The Wabash Club

Last night I played at the Wabash Club for the first time. Cambo, the guy who organised our team for the team event, plays there often and met up with me beforehand to show how to get there.

The club has five tables and some couches as well as a few tv's spread out over the card room. Not a bad place at all. The tourney was a £25+£2 registration. You got 7,500 chips and another 15,000 anytime before the first break. The first hour was 100-200 blinds, and then half hour levels after that.

The first hour I played sooooooo tight. Played three hands in that time as well as two big blinds, Winning one pot. They had me labelled as the tightest player in the room. Thats fine, I want that.

During that first hour the funniest thing I have encountered at a poker table occured. The table was self dealt so we would high card when a dealer was ready to stop dealing and switch with another player. Apparently I dont look like I belong at a poker table as the dealer doing the high card placed his hand in front of me and said very slowly, "If you get the highest card of all the cards that are flipped over, you have to deal, ok?" Nice guy and all and only trying to be helpful, just quite funny. Anwyays.

The first major hand occured a few hands into the second level with me in the BB. There is one limper at 200-400 (they skip 150-300) and then the SB raised it to 2000. He is a maniac and could have anything. I look down and see JJ. I call, the limper calls. The flop comes 3J4 rainbow. Cue up the band. The small blind comes out firing with 3000. I call, the limper calls. The turn is an 8. The SB checks, I check, the limper bets out 5000. The small blind folds. I then go all in for an additional 5400. He calls. I flip over my set and he looks disgusted and shows AJ drawing dead. Second pot I win all night and I am table chip leader. Not bad at all.

I continue to play tight, no point getting involved and see few flops. I then pick up QK in mid position and raise the 300-600 blinds, 2800 to go. Now again, I have been playing tight and yet the small blind and big blind both call. (I know QK is not a great hand but I had good position and people were not used to seeing me play a hand). The flop comes out K73. Not bad. The SB checks, the BB checks. I bet out 3800. The SB folds, the BB calls. The turn is a 2. He checks and after seeing he has 18000 left, I bet 7000. He then goes all in. Making it 11000 to me. There is 41,000 in the pot and I have to call 11,000. I have 40,000 left in my stack (so I am in fine shape if I lose) and I am getting almost 4-1 on my money. I was most afraid of K7, but I thought maybe KT or K9. As I am deliberating, he says, "If you have to think this long, you are behind". Hmmmm. At that point I dont think he wants a caller and that seals it. Getting 4-1 and his strange speech play make it a call (I would have called without him saying anything but it just solidified it) He flips over K2 for two pair made on the turn. I laugh for his chasing and promptly river a 3 for a better two pair with my Q kicker. He is not happy, but to be fair, who is when they get knocked out. (I ended up speaking to him later and he is a nice guy, he even volunteered to deal for us later on, cheers Jack, unlucky) Now a few players at the table made some noise about me calling, whatever, I dont care. But Bob, a regular at the Cincinnatti Club, summed it up quite well, "What the hell is he calling preflop with K2?" Now I am not saying Jack made a bad play in calling preflop, but I think it is hard to say I should have laid it down on the river yet he should have called preflop. They are either both good plays or both bad plays.

I am now over 80,000 and I think tourney chip leader. I continue to coast along. I play few hands and basically wait patiently. The blinds are not big enough to start stealing consistently and there are a few short stacks in pushing mode, best to keep out for the time being. During this time a player arrives at the table, an older gentlemen who seems to be well known by most people there. He seems like a solid player. A little while passes and this new player is in the SB to my BB. With the blinds now at 800-1600 he flat calls my BB. I have Q9 and check it. The flop comes Q7Q. He immediately bets 6000. Now obviously I know I am ahead. If he has a Q or 77 he is gonna check. The problem however, is that I can't see his chips. He has his arms in the way and I can't see how much he has left. I dont want to go all in and have him fold with 20,000 or so still left thereby wasting a great opportunity to get them. Basically, I dont know if he is pot committed. I ask him how many chips he has but I didnt hear him. Either an accent problem or my ipod was on too loud (which I dont think it was but it could have been and I am giving him the benefit of the doubt) He finally moves his hands and I can see he has 8000 left. I raise him all in right away and he calls. He flips over 67 and I flip Q9. He immediately gets up and gives me a dirty look. I say unlucky, good game to which he gives me another dirty look and says something I couldnt make out. I take off my ipod to assess what the hell is going on. I look at the table for answers. Another regular says that he wasnt impressed with how much time I took to raise and thats why he is upset. I look at the player who is now standing a few feet away from the table and tell him I didnt know how many chips he had left. He then says 'Fucking prick'. I shrug my shoulders and respond with 'ok'. I am not getting into a war of words with someone not on the table. A little while passes and he is now talking to someone else. I can see is he talking about me again and motions towards me. I attempt to see if he has calmed down yet and say 'I'm sorry for taking so long, but I didnt know if you were pot committed, I didnt want to go all in and have you fold'. His response? 'You have the fucking chips, just put them in ya fucking prick'. Yes, definitely the highlight of the evening.

I continue to plod along, nothing dangerous, min raise the blinds of some short stacks and stay out of trouble. I then get moved to another table. I get some good cards and raise a few blinds take some down, nothing monumental. Pretty soon, the two tables are hand for hand for an eight player final. A bit unfair for my table as we are four handed and hit the blinds more frequently then the other table but what can you do?

I have about 130,000 out of around 810,000 and I am around 2nd or 3rd in chips. I then get 22 in the SB. The BB was just moved to the table and I have never played with him before. He has around 100,000. I raise the 2000-4000 blinds to 10,000. The flop is rags and I bet out 15,000. He folds and makes a comment about me stealing. Next orbit it is folded to me again in the SB. I look down to see AK. I raise again to 10,000. He takes a look at his cards and immediately goes all in for an additional 85,000. Damnit. I know he thinks I am stealing. And I know AK is either miles ahead or a coin flip. I also know that if I win this hand I am winning the tournament. No doubt in my mind I will win if I win this hand. I think about it and basically thought that the possibility of AQ or AJ was too good and even with a coin flip I can still win. I call. He flips over 99. The flop gives him a set. That is that. I am down to 30,000 in chips. It is here where I am the most diappointed in myself. I go all in with J7 next hand. I lose another coin flip to 33. I wish I had of played the stack tougher. Two double ups and I am back to where I was. I was just so distracted with losing the hand that I gave up. Something that I usually take pride in not doing.

Looking back I played solid poker for over four hours and I put it on the line with a coin flip when I had over 33 big blinds. Doyle Brunson says, "Never go broke in an unraised pot". I did. I have learned my lesson. Yes, the pot would have allowed me to win, but was it worth the risk of not having a chance to win at all? I think if I fold I do damage at the final table. My SnG game is strong and when I have a chip lead I can be dangerous. Too bad I didnt get the chance. Next time.

All in all, it was an ok night. The game is much different from anywhere I have ever played for sure. And without a doubt the most awkward moment I have ever encountered playing was the Q9 hand. But I plan on playing many more tournaments so I think if that stays the worst I will have a happy poker future.