ. He gets no help and he has now gone from biggest stack , to shortest stack. Karma at work.
Probably a half hour later, Merlotgirl finishes him off. I don’t remember the details, but she knocks him out. With him gone we are able to make the deal, so everyone left gets their buy-ins back.
After my KK hand I go card dead for the next three blind levels. During that time, Merlotgirl gets crippled and is sitting with 2,600 and the blinds are 2,000 / 4,000. she’s BB for less. She gets one player to call…and with me in the SB, I come along for an additional 2,000. The other caller and I check it down. He paired the 9 on the river.
There were 2 Kings on the board. Merlot flips over her cards. The first card she turns over is a K…cha ching….she’s tripled up and then some.
Next hand she has 55….and pushes all in to take the blinds and antes.
Next hand she’s all in again. 2 callers. Board comes up with a couple face cards, and a 9…the river is a 7…which matches the pocket 7’s she has in her hand. Another triple up and then some….now she’s sitting on 36,000 or so. From 2,600 to 36,000 in 4 hands.
It gets better. She doubles up one more time when she raises with AA, player to my right goes all in, and she calls. He has KK and doesn’t improve.
So now she’s sitting on 76,000. And probably the second biggest stack. About 8 hands after she couldn’t post her BB.
My 60,000 stack got blinded and anted down to about 28k when It folds to me and I have 88. I push. The guy 2 to my left in the SB wakes up with AA and calls. I don’t hit. I bust out 7th.
Merlot runs into a guy who flopped two small sets, and she eventually busted out 6th.
So we played 7 and a half hours, and got our money back. It was a great tournament. The overall quality of play was much, much better then the usual $200 or $300 tournaments. It was great practice. |
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"Lord, let me break even today. I really need the money" |
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