Deep Stack Tournament

Saturday afternoon 1:30pm deep stack tourney.  $100 buyin, 15k in starting chips.

On the ride to NH Gary and I go over our deal.  Deal is to split NET winnings (profit) up to $100 (the buyin).  That way if one of us wins a decent amount, then no one loses. A little insurance on the buy in and we are off!

While we wait for the game to start, I mention to Gary my modest goals for this tourney.  If you know me at all, you know I like to chip up early.  And alot.  Fuck who doesn't, right?  But instead of the usual, I want to play this deep stack long term.  I tell him my goal is to be over the 15K starting stack by the first break.  That's all.  By 2nd break, goal is to be at 30k.  At each break I count my chips to see where I'm at and to ensure no "mistakes" are made when dealers are coloring in small chips.

We're at separate tables and we're off.  There are 2 very tight women at the table that I've played with before, and one of them is an off duty dealer.  They remember me too.  Then there are 2 Yankee hats at the table.  One belongs to a heavily tattooed kid whose wearing shades and a hat with a hood over it.  The other Yankee hatter is a total idiot.  On hand 2 he reraises 4k, makes a guy fold and flips over a total bluff.  He over bets again and again with crap.  Mama likie!

And there is Youth.  A young kid sitting 2 seats away from me chatting me up.  Blah, blah, blah. I smile and put my head phones on. I'm playing pretty tight and about 15 hands in I get QQ.  I raise to 5 times the blind, and Youth says "This is the type of hand that always gets me in trouble" and he calls.  Flop is J-7-3.  Yay!  I bet 1,000 and he calls.  Hmmmm....turn is a 5.  I bet 1,600 and he calls.  River is a 10.  Fuck.  I figure J-10 is the type of hand he was talking about.  We check it down and he flips over J-10.  Ouch.

Soon after I play 3-3 against 2 guys.  Flop is 9-9-4.  Check all around.  Turn is a 3.  Ping! One guy bets, the next folds, and I raise.  he calls the raise.  Turn is x.  He bets 1,000 and I raise to 5,000.  He calls and turns over k-9, while I mumble "full house". 

I take down a few other pots with K-K and Q-Q.  This time my queens hold up against the jack high flop.  Whew....

At the first break I have 28K, which is right where I want to be.  Gary's at about 14,600, also right in the neighborhood.  While Gary and I are chatting Yankee Hat Idiot (YHI) comes over and tells me that I'm playing well and making the right size bets.  Now he's been a total donk and so after chatting politely and listening to him complimenting my play I smile and say "I've got your number.  I know how you play."  He starts laughing and says "Why, just because I bluff alot?  I change up my play!"  We'll see.....

After the break Yankee Idiot gets into a pissing match with this hispanic guy.  Hispanic guy is a calling station and happily pays whatever amount you bet to see another card.  Even if the flop misses him.  But this time it didn't.  Yankee Idiot bluffs all in, Hispanic guy calls and doubles up.  Now Yankee Idiot is a little short stacked and on tilt.

A few hands later I get A-K and just smooth call.  Why?  I'm no longer a big fan of investing alot of money in A-K as it's burned me in the past.  If the flop hits me, then my hand is pretty concealed.  Anyway I smooth call, another guy calls and Yankee jams all in.  I instacall and see him turn over K-9.  Flop is K high and I knock him out.  I tell him good game.  Why?  I have no idea as he didn't play a good game but whatever.  It's less than 10 minutes since the break and I took the guy out!

I am amassing a big stack.  Certainly the chip leader at my table as I have almost 60K at this point.  I get pocket 10s and raise 5x BB and Youth calls me.  Flop is 3-4-5.  Youth bets 3K and I don't want to give him another card so I raise 12K on top making it 15K.  He thinks for quite awhile and grabs chips with a shaking hand and finally says "All In".  Fawk!!!!  I have him covered but......it's about another 22K on top.  I get the sinking feeling he has trips.  What else could he call that big raise with?  I think about it for a while and fold my over pair face up.

And he turns over....................

Wait for it...............................

Jack six.  I shiat you not.  WTF!  All in against the awesome big stack (me) on an open ended straight draw.  How does he call my big preflop raise with that shiat?  He tells me "I was betting that you're a good enough player to fold your over pair."  Whatever!  I smack him a few times but he doesn't seem to mind.

The off duty woman dealer hasn't played many hands but she's shortstacked.  She's playing too timidly and it's hurting her.  She's in a hand with Youth and the flop is A-K-X rainbow.  Youth bets and she jams all in.  Youth calls and turns over K-3.  She hasn't turned hers over but I say to Youth (who I'm still pissed at) "You don't know that she has at least an ace?  She hasn't played a hand in an hour!"

She turns over A-10 and he doubles her up WITH MY CHIPS.  Then he says to me "I make one donk move every 6 hours." as way of explanation.  I reply that he's all set for the next 18 hours then, and the whole table laughs.

10 minute breaks are every 90 minutes and we are on our 2nd break.  I have 38K, a bit more than my goal of 30K but I am soooo steaming about giving Youth 15k.  Gary and I are chatting while waiting at the bar for a drink and low and behold but Youth is ahead of us ordering a beer.  He taps me on the shoulder and asks me if he can buy me a drink.  I say "Sure you can, but it doesn't change that I'm pissed.  I'll have a Diet Coke." Bartender asks regular or large?  I answer, "He's buying so a large."  I am soooooo pissed.

Then the bartender cards Youth.  He shakes his head and tells us that she already carded him before, and adds "It's not like I'm young, I was born in 1983!"  Gary said "I was in high school in 1983" and I say "I was 3 years old in 1983" which Youth seems to buy, but makes Gary practically do a spit take.  Okay, so maybe I was actually 17 yrs old in 1983.  Potato, potahto.

As I said, I have 38K and Gary says he's at maybe 25K and asks me if I'm up for a last longer bet.  I'm feeling so tilty from my bad lay down that I don't trust myself and I decline the offer.  About 20 minutes later Gary is out and I start blaming Youth for me not taking that bet.  He takes it all like a good sport and I'm really comfortable at my table.  The women aren't playing and I am starting to steal blinds.  It's been 3 hours of appearing tight, which is part of my usual MO.  I like to appear tight for the first couple hours and then start stealing blinds.  I've been doing this repeatedly to the hispanic man and he's the BB when he says "You gonna raise on my blind again?"  I haven't looked at my cards yet but as he asks I peek and see KK. My answer is "I raise!" and make it 3x BB.  He calls but then folds after the flop.  I show him my KK and the table Ooos and ahhhs.

We play for hours and my table gets chopped up as we are down to 2 tables.  I make one stupid move that costs me more than half my stack.  I have 7-7 and make a big raise.  Mind you the blinds are pretty fucking huge and the BB jams all in.  I'd been playing with this guy and I've seen him to do this with crap and after thinking and thinking I somehow call him.  DUH!  He flips over A-K and we're racing.  I'm still ahead at the turn but the river comes and brings him Broadway.  Buh-bye chips.

Next hand is 2-2 and I (being tilty) decide to play.  Flop is K-2-something and I congratulate myself on playing the hand.  It's even better cuz someone jams all in.  I call!  He catches runner, runner for Broadway.  Different guy but same result.  2 consecutive hands.  Oh My God!  I am down to 2k but the blinds are 2k-4k.  So I'm pretty much done.  Except I double up!  A few hands later I double up again.  Then a 3rd time when I catch a miracle straight on the river myself!  karma baby!  I've gone from 2k to 64k and we are down to the final table.  Even though there are only 6 places in the money, we all agree to take money off of first and second to pay everyone 7-10 100 bucks each (the buy in back).  And we're off!

We play for a while and I get 10-10.  Youth raises and I am thrilled but it's not my turn to act yet.  Another guy jams all in and then it's to me.  I don't like being up against 2 hands and I know Youth ain't going anywhere.  There are guys railing the final table and I don't bother covering my hand while I think.  I decide to wait and fold my tens.  (Yes, isn't it ironic that I called with 7s but fold 10s?")  The guy behind me tells me what a bad fold that was.  "You're not going to see anything better than that" is exactly what he said.  Yeah, but I think I'm up against 4 over cards and possibly an over pair.  Youth calls the all in.  Youth has K-Q (making his quota of dumb moves) and he's  up against A-K.  A-K hits a straight and the railbird tells me what a great fold it was after all.

But the blinds are huge and the cards are shitty.  Finally I get A-8 sooted and jam.  Big stack calls and so does someone else.  3 way all in.  Up against 6-6 and A-Q.  I hit an ace but it doesn't help and I'm out.

I get my money back and I'm fricking devastated.  All the guys tell me that I've played great but it takes a couple of hours for me to cool down.  1st place was 1,800 and 2nd was 1,200.  So close yet so far, although I am grateful to get my money back.

Lucky Gary got to hear all about it on the way home.  We consoled ourselves with Chinese food.

I know this post is kinda long but if you've come this far, stay with me a little longer.  Let's talk about my 2011 goals, shall we?  I was hoping the live tourney would offset the online losses and put me in the black for 2011 but not so.  Not yet anyway.

2011 Live play:  Even steven (I will not be counting my $5 home game in this)
2011 Online: -60.  Fuck me.  I need to focus on playing games within my bankroll and not try to win a gazillion in one day.
2011 25lb weight loss challenge:  4lbs lost since Jan 1st.  Yay me!  21 lbs to go.

Play smart.  I wanna go back to Seabrook. 

Josie

Comments

lightning36 said…
Nice recap. If only there was some way to take luck out of the equation in tournaments.

At least you know that you played well enough to win. Good job.
Josie said…
Thanks Light - and thanks for the texts during the game. You seem to keep me level headed.
crafty said…
I forgot about that 1983 conversation up by the bar...that was some funny shit.
Memphis MOJO said…
Great recap. Sounds like you played well.
Unknown said…
If you want to reach your goal online I'd suggest something different than heads-up matches.

The rake eats up a lot of your winnings. Rush poker is VERY good for get in a ton of hands without spending all night waiting for decent cards/bad players.
Great recap, Josie. Hopefully we'll see some more like it in the near future. With even better results of course.

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