Discovered a new casino with a morning poker tournament just 15 minutes from the apartment. So, filled with eager enthusiasm I made the drive today. It is located in a strip mall in Mill Creek, just off the Bothell Everett highway. It is owned by Washington Gold, the same owners of the Crazy Moose in Pasco and is about the same size. The poker room is 4 tables and they feature various cash games. The buy-in was $40, for 5000 chips with a $20 add-on for a couple thousand more. Everyone bought the add-on, most before the game began, others right before the break. The structure was very fast, with initial blinds at 50/100, 15 minutes. The $25 chips disappeared after the first blind level.
I started off strong, flopping a straight with my 4/6 in the big blind (unraised), but was fairly card dead after that. A short stack raised big UTG and I re-raised all in with AJ suited (yeah, I know, stupid), but he called and tabled A/10 and I scored a double up. Didn't keep the chips long as I checked my option in the big blind with K/3 of clubs. The small blind completed, everyone else folded. The flop was ace high with 2 clubs. He checked, I bet 1,000 and he check raised to 2,000. Thinking he might have an ace but with lots of outs to win, I 3 bet to 5,000. He thought for a short time and went all-in (I had him well covered with about 5,000 to spare). I called and he turns over.....A/3 of spades!!! What the what was he thinking he could beat? Sadly, the board failed to yield a club and I am again short. A couple of hands later I shoved with Q/8 in the cut-off and the big stack in the big blind was happy to call with K/K. Player down.
Reviewing my play I certainly could have avoided both losses. My best option on the first hand was just to check behind on the first hand to take the free card on the flop. I could then call a smaller bet on the turn if I missed and see the river fairly cheap. Even calling his check raise would have been scarey for him given his kicker. I possibly could have gotten to the river for only 2K, or folded on the turn to a large bet. That said, I think his shove of my 3 bet was pretty dumb of him.
Yes, I could have waited for a better hand to shove with. My thinking was that the s/b and b/b were both older, tighter players and would fold to 6x big blind with most hands. Just bad luck to have the B/B find pocket kings, another player had kings the hand before. As another p.s., any weak ace would have taken the pot....there were 2 of them on the flop.
1 comment:
Do you think you will continue to play there? It's nice that it's so close to your place so you can avoid all that fun traffic. I don't think you played all that badly but you know - S _ _ T happens LOL.
Saturday was good for me. I played 3 tournaments. I was the money bubble at the 8am Moose (drat), but I won the 10am. I then tootled over to Jokers for some profitable 3-6 (made $85 in 2 hours). I was trying to take down the 3pm tournament for the 3rd week in a row, but had to settle for second. Double drat.
Sunday at the Moose was horrible. Again I was the money bubble at the 8am, but I was rolling along well in the 10am until I made a bad call against a player who bluffs a lot. This time he actually had a decent hand so I was down to 6000 chips with blinds of 200-400.
I decided to shove with 7-7 and another guy also went all-in for less with A3. Stupid Dirt Farmer decided to call both of us with J7 suited. How ridiculous is that? I really think he was trying to get revenge on me for crushing him in an earlier hand. I would have won except there was a damn jack on the river. He's on my list that's for sure.
Win big and have fun!
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