It's Tournament Time

If you look to the left side of the screen, you'll see a list of local tournament series. Over the next month or so, there are a whole bunch of them, and they even overlap some weekends.

Grand Sierra's World Poker Challenge just started this week, and it's arguably the biggest one of the year for Reno. The Main Event used to be a WPT event, and it still gets a good number of visitors from Las Vegas, California, and other surrounding states. In the parking lot, I even saw license plates from Mississippi and Florida.

Unfortunately due to working six days a week and almost ten hours a day, I only get to play in tournament on Sundays, preferably in the Noon event so it doesn't go too deep into the night. As it turns out, the Sunday at Noon events for the World Poker Challenge are $330 Mixed Game events, HORSE and Omaha-8. Even though I love playing Mixed Games, I won't be playing in either of these. Since I've never cashed in a Mixed Games casino tournament, I've decided to limit my buy-ins to $200 for these events until I finally get lucky good enough to cash in one.

Even though I can't play in the tournaments, these series make for great Cash games. Since there are so many visitors in town, there are more Cash games tables running, and it's the only time that I can count on a $3/$5 NL game in Reno.

I walked into the Grand Sierra last just before 7pm. The Poker Room was packed, as six of the seven tables were full. They also have a separate tournament area outside the Poker Room with 30-40 tables. They had two different tournaments running, along with some extra Cash tables.

Most of the tables were $1/$2, but there was a $5/$10/$20 NL game running with a decent list. The minimum buy-in was $1000. That games is too big for me, but I did recognize a couple of local players. I sat down at a $1/$2 table, and put my name on the $3/$5 interest list.

I was only at the $1/$2 table for an hour before the $3/$5 started, and I won $397. It all came from three consecutive hands. First was me in the BB with 75s, flopping Two Pair, and winning a decent pot. The next hand was raised to $6 by a Mid player. One or two players called. I'm the SB with AA, and 3-Bet to $20. Mid and Button called. Flop was J 8 8. I bet all three Streets, including $100 on the River. The Button called the whole way with what I can only assume was Top Pair. As I'm still stacking the chips, I get dealt AQs on the Button, and called a $12 raise. I flopped the Nut Flush draw, and raised his $20 bet to $50. The Turn was a Q, so I kept betting, and won another sweet pot.

Since I'm now virtually on a Freeroll, I was very happy to go to the $3/$5 table. The table was ridiculously tight in the beginning. I was rather card dead to start out, so I didn't mind. Eventually, I had some playable hands, and started slowly chipping up.

I was close to $100 profit when I got dealt KK in the Hyjack, and raised to my standard $15. The SB raised to $40. He's the closest thing to an Action Guy that this table had. He did a decent amount of preflop raising, usually to $10 or $15. The BB called the $40, and had around $100 behind. I grabbed the chips to call the extra $25 along with another stack of Red, and made it $140. The SB thought for a bit, and folded. The BB quickly called with her last $95 and showed JJ. Naturally, since she had only two outs, she's gonna hit both of them for Quads. Grand Sierra has Progressive High Hand Bonuses, and the Quad Jack were at $361. This was definitely annoying for me, as it was like salt in the wound. But it was much worse for someone else. About an hour later, someone at a different table hit Quad Jacks. He won $20, which was where the High Hand Bonus was reset. Now that's a Bad Beat.

I kept hanging around the even mark for a while, and started getting tired. I decided to leave at 11pm, and fortunately I won two sweet pots before I left. The first one was raised by a Nit in the Cutoff to $10. I called on the Button with 74o. Four players saw a Flop of 4 4 3. Both Blinds checked, and so did the Nit. I bet $25, and the Blinds folded. The Nit quickly and loudly said "All-In" for around $200. Naturally, I called. I assume that he had something in the 77 - 99 range, and he missed his 2-outer. It was rather obvious that he was pissed that I called his raise with 7-high. But if he made a "real" raise, then I would have folded. Nits never learn.

The other hand was me limping in the Hyjack with Q8d. The "Action Guy" from the KK hand raised to $15 in the SB. I called, along with the Button. Flop was Kd Td 9d. He bet $25. I raised to $60 with my Flush, and the Button folded. He shipped it for around $225, and I called. He had 99 for Bottom Set, and missed his Full House Draw. I left the table at 11pm up $427.

Overall, I played four hours of poker, and won $824. That's a damn fine night, especially considering my history at the Grand Sierra.