Live Tournament Recap (brag)

[timsta007 0]

I wrote this for my local Poker forum (northern California) and didn't feel like changing anything, but its should still be a good, albeit long read. Monday was 10 kinds of awesomeness.A lot of you might remember me talking about how I qualified for a big tournament at Jackson a couple months ago and how I thought it would be a really good tournament to do for the money involved and the competition level. The way they ran the satellites I qualified in was a $120 buy in ($110+$10) and one out of every ten entrants gets an $1100 seat at the main tournament. Well I was lucky enough to win a seat in the very first satellite I played (see other recap http://byocpoker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1778). So I took the day off work on Monday to play in this tourney which ended up 150 players and a total prize pool of $150,000. Also worth noting, that probably more than 90% of all the people playing got their seat from the sattellite which tends to make for a much weaker field than if everyone had bought in for $1100.I started off the tournament just terrible. My initial strategy going in was to play a lot of hands and mix it up because the structure was pretty relaxed. We started with 10,000 chips, blinds started at 25/50 and the rounds were 30 min long. Well I did play a lot of hands and couldn’t hit a flop turn or river to save my life. At one point I got down to about 6200 when I made my first big hand. I got pocket AA and made a standard raise. The flop came out 10,6,6 with two spades and it checked to me in position. I was a little worried about someone having the 6 but figured I might have to go broke if that happened. I checked behind taking further risk of the flush draw but I really needed to make this hand pay off. The turn was the K of clubs putting a second flush draw on the board and a loose aggressive opponent bet out about 50% of the pot. I raised to 3x and he thought for a moment and called. I put him on either the K or one of the flush draws thinking that if he had a 6 he would have put me in on the turn to protect against all the draws. He then checked dark which made me think even more that he had a K only. The river was the A clubs!!! Unfortunately, I made a relatively small value bet on the river thinking he had a K but he actually rivered a baby flush and was a good enough player to not reraise the river so I lose a little value on the end of that hand. Almost immediately I lost all my winnings from that hand when I got sandwiched between a loose player and a super rock. Loose guy raised and me and rock called (me with AJ). The flop comes out Jxx and rock bets out and loose guy calls. I reraise and rock goes all in. I figured he had to have a set and folded. He later told me he had pocket KK! Holy crap! I can’t remember much from the next two levels but I did manage to string together a couple wins, and was only all in once on a semibluff which luckily the other guy folded on the turn. I chipped up to about 11,500 and moved to a different table.I started the new table pretty hot. The ante’s had kicked in pretty good (I think we were to 100 antes by now) and my new table was squeaky tight. Since the AA hand I really didn’t pick up much in the way of premium starting hands but I managed to steal or resteal a few pots and only got caught once or twice over two levels. Combining those steals with a really big hand when I was able to limp in with J2 in the small blind and get paid off when I got a free turn, turned two pair and got paid off big by a guy chasing a combo draw. I was able to get chipped up pretty good at this table and changed tables at about 28,000. Right after I moved to the new table I went on another rush picking up 77, AK, AQ and a few other decent hands. There was very little post flop play by this point and several times I continued to rob people blind. The nice thing about this table is that I was able to table a few premium hands at the beginning which made people respect my raises. I over heard one guy say, “the last time he raised that much he had AK, ok I fold my big blind.” SWEET! ***as I muck K7s*** I got my stack up to about 95,000 chips but lost a bit when my cards went cold toward the end. I table changed again when we got down to the final 30 players and had 84,000 at the dinner break.By this point I was getting pretty stressed out with the bubble approaching and a lot of money on the line. I went and played a little three card poker (just for you James) and chatted with another guy who had just recently been knocked out (really solid player too). I got a quick bite to eat and for the last 15 min of the break I was a nervous wreck. The funny thing is that as soon as I got seated and the cards were in the air, I was totally fine. I think as long as I was able to concentrate on the game, I got back into my comfort zone and was able to really play my game. Over the next hour or so I was ridiculously card dead. At one point I folded down to 60k but was able to pick up a few blinds and ante’s on total steals. The first big hand I played was with 21 players left approaching the bubble which was at 18. An aggressive player made it 30k from early position (he had been stealing a lot) and I looked down at 88. I thought about it carefully, and decided I needed to get chipped up here going on basic strategy that the goal is not to make the money, but to make the top 5 where the big money is. I moved all in for 58k more. The aggressive guy tanked for a few minutes and then folded saying it just too much to call with his hand. I think he probably had A10 or there abouts. It was a huge chip pickup for me and put my stack at about 145k, well above average. The bubble took quite a while to burst but eventually it did and by stealing a few more hands, I stayed about even in chips, maybe lost a few. We went on a short break and I was telling people how I hadn’t had very many premium hands the whole tournament and that I was due. Boy was I right. I woke up with QQ in the big blind and the same aggressive player made a preflop raise. I tanked for a while to sell my hand and then moved all in figuring I’d pick up another pot preflop. He instacalled me and I thought I was dead until he turned up his 22. WTF? Well no miracle for him and I increase my stack by almost 100k. An orbit later, I took out another short stack when I got KK from the small blind and he had half his stack in on the big blind. Up to 280k. Then right before the break to go to the final table I knocked out another player when my 88 beat his 77 all in preflop. It turned out that the other table knocked out another player at the same time so we went to the final table 8 handed.The jumps in the pay scale started in earnest at 9th and up so it was pretty big to make it this far. Add on to that that with 380k in my stack I was the chip leader and the 2nd in chips was on my right. I folded a few blinds to start out the FT, and noticed that the 2nd in chips to my right was aggressively attacking my blinds every time. The next time around he raised on the button and I looked down at A4o in the small blind. I reraised to 124k (about 1/3 of my stack) and he tanked trying to decide if I was on a resteal. Ultimately he decided it wasn’t worth it to clash in case I had a monster and folded and he was much less of a threat when I was in the blinds from there on out. In fact I got several walks the rest of the way. The next big hand I was involved in was pretty standard but the way it worked out was kinda sick. I looked down at AKo in early pos and raised pretty big (4x bb). Two players over moves all in for only about 2x my raise and another short stack calls. I had to call and me and the other shortstack table AK and the medium stack tables 88. We flopped a K despite having each others out and it held up and I knocked out another player. Now we were down to 6 players and I stayed out of the way for the most part, picking up blinds here and there but not playing any big hands and trying to stay out of pots that other people raised. The last really big hand for me was maybe my best hand of the tournament. Guy raises to 50k in early position and I’m on the big blind with 20k in already so I call with Jh9h. The flop is 8,3,2 and I check. He bets 75k and I tank for a moment. He only has 110k behind and already has committed 125k to the pot but I feel strongly that he is weak and uncomfortable with his hand. Also I feel that he does have enough chips to be able to fold his hand if I raised. I put him on a hand like two face cards (which he loved raising with preflop) and moved in on him. He tanked for a long time and finally folded. He later told me he had 66 and was pretty disappointed to learn how badly I owned him. The most important part of that read IMO is that I felt he was so concerned about the money and what place he went out that he would fold even a hand like AK or a small pocket pair and I was hoping that even if he called I would have live cards. That pushed my stack up to over 700k making me a dominating chip leader for the remainder of the tourney. Two other players busted out in the next 25 min and during the break I was approached by the other three players with an offer to chop proportionally to chip stacks. With $100,000 left in the prize pool the final 4 payouts would have been as follows:1st – $40,5002nd – $25,0003rd – $19,5004th – $15,000First they offered me $30k for the chop which I didn’t feel was fair. I proposed 34 and ultimately settled on the following chop up.Me - $33,0002nd - $23,5003rd - $22,0004th - $21,500In respects to BK’s question about why I decided to chop there were a few different reasons. First, I didn’t want to be the only guy that wouldn’t chop. I’m not a superstitious person but that’s super bad karma to be “that guy.” I didn’t feel that it was a crap shoot per say, but I only had between 2-3x each of the other 3 players in chips. If one of them doubled through me the chip position would be flipped. I definitely felt I was the best player and was confident in my ability to win, but ultimately anything can happen at that point in regards to coolers and/or coin flips and I decided that 33k was so much more than 2nd place that it was the safe thing to do to take the extra money and not push my luck for the full 40k first place prize. I’m still happy with my decision, and have zero regrets.It took about 1.5 hours to get everything sorted out so I’m really tired at work today but obviously happy. I havn’t decided what to do with the money but first on the list is pay taxes. Ugh. It was an awesome event, and very exciting to (sort of) win (I’ll be in the Jackson news letter next month WOOT!). Per Joe’s request I’m going to try and host soon so look for the evite. Oh yeah, ever wonder what $33,000 looks like?

[eYank 0]

very nice read congrats! thats awsome!

[Big Jono 0]

Good read, congrats on the cash!

[Mercury69 3]

Super nice job, dude!

[NoSup4U 0]

Good read, congrats on the cash!

[gatortom64 1]

Good read, congrats on the cash!

[BobVersion1 0]

That, is alot of money. Wow.... Congrats!

[PMJackson21 0]

An aggressive player made it 30k from early position (he had been stealing a lot) and I looked down at 88. I thought about it carefully, and decided I needed to get chipped up here going on basic strategy that the goal is not to make the money, but to make the top 5 where the big money is. I moved all in for 58k more. The aggressive guy tanked for a few minutes and then folded saying it just too much to call with his hand. I think he probably had A10 or there abouts. It was a huge chip pickup for me and put my stack at about 145k, well above average.

Did you thank him for the free chips? Geez, I assume the blinds were like 5/10k (on the 30k open raise), with a 1k ante or so? Horrible fold if he had anything close to AT. Missing a bit of info (like his stack size), but that is just spewing chips. He had to be getting close to 3-1, and even a nit like myself calls (albeit reluctantly) with pretty much everything but complete rags.Congrats, gl in the future.

[timsta007 0]

Did you thank him for the free chips? Geez, I assume the blinds were like 5/10k (on the 30k open raise), with a 1k ante or so? Horrible fold if he had anything close to AT. Missing a bit of info (like his stack size), but that is just spewing chips. He had to be getting close to 3-1, and even a nit like myself calls (albeit reluctantly) with pretty much everything but complete rags.Congrats, gl in the future.

Yeah, this is the same guy that instacalled my QQ all in with 22 so basically he dumped his entire 150k stack to me over those two hands (actually more because he reloaded in between off someone else). I could be wrong about the A,10 read on the guy but he did mention having an Ace after he mucked. Its very possible that it was a much worse ace but even given that he's nearly getting the right price to call even against a hand that has him dominated. I never said the play in this tournament was strong and being on the bubble, this guy was willing to take a stab with any ace but not willing to double me up I guess.

[PMJackson21 0]

Yeah, this is the same guy that instacalled my QQ all in with 22 so basically he dumped his entire 150k stack to me over those two hands (actually more because he reloaded in between off someone else). I could be wrong about the A,10 read on the guy but he did mention having an Ace after he mucked. Its very possible that it was a much worse ace but even given that he's nearly getting the right price to call even against a hand that has him dominated. I never said the play in this tournament was strong and being on the bubble, this guy was willing to take a stab with any ace but not willing to double me up I guess.

Heh which is what makes live tournament play, esp in Northern California (when we have them), so profitable. I love the Bay Area, but I'm not ashamed to say we have the worst players in the country here. At least in La they are more agg.I love that he was the guy with 22 too. Let me pass up this spot getting 3-1 and get my money in as a 4-1 dog.

[Veener Schnitz 0]

edit: went back and read it all and I must say congrats on the good showing and super awesome cash!

[crocd99 0]

Oh yeah, ever wonder what $33,000 looks like?

looks cool but you knows its all about the hamiltons.... you should of got it all in tens then it would of look really huge

[timsta007 0]

Thanks a lot guys. Actually I'm stunned that I made it most of the way down the first page without getting reamed by someone for posting a brag!

[ThePhoenix88 0]

Thanks a lot guys. Actually I'm stunned that I made it most of the way down the first page without getting reamed by someone for posting a brag!

Frickin brag post. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than to flaunt your money all over the place. Jeez have some respect.

[theinvestor 0]

Nice job in the tourney.....

[Snamuh 0]

Congrats dude on the sick cash!

[socalpoker_j 1]

Congrats Timsta, do you ever play at Casino 101 in Petaluma or Cache Creek?

[nutzbuster 7]

That thar is one tasty looking pita pocket!(wanna come to a home game?)

[CrazyEyez 0]

No way i'd be at work the next day after that kinda cash. Nice play though

[BullsBugling 0]

Thanks a lot guys. Actually I'm stunned that I made it most of the way down the first page without getting reamed by someone for posting a brag!

Hey Timsta007,Congrats on the win. Funny thing is, I'm playing in almost the exact same formatted tournament coming up September 1st at Spirit Mountain Casino in Oregon. There will be about 164 players, $1100 buy in, most of them being satellite entries, and we start out with 100000 in chips. I'm in buy winning 30g's in a bad beat about a month ago, so I got my seat for about $550 from a guy who won two sattelites because you can transfer them. By reading your story, hopefully it brings me some luck cause I could always use another 40k!!!!!Bulls

[timsta007 0]

Congrats Timsta, do you ever play at Casino 101 in Petaluma or Cache Creek?

I play at Bay 101 when I'm in the area, but I'm not a great limit player so I don't make opportunities to go there more often (I'd rather go to Los Angeles). The big limit games at Bay 101 are sick though. Havn't been to Cache Creek in ages but I've been meaning to make it up that way sometime soon. The rake there is completely outrageous, but I've heard the action has gotten really good since the new room opened so I'll definately check it out soon. Never been to Petaluma. My regular spots to play in and around the Sacramento area include: Jackson Rancheria, The Limelight (since they opened the NL side games), Dueces Wild in Auburn, and I occationally go up to Feather Falls for the once a month Saturday Tourny they run once a month. For big poker weekends, I'd much rather go to Tahoe, Los Angeles or Vegas tho. Probably make 6-8 weekend trips a year.

[yeffy 0]

Congrats on the win. And congrats on making a great deal. Locking $8K more then 2nd place money with less then a 3-1 lead on the field is awesome, I take that every time (yeah I'm not DN and I make deals....but only good ones)

[jethrodull 0]

wow! love the picture of the green congrats on a huge win...J

[Royal_Tour 0]

Congrats!getting paid when u have AA,KK QQ in tourneys is always nice