The Golden Sombrero

I played four daily tournaments on Sunday. Here's what happened.

Grand Sierra 9am $20 (1000 chips) - This is a satellite for the 11am $60 tournament. Why do they run a satellite for a $60 tournament? I don't know, but they do it every morning. Since I'm gonna play in the 11am tourney, I might as well play in this one.

Only nine players for this one, which meant three seats given out. I got off to a good start by winning some small pots. I focused on playing good Satellite poker: keeping my VPIP low, not calling raises out of position, and trying to play risk-free. It was going well as I slowly built my stack and my table image. With 5-6 players left, I had gotten my stack up to near 4000 chips, with only 9000 in play. I downshifted into Lockdown Mode, and waited for the satellite to end so I could collect my seat.

But the shortstack kept doubling up, mostly because the other players wanted to play Showdown Poker, instead of playing Satellite Poker. Anytime this happens in one of these tournaments, it comes back to bit me in the ass, and this time was no exception.

As the Blinds got bigger, I had to call some All-Ins when I was in the BB. First one was a 350 All-In when my BB was 200. I had 65o, and he won with AK. Later on the Bubble, the same players shipped it for 700. I'm the BB (400) and called with A9c. He had KQo and won.

This got me down to being one of the shortstacks. I pushed on the Button for 1075 with A8o in the 200/400 level. The SB called with QTo. He's now the Big Stack, and likes to call. I flopped an A, but the Turn and River were Q T. I finished as Bubble Boy in 4th place. It was very frustrating, as I really can't think of any mistake that I made.

Grand Sierra 11am $60 (4000 chips) - In the 100/200/25 level, it folded to me in the SB. I limped with A8o. The BB raised to 800, and I called. Flop was A 8 5. I checked my Top Two Pair, and he bet 600. I just called, planning on check-raising the Turn. Turn [A 8 5] 9. I check, he goes All-In, and I call. He shows A9, and I miss my two-outer on the River. We count down the stacks, and he had me covered by about 500. I finish 12th out of 13 players.

Peppermill 1pm $65 (4500 chips) - The Peppermill 1pm on Sunday is usually the largest field for a daily tournament in Reno, and this one was no exception. There was 67 players, and I got seated at a table in the Cash game area. Things were going along smoothly until this hand in the 150/300/25 level...

UTG+1 min-raised (600). It folded around to me in the BB. I called with Ks 3d, and I checked in the dark. Flop was As 9s 4s. He bet 800, and I decided to check-raise to 2500 with my Nut Flush Draw. He insta-shipped All-In for around 4300. I would love to give a detailed explanation as to why I check-raised so large, but I can't. It was a very stupid thing to do. Because of my oversized raise, I priced myself into calling. He has AKo, and I missed my Flush Draw.

This left me with under 1000 chips. I did manage to work the shortstack for a while, and got up to over 4000. But with the levels being 15 minutes long, I just wasn't able to stay ahead of the structure. I finished around 40th place.

Peppermill 6:30pm $95 Cash Me Out (8500 chips) - This one only had 23 players, which is the smallest Cash Me Out tournament that I've played in. Once again things were going very well, until this hand in the 500/1000/100 level...

There were 3-4 limpers, which was surprising at this stage of the tournament. I'm the BB with Q5d. I have a nice chip stack, but I've been card dead lately and doing a lot of folding. This seemed like a good opportunity to do a Squeeze Play, so I raised to 6k. The UTG quickly went All-In for 7100 more. He's a Cash game player who's all been playing quite a few hands. It folds around to me. With all the limpers and antes, I'm getting close to 3-1 on this call. So if I'm against a hand like AK, it's the correct call. After thinking for a bit, I made the crying call. The good news was that he had AK, but the bad news was that I totally airballed the Board. This left me with just under 10k chips.

Fortunately, it didn't take long after that hand to get to the Final Table, where I had around 9300 chips. Normally, this is a good thing in a Cash Me Out tournament. But with the small field, the tournament chips won't be converted into cash chips until we get to six handed. I'm not the shortest stack, but I got some work to do. I did manage to win the blinds in one or two hands. I also made a successful Squeeze Play with 44 in the BB. I got up to 14200 chips in the 700/1500/200 level when this hand happened...

UTG+2 goes All-In for around 17k. The Hyjack (the AK guy from before) also goes All-In for more. I'm in the Cutoff, and it takes me about 0.0483 seconds to get my chips in the middle with KK. The Blinds fold. UTG+2 has JJ, and the Hyjack has QQ. A truly nasty trainwreck for any Final Table. Surprisingly, the Poker Gods decided not to screw me as my KK held for the big triple-up to give me a real chip stack. The Hyjack won the rather small side pot.

It didn't take much longer to get down to the Final Six. I was second in chips with 43700, which was converted to $315. The Chip Leader had around $450. The next stack was around $250, and the last three were under $100. Surprisingly, nobody cashed out, and there was an extra $400 to battle over. We could start talking Chop when we got to five players.

With three short stacks, my focus was to go into Lockdown Mode, and wait for the shortstacks to get knocked out. It went well for me, as I picked up AA and won a $100 on the Flop when another big stack didn't believe me. It took some time, but things went according to plan as the three shortstacks finally got knocked out. The three of us were thinking the same thing, as we all agreed to chop right away. I was the Chip Leader, but there was only about $50-$75 difference between our stacks, so we chopped the $400 evenly. I walked out of the Peppermill Poker Room with $555 after the Dealer's tip.

Overall, it was frustrating day of tournament poker. Before the final tournament, I really thought I was gonna get the Golden Sombrero today. Instead, I go home up $315 and get another notch in the Win column. This just goes to prove my theory about how these daily tournaments are profitable when played in volume. Every time I have played multiple tournaments on a Sunday, I have finished the day with a profit.