This week is the Nevada State Poker Championships at the Peppermill. It's their biggest tournament series of the year, and is highlighted by two events. First is the Jennifer Harman Celebrity Charity Poker Event on Saturday, May 21. There are a ton of celebrity and poker pros expected to attend. The other event is the $1650 Main Event on Sunday, May 22. This will be a Heartland Poker Tour event, and I believe it's the first time they have been in Reno. It's expected that many of the Pros will play in the HPT event, since they are already in town, and the HPT is one of the few ways for them to get on TV these days.
So how much will I be participating in this poker festival? Well, the short answer is Not Much. I'm not interested in playing in a charity event, and I work on Saturdays. The HPT event is on Sunday, which is good for me. But it runs into Monday with the TV taping on late Monday afternoon. I was not able to get Monday off from work, so I won't be trying to satellite into the event.
The HPT runs a ton of smaller satellites to get to the common folk into their events, both single table and mega satellites. Because of this, the Peppermill will only be running mega satellites all week starting yesterday, and no regular tournaments. However, they did run some tourneys this past weekend, and I played in two of them.
The first was a $130 NLHE on Saturday night. It had 110 players, and was held upstairs in a secondary poker area. When the tourney got to 18 players, it went down the main poker room to complete the tourney. I know this because I was one of the 18 who made the trip. Right after we restarted, I had 49k in the 2k/4k/500 level. I raised to 11500 in the Hyjack with KTs. One the BB called. He is the monster chip leader, and he's having a very good night. He checked "in the dark" to give himself position (his words, not mine). Sometimes I will bet "in the dark" in this situation, but I decided to be more cautious. I also checked "in the dark". The Flop was 5s 3s 2s, giving me the K-high Flush. The Turn was [5s 3s 2s] 7d. He bet a small pile of 1k chips. I quickly shipped it All-In, and he snap-called with A7s for the flopped A-high Flush. (Did I mention that he was having a very good night?) I finished in 17th place, five spots away from the money.
My second tourney was the $180 NLHE on Sunday afternoon. Here is the Running Log of that tournament.
"Shuffle Up & Deal" - I start on Table 12, which is outside the Tournament Room. We're starting 10-handed, but currently have six players. The tournament timer shows 65 players have registered. The levels are 30 minutes long, and we start with 10000 chips.
End of Level 1 (25/50) - The table is now full, and the tournament timer shows 83 players. There has been a lot of preflop raising at this table, including two ridiculous overbets. First was an old geezer who raised to 600, got a caller, and won with QQ. The other was another old geezer who made it 975, and won the blinds (75). I ended up doing a lot of limping and calling raises, but I airballed everything. The only hand I was was with a Small Blind Special (Two Pair 76o). I have 8875 chips.
Level 2 (50/100) - I haven't raised preflop yet for two reasons. The first is that my cards have been dreadful. The other is that everyone else is still raising. I would say more than 70% of the pots have been raised preflop. I know that (former) Online players will think this is normal, but it's not in a smaller Live tournament. I lost some chips when my Top Pair ran into a better kicker (87 vs T7). I have 7375 chips.
Level 3 (75/150) - Someone turned on the Boom Switch. I won various pots with bets on the Flop or Turn, and even a few raises against a tourney regular who loves to make small stabs at the pot. I even did my first preflop raise with A5d (Yes, I've been waiting for that hand). The BB called, and I won it on the Turn. I have 15100 chips.
Level 4 (100/200/25) - There was two hands which I made a large mistake in each, and I will post them later in a Hand Of The Day. One of them I lost, and the other I won. I have 19750 chips.
BREAK - We ended up with 88 players, and have around 70 remaining. The tables are now 9-handed. Ten spots get paid, with 10th getting $255 and 1st getting $4355.
The new Poker Room is packed, with all 19 tables in use. As soon as they break a tournament table, they start another Cash table within 10 minutes.
Level 5 (150/300/50) - The cards were very quiet for me. But... I did hit another Small Blind Special in a limped pot with the mighty 83s. I flopped Two Pair, bet all three streets, and got a caller. I have 22800 chips.
At the end of the Level, they broke our table, and the remain six tables are now in the tournament room. They quickly filled the table with a $3/$6 game.
Level 6 (200/400/50) - With the Blinds & Antes getting bigger, I started raising more preflop, and the results were mixed. The biggest pot was the first. One player limped, and I raised to 1125 on the Button with T9o. The BB and limper called. Flop was Ac Tc 8h. They both check, and I bet 2500. The BB check-raised All-In for 6100 more. I think for a little bit. I recently sat down at this table, and I know nothing about this player. I'm probably behind, but there are some draws out there. I'm getting some pot odds (6100 to win roughly 15000). I make the crying call, he has AK, and I miss. Ooops! Another small mistake by me. I have 16900 chips.
Level 7 (300/600/75) - A very quiet level for me. I wasn't able to raise much because everyone else was either raising or going All-In. Plus, I couldn't catch a hand. I was able to steal a limp pot form the SB with a bet on the Turn. I have 16100 chips.
Level 8 (400/800/100) - More crappy cards. The only raising hand I had was JJ. There was one limper in Mid position. He's an older gentleman who's a tourney regular. I'm the Hyjack, and I raised to 2500. The Button, BB and the Limper called. The Flop was 9c 9h 2d. BB and Limper checked. Obviously, I shove All-In for 14300. The Button folds quickly. The BB thinks for a bit and calls. He's the AK guy from earlier, and has built up a nice stack. The Limper quickly goes All-In for around 15k - 20k more. The BB goes into deep thought mode. He apologizes for taking so long, counts down all the chips, thinks some more, and apologizes again for taking so long.
At this point, a lady who had recently arrived at our table called the clock. This did not go over too well, as the BB started make comments about this classless move from someone who's not even in the hand. The Lady made some comments about her shortstack, and this hand has taken over three minutes. The Floor came over, and started The Clock. More comments flew back and forth between the players. Meanwhile, I'm just sitting there patiently waiting to see if I'm gonna have a Big Stack or if I'm going home for some dinner.
At about the 30 second mark, the BB declared that he knew what he was going to do, but will use up the entire minute before he acts. More comments flew back and forth. Finally, the Floor gave the countdown, the Clock hit zero, and the BB mucked his hand.
I turn over my JJ. The Limper shows Q9s, and I can't believe what I see. He's on the nitty side. He doesn't play many hands, and usually over-raises and over-bets. So why did he decided to limp in the 400/800/100 level with Q9s in Mid position? I could understand if it was A9s or maybe even T9s, 98s, or even 22. But Q9s? W T F ??
Anyway, as I'm sure you've already figures out by now, I miss my two-outer. I finish somewhere around 35th place.
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