Friday Night Poker League

I played in a live tournament with a new group of people last night. One of the guys I work with has a regular game that he invited us to. They have some sort of league thing going where they put in an extra buck or so each week and track their results. At the end of some specified period of time the top X players in their “circuit” use the extra cash to enter a bigger tournament with the top players from other “circuits” I don’t completely understand it, but it sounds like a pretty good way to get your game infiltrated by undercover cops.

Noah, Aaron and I from our regular monthly game decided to play. We figured that show them a thing our two about the game of poker since we’re obviously three of the best players this side of somewhere or other. Let’s just say we got schooled and we apparently aren’t the only game in town. Who knew?

The game was definitely less organized than I’m used to, which is surprising since I think they play more regularly. At first we were told to show up around 7, 7:30 and maybe start playing by 8 or 8:30. We were pretty much the first ones there and didn’t actually start playing until around 9. They also had some issues trying to figure out how many tables to have. There were 22 players which seems like an obvious 3 table set up to me, especially since they didn’t exactly have large tables, but it took a while to get that straightened out.

Anyway, once that was all set, and we actually started player things went a lot smoother. I did have some issues adjusting to their chip/blind structure. Our game usually starts will $T600 and blinds at $T5/10. They started with $T3600 and blinds at $25/50. It’s about the same ratio, but the values kind of threw me off. When we were at $T100/$200 blinds in the third round, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the blinds were enormous, since we don’t usually reach that level until round 9. Yeah I know it’s not that different in terms of the relationship to the starting chip count, but it had an effect on me anyway.

From what I could tell, they were all reasonably good players. I didn’t see play that made question the intelligence of the other players which I guess should be expected since they play fairly often. I guess I was expecting some donkeys since our game usually has a few, but I guess people that play a lot would be decent, although that doesn’t necessarily hold true online.

My starting, and only table was on the passive side. There was a lot of limping, although when they would raise it was usually 4x or 5x BB rather than the 2.5-3 that I’m used to. I’d like to give a long hand summery but unfortunately I really only played two hands. I wasn’t real sure about how everyone else played and I wasn’t comfortable with the amount of chips we were using so I was a bit tighter than I might normally play. In hindsight I wish I had been a bit looser and more aggressive, but what can you do?

In the first orbit I had wired eights in the small blind, and saw a flop of x 8 J along with two other players. One of them called my flop and turn bets but I think the third club scared him away on the river.

Another hand I had ATs on the button and meant to double the blinds, but they use different chip denominations than I am used to, so instead I quadrupled the blinds. Luckily they folded.

There was one real aggressive player at our table. I think her name was Zara although I’m not sure. She was in a lot of pots, and bet and raised often. The worst part was that she never had to show down a hand so I couldn’t tell if she was a maniac or if she was just getting cards. I think she was getting cards because after I was eliminated I saw her show down a number of hands and she always had decent holdings.

So how was I eliminated? Well had AKs under the gun and raised to T$1000. Zara was in the big blind for $T400. I was really hoping everyone would just fold, but after some deliberation she called. The flop was 24T, with the two and four of my suit. She checked. I went to bet and realized that any bet that would have a chance of pushing her out of the pot would leave me pot committed so I went all in. I figured she missed the flop and even if she didn’t I had plenty of outs. She insta-calls and I know I’m in trouble. She turns over a pair of twos which I never ever would have put her on. So even though my over cards aren’t going to be much help, I still have a reasonable shot at the flush so I’m not all that worried. And the turn brings me the fifth spade. To bad it was the ten of spades which pairs the board and gives her the full house. Ouch.

I don’t think there’s much I can do to survive that hand. Maybe a bigger raise on the flop scares her away, but even if I don’t go for the semi-bluff on the flop I’m screwed when I make my nut flush on the turn. Oh well. Not much I can do. I’m out in third. That means for the last two live tournaments I’ve played I’ve gone out second on average. Rock.

Noah lasts a little long than I do. He gets punished by the blinds before going all in with a wired queens and a short stack. He gets called by AJs, and sees an ace hit on the flop.

Aaron lasts a bit longer. He ultimately finds himself all in with pocket cowboys when someone tried to steal his blind with J9. The flop was 678. The turn 9. The river J. Nothing like having your kings cracked by a runner runner two pair. I think he was a bit upset about that. I don’t think my mocking him helped. So I think the three of us all finished in the lower half. Worst showing ever. We suck.