LOL Donkaments #4

Harrah's 8pm $80 - 06.17.11

This tournament has a much better structure than the other Harrah's tourney I played. They gave us 8000 chips, added a couple of levels, and started the antes later. They also had a $20 Bounty for this one.

Being a Friday night in Las Vegas during the WSOP, this one had 102 players, which is kinda silly for a daily tournament. All the tables were in use, and that included a couple of $1/$2 NL games.

Things went well in the beginning, and my table draw was good. I was able to slowly build my stack, although I didn't get the monster stack that I had gotten in other tourneys. It took them awhile to break our table, which was good for me. I even got two Bounties before the table finally broke.

I got a really good seat at the new table, as the Big Stack was on my direct Right. Things were going along OK, but the structure started to become a problem. Even though it's a better structure than before, any daily tournament structure will be a problem with 102 players. With only three tables left, all of us were getting shortstack. That's when this hand happened in the 1500/3000/300 level:

It folded around to a Mid player, who min-raised to 6000. Only the SB called, and he was the Big Stack at the table. I'm the BB with 55, and I go All-In for 26500.

I played with the Mid player at the previous table, and he's a passive Super-Nit. He could easily have a bigger pair than me, but I have him covered. I don't think he'll risk his tournament with out a premium hand. However, I haven't been at the new table that long, and I don't know much about the Big Stack. He's got a lot of chips, but my stack would take a serious chunk out of his stack.

Ultimately, I do have a pocket pair, and I'm under 10 Big Blinds. If the Big Stack folds, then picking up the 12k plus antes will be good for my stack. If he calls, then hopefully we are in a coin flip, which wouldn't be a bad thing at this stage of the tournament.

The Mid player thinks for a bit, and folds. The Big Stack thinks for a much longer time. Meanwhile, his Buddy had already busted from the tournament and is watching the action. He comments about how big the pot is. The Dealer quickly chewed out the Buddy for opening his mouth when he's not involved in the hand.

I think the Big Stack listened to his Buddy, because he called right after the comment with KJo. He hit a J on the Flop, but I picked up a Gutshot on the Turn. The River didn't help me, and I was out in 26th place.

Even thought the Buddy should have kept his mouth shut, I really didn't mind the call. With three tables left, winning this coin flip would have given me the monster double-up, and that would have hopefully propelled me to the Final Table. In the Bally's tourney I played just before this one, I got that monster double-up (AQd vs 55) with about 15 players left. That gave me the Big Stack, and I rode it to victory. This time it didn't work out.

Oh, well. That's (tournament) Poker. At least I got two bounties to cover half of my buy-in.