April Tourament Summary

Last night was the last tournament to be hosted at Dirty Ned’s Bungalow, as our host Aaron and his roommates affectionately call their apartment. Turnout was disappointingly low. We had been approaching enough players for three tables at our recent tournaments, but for some reason tonight we only had ten people tonight. I would probably have preferred that we had more, but the low numbers allowed us to get in three tournaments and still have me home at a reasonable hour.

Game 1. $30 buy in. 9 people.

I was going to list off the players, but it wouldn’t have really mattered because not a whole lot went right for me in this game and listing off the players and their position won’t help me explain anything.. I didn’t get many good cards this game, and when I did, my pre-flop raises wouldn’t get any action, so I would end up just winning the blinds.

As I started to feel the pain of the increasing blinds I made a few weak plays that cost me big. In one hand I limped with 88 and saw a flop of 664. or something like that. It was checked to me and I bet pretty big. About pot size I think. I got one caller. The turn is a King, and he checks to me again. I think if I had be here he would have folded, but instead I check because that king scares me. The turn brings a nine and he bets right away. I’m almost positive that he just hit a nine. Either that or he sensed weakness by my unwillingness to bet the turn. I couldn’t bring myself to call and I fold, very disappointed with my play.

Nothing much happens after that. I make my final play when I have $T295 remaining and I’m in the big blind with JTo. Blinds are 100. Early position raises to $200, and I go all in. I can tell he wants someone to reraise him, and I am certain that he has me dominated, but if I lay this hand down, I have to go all in next hand in the small blind, or I will only have $145 left which barely covers the cost of the blinds. So I all in, knowing he has me beat. He insta-calls with Cowboys, and I’m knocked out in 7th.


Game 2. $30 buy in. 10 people.

Seat 1 Shane
Seat 2 Greg
Seat 3 Ted
Seat 4 Andy
Seat 5 Shmoo
Seat 6 Eric
Seat 7 Aaron
Seat 8 Me
Seat 9 John
Seat 10 Smack

Smack, Aaron, Shane, Greg, Andy, Shane and I are regulars. Shoo and John have played with us a few times, and I don’t think either are very good. Ted is Aaron’s brother in law, and this is the first time we I have met him.

I get hurt pretty bad early in this one. With the blinds at 10/20 I get AK on the button. There are a few limpers, and Aaron raises to 40. I reraise to 80, and only Aaron calls. The flop is ATx, and Aaron bets 40. I raise to 100 ecstatic that I finally hit something on the flop. He hesitantly calls. The turn is another ten, and he checks to me. I’m a little concerned that he just made a set, but I really don’t think he has it. I bet 100. He goes in the tank, trying to figure out I have, and reluctantly calls. The river brings a queen, and he checks again. I have a bad feeling about this. For some reason I think he either has AQ, or a ten with a low kicker, but I don’t see him raising and then calling a reraise with Tx. I check and sure enough he has AQ and wins most of my chips.

At this point I’m pretty pissed. I finally got a piece of the flop, and got someone to call all my bets, and then he spikes a three outer on the river to cripple me. I really don’t think there was much I else I could have done with that hand. I think I played it pretty well, the cards just didn’t fall my way.

I’m in serious trouble now, but I force myself to be patient and just wait until I can double up. The blinds are going up every 15 minutes, and we’re playing about 5 hands in that time, so I’ve only been paying a blind every other level. The blinds are up to 50/100 and no one has yet been eliminated. (We started with about $600). I’m down to $250ish and about ready to make a final stand. I have one hand left before I’m the big blind, when Shmoo gets knocked out. Now, Admittedly we probably don’t do this right, but its not worth trying to figure out and explain to everyone, so the dealer button passes Shmoo and goes to Eric, which means I end up in the big blind one hand earlier, giving me almost no leverage for a raise.

I look down and see JJ which is about as good a hand as any to go out on. Had I still been in first position, I could have raised all in and possibly stolen some blinds or at least limited the competition. Instead, Smack raises to $200. Greg then calls $200, and Eric goes all in over the top, for a little more than what I have. Talk about stealing my thunder. I go all in. Smack calls, and Greg folds. Smack has AKs and Eric has AT. The flop pairs Eric’s ten, but the rest of the board offers no help, and my jacks hold up. I nearly quadrupled up on that hand.

There are a number of short stacks now, and three or four people get knocked out pretty quick. There’s a flurry of all-ins, and I find myself in the position of big stack, with the ability to call those all ins and knock people out. It comes down to John, Greg and I in the final three spots. I let John and Greg battle each other for the most part, and John eventually knocks him out.

We are about even as we enter heads up play. John is too passive and allows me to steal all sorts of pots from him. He wins a few back by reraising some of my bluff raises, but I was never really in danger of getting knocked out. I finally win it with big slick against his KQo when he calls my all in on a completely ragged flop. For some reason everyone likes to really favor the winner of these things, so the payouts were $190/$80/$30. I guess I shouldn’t complain. If it had been up to me I would have only taken $150.

Game 3. $20 buy in. 6 players.

I probably shouldn’t have stayed for this one, but there were only six of us, so I figured what the hell. How long could it take? I decided to change my strategy a bit. It seemed like I was letting the blinds kill me by playing too tight in the previous games so I decided to loosen up and try to limp into a lot of flops. I probably played more hands than I would have in the other games, but I couldn’t get a card to save my life. I think I went 10 to 15 hands in a row without seeing paint. Despite the fact that I wasn’t getting any playabe cards, I must have been playing something because my chip count kept going down. It didn’t help that I was pretty tired and distracted by Svengoolie which for some reason was on TV.

The blinds are 20/40, and I get AQ on the button. I raise to 100, mostly because I only had $100 and $25 chips left and I didn’t want to get change to bet $80. I was pretty sure that bet would get folded around but I was ok with that. At least there would be some chips coming my way. Surprisingly Ted calls. The flop is 678 rainbow and I go all in. Ted thinks about and then calls with AT. Of coarse he hits a ten on river. I had him covered by $85, so I’m still alive.

The very next hand I get KQo and go all in. Smack really doesn’t want to call, but he’s in the big blind, so he does anyway. It was barely more than a min raise that he had to call, so why not? He has Q9 and hits a queen high straight. I flick him off, and say goodnight. I got knocked out first, but at least this means I can get home at a reasonable hour, and not end up sleeping through all of Sunday.


I ended up ahead $110 for the night, so I'd say overall it went pretty well.