LOL Donkaments #5

Peppermill 6:30 $95 Cash Me Out - 07.14.11

I had a rare 8hr work day, so I decided to do something that I haven't been doing lately. I went to the Peppermill to play a weeknight tournament.

They had 42 players for this one, which was above average from what I normally see. I got off to a good start by winning two nice pots with AK in Level 1. After that, I went a little card dead, but I didn't mind. The Dealer was one of the few from Reno that I saw down at the WSOP, and this was his first day back. We were swapping stories, and a couple of other players joined in. A social table is so much more entertaining than a bunch of players who are just sitting there.

Things kept going well, and I got to the first break with 25100 after I bought my last 4k Rebuy. Shortly after the break, our table broke. In the first two hands at my new table, I was dealt 99 and ATs, and raised preflop. I had to fold both of them to raises, one preflop and one post-flop, so I lost a chunk of chips right away.

One of the players I lost to is someone I've played with before in a cash game at Atlantis. He's a Asian kid who's far on the active, loose, psycho side. He's the definition of Action Guy. He normally plays $2/$3 or $3/$5, so I'm surprised that he's playing a tournament. He's also got around 60k - 70k chips, which is a ridiculously large stack for this stage of the tournament. The only good thing is that he's on the other end of the table, so I can try to avoid him.

Overall, I was able to avoid him. Because he was very active and I had just an average stack, I had to stay patient. It helped my table image, but it didn't help my chip stack. I hovered between 8 - 15 BBs for quiet a while. I had to shove All-In a few times, but nobody called. I guess my table image was helping me out.

When we got to the Final Table, I had almost 30k, and Action Guy had around 45k. I had noticed that he tighten up recently. I assume this was because our stack had caught up to his, so he no longer had the Monster Stack. However, in my typical luck, he got seated on my direct Left. I was in Seat 7, and he was in Seat 8.

Being a Cash Me Out, we were gonna convert to Cash at nine players, so we were on the Bubble when the Final Table started with ten players. Not surprisingly, Action Guy was involved in the Bubble bursting hand. He got All-In with KK against an older gentleman's AQ along with another shortstack. An Ace on the Flop gave the older gentleman the monster stack at the Final Table, and left Action Guy with just 1400 chips.

I had 40100 chips, which were converted to $200. Action Guy's 1400 chips were converted to $10. Only one of the nine players cashed out, so play resumed with eight players and the blinds at $5/$10.

As you would expect, Action Guy was All-In in the first hand, and got a couple of callers. He won the $40 pot when his J8o hit a Jack on the River. Next hand, I limped with AK because I knew he would shove his $40 with any hand. He did, and I was the only caller. However, his T9o hit the Flop, and he double up to $95. Crap!

This caused a big problem for me as play continued. The rest of the table played rather passively, as they waited for a few players to get knocked out so they could chop up the remaining prize pool of almost $700. Normally, this means I could be a little aggressive, and slowly build my stack without much resistance. But I know that Action Guy could shove in at any moment, so I had to wait for hands. Both of our stacks stayed in the same range for awhile; his in the $50 - $100 range and mine in the $100-$160 range.

When we got to the next level of $10/$20, we were down to seven players, but nobody wanted to Cash Out because they were all waiting to get down to five players so we could chop. Both Action Guy and myself had roughly the same chip stack as before, so play continued.

Finally, Action Guy shoved All-In from UTG for $70. Two players called rather quickly. It folded to me in the BB, and I looked down at 66. I have $125 total with $20 in the Big Blind. I go into deep thought as I consider shoving All-In. I know I'm probably ahead of Action Guy, but the other two players are playing solid, no-nonsense poker. It's only $55 more, and I'm probably gonna get at least one caller, if not two. There's a decent chance that one of them has a bigger pair than 66, so I make the safe move and fold. The Flop was K-high with two Hearts. First player bet $100, and the other called to make a side pot. The Turn was a brick. The first player went All-In for about $120, and the other player reluctantly called for a little less. The first player had ATh for a Flush Draw, the other player had QJh for a Flush Draw, and Action Guy had whatever random two cards he shoved with. The River missed everyone, and the first player wins a $500+ pot with AT-high. Fuck!

The only good thing about that hand was that it eliminated both the Action Guy and the other player. We were down to five players, and everyone wanted to make a deal. I'm the clear shortstack at this point, so I'm not in a position to argue. The deal was the two Big Stacks got $200 plus their cash chips, and the other three got $90 plus their cash chips. I left the poker room with $185 after the Dealer's Tip.