Today at work I took a look at my blog and saw someone had commented on my latest post. Cambo, a good player who plays at the Cincinnati Club and the Wabash regularly, asked if I would be heading to Cincins for the nightly tourney. I had not given it any thought previous to his post but as the day progressed, a little poker was just what I needed. I came home and hopped on the Blonde Poker forum and looked up the schedule. Friday nights there are two tourneys running. A 6:00pm 25£ 10K chip freeze, 7 handed, with 15 minute levels, and a 9:30 30£ freezeout with 20 minute levels. I figured that because I have not played in awhile, I would play the cheaper early game, and if I liked how I was playing, I would stay on and play the later game.
I got to Cincins and some regulars were having a 1£ sng to kill time before the tourney. It was nice to be back at the club and to see some familiar faces. The tourney began with 24 players paying the top three. I took my seat and we were off.
My table was quite strong from what I could see. Many faces usually seen at the final table were all at my starting table, no time to ease back into live poker, I would earn my chips. I agreed to deal the first two levels as I dont like dealing when the blinds are big and stealing is required. I want to concentrate on stealing and only stealing.
As I am dealing my first hand, the other table near us has an all in and a call! First hand or so. AA v QQ all in preflop. The Q on the flop sends a player to the side. So I get my first hand during the first orbit JJ, and raise to 350. It is folded around and I win my first pot. I get JJ the very next hand and make it 300. I get one caller. The flop is A high, and I check. He bets 500 and I call. Turn is a 6. I check, he bets 1000, I fold. I played this hand badly. I should have came out betting, or check raised the flop. Although I lost only a few chips, and I am 98% sure he had the ace after his turn bet.
I plod along and end up getting 9T in the BB. I check with 1 limper and the sb completing. The flop comes T62. SB checks, I bet 2/3 the pot. Limper folds, sb calls. Turn is a 4. he bets 500. Hmmmm, I call. River is a J. He bets another 1000, I think and think and call. He mucks immediately. Not sure what he had but his betting made no sense for a hand that is beating me. Possibly 35 but he wouldnt call the flop with a gutterball so I was confident. I get AQ and raise, one caller, flop is A high and I bet out, take it down. I am on about 14000 or so when this hand occurs. The blinds are now 150-300 (third level) and on the button I get 77. I raise, making it 1100 to play. The sb folds. The bb is a solid player capable of making moves. I can see from his body language that he does not have a great hand, but he calls. The flop is A64, two hearts. He checks, I check. Mistake! Should have bet out. Turn is a 2 of clubs. He checks, I bet 1400. He min raises to 2800, I call. River is 2 of spades, and he moves in for 6k. Damn. I think and think about what he could have. I was obviously scared of 35, but I kept thinking he had 64 but the running 2's made me a higher two pair. I counted out my chips and realised that if I called and lost, I would have only 6k left, and I didnt need to put my chips in a position like this one. I folded. He then looked at his cards and showed the Q of diamonds, mucking the other. Wow. What the hell did he have. Although something struck me. If he had nothing, he would not have been worried about what card to show me, as if it was a total bluff, either card is alright to show. That made me think 2. A little while later he said he had Q2, which I believe. His reasoning being that he felt it was the best way he could induce a call by making it look like a total bluff. Good fold by me, badly played flop by me.
Few hands later I get 66 and take the blinds. Then I get K9o in the cutoff. I make it 1300 to play (200-400). The bb (never played with him before) calls. The flop comes 678 rainbow. Not a bad flop. He checks, I bet 1000, he min raises to 2000. I call. Turn is a K. He bets 3000. I go all in for 10K or so. He folds JJ face up. Wow, did not think he was that strong at all. I made a note to remember he flat calls with strong hands in the future. A few hands later another hand with the same guy arises. I get KTdiamonds UTG and limp for 400. It is completed by sb and checked by bb. Flop comes KQ5, two hearts. sb checks, bb checks, I make it 1500. SB raises me to 3000. Weird. BB folds, I call. Turn is T of clubs, giving me two pair, but putting a straight draw out. He bets out 4000, I go all in for around 14K. I hate the flush draw and I feel confident I am ahead and I am content to take it down there. He obviously hates that I moved in and after talking about me bluffing, mucked AQ face up. I show the KT diamonds for some bluffing credit later on. I am now cruising on about 20K and playing well. I then make some calls in position with small suited connectors, T8 spades, 57 spades and complete some small blinds. However, I miss each and I fall to around 14K-15K. Around this time, we break up the table. I get moved to the AA v QQ table and I know no one there.
The blinds are now pretty big, 300-600 and definitely worth stealing. I get no hands and go an orbit without anything. This tourney is fast becoming a Pokerstars turbo sng. I then get 99 and raise it to 2300. I take the blinds. The blinds then go to 400-800 and on the button I get 68suited. The bb has played one hand since I sat down so I make it 2200 to go. He moves in instantly for 6K more. Great. It is 6K to me, to win almost 11K. I dwell a bit to make it look like a decision, but fold saying an ace is ahead. He tells me he had one and mucks. Damn. Down to 10K or so. Blinds then rise again, and I soon find myself in the bb of 1000 with one limper and the sb completing. I look down at A8. I move in. With 3K in there and with only 9K back, I can increase my stack by 33%. Limper folds, sb who is chipped up, calls with A6. Window card on the flop is an 8 and I double up. Breathing room. Next hand, I am in the small blind and there are two limpers. I see 77 and ship it in again. After some minor dwelling, I take it down. 3600 chips without showing and I only had 20K to begin the hand with. We lose some players and I concentrate on winning one hand an orbit. Pretty soon we are down to two tables of 5 and we agree on a 10 player final due to the large blinds.
We go on a break, and then draw cards for the final seat positions. I draw seat 5 which is by far, my favorite seat, right in the middle of the table and away from the dealer grabbing my cards by accident. I sit down with 19K to start the final. This is just below average of 23K, but I am confident in my sng skills, especially with the rising blinds.
The final starts and I go through the blinds (800-1600) losing both. I am now sitting on 16.5K and in need of a playable hand to keep my fold equity. I then find 44 in mid position, and I ship it in. Caller from the button, blinds fold. I say 'I hope we are racing' He then says 'pair' and my heart sinks until I see 33 from him. Wow, quite possibly one of the best hands I could see other than 32 42 and 43. The board brings no drama and I add some needed chips, up to 30K (I eliminated him on the hand as he only had 11K left so it was not a total double up.) Then the hand of the night happens when I am in the sb (1000-2000) sitting on 34K. One limper from early position (Q2 guy from earlier) and I complete with 42clubs. The flop comes Ac Qc 8s. I check, bb checks, limper checks. This really surprised me. I 100% expected the limper to bet there. My thinking was that I check and when he bets, I flat call, looking for a club on the turn and then decide how to play a non club turn or depending on the size of the flop bet, make a large raise, committing a lot of chips to scare away a badly played JJ or KK. But when he checked, it made my life very easy. The turn was a beautiful Tc, completing my flush. I check again, knowing he will bet. Then the bb then does me a big favor and bets the minimum 2000 into a 6000 pot. The limper then raises, making it 15K to play. I instantly move in for another 19K. The bb gets out of the way and the limper looks pained and makes a crying call with KhJh for the straight. The Tc was the best possible card for me, giving him the straight and me the flush. I am chipped up now sitting on 70K and chip leader by quite a bit. I then take control but play smart. I dont bluff needlessly but play my cards strong. I also get some luck. The Q2 player moves in on my bb for 9.5K total with blinds at 1500-3000. It is folded to me and I have 63o. It is 6.5K to me to win 14K, better than 2-1 and I am confident I have 2 live cards. I call, he has KT. Flop comes KT4, turn a 5, river.....2. I hit my straight. A few hands later the button bets into me for 12K total and I put him all in with QQ. He calls with AQ and no drama, I take on another 24K. I am now sitting on 110K or so and we are four handed.
We agree to a saver of 50£ for 4th place as the top 3 were only getting paid. Then an interesting hand comes up. I get AT UTG and make it 12K to play. The bb calls. The flop comes 963. He checks, I check. The turn is an 8. He bets out 15K, I instantly go all in as I sense weakness from him. He thinks and thinks, and then asks, if he folds will I show?. I say yes and he mucks Q8 face up. I show the AT and he says nh. I then confirm it was my first bluff of the night to which he says was a reason why he folded. I then get some cards AQs, AT, KTs and take a lot of blinds. Then when in the bb and blinds are 3K-6K, the SB asks if I have looked at my cards yet. I say no. And he says, me neither, I will go in blind if you call blind. I work it out and with 9K already in the middle, I need to call another 13K to win 25K. I agree. We each then flip over a card. I show a 2, he shows a T. The board hits neither and he flips over the other which is a 2. I flip over an ace and win the hand.
Three handed I move in a few times and steal blinds and have 75% of the chips in play. Then the other two players have an all in and AT beats 92 to win. So heads up I have about 170K to 60K or so. The prize money is 245£ for first 135£ for second. I do the math before we play a hand heads up and I realize that we are both guaranteed 135£ and we are playing for 110£. One double up by him though me and he is chip leader. So I say to him 'I will give you 20£ from first prize, making 1st prize 225£ and 2nd place 155£ if you agree to stop now and give me first place'. He thinks about it, and agrees. We shake hands, and I walk away with 215£ (10£ tip for dealer). I was thinking about the deal on the way home and I think it was pretty good for me. I gave up the chance to win 110£ for an assured 90£. In other words, if we had played, I only have to lose 20% of the time or more to be -ev. (I win 4 of 5 times for 440£ or I deal five times for 450£) If we play 5 times, it is entirely possible I lose once.
All in all, it was fun to get back to live poker and to feel the chips and cards instead of see them on a screen. I played well and hit the cards I needed to. Which is basically what winning a poker tournament is all about. After the tourney, I decided not to press my luck and play the 9:30 freeze as I dont think winning twice in one night would happen, and also to put myself in the right frame of mind of starting over would be difficult.
which you can listen to on your ipod or simply on your computer. It is based out of Vancouver Canada and airs live Sunday nights with the upload on itunes happening a day or two later.
