Spirit Mountain "real cash" tournament win

I played in the 10 a.m. tournament today at Spirit Mountain. It is a little different format than the usual tourneys. It was a $25 buy in, but you got only 500 in chips, plus another 100 for being a member of the "Coyote Club". Blinds were 25/25 with I think 15 min. increases....so not a lot to work with. It was also a rebuy tournament, if you got below the 500 you could rebuy for $10. At the end of the rebuy period (1 hr.), you got to buy 2000 chips for $20 plus another 1000 for $10 as a dealer bonus (no tip required). I was lucky not to have to rebuy, so the whole thing cost me only $55. There were 4 tables, and we played down to final 9 who chopped the entire prize pool ($170 each, with $100 for the bubble boy). We could opt to take the money or play a cash NL game with the low stack having the choice to quit each hand. We all decided to take the money and run.

My key hands were won with pocket 6's allin against overs...hit the set and filled up. Next big hand pocket queens vs. pocket jacks & the biggest stack with pocket 9's. I actually lost the hand to a flopped set of jacks, but she was a very short stack and I made more on the side pot. This also crippled the big stack and he never recovered.

Managed to lose most of my winnings in Omaha 4/8 (lost 40 there), and some more in the 4/8 game. Overall a marginally profitable day, which for a 4 hour round trip drive is not too cool.

Running Great in Omaha

My omaha play lately has been fantastic with many double ups of my buyin, and even one 9X buyin day. I hit a straight flush against a full house and ace high flush today in a pot limit tournament and actually thought I was on a roll to win it until I ran into two trouble points. There were 260 players in the tournament, and we were down to about 80 with me in 2nd place. I raised preflop with a good, but not great hand, JJ10K. The flop missed me, but put a pair on board, along with a straight draw. I continuation bet and was called by someone with almost my chip count and pocket 5's. He hit a flush on me and I was down to 15th place. My last hand was pocket kings, with a 6 and I think a 10, single suited, diamonds. The blinds were huge, 2,000/4000, and I was in the big blind. There were several late position limpers plus the small blind, so I elected to thin the herd by raising pot. This put me over 1/2 in, and pot committed, so when the button reraised me (barely covering me), I called. He had AA10,x and was also suited with his ace in diamonds. The flop was awesome for me, with 2-6's, giving me bottom trips, but unfortunately put 2 diamonds on the board. Turn, blank, river.......diamond. I was out in 30th place. If I had won the hand....top 4. Oh, well....I did not go in with the best hand, but given the flop if I had no raised preflop would have pushed with the 3-sixes and 2nd nut flush draw anyway. He may have called with the overpair and nut flush draw, so.....go fish!

1 Day, 2 Royal Flushes

Playing Omaha today I hit two royal flushes. The first one paid off big, the second I actually folded before it came. Also flopped quads twice, so not a bad day.

Angel or Devil?

Playing a marathon game yesterday (10 a.m. until 2 a.m.), yes, I know, very very sick, I ran into a new memesis. "Angel" is a Latino calling station who is in every hand and plays aggressively. With a $250 high hand at stake plus possible quads I chose to just call a $5 bet on a great flop for me with the 5 and a fairly ragged board. Angel of course called with virtually nothing, 7/9 offsuit. The turn brought a 6, giving him a gutshot straight draw. A normal person would just call the next $5. bet, but he raises $20. I then reraise another $20 and he calls. The river brings his gutshot in and I call the final $20 bet. Then, in my opinion the worst part happened. I turned my hand over immediately showing and calling my set of 5's, he then sits there for 10-15 seconds before slow rolling his straight. Now that got me steaming!! He repeatedly slow rolled all night, sometimes with the dealer just pushing the pot to someone showing their hand first. He eventually went broke and left as his kind always do, but not before creating havoc destroying quality hands with their garbage.



The tone of my long day was set by the very first hand I played. Normally, I buy in for $100 in the $2-20 spread game but decided to change it up some. I bought in for $500, planning on pretty much playing my normal tight conservative game. My reasoning was this: as new players came in they would not know how much I had bought in for so would naturally assume that I was on a lucky winning streak and would play more cautiously against me. All of the players at the table knew me, so it was not a big deal...except for one person I had never played against before. I think that he thought I bought so much because I was a loose aggressive player and just liked to splash the pots and force people out. Unfortunately for me my very first hand was QQ. I decided to try to take it down immediately and bet $20. He called with AK. The flop was small, I bet $20, he called. The turn, small, $20/call. The river, ace. He bets, I call. Stuck $100 immediately. It took me almost an hour to get back to even mostly due to having the right hands against the wrong players. (See previous soft play comments). I flopped monsters against my best friends, Bob and Ron 3 times when they had very good hands (set of 10's vs. AA for example). I was unable to maximize my profits....where is Angel when you need him?



Last sad tale. This mornings tournament featured an unlucky situation for me. With blinds at $200/400 and me with about 4000 in chips (10 x BB), I had one limper in late position and I look down at 10/10. Reasoning that the blinds probably had squadush and the limper was weak, I raised all-in. In retrospect I probably should have just raised to $1000 or so, but with a reraise I am calling most of the time anyway, so think it was an o.k. move. So, the small blind, with more chips than me insta-calls. Gary, a very good player, in the big blind goes into the tank and eventually folds. He is assisted by the small blind who comments, "it is an easy call for me if that helps you". The limper turns his pocket 8's face up and the small blind turns over, drum roll please, pocket aces. When I turn up my 10's I then get to hear Gary say, "You are drawing dead, I threw away pocket 10's". And except for a lucky straight draw (didn't happen) I was. What the heck are the odds of 4 pocket pairs with two the same, being dealt to an 8 handed table? Slim I would guess.



Anyhoo, that is it. Knocked out with 10's like my friend Lynne earlier (but she was at least ahead preflop). Thanks again for the card protector, I will cherish it.

6 My New Unlucky Number

Yesterday I accomplished an unusual feat. I managed to bubble on the money in 6th place in 3 tournaments. The first was the "morning Moose" where I lost two races (went all-in with pocket 8's both times) against people who I had covered both times, doubling them up....they would ultimately chop 1st place!!! In the Omaha tournament I went all-in with KK23 and got called by AAxx. The flop hit me with a king, but he caught an ace. I had a great chance to chop since there was a 6 on the flop, but no low cards came and I was out.
My last 6th place finish was a large internet tourney with 983 people. In Spade Club they only pay cash to 5 places, but I did receive points to enter the big tournaments plus final table player of the year points. Oh, well!

True to luck my cash game was a disaster. Lost $300 on 4 bad beats......

Monte Moose

The Monte Carlo board and high hands have been berry berry good to me lately. Yesterday I lit it up for 3 hands on the high board (quad 10's, quad 7's and aces full). The aces hand got knocked off, but still scored two high hands, one 1st for $250, and the other one 3rd for $100, plus $200 for the quads. A very good day at the poker room.

My play left me dead even on my buy ins. In general I would prefer to win my money the old fashioned way and forgo the Montes as good play is preferred to luck, but you definitely need both.

Knocked out of Two Tournaments

Sunday was the pits for me. I got knocked out of the deepstack Moose $115 tournament with my pocket aces cracked by pocket 4's. I raised 3x BB preflop, he called. Flop was queen high, uncoordinated with a diamond flush draw and of course the 4. I bet $600 into the $750 pot and he called..one other caller folded. Turn card put a 10 on board, forming a possible straight draw with KJ, another hand I put in his range of calling. What I thought he had was AQ, or a flush draw. I decided to bet $2000 to discourage a flush draw. I was a little surprised when he came over the top all-in. I thought for 10 seconds (not long enough) and called. What was stupid was not just folding and keeping about 6000 in chips. It is usually not a good idea to call an allin with just one pair. I should have given him credit for a larger range, including Q10 or a flopped set.

I was scheduled for a big Sunday online tournament ($5000 prize pool, 3000 or so players) at 1:00, so I had plenty of time. 5 hours later, I was still in the tournament in good shape to cash. 170 players would be paid and there were about 500 of us left with me in the top 25%. I picked up pocket aces in the cutoff position and the hijack who has me well covered raised a couple of thousand with 3 limpers. I immediately went all-in for another 7000 or so to isolate him. Everyone folded to him and he called to show....pocket jacks. Great, except for the jack high flop. Dang...two aces cracked stories in one day!

My weekend was a disaster, around 300 in losses including my buyin. I more than made up for it today in the cash game however hitting a straight flush wheel for a $450 win, less 85 game loss plus 25 tournament loss. Break even poker at its best.

Soft Play "Friends"?

Often at the table I see friends soft playing each other. One will have the absolute nuts and just check it down, not wanting to take their friend's money. If more people are in the hand, it is a different matter. Saturday night I was in a similar situation. Playing an A/10 I flopped the ace and bet out into a small crowd. Everyone folded except my "friend". I then checked to her, and she checked back. At some point, either flop or turn, she picked up a straight flush draw which came in on the river. I checked my made straight on the river, figuring that I had probably won and was surprised when she bet the maximum into me. I called (an obvious mistake given the flush possibility, bigger straight possibility, and obvious chop possibility) to see the straight flush. She won not only $250 for the monte carlo, but also another $250 for high hand. My question is: why the bet into me with a locked $250 & probable $500 locked in? Comment????