Last Blog Before Returning From Vegas?

Always on Saturday must do reporting from the major coastal event, the Friday night American Legion tournament.  First of all, did not deal.  Wasn't asked, didn't volunteer.  Secondly, no beer.  Third, no changing it up.  Decided to play squeaky tight, folded all hands for first 20 minutes or so.  Mostly because I was being dealt absolute crap.  Went for a short streak where my highest card was a 7....maybe 5 hands.  Also being dealt lots of big little off-suit combinations, you know, Q/3, etc.  Meanwhile, the guy next to me is tripling up, knocking out the two dumbest players at the table.  Honestly, would you call an all-in with your straight when there are 3 of a suit on the board?  Or with two pair when a straight or flush is obvious?  If so, you are just not paying any attention to texture.  So, anyway, this kid, who had never played here before hits the jackpot and continues to tear up the game.  As they say, "the deck was hitting him".   I won a couple of hands before break and had about 3,000 chips, (starting stack of 2,150), and blinds up to 100/200 after break.

Now, from my reading about fast tournaments...and I consider this one of them due to the blind structure and 16 minute blinds, I am in definite short stack territory with only 15 BB's.  So now, my only move is all-in.  Re-drawing seats to another table, where I am again next to the red-hot kid, I go all-in, double up and win another smaller pot with a raise.  Now back in better chip position I miss a huge opportunity when the dealer raises half his stack with A/6 and is called by the kid with 6/6.  I refuse to over-call (remember my earlier blog) with A/10 suited since I reasoned that all of his chips would go in post flop due to pot commitment, plus figured there was at least a pair and/or bigger ace out there.  The flop was 10 high, with 2 hearts (my suit) and it was checked on the flop and turn.  The dealer went all-in on the river, the kid anguished, folded his winning hand face up and the dealer showed the bluff.

A few hands later, I raised the now short dealer with K/J suited, he went all-in with K/9 off, and managed to turn a 9 and then river another.  Opportunities missed.  I always love seeing the dominated hand but poker has a big luck element and have not been running that lucky.

Managed to make the final table, and due to 2 knockouts we entered it with only 9 players, with 5 making the money.  Wish I could report that I went on to win it, but very bad cards for me again.  We got to 6, agreed to the bubble pay.  I went all-in next hand and won.  Robert, a very lucky player, and the short stack went all-in against "The Kid", (who had back to back queens on the FT) and doubled up.  Unfortunately, Roberts luck ran out a few hands later, he went out on the bubble.  Hooray for me!!!!  I ended up shoving with K/Q under the gun with only 3 or 4 BB's and was called by A/J.  He hit a jack on the flop, which was actually good for me since the flop was J/9/8, giving me 4 more outs.  Failed to hit them and collected my $72.00 5th place.  After buy-in and tip,  netted $27.00.  Oh, well.

Here's a trivia fact for you.  Went the whole tournament without being dealt a pocket pair.  How is that even possible?  And more so, making the money.  It does show you that you do not need pairs to win.  As nice as rockets or kings look, they seldom make more than top pair hands.  I read recently that the average winning holdem hand is two pair, which you can do with top pair, but it requires the board to pair which can mean doom if someone has trips.


there’s a guy who lives in London. One morning, he hears a booming voice. The voice says, “Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas.” He ignores the voice, but can’t help thinking about this seemingly divine message. Later in the day, he hears the voice again. “Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas.” Again, he ignores the voice. Soon he hears the voice every minute of the day. “Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas.” He can’t take it anymore. He believes the voice. He quits his job, sells his house, takes all his money, and flies to Las Vegas. As soon as he steps off the plane, the voice says, “Go to the Rio.” He goes to The Horseshoe. The voice says, “Put all your money into a World Series of Poker (WSOP) entry.” He puts up his $10,000 and buys an entry into the WSOP. He goes to his assigned tournament table. The first hand is dealt and the guy is dealt pocket Aces. The voice says, “Go all in.” He pushes his entire $10,000 bankroll into the pot. Three players call. The dealer lays down the flop which is Jh10h9h.

The voice says, “Damn!”