Going to Vegas, baby

The time is drawing near for my vacation. Where am I going might you ask? I will be spending four days in Las Vegas over the weekend. I will be playing cards Wednesday night and won't stop until Sunday. I am going to have a few stories to tell, so check back.

Tournament Style

I am looking to play a little more tournament poker this weekend. Over the past few weekends, I have had some great results by qualifing for the big tourney on Pokerstars. I have also gone deep into a couple of huge tournament fields. Not to mention, I have had a great time with my friends as well. We have turned poker playing into kind of a spectator sport. Everyone gathers around and cheers on the player. You would be surprised at how much confidence that gives a person. It also helps pass the long time that a tournament takes to complete. I last almost 4 hours the other day, but it didn't seem that bad at all.

This weekend, I probably play in a few more satellites to try for the million dollar tourney again. I may even try to get into a WSOP qualifier. I don't know, but it all depends on how I feel and what I am up for playing. Regardless, I will keep track of my play and post some stories from the felt or virtual felt here...

Slowly Working Things Out

I ventured deep into another multi-table tourney on Pokerstars Saturday night. It was small buy-in tourney costing $5 to enter. That, of course, brought out 1,200 people to play in it. That made the prize pool swell to over $4,000 with 1st place taking home $1,200. Not bad, for a few hours of work if you could last that long. My best finish ever in one of these tournaments was the 3rd place finish that I had about a year ago. That was a $2 tourney with 2,200 people and my finish netted me $350+. I remember that day like it was yesterday because it lasted for over five hours. I started at 10 pm the night before and didn't finish until 4 am the next morning.

I started out very fast in this tournament. Within the first round, I had managed to double up my chip stack. This happened after I made a huge laydown within the first ten hands or so. I had A-J and had flopped top pair. I bet out like any good poker player should do and got re-raised all-in! I had to stop and think about this for a couple of seconds. S0, I pressed my tourney clock button and thought it over. Could I get away from top pair, third kicker? What did this other person have to be moving all-in? This is a lot of stuff to be thinking over and I did it in 20 seconds. I concluded that it wasn't worth it because I probably had kicker problems. I laid the hand down and that decision would turned out to be a big one later on. I typed "A-J, no good" in the chat box and got no response. That led me to believe that I had made the correct decision as I was probably up against A-Q or A-K.

Now, I am still alive after making a great laydown. Next, I proceeded to go on one of the sickest card runs that I have ever had. For the next two hours, I punished any one who was in a hand with me. I am literallly busting players left and right with the cards that I was getting. Before I know it, my chip count had grown to over 10,000 and I was one of the chip leaders going into the first break. The cards kept falling for me during the next hour as I kept being dealt hand after hand. Queens, king and aces were all given to me and the best part was that they held up time after time. I even started to worry a little because all my hands were winning. Where was the suck out? When was I going to lose a big pot with one of these pairs? It's a bad thing to say or think about during a tourney, but you have to be conscious of that fact. Once all the chips get in the middle, it's left up to the cards and laws of probability to decide the rest. All the human element is done and your left with what happens on the board.

Up until this point, the poker gods had been on my side giving me pot after pot. I was raking in chips and making all the right decisons. It hard not too when your dealt pocket aces five times and just at the right point too. I survived a three way all-in with aces against queens and ace-king. That was a monster pot and propelled me to the very top of the leader board. For most of the second and third hour, I was the chip leader and never gave that positon up. I was the conductor and the train was coming. By this point in the tourney, we were in the third hour and I had over 100,000 in chips. All my hands were holding up and I was in great shape to at least make the final table. I had a 10,000 chip lead over my nearest competitor. All I had to do was stay out of trouble, while maintaining my aggressiveness. I was doing this well until the unthinkable happened later on.

A big hand was developing while we down to the final 50 players. I was in middle position and got dealt pocket aces for the fifth time during this tourney. The previous four times had held up and I was getting leary. Honestly, I didn't want to be involved in any big pots at this point in the tourney. One misstep here could cost me a huge payday and really lead to this tourney being a waste of time. So back to the hand, I made a big raise to try and take it down right there. The action goes around to the player in the big blind. He had about 60,000 chips and was one of the people in the top 10. He proceeded to move all-in for his entire chip stack. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant here. This is a huge pot and if I lose it my whole tourney would be a disappointment. Let's be real here... I had pocket aces and this guy just moved in for 60k+. This is an easy decision, so I call and he flips over pocket kings. The pot has over a 130k in it and it is make or break time. If my hand holds up, I easily make it to the final table. If it doesn't, I am down to just an average stack and really have my work cut out for me.

Remember what I said earlier...all my hands were holding up. I was starting to get a growing fear that a suck out was coming. The flop come out and my worst fear was realized when a king showed up. My opponent had out flopped me with a set of kings to my aces. Know I was down to a 2 outer with two cards to come. Would I get the miracle ace on the river? Could I hit my two outer to save my tourney life? The answer was no and I lost the monster pot to the dreaded suck out. Of all the times for a bad beat to come up. Why couldn't this have happened earlier? Why at this point? These are the questions that I was left to my answer as I tried to collect myself. I was still average in the chip count. I just had to work a little harder now that my big stack was gone to another player.

Well, I never managed to recover from that hand. I just couldn't hold up to the growing pressure of the blinds. I got all my chips in with A-J and top pair on the board, but was called by A-Q. I busted out of the tourney in 44th place out of 1,288 that had started it 4 hours ago. I got some money, but not what I was hoping for at all. This is my second deep finish in the last three big tourneys that I have played. Although I am lasting deep into these tournaments; I am still left with a lot of questions and a bunch of holes to fill in my game. I need to figure out how to get over the hump and make the big cash. I know that I am playing too many big pots late in these tournaments. However, you can't throw away pocket aces when someone move all-in. This is an easy decison and you'll win that hand four out of every five times. With that being said, I have a lot of things to work out in my tournament game.

Suck Out Sunday, Part II

Read the first part in this series below, Suck Out Sunday, Part I.

Busting out of a tournament that big left me with a huge sense of unfulliment. I didn't really play bad or make any stupid decisions. I got all my money in with a great chance to double it up, but got sucked out on. That's poker right? To even have a chance in a huge tourney like that, you have to win a lot of races and even get lucky a lot. I got my chance and it didn't work out like I had hoped. I would play that hand the same way over and over again. Knowing all this, I still had this empty feeling. My buddy, Primo, felt the same way as well. We felt like we just got robbed, but didn't know it yet. To battle this feeling and make it a little better, we found a 18-person SNG with a $10 buy-in.

It was a two table SNG with the top four places getting paid. I let Primo play in this tournament for me. I had played in the big show earlier and needed a break. He gladly jumped in and took up the slack. It was your standard SNG style table with everyone playing tight and conservative. Only after people start busting do the other players pick up the pace. I think everyone has developed a similiar strategy of just sitting back and letting others do the leg work. I know that I had adopted that philosophy. Early on, I just sit back and let others get involved in the action. Once the time is right, I get involved and really turn the heat up. It has worked out really work for me. I have managed to consistently cash in the SNG's, but I am trying to improve my game in other areas. So, I don't really play them much any more.

We got down to the final table with nine players remaining. Primo was doing well pushing the action. He managed to accumulate some chips and made them work him. He was rolling along all right until he walked in a huge hand. That loss cost him most of his chips and put him in danger of busting out with nothing. He was on the short stack and had to really pick his spots. He came across 5-6 suited in clubs in the big blind. At this moment, I was in the pilot seat as he was taking a break. Another player raised in late position and action was on me. I was going to fold the hand and surrender my big blind. It was a $300 chip raise and I couldn't afford to gamble. Primo saw that hand and wanted me to call. Against my better judgement, I made the call and virtually pot committed myself. The flop came out with two Aces and two clubs giving me a flush draw. Since I was first to act, I moved all in for the rest of my chips. The other player instantly called and turned over A- J for top set. I needed a club to lay the sickest beat ever. Would you believe that I got that magic club on the turn? What a wonderous card giving me the flush, but he still had outs. The board could pair giving him a boat or the case ace could show it's ugly face. The river card was no help and I had completed the sickest beat ever. 5-6 suited beating out A-J and top set. Wow...

At this point, we were fairly light headed from all the laughter. It was a nice release to finally put a beat on someone else. Now, I don't go around looking to win by bad beats and suck outs. However when it happens to you, if feels good at the moment to give one to someone else. That winning hand put us back in contention for the prize money. The best thing is that the other player didn't gripe about the beat. He took it and moved on just playing his game. He was decent player and ended up taking second place. We finished in third place out of the eighteen that played in the SNG tournament. The money will give me a few more opportunities to try and make it back to the big show.

Overall, it wasn't a bad day for poker at all. I got to play in the million dollar tournament for the first time. Hopefully, it won't be my last either. I gained some confidence in the fact that I could hang with the big boys. I played well and had my chances, but they didn't turn out the right way. Also, I got to spend the afternoon with a couple of my friends. I even got a chance to see Primo's daughter again.

What more could a guy ask for?

Well...maybe cashing in the big tourney, but that's for another day.

Suck Out Sunday, Part I

This past Sunday, I played in the Pokerstars weekly million dollar tournament with 5,243 of my closet friends. That's right...5,244 total players! That is the total population of some small towns here in South Texas. We all ponied up $200 for a chance to win some big money. Tournaments with this big a prize pool draw out and attract all types of players. Everyone wants to win a share of that life changing money. However, only 750 players would get paid for their time and effort. The rest would have to lick their wounds and maybe try again next week. Once registration was closed, they annouced the top prize for the tourney. The winner would pocket just over $161,000 and the runner-up just about half of that. These were just the official prize payouts listed, but deals at the final table are common practice. I just wanted to cash in this tournament. That was my simple first time goal. If I got deeper, then that would just be gravy on top.

The tourney started at 3:30 pm in the afternoon. My buddy, Primo, asked me if I wanted to come over to his place. We could tag team the tournament and maybe do a little better. I had no problem with that because two heads are better than one. We started with 2,500 chips and the blinds were set at 10-20. That is a little different than the normal tourneys. Pokerstars normally gives you only 1,500 chips to start and you have to make do. However, this is not a normal tourney by any standards. I mean come on, we are playing for a $161,000! The start time was here and players were seated, so shuffle up and deal! My strategy early on was to play tight and pick my spots. I didn't want to get involved in any races or get into any trouble. I didn't pick any cards at all, so that helped form my tight image. During the first two levels, I didn't see any face cards nor pairs at all. I managed to play only two hands and only because I was in the blinds. I picked up one pot out of those two hands which kept me at even. Meanwhile, players were busting left and right. I think we lost about 300 or 400 players during the first half hour. That's a lot of aggressive people trying to make something happen. It is hard to keep a sense of just how many people are playing. We lost 400 players during that first 30 minutes, but there were still 4,800 or so playing.

The next half hour I didn't fare too well either. I played a few more hands, but got caught bluffing a few times. I was out of position and made some bad plays. Those hands cost me some valuable chips which at this point were starting to become premium. We were getting into the 25-50 and 50-100 levels. I still was hovering around 2,000 chips. Doing the math, that only gave me about 20 big bets left. It was getting close to desperation mode. During the fourth level right before the first break, I picked up the intensity a little. I started to force the action and began to pick up some pots. I recall this one hand where I picked up pockets sevens in middle position. I made a standard raise of four times the big blind and got one caller. The pot was around 1,000 and the flop came out 10 high. I was first to act and move all in for the rest of my chips. I was hoping that he had two overs and therefore couldn't call a bet. He took his time, so that meant I was in good shape. He ended up folding and I picked a nice pot almost doubling up. A few moments later, we had come to the break and I was sitting just below average in chip count. We had 3,708 players left out of the original 5,244 that began. That is a lot of unhappy people, but I was still in.

During the break, I told Primo that this next hour was going to be "moving" hour. You hear that term all the time in sports. In touraments or playoffs, there comes a point when elimination time is near and you either "move" or go home. In this case, it was either move up in chips or bust out with an early exit. We started back up from the break and it was "moving" hour. In the first 5 minutes, we lost another 500 players. All the short stacks were making their final moves trying to stay alive. I was getting to that point myself because blinds were now 75-150. I had yet to make a move and needed to do so very quickly. My chance finally came when I was in the small blind and got dealt A-K offsuit. Another player made a raise in early position and I decided that it was time to race. I moved all in from the small blind and the other player called. To my delight, he flipped over A-Q and I had A-K with the dominating lead. I was nearly a 3 to 1 favorite to double up and extend my tourney life. The flop came out and my worst fear was realized. He had flopped a queen to take the lead and suck out. I couldn't find my king and never recovered from that beat. I was thrust into the hurt locker because I had a little over 1,000 chips left with blinds now at 100-200. The antes were due to kick in during the next level.

After the brutal suck out, I needed to find a decent hand before the blinds came back around. I had exactly five times the big blind and needed to gamble. Fortunately, I had a few spare hands to find a decent hand. If I got to the big blind, I was going to move all in no matter what two cards I was dealt. A couple of hands later, I found A-7 of hearts and that was good enough for me. I moved all in for my last thousand. I was just hoping for some live cards, but I didn't get my wish. I got called by A-A and was a huge underdog. I basically needed two sevens on the board or a lot of hearts to have a chance in the hand. I got neither and busted out in 2,980th place. At least, I managed to beat out more than 45% of the field. This was my first big tournament and I gained a lot of experience. I would have preferred money, but there will be other opportunities...

The story doesn't end here. Stay tuned for Part II of Suck Out Sunday later on this week.

Pokerstars World Blogger Championship

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

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Registration code: 7380593