The Moose Tournament

While I do enjoy playing in the morning $25 Moose tournament, it is a very fast structure and almost purely luck based once you reach the $100/200 blind level.  On Wednesday I started off very strong, winning the first hand dealt with A/J with an A/J/X flop and one caller through the turn.  Being chipped up and the leader at the table when Clark raised to $75 I decided to call with my 8/9 offsuit in the  big blind.  It paid off well as the flop was 10/J/Q.  I bet a couple of hundred, Clark raised to $500 with KK and I put him all in...figuring if he had AK I was toast, but still had chips.  When an 8 or an ace failed to appear, he was gone.

Max went out with KK almost the next hand against a gal's QJ on a 2 pair flop.  Kings were running into a lot of trouble, they got beaten again at that table and again at the final table....more on that in a moment.

When we formed the final table I was in very good shape with about 5000 in chips.  I ran into trouble first with QQ, raising from the Big blind ($400) to $1400 with 2 callers.  The flop came king high and my $1000 bet was met with an all in which I folded.  Tony called with 8/7 diamonds (2 diamonds on the flop) and KJ suited knocked him out.
Next I limped in the small blind with A/10 suited to see a flop of 5/7/8.  I checked and a big stack bet 700.  I saw an opportunity to steal with possibility of improving the hand.  When the turn paired the 5, I fired out a $700 bet, which he called.  The river was a 4, completing virtually every possible draw and I fired yet again, $1000, which I felt represented a great "value" bet for a made straight or trips.  He called.....with a pair of 7's!!!!!  Donk!!!!!  I congratulated him on his great call, but could not resist adding "really?  You called that board with 2nd pair?"  Anyway, I was ready to decide that he was a  great player until he called an all-in, an overcall all-in for all of his chips with his A/Q.  He lost to KK.  Donk, I was right the first time, really did not know what he was doing.  This is the reason the tournament is a luck weighted event, too many folks just don't think through their play.

My last hand Bob raised to 1600 in early position fairly big and a big stack called.  I found 88 and decided to reraise all-in with my short stack of 2500, hoping to go heads up with Bob, or triple up if the limp caller came along.  I figured that I would have to get super lucky.  Bob & the other guy both called and went all in on the flop with a small flop.  Bob had AA and the other guy KK.  Bob won and ended up chopping at the end with that guy who survived and doubled up a few times.  This was about the best outcome I could hope for, losing my chips to my friend who we have a deal to pay buy-in back if either of us wins.