April Tournament Summary

April Tournament Summary

We had 17 people show up for this months tournament, which is a ot worse than we were hoping for, but still better than we were expecting based on the responses we had received. I don’t have a ton of time to write them up, so I’ll have to be brief

Tournament Number One.

This tournament was weird to say the least. My table was incredibly passive. There was a lot of limping, and very little pre-flop raising. The first one to bet usually took the pot. In hindsight, I probably should have been more aggressive early on, but I didn’t want to risk anything too early since I have a hard time getting a good read on a lot of these players. And my cards absolutely sucked.

After about an hour I had seen a total of three flops, and won zero pots. Maybe a half hour later we condensed down to one table with eight players remaining. I had still only seen three flops, although I could at least say that I won a few pots. I won one in the big blind when it was folded to me, and another when I stole the blinds with AJo, which was by far the best hand I had seen all night. I was the short stack and in all-in or fold mode at the final table.

Second hand of the table I get AT and push. One of the big stacks calls with wired tens, but I hit an ace on the turn to double up. Shortly thereafter I push again, this time with AKs, and I’m called by a shorter stack with KQ and the same guy who called me before. He had AQ. None of us improve and I basically triple up.

We’re down to five players, and I finally have some chips to work with when I get a pair of jacks. I make a larger that normal pre-flop raise, and get three callers, one of which is the small stack at that table who is now all-in. The other two guys have the majority of the chips at the table. The flop is A8A and one of the big stacks goes all in.

I go way in the tank trying to convince myself to get away from this hand. I have to hope that the bettor can at least knock out the short stack and guarantee me finishing in the money, but if does have an ace, why bet so much? Is he really trying to bluff me off this hand? He and the shortstack talk about how they like, or don’t like there chances, and the more they talk, the more I am sure they have me beat. Reluctantly I lay the hand down. The other big stack calls.

Short stack had a pair of twos, the bettor had an ace, with a ten kicker, and the other big stack also had an ace. He had an eight to go with his ace, giving him a full house and the pot. Suddenly we’re down to three.

I don’t recall how the third place finisher went out, but when we got to heads up I was probably a 20-1 dog in terms of chip count. Luckily for me, the other guy is not a good player by any stretch of the imagination. He had amassed his mountain of chips through sheer luck and brutal suckouts so I wasn’t that intimidated. Plus he had been drinking heavily throughout the night.

I absolutely dominated him heads up. He let me see a ton of cheap flops and I punished him for it. He folded to almost any pre-flop aggression, and then was way to willing to call my all ins when he was way behind. He started with a monstrous chip lead on me, but eventually the chips all found their way to my stack and I emerged victorious.

Tournament Number Two.

Things were much more normal in this one. I gradually chipped up rather than folding for an hour and a half and then relying on the all-in double ups.

When we got to the final table everyone was pretty much even. The two short stacks both had 750, I had 1275, a few people had 1400 and change, and the chip leader had 1800.

My lucky moment came when I got all-in pre-flop with wired tens against and AQo. He hit an ace on the flop, but a ten came on the river to save my ass, and put me into pretty good shape.

A few orbits later I had big slick in the big blind. It was folded to the small blind who raised. I went all in, and he called instantly, probably assuming I was just defending my blind. He had A9 and he was gone. I think that makes the fourth of fifth night in a row that I have knocked him out from at least one of the tournaments. I’m pretty sure he hates me, but sooner or later he’ll learn to fold when I go over the top of him.

That left four of us remaining, and we battled for quite a while before the blinds got to one of us. Then it was three way action for another long period as we traded chips back and forth.

The other two guys kept going at it, and I more or less stayed out of their way, picking up a few pots here and there. Eventually one of them was knocked out and we were heads up. We were more or less evenly stacked.

After a couple of uninteresting hands I found myself pot commited with ATs on a JK9x board, with two of my suit. He had bet into me, and calling would mean that I was pretty much all in on the next hand no matter what. I figured he had a pair, but I still had a ton of outs. I counted aces, queens for the straight and any spade for the flush. I raised all-in figuring that even if he had me beat, second place wasn’t too bad, and I was ready to go home anyway. He turned over QT for the straight and the river didn’t help me. Probably not a wise play on my part, but folding would have left me at a severe chip disadvantage, so I tried to get lucky instead. Oh well. A first and second place finish is nothing to complain about.