Marathon

On Saturday night, we ended up with 32 player due to some normal December weather. The early part of the tourney was uneventful for me, and I got to the first break with 7900 chips, 100 below the starting stack.

After the break, I only played one hand of significance. It's important to remember who's Big Blind you're trying to steal. One player at the table (Gary K) was doing some straddling, aka raising blind UTG, and this is not unusual for him. So I raised on the Button with K9o, and he called from the Straddle. I whiffed the Flop, and we both checked. I bet the Turn after he checked. He then said, "Ah, what the hell," and moved All-In. It wasn't that much more, but I couldn't call with just K high. He showed a Q-high Flush Draw.

That left me shortstacked, and I basically blinded off. I finally went All-In with 55. The player next to me looked down at TT, and missed my two outer. I finished in 20th place.

Since I was out early, I got to play a little Cash. After doing some TD stuff, I sat down at the 8-Game table. That table did not have the usual lineup of mixed game players. Instead, there was a lineup that was marshmallow soft. Two players at the table were playing every single hand. One of them did not understand the concept of the Hi/Lo games, like Omaha8. He kept chasing or betting the Low when he didn't have one. Another player raised on 3rd Street in Razz with a 9 showing. Of course, he won the hand against one of the players who just can't fold.

A table like this will make any competent player rich in the long term, but it also can be high variance in the short term. I only played for an hour before I had to go deal the Final Table. I bought in for $100, and left the table with $78.

After I finished up my TD duties, I sat back down at the 8-Game table. The table lineup had gotten tougher, but there was still one of the "play every hand" players left, and he had a large chip stack. So, I sat down two seat to his left with my $78 stack, and things didn't go well. Lousy starting hands, and missed draws slowly bled my stack. I finally went busto in the Limit Hold'em round when my Top Pair lost to Trips on the Turn.

I was very frustrated at this point, and considered quitting. However, I rebought with my last $100. I finally won a hand in the Omaha8 round. I then won some more money in Omaha8, and I won two Razz hands. At the end of the Razz round, I realized that I had $215 in front of me. One good round in this game can cure a lot of frustration.

As much as a good round can be, a bad round can hurt just as much. My stack for most of the night was hovering between $225-$275. But the last of the night round before the game broke was PLO, and it was not good for me. I missed a few draws, and made a River call with Two Pair against a player who's been throwing out some big bets. This time he had it; a Flopped Straight and Turned K-high Flush. When the game broke, I cashed out for $213 for a measly $13 profit. It is disappointing after about 5.5 hours of play, but it is also my first positive cash out in 8-Game.

Normally, we end the cash game around 4:30am. But this week, we got the "green light" from the Host to play as long as we wanted. We kept playing until the 8-Game table broke at 7am. The NL table kept going until 9am, from what I was told.

After we cashed out, a few of us went to Bob Evans for some breakfast. I finally walked in the door of my luxurious double-wide at 8:20am.

*Yawn!*