As I already posted, I got off to a rough start on Saturday night at the Peppermill's $130 HORSE tourney, which had 38 players. I won almost no pots for the first few level. Fortunately, that had more to do with being completely card dead, rather than bad luck.
As the levels got bigger, my stack slowly got smaller. Somewhere around the 300/600 or 400/800 level, I hit a low point of 2200 chips. It was looking like it was gonna be a quick night, but then I started to win some pots. Nothing big, like a split pot in Omaha, or winning on 4th Street in Razz, but at these levels, it started to add up.
I got to around 8k in the 600/1200 or 800/1600 level, when I finally got into a big pot. I don't remember the specifics, but by 5th Street in Razz, it was looking like I had a better draw than my opponent. I decided to raise, so we can get all of our chips in the middle. I was right, as I hit an 8-Low and she hit a 9-Low. This gave me big double-up in needed to get back into this tournament.
Our table broke shortly after that hand, and we were down to two tables. I was not at that table very long, as the short stacks were quickly busting out. I did manage to pull off a nice bluff in Stud. I was the Bring-In, and one other player limped in. He checked both 4th and 5th Street, so I fired a Big Bet on 5th. He called both of my bets on 5th and 6th Street. I fired the 7th Street bet without looking at my 7th card. He looked over his cards and my cards for a bit, and then folded. Naturally, I had to show the K-high.
When we got the 9-handed Final Table, I had about 36k chips, which was a Top 3 stack, and it was the 1200/2400 level. Since we all got new seats, we started over with Hold'em. I got into a big hand in the last hand of the level with AJd in the BB, and lost about a third of my chips to AQ. In the very next hand, when the bets went up to 1500/3000, I had AKc in the SB. I got a chunk of those chips back when the Button tried to steal the blinds.
After that, I played the occasional pots trying to play tight. In the Razz round, we were down to eight players, and I played a big Razz pot. By 5th Street, I had (A3)4 6 2, and two other players were in the pot. I bet, and the first player folded. The second player, let's call him Bob, thought for a bit and called. I don't remember all of Bob's cards, but I know he had an 9 8 showing. 6th Street was (A3)4 6 2 3, which was a terrible card for me. It made my board look scarier, and will probably kill my action. I would have much rather had a face card, but I still bet. Bob thought for a while, and called. The Dealer gave us 7th Street face down, and I bet without looking at it. This bet put me All-In, and he called with an 8-Low. The Dealer shipped me the pot of just over 75k chips.
Six player got paid in this one. However, we had no bubble, as there was a double elimination in a hand. Play continued slowly, and nobody mentioned anything about a deal. I've learned not to start the conversation because I don't mind the idea of playing it out. But I also wouldn't mind making a deal. I worked all day delivering mail in the 90 degree sun, and it's well past midnight. I'm tired.
The conversation started when we got down to four players. I was the big stack at the table, so I stayed out of it. The two ladies were interested in a deal, but Bob wanted to play it out. I think this was because he had the #2 stack at the table.
It took quiet a while to knock out the 4th place player, an old lady, in the 12k/24k level. She was All-In the BB of the Hold'em rotation. I was UTG, and limped with T9d. The Button folded, and the SB (Bob) called. Flop Jc Ts 6s. Bob bet into the dry sidepot, I called, as I've noticed that he likes to stab at pots. Turn [Jc Ts 6s] Kd. He checked. I really like that card, as it gave me a Flush Draw and Gutshot, but I just checked. River [Jc Ts 6s Kd] Th. Bob checked, I bet, and he folded. The BB showed 73o for an airball, and collected her 4th place money.
We played for a while 3-handed. It looked like Bob was falling asleep in front of his chips, so I asked him if he still wanted to play it out. He said Yes.
In the Omaha round, the 3rd player gets All-In on the Flop, and both Bob and I call. I only have a Gutshot and 34-Low Draw. I hit the Low on the Turn, but we both check. On the River, Bob bets into a dry sidepot for the 23rd time at this Final Table. I've only got a Pair of 5s and a 43-Low. I'm fairly sure he doesn't have the Nut Low (A3, as there is a 2 on the Board), since he didn't bet the Turn. This pot is huge, as there was a raise preflop. We are only 3-handed, so hand ranges need to be wider. I make the crying call, just in case he's betting a High, and she would stay alive with an emergency Low. As it turned out, he had a Pair of 9s and an A4-Low. She had Two Pair for the High, and I got nothing. This left me with about 40k chips.
Bob knocked out the 3rd player shortly after this hand. He had a roughly 4-1 chip lead over me, as there was 228k chips in play. We were in the Razz rotation, and it was the 16k/32k level. The antes were 2k, the Bring-In was 5k, and it was 16k to complete.
We started Head-Up in the Razz round. The Large card had the Bring-In, the Small completed every single hand, and the Large card folded. We never played a hand for the whole round. For whatever bizarre reason, the Peppermill decided not to give us any 5k chips, so we had 228 Yellow 1k chips on the table. In order to speed things up, I stacked my chips in stacks of 16, so I could just bet one or two stacks. Unfortunately, I fluctuated between 2-4 full stacks.
Early in the Stud round, I had the Bring-In (5k) with a Tc. Bob had completed (16k) with Ks. I then raised (32K), and had about 8k left. My hand was (Qc 2d) Tc. It's certainly nothing great, but I'm really tired. It's time to shove my chips in the middle, and either get lucky or go get some sleep. Well, I got lucky, but not how I thought it would be. Bob folded, much to my surprise. This was very good for two reasons. First, I got more chips for my puny stack. But most importantly, it slowed down Bob. In the next two hand, he had the Bring-In. I completed both times, and he folded.
Next hand, I had the Bring-In with 2h. Bob had a Kc, but just called the 5k. This was surprising, and I was really happy about it. But what made me even happier was looking at my two down cards, QQ. On 4th Street, I had (QQ)2 3. Bob bet (16k), I raised (32k), and he called. 5th Street was (QQ)2 3 4. I bet (32k), and had 5k behind. He just called. We got it in on 6th Street, and all I had was QQ. But that was good enough, as Bob just had K-high and an Open-Ender (like 8765). He miss his outs on 7th, and I was now the chip leader.
We finished up the Stud round with just Bring-Ins, Completes, and Folds. As we're about to start the Stud-8 round, the level goes up to 20k/40k. I think I can outplay Bob in a normal situation, but there are 5.7 Big Bets total between us. Any pots played were gonna be Raise & Fold or All-In. Since this was a split-pot game, most of the All-Ins would probably be split.
For that reason, and the fact that I had worked all day, I decided to try a chop offer. We were relatively close in chips, so I suggested an even money chop and whomever had more chips gets the trophy that the Peppermill gives for their tournament series events. Now that Bob didn't have a big stack any more, he quickly agreed.
At 2am, I walked out of the poker room with $1100 after the Dealer's tip, and this:
5 comments:
Great job! Looks like your on top of your game again.
Congrats on the "W" and the nice little trophy!
COngrats Greg. Way to go.
Nice! Well played sir.
NH sir!
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