Better At the Beach #2: Butter at the Beach

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The only good thing for me about Monday was that I didn’t make it to the add-on break in Event #5 $75K GTD NLHE. With the same structure as the previous day’s event but no re-entry, there was a bit of an overlay on this tournament.

I sat down between Max Young, who’d been in on a chop the day before and Ryan Stoker, so I knew I wasn’t going to be allowed to get too out of line. I managed to maintain around starting stack for a few hours, then as my stack crept under the 25bb level I picked up queens, put in a raise over a couple of limpers, and got called by one from the old(er) man at the other end of the table. Ace on the flop, I c-bet, he calls, and we check it down. He has [ax tx]. Standard, but I’ve lost 8bb and it doesn’t get any better from there. A short stack UTG goes all in and I call with [as 9s], she has deuces and hits a set on the flop. I’m down to 2.5bb and shove on the next hand w [Qx 3x]. It miraculously folds to the BB, the woman who had the deuces, and she calls with a little embarassment perhaps, with [7x 2x], again catching a deuce on the flop.

Event #6 10-Seat GTD NLHE Satellite went okay for a couple of hours, then not!

First cash of the series for me was a roller coaster with a fast start.

In the Event #7 $25K GTD NLHE Seniors I started picking up chips early, getting up to 60K from the 12K start before the first break.

The early success didn’t last, however, and I slipped down below 30K over the course of the next three levels. Then it was back upward, to 100K. By dinner break, I was back down under where I’d been at the first break.

I was over average throughout the tournament, but that didn’t mean much as we were closing in on the money. By the time we hit the bubble, the average stack was less than 10bb.

The end for came as a bit of a surprise for me. Tom, one of the regulars in Portland, had recently come to the table, and took out a player with a pair of convenient aces. On the very next hand, I was on the button with pocket jacks. A player in early position raised to 4.5bb and Tom called from his table-dominating stack. I had about 13bb and I shoved, only to find out that Tom had queens. The flop gave Tom a set and me an open-ended straight draw (the other player had sevens) but there was no relief and I busted in 32nd place for slightly less than a min-cash.

Wednesday was the Event #9 $15K GTD Omaha Hi-Lo, the only fixed-limit game on the schedule. I lasted just over six hours after a bad start and recovery, only to have two old ladies beat me up and take my chips.

I got kicked out early enough that I was able to late-register the evening’s Event #10 5-Seat GTD NLHE Satellite to Friday’s $1,075 buy-in 6-Max tournament.

Within an hour, I was up to 40K from the 7.5K starting stack, after opening up my game a little bit. I knew from all of my play in the Ignition Casino Thousandaire Makera about where I needed to be to cur the jets and glide into winning one of the vouchers, and even though I didn’t have a huge stack by the time we were down to twelve players (with six vouchers to be awarded and $300 to seventh place) I could tell that so long as I didn’t muck it up that I’d probably get there.

There was one enormous stack at the final table and all of us little remoras swimming around hoping not to be the ones who were eaten. Everyone got hats(!) even though we weren’t all in the money. Not sure what they’d have done if there had been more than 10 vouchers awarded!

All I needed was to not have any of the small stacks double up ahead of my own stack, and eventually the blinds would grind them into oblivion. When a couple of them doubled up, pushing me down the chip counts, I’d shove and take the blinds. Since I was doing that so rarely, I didn’t get a challenge. By the time the “mystery envelope” of $301 was awarded to Gail Hand for 7th place, the average stack was 2.5bb.

Dave Long and I headed down into central Lincoln City to celebrate at the Old Oregon Tavern, which was done to the hilt for Halloween, complete with ghosts that raised and lowered as the entry doors closed and opened. Plus, they had a nifty Batman 66 pinball machine. If someone wins an extra $8K this weekend, this is on my Christmas list.

I’d been hoping to play Thursday’s Event #11 $50K GTD NLHE Big Bounty, but after a couple of emergency dips into the bankroll last month, I didn’t have the cash reserves. So it was Event #12 $25K GTD Big O. At least for an hour. I lost a hand with the second nuts to Prime, then got it all in against another player with the second best set. Did. Not. Rebuy.

Hopped across to the 60s Cafe & Diner up the hill from the casino where I had some non-doctor-approved lunch, and Dave and I tried out their Boozy Shakes. I cannot recommend enough the Chocolate Fudge Bourbon Delight.

Tomorrow is the 6-Max!