Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday was not the results I wanted
Well I had my 3rd Annual Hart Invitational Poker Tournament on Saturday. I had a great turn out of 26 players with the weather in the 70's here in Mpls. I was surprised. So we had 3 Bounty Seats each worth $40 on their heads. First place would win $420 and 6th would get their $40 buy-in back. Plus if a Bounty won the game with would walk out with an additional $170 so won of them could walk out with $600.
I started off with a bang almost doubling up the first hand of the game. I'm in the big blind with ace three suited diamonds. four people limp into the pot and I'm happy to see the flop and it comes up all diamonds!!! The whistles are going off in my head and just wondering how much money I can win being the first hand. I check when Alex who is to my left bets a $100, the blinds are $10/$20 starting. I'm like yes, Micah, a lose crazy player calls the other 2 fold and I smooth call. The turn brings an 8 of spades, harmless. I check, Alex bets another $100 and Micah calls. Enough with Micah in the hand I think because he is a lose cannon, I want him out so I raise it to $400. Of course Alex calls so I think flush or a king or queen since both are out on the flop but are diamonds, Micah folds. The river is a blank 2 of hearts, yes, nothing can beat my hand I have the stone cold nuts. Now the key is how much can I get from Alex? I go all in and he is out of there. Most of my regulars know I'm a solid selective aggressive player so the all in he would lay down. We started with $1,500 in chips so I throw out my $500 chip and hope for a call or by a mircle all in. He calls! Yes! He turns over nine seven of diamonds. Funny thing is today online I take out a guy holding that same hand he hits the flush on the flop I trip on the flop but hit the river with another jack to make quads. The only difference I raised preflop and the bozo should have never called with nine seven suited when he had no chips invested in the pot, took him out of course.
So then the table has 3 more flushes in a row, amazing, and people say it only happens online, bs. But none of the player got the pull down of chips I did. I'm the chip leader and becuase of my image I rake some more uncontested pots and have control over the table, it's a beatiful thing. Then the worst happens the tables get unbalanced and I just won a hand so I have to move, my house rule, winner's of the most recent hand always move. I sit down next to Denny which is a blessing and a curse. First off is one of the two big stacks at the table, he has more than I do and sitting to my right. One at least I get to act after him and he shakes like a leaf when he has a big hand, so there is the blessing. I sit down win the first hand and bully a couple hands stealing some blinds using my stack and image, it's great when you have this image when you have a lot of chips because people have to respect your play. So when you have the chips you can bluff at them and people will lay hands down to you. Things are going good but now the curse Denny's hands are shaking a lot and I have to lay down some hands I would have loved to play but I know I'm beat everytime. Sure enough he is getting pocket kings, aces, it's crazy. The bad thing is others are not paying attention to this and are calling his pre-flop raises and losing tons of chips to him, making him more of a threat to me later on in the game. So for the next hour so I held my own keeping pretty much a good amount of my chips and still one of the top 5 chips leaders in the tourney. The biggest problem is that 3 of us are at one table. Nona becomes the overall chip leader by taking out my wife the returning champion and a Bounty and then she takes out Brian who was the out first year's champion. Now she is dangerous, Nona plays a lot of online poker, she is a housewife so when her husband, one of my best friends comes home from work she gets online to plays a lot of heads up matches and sit-n-go tourney's. She is good, I had been taking chips from her up until this point but now I won't have the edge over her.
This is when things go bad for me. I lose a big hand when I flop a queen high straight having the bottom piece of it. Denny is in the hand but his hands didn't shake preflop, no raise. Nona bets $100, Denny raises to $300, no shake, I call, Nona folds. Then the worse thing happens an ace hits the turn and I know Denny has the frickin king, I know it. He bets $300 I call, the river is a blank he bets $500 I call and he turns over king queen. I look at a couple of things here, I could have lost a lot more chips. If I would have went all in after the flop Denny would have called with his Queens and king kicker with the draw. Maybe I could have laid down on the river but Denny didn't raise preflop, so he could of had 2 pair so I had pot odds to call even though my gut told me he had the king, he made it cheap. I still had plenty of chips but it's going to hurt more. We are down to the final two tables and the remaining players from table number 3 are dividing into the open spots at tables 1 and 2. Sure enough the chip leader from table 3 draws are table so 4 out of the 5 big stacks are at this table, not good. A new player to my game for the first time, I don't know a thing about him except he is a new guy at my company. He has more chips than me too, so I don't like that either. He sits back for a while and steals a pot from Nona, or Nona just didn't have anything and laid the hand down. So here it is I'm the big blind Jason, the new guy is on the button. He raises 3 times the the big and I look down at ace queen, great I call! The flop is huge party poker ace king queen BINGO! I check he bets $300 and I reraise to $800, he than says if you have me beat that's poker and goes all-in, I have to call right? Can anyone lay this down to a guy you have never played a hand with, haven't scene his hole cards yet at the table? I call he shows ace king, my nightmare and they hold and I'm out in 11th place.
As the rest of the tourney goes, Nona ends up knocking out her husband and takes Jason out who is one of the remaining 2 bounties at the final table. She ends up tiring out, 2 babies would tire and one out and it's 12:30 at night she takes 3rd place which paid $150 so not bad taking out 2 bounties and 3rd place. I really think she would have won the tournament he she didn't mentally and pyshcially tire out. So the last reamining Bounty Stephen was heads up against a guy named Dan, not a frequent player in my tournaments but makes an appearance once and a while. Dan took Nona out so he has a commanding chip lead over Stephen. But Stephen doubles up twice and now could get the chip lead if he plays smart. He had been playing super tight all the way to heads up and I mean super tight. But he is tired and sure enough he loses and he walks out with $230 versus $600. I would have figured a way to wake up. So I have a new champion with Dan but that poker money won't probably go back into my regular Thursday night game like Stephen's money will. At least we have a Jackpot Bounty on Thursday worth $170, I'll probably get about 18 players showing up this week to play for a chance to get that Bounty Seat.
I started off with a bang almost doubling up the first hand of the game. I'm in the big blind with ace three suited diamonds. four people limp into the pot and I'm happy to see the flop and it comes up all diamonds!!! The whistles are going off in my head and just wondering how much money I can win being the first hand. I check when Alex who is to my left bets a $100, the blinds are $10/$20 starting. I'm like yes, Micah, a lose crazy player calls the other 2 fold and I smooth call. The turn brings an 8 of spades, harmless. I check, Alex bets another $100 and Micah calls. Enough with Micah in the hand I think because he is a lose cannon, I want him out so I raise it to $400. Of course Alex calls so I think flush or a king or queen since both are out on the flop but are diamonds, Micah folds. The river is a blank 2 of hearts, yes, nothing can beat my hand I have the stone cold nuts. Now the key is how much can I get from Alex? I go all in and he is out of there. Most of my regulars know I'm a solid selective aggressive player so the all in he would lay down. We started with $1,500 in chips so I throw out my $500 chip and hope for a call or by a mircle all in. He calls! Yes! He turns over nine seven of diamonds. Funny thing is today online I take out a guy holding that same hand he hits the flush on the flop I trip on the flop but hit the river with another jack to make quads. The only difference I raised preflop and the bozo should have never called with nine seven suited when he had no chips invested in the pot, took him out of course.
So then the table has 3 more flushes in a row, amazing, and people say it only happens online, bs. But none of the player got the pull down of chips I did. I'm the chip leader and becuase of my image I rake some more uncontested pots and have control over the table, it's a beatiful thing. Then the worst happens the tables get unbalanced and I just won a hand so I have to move, my house rule, winner's of the most recent hand always move. I sit down next to Denny which is a blessing and a curse. First off is one of the two big stacks at the table, he has more than I do and sitting to my right. One at least I get to act after him and he shakes like a leaf when he has a big hand, so there is the blessing. I sit down win the first hand and bully a couple hands stealing some blinds using my stack and image, it's great when you have this image when you have a lot of chips because people have to respect your play. So when you have the chips you can bluff at them and people will lay hands down to you. Things are going good but now the curse Denny's hands are shaking a lot and I have to lay down some hands I would have loved to play but I know I'm beat everytime. Sure enough he is getting pocket kings, aces, it's crazy. The bad thing is others are not paying attention to this and are calling his pre-flop raises and losing tons of chips to him, making him more of a threat to me later on in the game. So for the next hour so I held my own keeping pretty much a good amount of my chips and still one of the top 5 chips leaders in the tourney. The biggest problem is that 3 of us are at one table. Nona becomes the overall chip leader by taking out my wife the returning champion and a Bounty and then she takes out Brian who was the out first year's champion. Now she is dangerous, Nona plays a lot of online poker, she is a housewife so when her husband, one of my best friends comes home from work she gets online to plays a lot of heads up matches and sit-n-go tourney's. She is good, I had been taking chips from her up until this point but now I won't have the edge over her.
This is when things go bad for me. I lose a big hand when I flop a queen high straight having the bottom piece of it. Denny is in the hand but his hands didn't shake preflop, no raise. Nona bets $100, Denny raises to $300, no shake, I call, Nona folds. Then the worse thing happens an ace hits the turn and I know Denny has the frickin king, I know it. He bets $300 I call, the river is a blank he bets $500 I call and he turns over king queen. I look at a couple of things here, I could have lost a lot more chips. If I would have went all in after the flop Denny would have called with his Queens and king kicker with the draw. Maybe I could have laid down on the river but Denny didn't raise preflop, so he could of had 2 pair so I had pot odds to call even though my gut told me he had the king, he made it cheap. I still had plenty of chips but it's going to hurt more. We are down to the final two tables and the remaining players from table number 3 are dividing into the open spots at tables 1 and 2. Sure enough the chip leader from table 3 draws are table so 4 out of the 5 big stacks are at this table, not good. A new player to my game for the first time, I don't know a thing about him except he is a new guy at my company. He has more chips than me too, so I don't like that either. He sits back for a while and steals a pot from Nona, or Nona just didn't have anything and laid the hand down. So here it is I'm the big blind Jason, the new guy is on the button. He raises 3 times the the big and I look down at ace queen, great I call! The flop is huge party poker ace king queen BINGO! I check he bets $300 and I reraise to $800, he than says if you have me beat that's poker and goes all-in, I have to call right? Can anyone lay this down to a guy you have never played a hand with, haven't scene his hole cards yet at the table? I call he shows ace king, my nightmare and they hold and I'm out in 11th place.
As the rest of the tourney goes, Nona ends up knocking out her husband and takes Jason out who is one of the remaining 2 bounties at the final table. She ends up tiring out, 2 babies would tire and one out and it's 12:30 at night she takes 3rd place which paid $150 so not bad taking out 2 bounties and 3rd place. I really think she would have won the tournament he she didn't mentally and pyshcially tire out. So the last reamining Bounty Stephen was heads up against a guy named Dan, not a frequent player in my tournaments but makes an appearance once and a while. Dan took Nona out so he has a commanding chip lead over Stephen. But Stephen doubles up twice and now could get the chip lead if he plays smart. He had been playing super tight all the way to heads up and I mean super tight. But he is tired and sure enough he loses and he walks out with $230 versus $600. I would have figured a way to wake up. So I have a new champion with Dan but that poker money won't probably go back into my regular Thursday night game like Stephen's money will. At least we have a Jackpot Bounty on Thursday worth $170, I'll probably get about 18 players showing up this week to play for a chance to get that Bounty Seat.
// posted by Harthon @ 2:37 PM 
