LOL Donkaments #9

Grand Sierra 6:30 $80 Bounty ~ 03.17.12

I haven't played a Daily Donkament at GSR in a long time. But since this is now the biggest buy-in donkament in Reno, I will playing this one most Saturday nights. They give us 20k chips, but the levels start at 100/200. At least the levels are 20 minutes long. There is a $20 bounty, and we have 15 players.

Only two Reno Regulars that I recognize in this field. One at my table is an old Super-Nit with a cowboy hat. At the other table is a very loose, active player named Allen. There are a couple of others who seem to have a poker brain, but the rest of the field seems rather clueless. There is also a charity tourney outside the poker room. Not sure what it's for, or why it's on St Patty's Day, but they are very loud.

Things started very slowly for me, as I was in Observer mode. In Level 2 (200/400), I got moved to the other table. I won two sweet pots in consecutive hands. Both pots were limped preflop by a few players. I was the BB and then SB with a baby Ace, and just limped. I flopped Top Pair with the Ace, and then hit my kicker on the Turn for Two Pair.

In Level 3 (300/600/100), I got moved back to the first table. I was getting good starting hands, and was raising to 1500. The most notable hand was with As Jd from the Cutoff. Only the BB called, who was the old guy with the cowboy hat. The Flop was Jc 3c 2c. He checked, I bet 2100 with Top Pair. He check-raised by tossing out two 5k chips, and has 26k total. It's hard to put him on Flush here, so I put him All-In. He called with 32d for Two Pair. (So much for him being a Super-Nit.) The Turn was [Jc 3c 2c] 2h, giving him Twos Full Of Threes. The River was [Jc 3c 2c 2h] Js, giving me Jacks Full Of Twos, and Bounty #1. That is one of the worst beats I've put on someone in a long time.

That hand got us to the Final Table. I was 2nd in chips with 64k. The chip leader, who we'll call Rick, was one of the players who seemed to have a brain, and is on the other side of the table. Allen, the loose player, is on my direct Left, and has an average stack.

It didn't take long to get to Level 4 (500/1000/2000). I'm in lockdown mode, as I see no reason to risk my stack with marginal hands. Allen (QQ) and Rick (T9o) got All-In preflop. Rick flopped and rivered a T to collect another bounty.

In Level 5 (800/1600/300), we were down to 8 players. It folded to the Cutoff, who went All-In for 3200. I was the SB with T9h, and raised 10k on top to isolate for the bounty. However, the BB went All-In for 2500 more than Cutoff. BB had Q2d, and Cutoff had K8o. I flopped a Ten, and collected Bounty #2 & #3

In Level 6 (1k/2k/400), I lost a Flip (99 v AT) for 22400. Towards the end of the level, we were down to six players. I raised UTG to 5100 with AQc. The next player, one of the newer players, 3-bet to 10k. Rick shoved All-In for over 60k from the Button. The Blinds folded, and I went into the tank. I have 50k chips, so this is all of my chips. While I'm thinking, I can see the other players has his 40k+ stack ready to go in the middle. A good rule to follow is to never be the third player All-In with AQ. It's much better to have a hand like 87d, because your cards are more likely to be live than an A or a Q. It took me almost a minute to finally click the Fold button. The other player quickly called with KK. Rick turns over JTo (really?), and said he shoved to get me out of the hand. The Board ran out QJ3 K A to give Rick another bounty by hitting Broadway.

That hand got us to the Break. There are five players left. I have 50k chips, which puts me 3rd place. Naturally, Rick is the healthy chip leader. There is a newbie girl at the table who is very short on chips. The rest of us are in the middle.

In Level 7 (1500/3k/500), the girl was knocked out shortly after the break. The four remaining players are, in order, a tight mid stack, Rick, a shortstack playing tight, and me.

Four handed play lasted forever. Rick was playing very erratic. He was playing 80% of the hands, limping many, min-raising some, and 3x raising others. I wasn't getting cards, so I tried to pick my battles. I hovered in the 40k - 60k range until Level 8 (2k/4k/500). I doubled up with 88 against Rick's 33.

This left Rick shortstacked, so he started shoving. The other players seemed to be folding every hand, One of them was UTG and accidentally flipped their hand up when they folded, A7o. I wasn't getting anything to play, so I had to just watch him steal. Eventually, he shipped on the Button for 51k. I snap-called with A6o, but he had 77. Not only did I not hit my Ace, but he ended up with Quads, so he got his chips back from me.

Finally, in Level 9 (3k/6k/1k), the shortstack was busted by Rick. He was the big stack now, with me and the other guy about even. Rick brought up paying three spots. I assumed that this tourney already paid three places, but it was only two: $475 & $200, which are terrible payouts. Normally, I don't do bubble saves, but this one should pay three spots, so I didn't have any problem with changing the payouts. I suggested that we take $100 from 1st, and make it $375 $200 $100, which is more reasonable. But they both wanted to just pay $80, taking $50 from 1st and $30 from 2nd. That would make the payouts $425 $170 $80. I didn't argue with them, but I thought it was retarded because payouts this lopsided just encourage a chop.

Play continued, and I tried to stay as patient as I could with this situation. After quiet a few hands, I pushed All-In for 48k with Jc 6h on the Button. The SB quickly went All-In, and had me covered. He's the one who folded A7o when we were four handed, so I knew I was in deep trouble. But then Rick went into deep thought as he really was considering calling both of us. After what seemed like a minute, he called with K8h (really?) The other guy showed QTd, and I was stunned that I had two live cards. The Flop and Turn missed everyone, so I still had six outs. But the River was the Kc, which meant Rick ended the tourney, and collected the last three bounties.

At about 9:45pm, I left Grand Sierra with $130 after the Dealer's Tip.