The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I didn't make too big a deal of entering my latest poker tourney that, this time, wasn't in Las Vegas or Atlantic City but in the cozy confines of Ottawa. I thought, maybe if I just kept it low key, maybe I'll do a little better. There were just over 400 people who entered, I ended up in about 85th or so. John finished in 50th place, which was the first position to win anything, so he won a free buy-in to next year's Ottawa championships. When you think I finished 1/2 way through the field in my first tourney, 2/3 of the way through the 2nd, then this one about 4/5 give or take...getting better! (Just trying to find positives, m-kay?)

So the tournament: They didn't have enough volunteers when you checked in so it took about 30 minutes after the 1pm start before we actually played any cards. And they didn't have dealers: the players did the dealing. Not horrible, except they used a two deck system so as soon as a hand was over, there was a deck of cards ready to go. The 2nd table I was at, the guy in front of me said one of his fingers had a pulled tendon or something so I had to shuffle two times every circuit. Boo. It was just a pain to shuffle, then it was your turn to act and you'd have to put the deck you were shuffling down to play your hand. Kind of a nuisance.

The blind structure was great though, we started with 5000 in chips with blinds starting at 5/10. They'd last 30 minutes, but would go up in small amounts (next was 10/20, 15/30, 25/50, 35/70 <--- yes 35/70, 50/100, 75/150 and so on) so it wasn't an all-in fest. Marc Karim, the pro from Ottawa who finished in the top 5 in EPT events 3 or 4 times, he played and if you busted him out you'd win $250 which was neat. He lasted about 1/2 the field.

Some hands I played: It just seemed like there would be more bad luck than good today. I had pocket Kings...c'mon, Kings! It was raised, then I raised from the SB, then I got re-raised the minimum. Geez. I thought, well, he has A-K or pocket Aces, if there's an ace on the flop that's it, I'll fold. So sure enough, the Ace was there, I checked it down to the river, he bet out and I folded the Kings face up, and he showed me trip Aces. I guess I lost about the minimum possible so I should be happy about that, but, frick, still sucked.

I raised with jacks and got called by a clown holding 10-6 suited. He got a third ten on the river, but he didn't bet much when he made his full boat so I called a 5-1 odds bet knowing I was beat, but wanting to know what he was holding. I was sort of miffed by this sort of play, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

I raised with A-Q suited, and got re-raised again by the BB who was the same guy who had Aces on me earlier. I didn't have a good feeling about it so I folded, and he turned up A-J suited. I thought to myself: Man, this just isn't your day.

So my last hand I got screwed again with A-Q (A-Q was also the hand that busted me out in Atlantic City). The big stack raised with what would be revealed to be A-J suited, although I wasn't terribly worried about his raise since it was his 4th raise in a row. Another guy called, which left him with slightly more than 1/2 his chips which made me think why he just didn't push the remainder of his chips in? I decided to go all-in after much thought as the blinds were at 900-1800 and I had about less than 7,000 left (the highest amount I had was about 12,000 in chips, and I would go up and down between that and 4000 chips for most of the tournament). The big stack pushed in all his chips, so I thought, damn, he has a real hand, maybe Kings but as I mentioned he just had A-J. Then the other guy pushed all his chips in. Ugh. He had A-K suited and the best hand. But the flop came:

5-5-J

So the Jacks held up and knocked us both out.

I almost mucked my A-Q, but I couldn't do it. I felt desperate again. I guess that's something I have to work on, but, with other hands that I was just bullied out, I don't know, thought it was time to make a stand.

And that's the end of my story! I'm getting closer, maybe, just maybe, I can look forward to a money finish. When's the next tournament?