I went up to Chumash Saturady night with a friend from the bowling alley. The plan was to stay there all night, and play in the Sunday morning tournament. It’s a $60 buyin, and you get a coupon for $20 in chips. The field is capped at 154 (we play 11 handed until a table or two breaks, as it’s a 14 table room), and it’s a $10k guarantee. So, since it’s essentially a $40 buyin, there’s an almost $4000 overlay. Plus, they pay 40 places out of the 154, and also have cash for the top 5 hands of the tournament. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s a good tournament to play in. Consequently, though it starts at 10, registration usually fills up before 8. That led to the decision to stay all night. It’s the only way I ever get to play in this tourney. Assuming my money lasted (is this post’s title a giveaway?).

In stark contrast to my last session at Chumash, which I conveniently didn’t blog about, this time I played well. This had a nice side effect that I actually made money, too. Whenever I go up there, I play the 2/5 NL, $200 max buyin game. I sometimes play a few hands of something else while waiting for a seat there, and this time it was $4/$8 limit HE. My first hand of that, before my chips had come, I raised with AQo, had a straight by the river, and was raking in chips before I actually had any of my own. After an orbit or two of missed flops and posted blinds, I was down $10, and UTG. I came SO close to straddling but decided against it. I looked down at the hammer, and as I wasn’t playing with bloggers, mucked it. The flop: 77x. The turn: 7. The river: does it matter? I woulda been up against pocket queens and given someone a nice bad beat story to tell had I followed through with the damn straddle. I think it would have even topped CJ’s hammer quads. He was UTG, but failed to straddle it. That was the last hand I’d play at 4/8, as my name got called for the no limit game.

My very first hand, I look at KK and an early position raiser to $15. I’ve only played with one player at the table before, so I really have no information on anything. I made it $40 to go, from my $200 buyin. There’s one caller behind, and the original raiser folds. At this point, I figure the other guy has to have at least an ace or a pair. I hated the A88 flop, and checked. He checked behind. The turn was a 9, and it went check-check, again. I probably should have put in a bet there. The river is a 10, and I check again. He comes out firing for $50. I’m pretty sure I’m beat, and I’m also sure that the river made his hand, and he doesn’t have an ace or an eight. The problem is I couldn’t figure out how the ten beat me, so I called. He flips up QJs, for a runner-runner straight, and I’m down $90 to start. I settled in for a long night.

The rebuy rules are a little strange at Chumash. You can only rebuy once you drop to $100 or below, and then only for exactly $100. At this point, I’m sitting with $110, and want to top off. A few hands go by, and I fold my big blind to action. $105. I have a hand worth seeing a flop with from the small blind, which would have let me rebuy had I missed, but someone raised preflop and I had to fold. $103. Still can’t rebuy. Then I got aces. A preflop raise, and a nice bet on the ragged flop, and I’m back up to $150 or so. Then I limped UTG with 66, called a raise to $20 from the big blind, and saw a flop of 776. He checked, I checked, and the other caller bet out $35. The big blind called. I decided to end it right there, and pushed in for almost $100 more, and they both went away. $260. No need to rebuy, and thankfully, no money lost because I wasn’t a full stack.

I can’t write any more tonight, but don’t want to wait to get this posted, so…
…to be continued…

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It figures. My first WPBT final table, and it’s a tournament with no payout. Not a problem, I feel great about the money we raised for a good cause. As I said below, see 2idiots.com for information on what this was all about.

I feel like I made only one real mistake in the tournament, and it worked out for me and I doubled up. I’ll get to that.

Not much interesting happened for me until near the end of the second level. I had won and lost a few small pots, and had 1355 in chips from the initial starting stack of 1500. There was an early position raise from Decker, and call by Derek, and I called on the button with 77. The flop was 567, Decker led out, and Derek called, so I pushed to bet out the straight or flush draw. Decker called with JJ, and I took down a nice pot. Derek said he folded his would be straight, with the 8 on the turn. Decker was crippled with only 225 in chips remaining. He doubled up the next hand when he got all in on a K44 flop with KJ vs A4. He hit running kings for quads. He’d go on to finish second.

In level 3, I raised with 99 from middle position, and called a small reraise from Spaceman. The flop was 67T, and we both checked. I put him on two big cards, and figured my nines were good. I called his reasonably sized bets on the turn and river, which were both blanks, and he showed AQ. In level 4, it folded to Spaceman on the button, and he raised to 400. I called with 66 from the big blind. The flop was AJ6, and I checked. He went all in, and I called. He had AK, and didn’t improve, and I crippled him by catching the antichrist against him. Strange. I won a huge pot against the guy who knew Charlie best by doing what his blog is named after.

In level 6, I won a nice pot when I made two pair with KT. Then I went card dead for a while, and was getting impatient. I made what I think is my only mistake of the tournament, in level 8. I had AJs in middle position and raised it up. There was a small reraise from the button, and it came back around to me. I knew I was beat, and he had a pair or had me outkicked. The problem was I was getting more than 4:1 on the call, so even outkicked, I had the right odds. That led to problem number two, which was if I called, I was pot committed. Looking back, I should have done a stop and go – called, and then pushed no matter what the flop. That would have been the right play, I think. Instead, I pushed, he called with AQ, and I sucked out with a jack on the flop and doubled up. As I said before, I really think this was my only misplay, and that includes the hand I busted on, which is coming up soon.

I got moved to another table right after that hand, and seated directly to my left was Wil. It also happens that I got K4o, the hand that knocked him out of two Vegas tournaments recently, that hand. I was two off the button, and raised two limpers (the eventual winner, SarahBellum, and Halverson) to 2000 (200/400 blinds). Everyone folded, though it took a long time for Chris to do so. I typed, “wil, this one’s for you” in the chat, and showed my hand. He responded, “man, I am so glad I folded!”

I made a few steals here and there, and busted a shortstack with AK, but pretty much folded my way to the final table. The very first hand of the final table, the shortstack gets all in against me when I have aces. They hold up and we’re down to 8. A few hands later, I had J9s in the big blind, and called a minimum raise from the button. The small blind called as well. The flop was KK5 with two of my suit, and I pushed in, for about twice the pot size. I don’t think this was a terrible play, and more often than not I think it’ll win it right there. If not, I’d usually have some outs for my flush. Of course, this time I was semibluffing into a made full house, as the small blind had 55. Oops. I had runner-runner straight flush outs, but missed, and I was done in 8th place.

All in all, it was a great tournament, for a great cause. Congrats to everyone who played, and SarahBellum for winning!

(Note: all hand details here come from PokerTracker. My memory is not that good.)

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I feel honored to have played in a tournament for such a good cause in memory of a poker blogger. Even more so to have made the final table and finished 8th. Unfortunately, I feel like I’m about to collapse because I stayed up all night last night at Chumash (good session: see here). And I still have to do laundry. I’ll have complete writeups on the night at the casino and the tournament tomorrow, hopefully.

In the meantime, check out what everyone else has to say by clicking on the poker blogger links on the left.

For more information on what this tournament was all about, check out 2idiots.com.

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I’m listening to the CardPlayer audio of the main event final table.

There was just an announcement, “Everyone turn off your cellphone… we don’t want ringers going off. The penalty is death. Got that security?”

I guess I’m pulling for Matusow at this table, and rooting against Kanter, the chip leader, who put the bad beat on Raymer yesterday.

“Hey Mike, watch your mouth, no f-words!” –Daniel Negreanu

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4:40pm… Featured Table update: Raymer’s pocket Kings were cracked by a river flush and Aaron Kanter doubled up. Raymer moved all in on the turn when two hearts out there. Kanter called with Qh-Jh and spiked his flush. His railbirds were very rowdy on that double up. Raymer was crippled.

5:05pm… Featured Table update: Raymer moved all in on the flop of: K-K-7 with A-9 against 5-5. The turn was another King and Raymer was still behind. The river was a 2 and Raymer was busted in 25th place. The crowd gave him a huge standing ovation. I still say that was quite a run for Raymer this year. During his ESPN interview he said, “I don’t look at results. Poker is about decisions. And I am happy with the decisions I made this year.”

More updates at Pauly’s place.

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Running into aces FOUR times in the same SNG isn’t fun.

A9 vs AA. 9 high flop, doubled up a shortstack who limped.
JJ vs AA. Ace flopped, I folded, he showed.
TT vs AA. Doubled up a shortstack.
99 vs AA. Busted.

Those last two, the TT and 99, were back to back hands.

…and then in my next one, I finished second, getting all-in preflop with KK. Against AA, of course.

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My SNGs are going well, but still have just a tiny sample size of 11 of them, so the numbers aren’t really worth reporting yet. I do feel very good about my play in them, though, and have shown a nice profit so far.

I played in a $20+2 multi at Party last night. With 50 players left, I was third in chips. I lost two coinflips, and busted in 29th place out of 1070 players, for a $129 payoff. It seems like a waste of time compared to the SNGs, but I guess I’d reconsider that if I had won the $4494 first place. I doubled someone up with KQ vs 66 and then I busted with 55 vs KJ. I only really got lucky in the tournament once, when I was all in with AJ vs AK flopped a jack. Other than that, I seemed to be making all the right moves. I even pushed in with the hammer near the bubble, took down the blinds, and showed it. Didn’t help me get called two hands later when I pushed with aces.

Don’t forget to sign up for Charlie’s tournament:
WPBT “Charlie” Tournament
When: THIS Sunday – July 17th – 3pm PST
Where: PokerStars – Listed under the Private tab
Cost: $20 – Stars is taking nothing: it’s all going to charity

The WSOP continues. Keep reading Pauly, Otis (and the other members of the PokerStars blog), and PokerProf. And of course, Flipchip’s photo gallery.

There’s a good possibility for a really fun final table. Hopefully, things will work out.

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I’m still not really making any headway with my NL ring game lately. I think I’m gonna switch to playing some SNGs for a while. I played two $20+2s last night, at Party.

In the first one, I busted out on the first hand. Someone in EP raised to 100 (10/15 blinds, 800 starting stack), and I had KK. I didn’t really like raising half my stack, but not all of it, before the flop, so I just pushed all in. Somehow, he called with A8s, and hit an A on the flop. I watched the rest of it while I played my second one. He actually played pretty well after that, and went on to win it.

I don’t really remember many hands from the second one. I will be checking PokerTracker later, but I won it. I can’t recall any hand where I got all my money in without the best of it, and I miraculously managed to win every one of those hands. Once I was outflopped – I had A3 to J9, and he flopped a J, but I rivered an ace. I wasn’t even all-in that hand, my opponent was, and even if he doubled up, I’d still have had more chips.

Anyway, I think I’m gonna try to stick to these for a while and see how that goes. No eight-tabling it like Poker Nerd, though.

The WSOP is now into day three, and they started play today on the money bubble, with 560 paying and 569 starting play. As always, check out Pauly and Otis for the best updates, and LasVegasVegas for the best recaps and photos.

Also, don’t forget to check out Wil‘s great WSOP stories.

And, thanks to Joaquin for the great tip about the free WSOP 2004 DVDs.

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I just made the final table in a $1 Omaha hi/lo tournament at Full Tilt. Finished 9th out of 131 for $2.95.

I think I’m doing better (relatively) in non-hold ’em tournaments because I don’t know the games as well, so I concentrate more.

My NLHE game has really gone to shit. I should work on that.

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Well, I at least feel good about how I played in the tournament at Chumash today. I busted out near the end of the second level. I was all ready to take notes and give a nice Pauly-quality tournament report, but it turns out there isn’t really much to tell.

Early on, I called a minimum raise from the small blind with KQo, and flopped AJT, with two spades. I checkraised the 1seat, who didn’t really seem to know what he was doing. He called my raise, and I bet out 2000, about the size of the pot, after the offsuit 8 on the turn. He folded, saying he had a small pair. If I had known that, I probably coulda gotten a bit more out of him, but I didn’t want to see another spade come out.

Still in the first level, I limped UTG with 55, and there was no raise. The flop was KJ4, and it checked around. I called a 200 bet on the K turn, we checked the river down, and my hand was good. He had A5 for a pair draw, as Maudie would say.

I finished the first level with 5875, from a 5000 starting stack. I folded a bunch of hands in level 2, and they broke our table. My second hand at the new table, I found A♣J♣, in middle position. I raised it up to 400 (50/100 blinds) and got one call behind me, and both blinds stuck around as well. It checked to me on the 78J, rainbow flop, and I bet out 1500. The caller behind me immediately raised to 3000, and the other two folded. I took my time deciding what to do, and really though about what hands he could have that beat me. I ruled out T9, J8, J7, and 87, so the only thing possible was a set, and I didn’t think he had one. Finally, I pushed all in for 2175 more, and he called, with Q♥J♥. There were no hearts on the flop, so he was drawing to a queen or a running nine-ten. I also had a backdoor flush draw, with one club out. The turn was the 3♠, and then the awful river came down Q♠, and I was gone.

I feel really good about my play, though, and know it was just a little bad luck that knocked me out. I got my money is as an 6:1 favorite. Can’t really do any better than that. Maybe next time.

Edit: A few things I forgot to add.

First, sadly, my new card protector didn’t show up in the mail until today after I left for the casino, so I didn’t get to use it.

Second, after I busted out, I sweated a friend of mine for a while, waiting for the free lunch, before I went home. He was down to 500 in chips after losing a big pot with AKs vs AKs vs 99 vs some other hand. The other AKs won with nut flush. In the big blind, with 200/400 blinds and one limper, he went all in, in the dark. The limper called, with 65s, and he flipped up the hammer! No one got any help, his 7 high held up, and he doubled up. He won another pot before they broke his table, and I went back to hang out by the food area. Unfortunately, he was out before the lunch break.

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