March Tournament Summary.

Since the last time we played out in Plainfield, our host built some really nice poker tables. I've seen table sell on EBay for $300 that are way inferior to the ones he built. I was very impressed, and it was quite a step up from the usual card tables that we have been using. He built three of them but we only needed two since out of the 25 people that had committed to playing, only 15 showed up. That's pretty much what I've come to expect from these things.

So we have two tables, a table of eight and a table of seven. My table is the following,

• Seat 1. Me


• Seat 2. Chad, a friend of the host.


• Seat 3. Greg, our host


• Seat 4. Noah, a co-worker of mine.


• Seat 5. Aaron, a former co-worker, and the host of our Chicago game.


• Seat 6. Doug, a regular at our monthly games


• Seat 7. Smack, good friend of Aaron's, and a regular at our office game and monthly game.


• Seat 8. Shmoo (sp?) a friend of Greg's.

If I had to pick four people that I didn't want to sit at the same table with, it would be Smack, Noah, Aaron and Doug, in that order, so of course they all ended up with me. Nothing like driving out to the middle of nowhere to end up at a table with the same old guys. On the plus side, if I picked three people I wanted at my table, Shmoo, Greg, and Chad would probably be my picks.

I wasn't in many exciting hands at this table. The only real big pot that I won, I had [J K] and the flop was king high. Doug bet into me, and I raised it up. He called and everyone else dropped. The turn was a rag, and he checked and called my bet. The river was another rag, and he checked again. I was afraid he was trying to trap me with two pair, so I also checked. He had [K T] and I out kicked him. Other than that, I stole a few pots with some well timed bluffs, but didn't do much else.

Shmoo, Chad and Greg basically dominated our table despite the fact that none of them really knew what they were doing. Shmoo had pocket jacks at one point and flopped a set. Even though there had been some big pre-flop raises, he made minimum bets on the flop, turn and river. He said he was afraid to be more because he didn't think anyone would call. I guess I can understand his logic, but when you have a hand like that, you need to get paid off for more than the minimum. Later he called a huge bet with a four flush, saying that he was hoping to get the flush, which was fine, except that he made the call on the river when he knew that no more cards were coming, and he had nothing except a busted flush. The one thing that did work in his favor is that it was impossible to put him on a hand. He, Chad and Greg would call with just about any two cards, and they kept just kept making their hands. It was ridiculous. I was fortunate to stay out of it because they didn't know enough to fold when they should have, and then they would end up wining the hands anyway.

Noah, and Aaron both got eliminated pretty early, followed by Smack, and eventually Shoo. Doug was almost eliminated when covering his $T100 big blind made him all-in, but he got rockets, and quadrupled up. He doubled up again on the next hand and went into the final table in pretty decent shape.

We combined tables with eight players remaining, and redrew seats. Our new seating was

• Seat 1. Me


• Seat 2. Andy, a regular at our monthly game in Chicago


• Seat 3. ???


• Seat 4. ???


• Seat 5. Chris. A friend of Greg's, and the chip leader by far.


• Seat 6. Doug


• Seat 7. Greg


• Seat 8. Chad

I don't recall who was in seats three and four, but they didn't last long as Chris took them out. Chad then took a substantial amount of my chips when his pocket queens beat my big slick. He was the next one eliminated though as his tendency to stick around for too many cards finally caught up with him.

So we're down to five players, and the top four pay out. Andy is in the short stack and I have just a little more than him. Doug and Greg both have a comfortable chip count, and Chris probably has more chips than the rest of the table combined. Doug keeps raising my big blind, and I have nothing with which to defend it. I shoot him a pissed off look the third time he does it, and he turns over big slick, so at least I feel a little better. I'm hoping to just survive long enough for Andy to go out so I can at least get my money back. No such luck however, as he goes all in a few times, and get no callers, stealing Chris's blinds and surviving for another orbit. I get nothing playable until [K Q] on the button. I don't even have enough to call the big blind. Andy and Chris call me, and I manage to triple up when I make a straight. Unfortunately, that was the last hand I win, as the blinds are too much for me, and my cards aren't very corporative. Andy outlasts me by a hand as I go out fifth, one spot out of the money. I have now gone out on the bubble in three of the last four big tournaments.

Chris ends up winning, followed by Greg, Doug and Andy.



We only have 12 people for the second tournament, as Smoo drops out and a couple of players from the other table have to leave.

My table this time around is as follows.

• Seat 1. Me


• Seat 2. Greg, who having placed in the money for I think the first time ever has started alternating between shots and beer and is rapidly becoming quite drunk.


• Seat 3. Ed. A friend of Aaron's.


• Seat 4. Aaron


• Seat 5. Doug


• Seat 6. Ian. A regular from our Chicago game.

Not a lot of early excitement from this table. Ed is a calling station, but Doug falls victim to him as when Ed's [5 2] make two pair on the river. Doug tilts and goes out soon after. Ian is one of the few players I can consistently and confidently read. I use this to my advantage and raise him when I think he is trying to force people out of a flop that misses everyone, and he folds a big pot to me. I'm also able to stay out of most pots when I am pretty sure he has me beat.

Aaron and I keep encouraging Greg to drink more, which he does. This comes back to haunt me when I raise his blind with my [Kd Qd]. I've been raising his blinds all night and he's getting pissed, so he finally calls. The flop is [6 5 6], and it's Greg's bet. He motions to go all in, then does a double take at the flop, checks his cards and after a moment goes all in anyway. I'm 95% sure that he has nothing, and he plays it up by asking me how drunk I think he really is. The fact that he could have anything from 72o to pocket rockets to quad sixes, and the fact that I missed the flop completely meant I had to fold. I couldn't risk such a huge percentage of my chips when I had no idea what he had, and I had nothing. He turned over [K T]. Oh well. Better not to enter a pot that I would have won, than to put most of my chips in and lose.

The hand of the night comes a few orbits after that. I limp in with [7 7] on the button, and see the flop with Greg and Ed. The flop is [6 7 T], two hearts. Greg checks and Ed bets $T60. I raise it up to $T120, confident that he will call and Greg will drop. What shocks me is that Greg goes all in over the top for $T195 more. What shocks me even more is that Ed calls. There's a possible straight and a flush draw, on the board, but I don't think either of them have it. Greg tries his drunk routine again, and Ed will call with just about anything. I go all in over the top, and Ed calls again. I have him covered. Greg has [6 7] for two pair, and Ed has [T 8] for top pair and an inside straight draw. The turn and river help neither of them, and suddenly I'm the chip leader at the table, and we are down to three.

One hand later, Smack knocks out the third member of his table, and we have six remaining. Time to combine.

Our new seating has

• Seat 1. Me


• Seat 2. Noah


• Seat 3. Aaron


• Seat 4. Ian


• Seat 5. Smack


• Seat 6. Chris

Notice how the four of us that regularly play together, Noah, Aaron, Smack, and Myself all make it to the final table since we didn't have top start at the same table and beat up on each other. I think the four of us are easily the best four players there.

Ian is short stacked and goes out on the first hand when his [A J] loses to Smack's [A K]. Smack then takes out Noah when Noah goes all-in with sixes. I don't recall what Smack had.

Only the top three pay this time, and we have four left. Everyone knows that I have been bubbling out a lot lately, and they are pretty much rooting for it to happen again. Ass holes. I'm second in chips behind Smack and playing pretty tight just trying to make the money. What sucked is that I couldn't get any decent cards to play. I think everyone just assumed I was trying to fold into the money, but I honestly didn't have anything that I felt was playable, and I didn't want to get into a pot where, I might not be able to call a large bet even if I paired one of my cards. I think I had [J 3] or [J 4] four times in a row in the small blind, and had to fold it to Aaron every time. On the plus side Chris was having similar luck and was frequently folding his small blind to me.

Aaron and Chris went all in a few times against Smack, but Smack folded, causing the railbirds to laugh at me because they knew I was going to end up in fourth.

Finally, Aaron goes out, and we are down to three. I actually made the money!! Woo-Hoo!

Unfortunately, its about 1 AM now, and I'm not quite the night person I used to be. My mental abilities start dropping fast at around 11, so I might be a bit fuzzy on how the rest of this turns out.

I barely cover Chris's all-in with [A-T] against his [A-6]. In what soon becomes a theme for the rest of the night, he his a straight. That leaves me with not even enough to cover the big blind. I go all in with [K x] and fortunately Smack had nothing, and I double up. I go all in with [K 9] the next hand, and Smack thinks about if for a while before folding. Chris also folds. I had expected one of them to call and to be eliminated there, but instead I double up. At this point, I figured I was due to get eliminated soon and I stopped caring about what happens, which is probably good because I start playing more aggressively. I double up again on the next hand, and now I actually have some chips to work with.

Chris finally goes out, and I'm heads up against Smack. Smack probably has more than four times as many chips as I do. At some point I go all-in against him with [K 4] to his [K x] and catch a four on the flop. I also double up with pocket queens against his [Ac Tc]. The result of those hands is that I now have the commanding chip lead.

I get him all in two more times, and both times I have his hand dominated, and both times his weak, pathetic, useless stupid kicker completes a straight, keeping him alive. At this point I'm pretty tired, and we're both ready to go home as we trade blinds and pre-flop all-ins. I think he was frustrated that I would either fold or go all-in on every hand because he made some comment about the lack of skill involved.

He actually lets me see a flop with [8 9] and we both check the [5 6 T] flop. The turn is a [7] giving me the straight. We both check. The flop is a [4], and I go all-in, but he decides not to call. That was the last time either of us saw a flop without one of us being all-in.

Finally, I go all in with [A T] and he calls with [J Q]. The flop has is [9 8 x] and I start counting out my chips because I know he is going to hit his straight. Again. This time however, luck was on my side as the turn and river provide no help to him, and I pull out a much needed tournament win.

Yay.