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Monday, January 23, 2006

I bowled in a ten game tournament Saturday. My first five games were horrible with one 213 or so in the middle of four 160 and 170 games. Then we broke for lunch, and my second five were pretty good. Three games over 200, a 192, and then out of nowhere I pulled out a 279. First nine strikes, and then a damn four pin. Still, pretty happy with that.

Afterwards, I went to Chumash and made some money. The very first hand, I got aces UTG. I didn’t have chips yet, so I said $25. Folded around to a shortstack who had $45 total who pushed all in. I called, and he had jacks. The flop was a disgusting 9TQ, but the turn and river didn’t help him and I had $45 in front of me before the chip runner came with my $200. I ended up +$383, but would lose all that and then some the next day at Commerce.

My first table at Commerce on Sunday was a rollercoaster. I dropped $100 quickly missing the flop with AQs 5 times, and then built up to +$200 with KK vs QQ and then AK vs JJ vs KQ. Then I missed a whole bunch more flops, and a flush draw with 5 people in the pot, and finished the session down $83 before breaking for dinner. Had dinner with glyphic, absinthe, change100, pokergnome, and a friend of his and a friend of mine. Shane had been at Commerce, too, but got killed at the tables and left before dinner. We ate at the Arena Sports Bar and Grill inside the casino, which was decent enough food.

Then I sadly went back to playing poker. Dropped two buyins at the $200nl game. The first, I raised to $25 UTG with TT. I had been getting zero action with my $25 raises. Not a single one had been called. This time, four callers. The flop looked pretty good to me, a 345. I had about the size of the pot left in front of me, so I pushed all in. I figured if someone had an overpair or a set, there was nothing I could do. All four people called. Even if I had the best hand at the moment, I figured there was no way I could win the pot so I pulled out another $200 before the rest of the cards were dealt. They turned over: A7o for a double gutshot, 53o for a flopped two pair, A6o for an open ended straight draw, and 52o for top pair with an open ended straight draw. The turn was a 2, and all four of them beat me. A6o won the pot. I needed something like running 88 or 99 to win that pot after the flop.

With my second buyin, I was getting good starting cards and missing flops and was down to around $65 and ready to go home. I looked down at the hammer UTG and just pushed it all in, expecting to get one call from the maniac at the table, lose, and go home. Three people called my $65. The table had certainly loosened up since that TT hand. The flop was K75, and the big blind bet $100 to knock out the other two players, and showed KQ. The turn was a 2, the river a blank, and I quadrupled up, and yelled “Hammer!” while tabling my cards. I played another hour or so, and finally busted out, getting all in with a flopped flush against a set. I didn’t even have to sweat out two cards, as the board paired on the turn to have me drawing dead. Had I won that hand, I would have been even for the day instead of down almost $500. Snakes on a plane.

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Congratulations to Ryan for his amazing first place finish in the first event of the LA Poker Classic, for a nice six figure payday!

Iggy owes everyone in IRC a dollar for a bad beat story from the tournament in Tunica. Maybe more, since it started, “So, I had KJ…”. Sucks to get knocked out that way, though, especially with a good shot at going deep in the money had you won.

For some good tournament reporting, check out Pauly‘s coverage of the Borgata Winter Open and Spaceman‘s reports from the World Poker Open in Tunica. We need to get someone covering the Classic in LA, too.