WPBT "Charlie" Tourney and stuff

I played a little poker this weekend, a couple of multi table tournaments that I actually did surprisingly well in.

PokerChamps $3 Turbo.

First off, let me say that I love PokerChamps. Not because of the software, or the players, or gameplay or anything, I’m actually not that fond of it, but because I have managed to accumulate a small bankroll there through affiliate commissions, and they offer micro limits. This has made PokerChamps my site of choice when I’m too drunk, tired, or distracted to play for any real stakes, but still need a poker fix.

I registered for a $3 turbo, thinking that no more than ten other people would register and it would be over pretty quick. 38 players ended up playing, and after a couple hours I somehow managed to finish in 2nd place for a $24 payday. Not too bad considering that I was both drunk and tired at the time.

I really think PokerChamps wanted me to win this one. I can’t tell you how many times I folded crap preflop only to see that I would have made two pair on the flop had I stuck arround. I would have flopped two pair with Kx at least three times. Of course the only time I played it was when I had K5 in the Big Blind and a bunch of people limped in. The flop had K5x, two hearts, and I lead out, trying to scare away the flush draws. Another player went all in and I called, thinking maybe he had trips, but not caring too much because I was tired really needed to go to bed sooner rather than later. He turned over KQ, and caught a queen on the river, severely crippling me.

I played real tight from then on, but I caught a number of high pocket pairs and doubled up a few times. I was drinking a bunch by this point so the details get a bit hazy. A few hands I do remember though:

I called an all in reraise pre-flop with JJ. He had QQ, and I caught a jack on the river to knock him out.

I had A6 in the big blind and a bunch of limpers. Flop was A66 and the small blind went all in with 76. That put me in the chip lead at the final table.

I lost my chip lead when I had pocket kings, and had one caller to my preflop raise. The flop had an ace, and he went all in. I couldn’t risk calling.

At some point I battled back to the chip lead with 6 remaining. The top five paid. The guy in second place had almost as many chips as me, and was sitting immediately to my left. I had been at his table for most of the tournament, and he seemed like a pretty good player. I wish I remember the exact hand, but somehow, he ended up all-in against me with absolutely nothing, and I had a damn good hand. I remember thinking that there was no reason for him to even be in the hand, let alone going broke on it. Winning that hand gave me more chips than the rest of the table.

When we got to heads up I had two or three times as many chips as he had. Someone tell me how to play heads up, because I suck. The worst part is that I think he really sucked and yet he still beat me. It went like this. In the small blind I would raise, and he would fold. In the small blind he would fold. Repeat 4-5 times. Occasionally he would raise, and I would fold, or I would call, and I would win on the flop. Every once in a while we would play a big hand and he would always end up on top. I would chip away at him for ten hands in a row and then he would win it back in one. It was really frustrating. I think the key is that we had three or four coinflips and he won them all. Anyway, he beat me, and I came in second. I can’t complain too much.


WPBT “Charlie” Tourney.

I wasn’t sure that I would be able to play in this since I had a bunch of stuff to do this evening, but I registered anyway. I can spare $20 for a good cause. I made it to the first break in good shape, but then my wife decided that it was time to do the chores that I had been putting off all day, so I had to leave for about an hour. When I came back I found that I just recently been eliminated in 34th place, out of 144 participants. Not too bad for only playing half the tourney. Maybe my new strategy should be to sit out after the first break and hope that I can coast into the money.

I don’t recall a lot of hand from this tournament as I wasn’t really paying much attention. I was concentrating more on the blogger chat than anything else.

I started off at Chris Halverson and JoeSpeaker’s table. I did pretty well except the one time I got dealt the hammer. I made the standard pre-flop raise, fully expecting to win the pot right there, only to have someone make a significant reraise. My only options there were to go all-in or fold, and while I’m sure the going out with the hammer would have been an honorable choice I opted to fold. Everyone else’s hammers seemed to hold up. It didn’t seem fair that I had to fold mine.

Shortly before the break I got moved to Wil Wheaton’s table. Half of the table wasn’t even there, so there wasn’t a lot of action. Plus Wil has a lot of fans, so there was some interesting chat dialog that kept my attention more than the actual play. Sorry, nothing exiting to report.

The break came and I was out.


So that was my poker weekend. Woo hoo.