Underground 1K tournament report (long) part 1
Cross-posted from my blog at www.canadianpoker.com
Hey all, sorry it's been a while. I'm betting nobody reads this anymore. What's the point? I only update it every few months. But I will continue to update it nonetheless... hey at least I'm more on top of this whole "blog" thing than Bob and Dave!
I didn't write a report for the Turning Stone trip because it sucked, although I will say that the golf courses there are REALLY nice. Truly world-class. Since then I haven't played much poker, just some small online tournaments and games with family and friends. I final-tabled the Stars $10+1 rebuy tournament last week... $900 woo hoo!!!
Three pieces of news to report on before I get to the report:
The Degree Poker Championship has aired on TSN. Overall I was happy with my commentary... a couple of things I would have done differently, but it's a lot easier to see the big picture when I'm on my couch watching it as opposed to in the booth saying it.
I will be attending the tournament series at River Rock in Vancouver next month. Unfortunately I have to be back in Toronto on that weekend to shoot a comedy special so I will not play the main event, but I will play in the 1K NLHE and 1K PLHE events. Bob and Dave will be there as well... really looking forward to busting them out of the tournaments and getting hammered with them.
I love golf. This is my first season playing it, and I can't get enough of it. The fact that I'm TERRIBLE at it complicates my feeling somewhat, but at heart I am a true golf addict. I will always rather play 36 or 45 holes in a day instead of 18. I've been out about 20 times this summer. My worst score is 156 (my first game), my best score is 116 (a couple of weeks ago). I have gone from absolutely fuckin' awful to just plain terrible, but I'm OK with that.
1K UNDERGROUND CLUB REPORT Wed Oct 17
27 starters, 4 places pay
13K
6K
3K
2K
I had a bit of trouble finding this place... the address I had was for a strip mall complex, but I didn't know which unit. I managed to find a shady-looking place that was filled with punk ass kids, and I thought that might be it, so I walked in. Most of the activity in the room stopped, and one of the kids said to me: "I think you got the wrong place". I agreed and left, and found the right place by spotting a different, slightly less intimidating group of guys that could only be poker players.
We started with 20K in chips, and 50/100 blinds. Half hour levels. A good structure, to be sure, but like most tournaments the blinds would start taking their toll eventually.
Things started off well for me... I built my stack to about 23K playing small pots. I was listening to music (just with one earphone) while I was playing, which was a new thing for me. It's not allowed in most casinos so the opportunity doesn't often present itself. In general, I found that listening to my favourite songs kept me nice and relaxed, and wherever possible I will play poker with one earphone in.
Unfortunately, I lost most of my stack early... much earlier than I needed to (if that makes any sense) given the blinds relative to the stacks. I believe we were at 200/400 when it was folded to me on the button with QJ of clubs. I made it 1200 and the big blind (about 6K less chips total than me) called. The flop came queen high with two hearts. He checked, I bet 2000, he raised it to 5000. I thought for awhile... you know, the whole "button vs. big blind" scenario is a tough one to pin down. He could easily be putting me on a steal, given my position, and he could be trying to take it down with any two. Or maybe a flush draw. Anyway, I talked myself into moving all-in, and he called with AQo. No help for me and I was down to 6K.
We took a break, and came back to 400/800 blinds. They went through me once, and when I had the button I decided to open-raise all-in with Jh9h. The big blind (different guy from last hand) called in a heartbeat with pocket aces. The flop came J92 with one heart. Woohoo! The turn was the four of hearts. The river was an ace, but it was the ace of hearts, giving me the flush. The dealer didn't see the flush at first, and started pushing the pot towards the guy with the set of aces. The table corrected him, and the pot came towards me.
That was really the beginning of a nice roll for me. Back from the dead, I played a lot of pots. I slowplayed JJ preflop and flopped a set, checkraised the flop after some action and took down a nice pot. At some point I had about 10XBB and the big stack to my right limped. I had a decision with 99, but I decided to just call as well to see a safe flop. Folded to the BB (AQo guy from the first hand) who moved all-in. The guy to my right insta-mucked, which was my first reaction, but after a lot of thought I decided to call all-in for my whole stack. The BB had T3o and failed to suckout... I got all my chips back from him and then some (the blinds were much bigger at this point).
In one huge hand I had AK and about 35K in chips... EP makes an unusually large open-raise, I decide to push, he thinks forever and calls with AQ, I double up to about 70K and am among the chip leaders.
During all of this, I was kind of bopping to the music I was listening to, and someone on the rail asked me what song I was listening to during that AK/AQ hand. I told him that the song that was on at that time was "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers. (Slightly embarrassing, but oh well!) He suggested that I just listen to that song over and over again all night.
Fast forward to the final table of ten players. I entered that table probably about third in chips. Unfortunately for me, I went completely card dead for four orbits. The blinds were significant, and I wasn't even getting hands like 8s9s to take a shot with. I tried raising with absolutely nothing twice, figuring that the raises would get respect due to the lack of hands I was playing, but both times someone moved in, and both times I had to fold.
Down to six players and I received some bad news. Up until this point in the tournament we had all been told that there were 28 entrants, which would mean that top five would pay: 13, 6, 3, 2, 1. Apparently they miscounted the number of entries (or for some reason were light 1K in the prize pool, who knows which...) so it was decided that they could only pay the top four places instead of five, taking that 1K fifth place out of play. Terrible news for me, as I was among the shortstacks at the time. I suggested that we take $500 from first and give it to fifth (at least it's something) but the chip leader at the time, Larry, refused.
I don't know his name but I'll call him Larry.
With about 7 or 8 BB's I had to make something happen. I made a great laydown when I found AJo in the BB, but the action had gone raise and re-raise, I think. Or possibly raise and call. At any rate, AJo was the best hand I'd seen at the final table by a mile, but I folded it instead of moving my shortstack all-in. The hand went to showdown and one of the players made a flush, didn't see the other hand. I had a better hand that Mr. Flush preflop, but hey everyone's allowed to be a little results-oriented sometimes, right?
A few hands later, the only stack at the table shorter than mine moved all-in for about 5 BB's. Big stack to my right called, and I looked down at AhQh. This hand was too good to fold, but I was in a weird spot. If I moved all-in over the top, I was going to be called, guaranteed, by the big stack. The blinds were 3K/6K, the shortstack had moved in for about 30K, and I only had 16K more than that. I decided to just call and have a look at the flop, fully aware that it was a ridiculous idea.
The flop missed me completely. The guy to my right bet enough to put me all-in, and I folded, after putting in about 2/3 of my stack preflop. This is not good poker folks. But I was boppin' away, thinking about surviving. As it happened, the all-in player had flopped a set, and the big stack who was live in the hand against me had outflopped me with A8 by making eights. With six players left, I was definitely the shortest stack (2.5 BB's?) and people were fully expecting me to die.
Hey all, sorry it's been a while. I'm betting nobody reads this anymore. What's the point? I only update it every few months. But I will continue to update it nonetheless... hey at least I'm more on top of this whole "blog" thing than Bob and Dave!
I didn't write a report for the Turning Stone trip because it sucked, although I will say that the golf courses there are REALLY nice. Truly world-class. Since then I haven't played much poker, just some small online tournaments and games with family and friends. I final-tabled the Stars $10+1 rebuy tournament last week... $900 woo hoo!!!
Three pieces of news to report on before I get to the report:
The Degree Poker Championship has aired on TSN. Overall I was happy with my commentary... a couple of things I would have done differently, but it's a lot easier to see the big picture when I'm on my couch watching it as opposed to in the booth saying it.
I will be attending the tournament series at River Rock in Vancouver next month. Unfortunately I have to be back in Toronto on that weekend to shoot a comedy special so I will not play the main event, but I will play in the 1K NLHE and 1K PLHE events. Bob and Dave will be there as well... really looking forward to busting them out of the tournaments and getting hammered with them.
I love golf. This is my first season playing it, and I can't get enough of it. The fact that I'm TERRIBLE at it complicates my feeling somewhat, but at heart I am a true golf addict. I will always rather play 36 or 45 holes in a day instead of 18. I've been out about 20 times this summer. My worst score is 156 (my first game), my best score is 116 (a couple of weeks ago). I have gone from absolutely fuckin' awful to just plain terrible, but I'm OK with that.
1K UNDERGROUND CLUB REPORT Wed Oct 17
27 starters, 4 places pay
13K
6K
3K
2K
I had a bit of trouble finding this place... the address I had was for a strip mall complex, but I didn't know which unit. I managed to find a shady-looking place that was filled with punk ass kids, and I thought that might be it, so I walked in. Most of the activity in the room stopped, and one of the kids said to me: "I think you got the wrong place". I agreed and left, and found the right place by spotting a different, slightly less intimidating group of guys that could only be poker players.
We started with 20K in chips, and 50/100 blinds. Half hour levels. A good structure, to be sure, but like most tournaments the blinds would start taking their toll eventually.
Things started off well for me... I built my stack to about 23K playing small pots. I was listening to music (just with one earphone) while I was playing, which was a new thing for me. It's not allowed in most casinos so the opportunity doesn't often present itself. In general, I found that listening to my favourite songs kept me nice and relaxed, and wherever possible I will play poker with one earphone in.
Unfortunately, I lost most of my stack early... much earlier than I needed to (if that makes any sense) given the blinds relative to the stacks. I believe we were at 200/400 when it was folded to me on the button with QJ of clubs. I made it 1200 and the big blind (about 6K less chips total than me) called. The flop came queen high with two hearts. He checked, I bet 2000, he raised it to 5000. I thought for awhile... you know, the whole "button vs. big blind" scenario is a tough one to pin down. He could easily be putting me on a steal, given my position, and he could be trying to take it down with any two. Or maybe a flush draw. Anyway, I talked myself into moving all-in, and he called with AQo. No help for me and I was down to 6K.
We took a break, and came back to 400/800 blinds. They went through me once, and when I had the button I decided to open-raise all-in with Jh9h. The big blind (different guy from last hand) called in a heartbeat with pocket aces. The flop came J92 with one heart. Woohoo! The turn was the four of hearts. The river was an ace, but it was the ace of hearts, giving me the flush. The dealer didn't see the flush at first, and started pushing the pot towards the guy with the set of aces. The table corrected him, and the pot came towards me.
That was really the beginning of a nice roll for me. Back from the dead, I played a lot of pots. I slowplayed JJ preflop and flopped a set, checkraised the flop after some action and took down a nice pot. At some point I had about 10XBB and the big stack to my right limped. I had a decision with 99, but I decided to just call as well to see a safe flop. Folded to the BB (AQo guy from the first hand) who moved all-in. The guy to my right insta-mucked, which was my first reaction, but after a lot of thought I decided to call all-in for my whole stack. The BB had T3o and failed to suckout... I got all my chips back from him and then some (the blinds were much bigger at this point).
In one huge hand I had AK and about 35K in chips... EP makes an unusually large open-raise, I decide to push, he thinks forever and calls with AQ, I double up to about 70K and am among the chip leaders.
During all of this, I was kind of bopping to the music I was listening to, and someone on the rail asked me what song I was listening to during that AK/AQ hand. I told him that the song that was on at that time was "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers. (Slightly embarrassing, but oh well!) He suggested that I just listen to that song over and over again all night.
Fast forward to the final table of ten players. I entered that table probably about third in chips. Unfortunately for me, I went completely card dead for four orbits. The blinds were significant, and I wasn't even getting hands like 8s9s to take a shot with. I tried raising with absolutely nothing twice, figuring that the raises would get respect due to the lack of hands I was playing, but both times someone moved in, and both times I had to fold.
Down to six players and I received some bad news. Up until this point in the tournament we had all been told that there were 28 entrants, which would mean that top five would pay: 13, 6, 3, 2, 1. Apparently they miscounted the number of entries (or for some reason were light 1K in the prize pool, who knows which...) so it was decided that they could only pay the top four places instead of five, taking that 1K fifth place out of play. Terrible news for me, as I was among the shortstacks at the time. I suggested that we take $500 from first and give it to fifth (at least it's something) but the chip leader at the time, Larry, refused.
I don't know his name but I'll call him Larry.
With about 7 or 8 BB's I had to make something happen. I made a great laydown when I found AJo in the BB, but the action had gone raise and re-raise, I think. Or possibly raise and call. At any rate, AJo was the best hand I'd seen at the final table by a mile, but I folded it instead of moving my shortstack all-in. The hand went to showdown and one of the players made a flush, didn't see the other hand. I had a better hand that Mr. Flush preflop, but hey everyone's allowed to be a little results-oriented sometimes, right?
A few hands later, the only stack at the table shorter than mine moved all-in for about 5 BB's. Big stack to my right called, and I looked down at AhQh. This hand was too good to fold, but I was in a weird spot. If I moved all-in over the top, I was going to be called, guaranteed, by the big stack. The blinds were 3K/6K, the shortstack had moved in for about 30K, and I only had 16K more than that. I decided to just call and have a look at the flop, fully aware that it was a ridiculous idea.
The flop missed me completely. The guy to my right bet enough to put me all-in, and I folded, after putting in about 2/3 of my stack preflop. This is not good poker folks. But I was boppin' away, thinking about surviving. As it happened, the all-in player had flopped a set, and the big stack who was live in the hand against me had outflopped me with A8 by making eights. With six players left, I was definitely the shortest stack (2.5 BB's?) and people were fully expecting me to die.