Nine years ago on December 12th the Poker Mutant just about died from complications brought about by a broken leg a couple months before, if you can believe that. According to the doctors, he beat the odds then. Now he plays the long shots in poker.
Carbon Poker $200 HORSE Freeroll (1,000 chips)
Didn’t even make it out of “H”. My [kx tx] Broadway straight managed to beat trip queens but fell to an ace-high heart flush completed by [6h 8h] in the third player’s hand.
Four minutes, seven hands. 2,623rd of 2,626 entries.
Portland Players Club $250 Guarantee (2,000 chips)
Had some success early on, then was the short stack by the time we got to the final table. Some luck kicked in there, though, and I started pulling in chips as the first couple of players fell away. Then I got into a tussle with one of the big stacks and got caught up short.
Two hours and fifteen minutes. -100% ROI. 7th of 24 players.
puffmammy 2011/12 Event #12 (1,800 chips)
A brutal night on the home turf. Lost my first stack to WA in record time when he pulled out a better kicker on the same set I had, then lost the next stack to him in much the same way only his better set kicker turned into a full house.
Forty minutes. -100% ROI. 7th of 7 players.
Portland Players Club $200 Freeroll (2,000 chips)
I’d been thinking that if the puffmammy game got over soon enough, I’d head over to Deuces for another Win the Button tournament, but we were done before 10 and since I’d already paid my door fee at PPC in the morning (only $5 for the early game) I zoomed over there as fast as I could. I was just before the first break, and CB took my money for both the add-ons, so I sat down with 8,000 chips. I got to the table for just a single hand, which I didn’t play.
Things went fairly well from there. The freerollers who hadn’t done well and hadn’t added-on were getting knocked out. With 8K in chips, I was actually starting off above the chip average and there were a couple of loose players at the table. Play went pretty fast and we made the final table in what seemed like record time. Then again, I hadn’t played the first hour of the tournament.
Eventually it was just me and C—one of the PPC regulars—and we agreed to chop it. I had about a 7:5 lead but we did it evenly, after we’d agreed to reserve a cut for the dealer and paid nominal money to fourth and fifth places, the amount of money wasn’t exactly earth-shattering. But for me it made up for the ugly puffmammy loss.
One hour and forty-five minutes. +340% ROI (even chop of first two prizes). 1st of 21 players.
The Final Table PLO8 (5,000 chips)
I’d been itching for an Omaha tournament for a while and finally headed out to The Final Table for a scratch. Ran into Encore manager SG while I was signing up and mentioned that I liked FT’s receipt system.
The tourney started off incredibly well for me. In the first round there were three post-flop all-ins ahead of me. I had [kd] with a suited kicker and there were two diamonds on the flop, including [ad]. Too much money in the pot not to call. I made the flush on the river and took in a pot of nearly 20,000 chips.
My count went steadily down from there, though, and soon enough, I was forced to re-buy. Then that stack started to dwindle away, and by the first break I was down to about 1,800 chips, dwarfed by the 5,000 chip add-on (if that hadn’t been a single chip). Finally, I started to turn things back around and swiftly built up over the chip average, but all it took to get busted out was a missed straight and flush to knock me out again.
One hour and forty-five minutes. -100% ROI. 22nd of 27 players.
A very strange night of poker. Eight players at last night’s game and despite a blind structure that starts off with 20 minutes of 10/20 (90 big blinds) there seemed to be some pent-up aggression among the gang. Several all-ins in the first round of the button. I forced DV to re-buy less than fifteen minutes after play began, and brought on two more re-buys in a single hand ten minutes later. WA had barely gotten his re-buy chips settled when he went up against B and was knocked out of the tournament just half an hour after we started.
Things settled down for about forty minutes, the re-buy period ended, then three more players bit the dust over the course of half an hour that included a ten-minute break. We were barely into level 5 and we were already three-handed.
With the blinds still at only 50/100 and average stacks of more than 7,500, people had plenty of time to pick their spots. Despite my having taken out three players, I was the short stack, because everyone I’d knocked out was already somewhat depleted. I was bleeding chips to VD looking for my opening. Finally, I hit Broadway on the flop with an [ax jx] and VD called my all-in with two pair. I was sitting pretty on nearly half the chips until I managed to double VD up twice, then it was me on life support. Nearly two hours went by between the fourth-place elimination and my eventual fall to DV after three-and-a-half hours of play. Another fifteen minutes and VD fell to him as well.
Three-and-a-half hours. +43% ROI. 3rd of 8 players.
Portland Players Club Noon $250 Guarantee (2,000 chips)
Got the 2,000 pre-add-on. Won the first hand with [5s 7s], hitting the straight on the flop and a straight flush draw on the turn. Pulled in over 1,500 chips from the pot and was still up over 5,000 chips after 15 minutes.
Went all-in with [kh jd] with top pair and three diamonds on the flop and got called by a hand holding the [ad]. Caught a third king on the turn and no more diamonds showed up. Then I won a couple smaller pots with just a pair of kings on one hand and sixes on the other. By forty-five minutes in I was up to 12,000 chips.
Got involved in a three-way all-in with just [7x 7x] against [tx tx] and [ax 9x]. The tens made a full house and I lost 2,400 chips. Lost some more drawing to a flush with just [4s 2s] and was down to 8,000 at fifty minutes.
Bet hard post-flop with [qx qx] from SB and again with [ax tx] that made a wheel on the river and took two pots down without showdown, which put me back up to 12,300 ten minutes later.
One of the players hit three full houses in the time I was at the table and I got caught by one of them, losing 1,600 on [tx 4x] with just top pair against his [3x 3x]. At break 1 I was down to 9,200 and added 4,000.
Slowly crept back up to 10,300 chips by the middle of the second hour, but got knocked out when I went all-in with [5d 6d] and middle pair when I was called by the big stack who had jacks for top pair. I think I almost managed to bluff him off, he would have taken a big hit if I’d managed to make a set or two pair, and he said he was expecting to see kings when he called me. But he did call me and he won.
115 minutes. -100% ROI. Finished 21st of 26 players. Pot was $615, including 16 re-buys, and over 50 addons (both pre- and post-).
Portland Players Club $200 Guarantee Freeroll (2,000 chips)
Got the 2,000 chip pre-add-on. Twenty minutes into the game I’d won a few and lost a few but I’d lost more quantity than I’d won, so I was down to 3,825. Then I picked up [jd 9d] and made two pair on the flop, with the third card being a diamond. My push got called and two more diamonds hit the turn and river, improving me to a flush and putting me up to 7,700 at the 45-minute mark.
Made a stupid mistake after calling 200 with [kx tx]. The ace-high flop didn’t have much on it for me, and I folded to a post-flop all-in bet of 500, but there were three callers and no more bets as a queen and jack ran out to make what could have been Broadway (and the nuts) for me.
Raised pre-flop at 100/200 to 500 with [ax 6x] and got two callers. Bet 2,000 on a flop of [ax kx jx] and took it down, then made a flush draw on the next flop with [jh 2h] and bet 600 for another win. At break 1 I had 9,100 before getting the 4,000 chip add-on.
I raised to 1,000 from 200/400 with [ax tx] and got a caller, hit the ace on the flop and bet 1,500 to take another pot, then things started to fall apart.
UTG with an up-and-down straight draw, I lost more than 3,000 with [kx qx] against [ax tx]. Dropped another 4,000 stupidly betting on [kx 5x] with a flop of [tx 5x 2x] against the big stack of one of the better players in the house. I had to fold after the turn when he bet enough to put me all-in. He said he had [ax tx] and I have no reason to disbelieve him; he knows my fondness for [jx tx].
[js td] cost me 1,200 after the flop whiffed past me. At 1:25 into the game, I was down to 4,400. Dropped another 1,200 on a weak ace.
Final hand was [9x 7x]. Blinds were 300/600, I was in BB and there were two all-ins ahead of me. If I was lucky, I could triple up to 8,000 or so. The big stack had [tx tx], the other all-in had [ax qx], and nothing came close to saving me.
I’ve had this Gold Card player bonus for ages but never seemed to find one of the tournaments where I could use the thing. Then, the other day, I got an email notification and voila! there I was.
The event was an unlimited re-buy format, with an add-on. I had exactly one Gold Card, I wasn’t in a position to do either, so I didn’t exactly have high expectations. Then again, my opening had was UTG1 with [qd as] and I re-raised UTG’s raise of 40 to 80 (starting blinds were 10/20). SB and UTG called, the [jd 2h ts] flop gave me a Broadway draw and not much else. UTG bet the pot for 260 and I called, with SB following along. [kh] made my straight on the turn and I bet the pot—now 1,040 chips—after action was checked to me. Both of the others folded, and I was up 700 chips for the second hand.
I won another few hundred chips over the next hands, then got [ah qs] again as UTG. I raised to 80, got a re-raise to 140 from CO, three-bet to 400 after everyone else cleared out, then got called. The flop was [5c 2h 6d] and I bet another 400 to open, getting a call. [9c] on the river was not the card I wanted to see, I checked, CO went in for 815 with just 385 behind, and I had to fold, leaving me with just a tad more than the starting stack.
I slid all the way down to 1,705 over the next hands. Then, for some reason, I called a UTG raise to 60 (at 15/30) in BTN with just [8s qd]. Both blinds got out of the way and we were heads-up. I made middle pair on the [5h ac 8h] flop but it didn’t look promising. UTG bet just 30 (with a stack of 5,300), though so I decided to give the impression of strength by raising to 255. He called. So much for the impression.
Then again, the [qc] on the turn actually gave me a decent hand. UTG checked, I put out 675—about half my stack—and he called. The last card was [kd], putting an end to any flushes but making possible any number of better hands from standard starting ranges. I pushed after the check with my two pair, nonetheless and, UTG folded. It wasn’t a double-up but it made a big difference.
I got out of danger territory five hands later with [jh ks] as SB. I’d lost about 400 chips in the intervening hands, blinds were 25/50. UTG1 (the player I’d just taken 1,000 chips off of) called. CO called. I raised to 175, pushing out BB. UTG1 and CO called. The flop hit me hard: [th ad qh]. I had the best straight, but I checked the flop and everyone else was cautious, as well. [2d] on the turn put a backdoor flush out of my reach (which turned out to be a good thing) but opened the possibility of two flush draws making it. I opened with a bet of 288, got called by UTG1, and forced CO to fold. I wasn’t particularly happy about the [2s] on the river pairing the board, but I pushed all-in with 1,827. That was more than half the stack of UTG1, but he called and showed [ah 7s]. My straight was good.
Another great opportunity hit five hands after that. I was BB with [4h 4d]. UTG1 raised to 100. BTN and I called. The flop was [4c 4s kh]. I checked it, UTG1 checked it, BTN put out a tentative bet of 50. I bet half the port for 263, UTG1 called, and BTN went away. [5h] on the turn and I still had four of a kind. I checked and let UTG1 take the lead with a bet of 451. I put more than half my stack in as a raise: 2,254. He pushed for 3,927, a bit less than half my chips. I called and he showed [ks kd]. A great hand—and a winner if he could catch the last king on the river—but behind me for the moment. The last card was [jc], and I was up to 9,270 at just over 15 minutes into the game.
I diled for more than half an hour, ranging between 9,000 and 13,000 chips as the blind levels crept up to 200/400/40. By my next significant hand, I had just 9,003 chips at a five-handed table with one player just under 4,000 and three others ranging from 20,500 to 31,600. I was dealt [qh ah] on BTN. UTG (with 29,000 chips) called the big blind, CO (the largest stack) raised to 2,000, and I pushed all-in. SB (the smallest of the big stacks) folded, BB (the short stack) called, and UTG called. The big stack abandoned his 2,000 raise. Everyone flipped and BB showed [kd 2s], with UTG displaying [7s 7d]. I was more likely than either of the others to win but I was still on the wrong side of the coin flip. The [3h jh 2c] flop put me in positive territory—at least as far as stats go—and my win was sealed with [8h] on the turn. The win put me at 24,326 chips.
I didn’t have to wait as long for another bump, although it wasn’t nearly as large, either. Blinds were up to 400/800/75, I was BTN with [kd qd] and third in chips at the table. UTG (with a couple thousand fewer chips than my 28,000) raised to 2,400. The two big stacks folded. I called, SB folded, and the short stack (with just over 5,500) called. The [ts 9h 9c] flop didn’t exactly hit me, but I did have an inside straight draw. Everyone checked. The turn [qs] gave me top pair and a decent kicker (plus my draw), and when BB pushed and UTG folded, I had to call the extra 3,150. BB showed the same pair, suited but with a bad kicker: [qc 3c]. The [ks] on the river sealed the elimination and put me up 8,725 chips.
It was about ten minutes later that I broke the 40,000 barrier. Blinds were 500/1000/100, I was BTN with [qs qc] and just over 30,000.SB and UTG1 were under 10,000, UTG had 40,000, CO was about 35,000, and BB was lording it over the table with almost 100,000. UTG folded, the short stack in UTG1 called, CO folded, and I raised to 5,000. SB pushed for 10,180, BB and UTG1 folded, and I called, to see [kh ad]. The flop was against me, with [ks ts 4h], but the turn resurrected flipped the odds with [qd]. Just a [9h] on the river and I was up to 42,816.
Twelve hands later, the other short stack and a couple other players had come and gone. The big stack two positions to my left was sitting on 141,000 chips. Immediately to my left was a stack of 75,000. There were two of us in the 40,000-45000 range and two more between 20,000 and 25,000. Blinds were up to 600/1,200/120. I was BTN again, with [ah 9h]. UTG folded and UTG1 put 4,920—about a quarter of his stack—into play, with only 720 in the pot. CO folded and I called; the blinds folded. The flop was [3h qs 8s] and the small stack pushed with 15,816. With the big stacks out of the way, I didn’t feel bad about calling and saw he had a [9s jd]. I was ahead, but he did have a potential straight draw as well as a backdoor flush draw. The turn, though, was [2c] and the river was [ks], so neither possibility quite made it and I was over 65,000.
That success didn’t last long. Just two hands later I raised UTG to 5,000 with [9s 9c]. Everyone got out of the way except for BB, the other short stack with 25,000 who pushed all-in. I called and was running against [kc ah]. The board ran out [kd js 8d 5h 6d] and I was back below where I’d been two hands before.
Three hands in a row just six hands later put me into major contention. Blinds were 800/1,600/150. BTN had 34,000 chips, SB had 64,000, BB was the player who’d knocked me down, with 55,000. I was UTG with 34,000 (yes, I’d lost even more chips). UTG1 was over 92,000 and the big stack was CO at 138,000. I got dealt [ac ad] and just called, with UTG1, BTN, SB following along. BB checked his option. The flop was [2s 6d 8h] and SB bet 4,450. BB folded and I pushed for a total of 31,861. Everyone folded and I took a pot of 11,600.
My next hand as BB was [ac kh]. Action folded to BTN who bet 4,050. SB folded. BTN had me out-chipped by nearly 10,000. I pushed again and he called with [jh qd]. Nearly 92,000 in the pot and the flop was [5s ks 6c]. I won it with a [2h] on the turn but the river [ad] wasn’t bad to see. I was a second at the table by a small amount.
[as td] came to me next as SB. The stack I’d just broken down went all-in with 12,442 chips. I went all-in rather than just calling, hoping that BB who I just barely had covered wouldn’t call. He folded and I was up against [9d th]. The [js qh ad] flop opened up the possibility of a chop, but no [kx] appeared and I eliminated the player to put me over 106,000.
Four hands later (1,000/2,000/200) I was BB again (we were still five-handed). There hadn’t been a lot of chip movement, I was around 103,000, the big stack had 134,000, the guy between us had 87,000, and there were two stacks of 42,000 and 50,000. My cards were [ts td]. UTG called, then action folded around to me and I raised to 10,000. UTG called. The flop was [5h kh 3d] and I raised the stakes with a 20,000 bet. UTG called again. The turn was [2s]. I checked, UTG bet 31,000. I was reasonably sure he didn’t have a [kx] and unless he’d bet 10,000 pre-flop with [5x 3x], I was reasonably sure I was ahead, so I called. The river was a [qs]. I checked again and UTG went all-in. There was more than 150,000 in the pot—61,000 of it was mine—I called and he flipped [5c 6c] for a bluff gone seriously wrong.
With 192,000 chips, I was the tournament leader.
I managed to hold onto the lead for about thirty hands, despite a slowly decreasing stack. Most of the other players near the top were experiencing the same phenomena. The player to my right went on a streak just as we hit the two hour mark, overtaking me by winning a 61,000 chip pot in one hand, then scoring a knockout against another similarly-sized stack that had just arrived at the table six hands later which put him over 310,000.
Blinds were 2,500/5,000/500 and we were five-handed again. I had 145,000 chips as UTG1, a new player had just moved onto my left with 45,000. The other three players had all been at the table for a while, with BTN holding 131,000, BB 115,000, and UTG still just over 300,000 (SB was dead). My hand was [7d ad] and when the big stack folded I min-raised to 10,000. The only caller was BB. The flop was [kd kc ah], BB checked and I checked behind. [2h] on the turn, BB checked, I bet 22,500, and BB re-raised to 45,000. This is where I made my mistake. Of course he had the [kx]; I went all-in, he called and showed [ks jc]. I got two pair with the river [7c] but that didn’t beat a set of kings. I lost 115,000 chips and was down to about 30,500, short stack on the table now with a stack of over 230,000 ahead of the 300,000 stack.
I was UTG on the next hand with [js ad]. Not a Mutant jack, but okay for a short-stack hand. I went all-in and got a call from the biggest stack in BB with [9s 4s]. He hit top pair on the flop: [9h 7s 5c] and it looked like it was curtains, but the turn was [ac] and the river made me two pair with [jc]. I was back up to 65,000.
[2h 3h] on BB the next hand didn’t look quite as like likely to win, but I got a walk and won 4,500 chips in antes and the small blind.
I was still on a stack of only 14bb. The next hand as SB, I got [ac 8d]. The big stack (still with 270,000 chips) raised to 15,000 from BTN after UTG and CO folded. I pushed with just under 69,000, BB folded, and the big stack called with [jc ts]. Both of us missed the [2c 9c 6d] flop. The [7h] on the turn gave him a possible gut-shot straight draw, but mine was open-ended. Nothing came through, though, except for a board pair, with [7d] for the river, and suddenly I was back up over 145,000.
A few hands later, I got [as kc] as BB. UTG—with a stack just a little smaller than mine—opened with a min-raise (at 2,500/5,000/500)—and action folded to me. I pushed, BB folded, and I snagged another 14,500 chips.
My SB on the next hand was [5c 7c]. UTG and CO called, I called, and BB let it ride. Only the largest stack sat the hand out. The flop was [2h 5d 8s] and I was assuming middle pair 0n that board was at least a contender. I opened with a feeler of 5,000, only UTG—the short stack at the table with about 30,000—called. [qc] on the turn and I continued pressing with another 5,000 bet. He called again. The river gave me [7d]. It was as good as it was going to get with this hand and I bet the pot, for 42,500. With only 20,000 left, UTG folded and I was up to 185,000.
Getting tricky with bad cards can become a bad habit, though. My next BB was at 3,000/6,000/600 and I was dealt [2h 5c]. Action folded to the big stack—now down to only 200,000—and he raised to 12,000. Like a fool, I followed along, hitting the bottom end of the [9h 8h 2c] flop. SB bet 18,400 and I called, only to see [ks] on the turn. We both checked. The [qh] on the river gave him the opening to push all-in and I had to fold, losing 31,000 on a hand that should have been thrown away.
I took another hit trying to play [2d as]. I four-flushed by the turn but with the lowest possible diamond flush. By two hours and fifteen minutes into the match, I was back down to 122,000.
Three of us saw the flop after a min-raise to 12,000 with me in SB holding [js 9h]. I had an inside straight draw on the [6h kc qs] flop and opened with 12,000. One player called. [kd] on the turn didn’t do me any good, but I opened with another 12,000 and got a fold with my bluff to win 39,000 chips.
A min-bet from BTN with [ks 8s] took down the blinds and antes on the next hand and moved me back up to 177,000 chips.
I called with a similar [8c kd] on the next hand as CO. SB called and BB checked. The [ad 6h 8s] board wasn’t ideal for me, but I did have a piece and position. BB (short stack at the table with 75,000 at the beginning of the hand) bet 8,000 and I re-raised to 30,400. SB folded and BB gave it up. I was over 200,000.
Four hands later, I was already back under 180,000 (with blinds at 4,000/8,000/800) when I got [qd kc] as SB. I was second in chips at the table, with the former big stack still bigger at 190,000+. There were three stacks of about 140,000 to 150,000 and one just over 50,000. UTG raised to 20,400 and action folded to me. I called; BB called. 66,000 in the pot and the flop was [qh 2d 4c]. I pushed 158,000 chips into the middle (or, rather, pushed a button) and the others folded. I didn’t want to see any more cards on that hand.
With 223,000 chips, I was about 30,000 ahead of anyone else at the table. I wasn’t the tournament chip lead, but I was in the top ranks again, and the field had narrowed considerably from the original 564 entries. I hadn’t rebought or added on (I’d seen one player rebuy six or seven times after repeatedly going all-in on every hand). I’d managed to almost immediately come back from a devastating loss of nearly 80% of my chips, an ability I rather pride myself on (I once managed to build from 55 chips to more than 30,000 after losing 99.5% of my chips [ax qx] v. [ax kx]). But pride goeth before a fall (or a devastating chip loss) as they say.
That loss came at the 5,000/10,000/1,000 level, after about two hours and twenty-five minutes of play. I was big stack at the table, with 196,000 chips, after the guy who’d just taken a pot of 20,000 to move ahead of me had been moved for table balancing. I got [2h 2c] as BB, action folded to SB (with the second-largest stack) who went all-in and I called with just 17,680 behind. He flipped [ac 4c] and we were in a true 50%-50% coin flip for a pot worth 360,000. The flop of [6h 3c 3d] gave me a 4:3 advantage, then the flush possibilities of a [7c] turn drew us even again. He didn’t get the flush, though. He got a [5d] for the river straight.
I dropped down to 11,680 after giving up my SB on the next hand with [qd 9c], but I pushed from BTN with [3c ad] and got two callers, which tripled me up after SB pushed BB out with an all-in bet on the turn when he made a pair of nines, only to lose to my ace pairing on the river (the three paired on the flop). Still, I had less than 4bb in a six-handed game. My last hand, I shipped with a weak king, was called by a less-weak king, and lost when his kicker paired on the flop.
147 minutes. 215 hands. 22nd of 564 entrants. infinite ROI, won 0.5% of prize pool.
The club email announced this as the last of the monthly $10Ks. Once you got there you found out it was because they’re changing up their schedule after the summer and running it every week. We’ll have to see if the prize pools stay the same size; this one ran to $23,500, with a top prize of $5,675.
I got to the game halfway through the first hour, with the blinds already in the second (50/100) level, although the dead stack I bought into didn’t seem affected. Supposedly, I got one of the last two seats of the night, back in the “Batcave” among the employee bikes and personal items.
My first play was a rather tricky [kd 2d], calling 350 pre-flop. I made bottom pair on the non-diamond flop and folded to a bet of 700. Following [ah 7h] to four hearts on the turn, I folded again to an 800 bet.
More speculation with [kc qs] cost me 500 to see the flop along with four others, three of whom folded along with me to a 400 post-flop bet. [as 6h] (was I getting frustrated?) and 200 more chips were gone once there was a 525 bet after the flop. My stack was down to 8,050 at one hour into the game.
Blinds were 150/300/25 (level 4) when I got my first premium hand—or at least [jx jx]—in CO position. I re-raised pre-flop to 2,000 and pushed all-in after the flop, inducing a fold from the one caller. That put me back up just over the starting stack, with 10,500 chips at ninety minutes (or an hour after I’d arrived).
I didn’t even have to think about tossing [kx 3x] pre-flop on the last hand before the first break, but it would have made Broadway and taken down a nice pot if I hadn’t. With the 7,000 chip add-on, I started round 2 with 16,825.
Had to give up 1,600 on [ax tx] after seeing the flop. Likewise, [jh 2h] was a loser of 1,200 when the flop showed no heart (although I did make bottom pair). Another [ax tx] on BTN paired my [ax] on the flop, with [qx] and [kx] showing up by the turn. I bet hard and fast and got a fold before the river to take the hand. Still, at 2:30 into the game I was down to 14,975.
Suited JT has become a sort of favorite lately, and in the last hand before the Batcave table broke, I won a decent pot from S—the manager of the Encore—with [jc tc].
My first win at the new table was one step down: [9h th]. I’d made a straight by the turn and hit the flush on the river. With a couple of wins I’d doubled up to 30,100 before the third hour of the game.
Payed an unsuited [jx tx] and hit top pair on the flop, with a bet taking the pot. Then I hit a set on a flop with [3x 3x] in my hand and pushed to take it down, bringing me up to 36,500 by 3:15.
There was a post-flop bet of 3,500 ahead of me with [ad qx] on BTN. I had top pair and pushed all-in. BB called with [kd qd], hitting the flush by the river. One more diamond…. That cut me in half, to 17,275.
I was saved by the Mutant Jack. I called a smaller stack’s all-in with [ad jd] and was up against [ax tx], getting a knockout and a chip infusion. Then a couple of big rounds of betting with the guy who’d hit the flush against me led to my [jd td] making Broadway. In twenty minutes I’d made up my ground and then some, with 48,225 chips.
Blinds were up to 600/1,200/200. and I speculated 6,000 to see the flop with [ks 8s]. I missed entirely. Two of the other callers went all-in and it was [6x 6x] v. [ax jx], with the pair winning with a six-high straight.
At break 2 there were 77 of the original 141 players left.
I lost big drawing to s ten-high spade straight flush from the bottom end and was down to 20,500 at 4:05.
Called with [ad td] in UTG (at 800/1,600/200) with three more in the hand behind me. I bet just 2,000 after pairing the [ax] on the flop and took the pot. Then I lost 4,800 in SB to see the flop with [kx qx].
Seriously short-stacked, I called a larger all-in from BTN with [ac 4c] hoping to have my [ax] live, at least. Instead, I was up against [ax qx]. I managed to get a [4x] on the flop, though, and doubled up.
I had the [as qx] on the next hand and re-raised all-in from CO. The original raiser had a slightly smaller stack than me. He called and flipped [ax kx]. There were four black cards on the deck by the turn and I held my breath for a minute but only three of them were spades. That cut me down to 2,000 chips.
Back to [ax 4x]. All-in with four limps ahead of me, got called by [tx tx] and I was out.
Four-and-a-half hours. -100% ROI. 61st of 141 players.
Portland Players Club Road to Pendleton $1,500 Guarantee (7,000 chips)
Both my regular Monday night games were off this week, so I took the hint from the SMS messages I kept getting and headed over to PPC for an 11am game. I’d started my tally of live games with a couple of wins in early May at PPC, but their summer schedule wasn’t in sync with my habits and I hadn’t been in for a bit. Somehow, I managed to hit the final table with a big chip lead, and while I was probably 2:1 over the guy who made it to heads-up with me I suggested an even chop since the amount of money was only $200 total. After a re-buy, add-on, and tip, that left me more than enough to enter the evening’s guarantee tournament. On top of the prize money, PPC was adding a $200 buy-in to the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round-Up for the first-place winner and a $100
I picked up a 1,000 early-registration bonus chip then played absolutely no hands through level 1. On my first turn as BB in level 2, I was dealt [4x 4x]. A raise was made to 475 pre-flop with several callers and a [4x] hit on the flop. I checked and by the time action got around to me again there were two all-ins, I called, and both of them were on draws. [qh th] won the hand with a flush on the turn. I re-bought.
Small blind with my new stack and I had [kx kx], a considerably better pair. I bet it on the flop heads-up and took a small pot.
Played [ax qx] and cautiously walked to the river against another hand who showed just [kx]-high when we got there. At the end of the second level, I was holding 9,450 chips. Above the starting stack but not the sum total of chips I’d received during the tournament by a piece.
Controversy ensued when I called an all-in with [jh th] and knocked out a player with [ax kx]. I gave my opinion on the relative strengths of JTs, but there was a some snorting and hooting.
My luck with flushes proved itself again when I dropped 4,000 chips on [kc 4c] with two more clubs on the flop and I didn’t get there. My stack was up to 10,925 at the 55-minute mark.
The last hand before the second break, I had [jx 9x] and the flop was [kx tx tx]. All I needed was a [qx] but I got better. Thankfully, I stuck to the hand, because both the turn and river were [9x 9x]. I called a big raise and the guy asked me if I’d had the [tx]. I said: “No, but I have the [9x].” That didn’t set well. The win and a 5,000 chip add-on gave me 22.600 with 47 of the 49 original players left.
Raised with [ax jx] to 625 but whiffed the [9x tx 3x] flop. I bet another 1,600 but two callers followed me down and with a [3x] on the turn I check-folded to a bet. Then I blew more than 3,000 chips trying to play the [tx 2x] “Brunson” hand. I made top pair on the flop [7s ts 9c] but [jc] on the turn killed the action for me.
Another [5x 5x] from CO took the blinds and the single caller ahead of me. I was at 18,100 with twenty minutes left in the second hour.
I nearly made the wheel with [ax 4x] on a board of [qx 2x 3x 6x 2x], but the [3s 5s] of J—one of the dealers at PPC—made his pair. My own spades shortly thereafter ([4s 8s]) had to fold to a re-raise of 1,600 from 400. I pushed 5,000 after a raise to 1,000 with blinds at 200/400; I did not record the hand I did not play. Even that got me only to 16,100 at the two-hour mark.
Took the blinds again with a 2,300 raise and [ad 9d], then I just about doubled by knocking out a player. I held [kh 2h] and made bottom pair on the flop. He shoved post-flop with [ah th]. I took a little time to call and he never made a pair. It was kind of fun, because he’d been one of the whiniest about my [jx tx] call.
Didn’t even get to count my chips before a hand came up with [jx jx]. I shoved all-in from late position, the guy on my left called immediately and flipped over [kx kx]. What else was he going to do? That cost me 5,475, and even with the knockout, I’d only made it to 17,775 by 2:15 into the tournament.
There were 34 players left when the second break started.
Missed a Broadway draw for 4,500 and 5,000 on a miserable misguided attempt to do something with [6x 2x]. Half-an-hour later another 11,000 had been whittled off.
I went out in style with [jc tc] I pushed pre-flop and got called by [qs js].
Despite the fact that in the past eleven weeks I’ve played forty tournaments, a couple city-sanctioned “timed tournaments with one blind level” and a few home cash games, I had never played poker in an actual casino until last night.
I’m still not sure that’s not true, because the casino I played in was a tribal establishment where the “Poker Room” was more of an alcove off the rows and rows of slot machines in the main hall. There was a single table playing $1/$3 Limit Hold’em at 10pm on a Sunday and I put my name on the list, went to the bar to get a beer, and waited for someone to get tired or broke. I read news on my iPhone for about thirty minutes, then took my place with $60 between the oldest player at the table and a lady with an impressive rack of $5 tokens.
I played tight for the most part—it took me a while to figure out the betting structure of $8 max raise—although I did pull down one pot with a complete bluff holding [8c tc] when an [ax] hit the turn. I managed to get up to about $90 before a couple of good hands were outdrawn and I tumbled to only $25.
I split a large pot holding [ks 9s] with the oldest player on the same ranks but unsuited, then played [as 6c]. Several players were in for calls of $16 on a flop with [qc jx 8x]. I stayed in with one other player for the turned [tc]. He pushed to the max and I called plus put in my last chip when a [kc] hit the river. I thought for sure he’d hit the flush when I turned over my ace for the straight, but he had [qx 9x] for a pair on the flop and a straight on the turn, but I’d snuck through with the Broadway draw. With the money from the other players’ early action I more than doubled up and left at midnight with twice what I’d bought in with.
