Underground 1K tournament trip report (long) part 2
Not me though! I had other plans. The next hand I was the BB with A8s. Folded to SB who called, and this time I pushed, knowing I'd be called. He had something like 9h5h, flopped a flush draw, but didn't close the flush or make a pair. I'd doubled up and was still the shortstack by quite a margin, but I did say after that hand: "I'm going to win this fuckin' thing". I meant it too, and nobody laughed.
Somebody else busted out, and we were down to five players... bubble time. I knew I had to just keep moving in to pick up blinds before I lost my fold equity. I was playing about 5 or 6 BB's so I was able to pick up a couple of rounds, and then I doubled up somehow in a fairly significant way. Someone else busted out, and we were down to four and in the money.
In one hand Larry raised (as he had been doing quite often) and I moved in over the top with 34o. He folded.
In another hand Octavio raised (the owner of the club, and I'm pretty sure I have his name right... nice guy, good player) and I pushed with AK. He folded.
I had a pretty decent stack now, and picked up AA. Larry open-raised for way too many chips... I think we were at 5K/10K and he made it like 55K to go. I had the aces as I mentioned and about 130K. If he'd raised smaller I would have tried to get tricky maybe, with a smaller re-raise or maybe just a call, but I figured that he'd feel committed by his own overbet, and would call an all-in with a wide range of hands after having invested that much. So I pushed, and hummed and bopped along to the music I was listening to (pretty sure it was a Wilco tune at that point although maybe Rufus. I was keenly aware of which artists were playing when I was winning pots, and anytime a song by that artist came up in the mix again, I went out of my way to get involved. Not a flawless system, but it worked...).
Larry took a long time... big decision, lots of chips, but eventually called with pocket fives. My aces held up and I was the chip leader.
Larry didn't like me very much, probably not before that hand but definitely not after. I think he said immediately after the hand: "I don't know what this fuckin' guy's got, he's just boppin and dancing around and smiling... who the fuck knows?"
:-)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure he was taking small verbal jabs at me for the rest of the night, but my earphone was in that ear so I couldn't really hear him, which I think bothered him as well.
Someone else busted out and we were down to three. Me, Octavio, and Larry. Larry open-raised to 30K and both of us called. (I had Ks9s). Family pot.
Flop 244 rainbow. Checked around.
Turn offsuit ace. I was first to act and bet 60K, took it down.
That relatively small pot made me the chip leader of the three of us by a small bit... we were about even in chips, all with somewhere around 200K playing 5K/10K blinds. (The blinds froze at 5/10, no more increases unless requested.)
At this point I suggested that we chop the prize pool, take about $7300 each and call it a night. Octavio was into it but Larry to no surprise didn't want to do it. We did decide to raise the blinds to 7K/14K though.
A while later, I had lost some of my momentum and was sitting with about 180K. Larry had about 200K, and he open-raised from the button (as he often did) to 45K. I decided to move all-in with 66 from the small blind, expecting him to fold a wide range of hands. He was a fairly solid aggressive player, meaning that he will raise a lot but will not call large re-raises a lot. I had figured this out (doesn't take a genius) and had exploited it a couple of times with success. I had a weird feeling about this one (like he wasn't on a TOTAL steal this time) but figured if he called I could easily be up against AT to AK for the coin flip.
Octavio folded and Larry said "Well, I guess I call" and flipped over pocket queens. Oops. My sixes weren't looking very good until the six came on the river. Sweet. I raked a massive pot and Larry had just over a big blind left.
The next hand Larry was the BB and I open min-raised from the button with 67o, fully expecting Octavio with his large stack to call, and we could check it down and knock Larry out. To my surprise, Octavio folded, asking me why I raised so much? I told him it was a min-raise... it was technically impossible for me to raise any less. Touche.
My hand beat Larry's hand though, and that was the end of Larry, 3rd place and 3K. Rotten luck with those queens against my sixes, but it is kind of funny that it's always the guy who doesn't want to deal who ends up getting the short end somehow.
With Larry gone, and with a slight chip advantage my way, Octavio and I made a deal for an 8K save each, playing for the remaining 3K. I also requested that the blinds be increased to 10K/20K, and Octavio agreed. I think I had around 300K or so, and he had around 240K. Who knows. It was really late.
I tried to bluff him out of two consecutive pots, and failed to do so both times. I was down to 200K or so and raised to 60K with pocket fours. Octavio moved all-in. I thought and thought and thought and counted down the 7 BB's left in my stack... I called. He had aces. Obv. Couldn't be Ax, no no, just aces.
I failed to suck out, although it was quite exciting after the turn, when I could win with any four for a set or five for a straight. No such luck, and Octavio took it down, picking up the 3K in bonus money. I was happy with the 8K, especially after being down to the felt pretty much not once but twice in this tournament. I know I got lucky a couple of times, but you know, we all need luck and I think I played about as well as I can play, in general. I stayed positive even with a microstack, and that is really key. Tipped the staff, and did the freaky little walk to the car, hoping not to get mugged. It was 4am on Thursday morning and if you live in the GTA and were up at that time, you know that the fog was THICK. 4am, empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere, thick fog, 8K in my pocket. Not optimal. No trouble though, and after a white-knuckled slow drive home through zero visibility, everything was great.
ps: I know that I am omitting and forgetting a lot of hands, some of which are probably interesting. If any spring to mind I will add them to the bottom of this entry as they come up.
RANDOM PIECES OF CONVERSATION
Most of the talk at this tournament was about big buy-in poker. A lot of these players have BIG tournament scores under their belts. One guy won the last River Rock main event for a couple hundred thousand I think. Another guy went really deep in a WSOP event a few months back and made a couple hundred grand. And so on. So most of them are going to River Rock in a few weeks, and most of them are playing the WPT event at Fallsview this week. The 10K buy-in event.
Now here's what I respect about these guys, and I am writing this with no trace of sarcasm whatsoever: They win money at poker, and then they use that money to play BIG. I win money at poker, and it sits in a bank account while I continue to play my little 1K buy-in tournaments. These guys immediately will try to parlay it into a multi-million dollar score, with no concern at all about losing it 10K at a time. And you know what that takes, folks? BALLS. That's what. These guys are gamblers in the purest sense, and believe me, I mean that as a compliment. Am I buying into the 10K WPT event at Fallsview? Hell no. I'm not even trying to win my way in, because I know I have four important (to me) days of work that I don't want to cancel in that time period.
A lot of the talk was also about a 19 year old kid from Woodbridge who is CRUSHING the poker world right now at PokerStars. He multi-tables the absolute highest buy-in NLHE ring games they have, and he destroys them. Apparently he has 1 million in his Stars account right now. He takes out like two hundred thou at a time and gives it to his dad, telling his dad not to give it back to him anytime soon. He doesn't want to lose it back. I forget his screen-name, but it's like a license plate... three letters and three numbers maybe, from Toronto.
The guy next to me at one point had two cell phones in front of him. I asked him why he had two cell phones, and he said: "What do you want me to tell you man? I'm up to no good! Whenever you see a guy with two cell phones, he's up to no good. One's for personal, the other's business". I asked him what kind of business. He said sports betting, and then I noticed that they had the horse races on the tv in the corner, and then I noticed that some players at my table were really into the races.
A guy two to my right was having a cell phone conversation... I overheard him talking about some auction this weekend. He had his eye on buying 65 golf carts.
Apparently someone's friend is currently banging "14 out of 10 ass" in Brazil.
Everyone and their brother has made it heads up on Party for a WPT Fallsview seat, but nobody has closed the deal.
Etc.
See you in Vancouver.
Somebody else busted out, and we were down to five players... bubble time. I knew I had to just keep moving in to pick up blinds before I lost my fold equity. I was playing about 5 or 6 BB's so I was able to pick up a couple of rounds, and then I doubled up somehow in a fairly significant way. Someone else busted out, and we were down to four and in the money.
In one hand Larry raised (as he had been doing quite often) and I moved in over the top with 34o. He folded.
In another hand Octavio raised (the owner of the club, and I'm pretty sure I have his name right... nice guy, good player) and I pushed with AK. He folded.
I had a pretty decent stack now, and picked up AA. Larry open-raised for way too many chips... I think we were at 5K/10K and he made it like 55K to go. I had the aces as I mentioned and about 130K. If he'd raised smaller I would have tried to get tricky maybe, with a smaller re-raise or maybe just a call, but I figured that he'd feel committed by his own overbet, and would call an all-in with a wide range of hands after having invested that much. So I pushed, and hummed and bopped along to the music I was listening to (pretty sure it was a Wilco tune at that point although maybe Rufus. I was keenly aware of which artists were playing when I was winning pots, and anytime a song by that artist came up in the mix again, I went out of my way to get involved. Not a flawless system, but it worked...).
Larry took a long time... big decision, lots of chips, but eventually called with pocket fives. My aces held up and I was the chip leader.
Larry didn't like me very much, probably not before that hand but definitely not after. I think he said immediately after the hand: "I don't know what this fuckin' guy's got, he's just boppin and dancing around and smiling... who the fuck knows?"
:-)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure he was taking small verbal jabs at me for the rest of the night, but my earphone was in that ear so I couldn't really hear him, which I think bothered him as well.
Someone else busted out and we were down to three. Me, Octavio, and Larry. Larry open-raised to 30K and both of us called. (I had Ks9s). Family pot.
Flop 244 rainbow. Checked around.
Turn offsuit ace. I was first to act and bet 60K, took it down.
That relatively small pot made me the chip leader of the three of us by a small bit... we were about even in chips, all with somewhere around 200K playing 5K/10K blinds. (The blinds froze at 5/10, no more increases unless requested.)
At this point I suggested that we chop the prize pool, take about $7300 each and call it a night. Octavio was into it but Larry to no surprise didn't want to do it. We did decide to raise the blinds to 7K/14K though.
A while later, I had lost some of my momentum and was sitting with about 180K. Larry had about 200K, and he open-raised from the button (as he often did) to 45K. I decided to move all-in with 66 from the small blind, expecting him to fold a wide range of hands. He was a fairly solid aggressive player, meaning that he will raise a lot but will not call large re-raises a lot. I had figured this out (doesn't take a genius) and had exploited it a couple of times with success. I had a weird feeling about this one (like he wasn't on a TOTAL steal this time) but figured if he called I could easily be up against AT to AK for the coin flip.
Octavio folded and Larry said "Well, I guess I call" and flipped over pocket queens. Oops. My sixes weren't looking very good until the six came on the river. Sweet. I raked a massive pot and Larry had just over a big blind left.
The next hand Larry was the BB and I open min-raised from the button with 67o, fully expecting Octavio with his large stack to call, and we could check it down and knock Larry out. To my surprise, Octavio folded, asking me why I raised so much? I told him it was a min-raise... it was technically impossible for me to raise any less. Touche.
My hand beat Larry's hand though, and that was the end of Larry, 3rd place and 3K. Rotten luck with those queens against my sixes, but it is kind of funny that it's always the guy who doesn't want to deal who ends up getting the short end somehow.
With Larry gone, and with a slight chip advantage my way, Octavio and I made a deal for an 8K save each, playing for the remaining 3K. I also requested that the blinds be increased to 10K/20K, and Octavio agreed. I think I had around 300K or so, and he had around 240K. Who knows. It was really late.
I tried to bluff him out of two consecutive pots, and failed to do so both times. I was down to 200K or so and raised to 60K with pocket fours. Octavio moved all-in. I thought and thought and thought and counted down the 7 BB's left in my stack... I called. He had aces. Obv. Couldn't be Ax, no no, just aces.
I failed to suck out, although it was quite exciting after the turn, when I could win with any four for a set or five for a straight. No such luck, and Octavio took it down, picking up the 3K in bonus money. I was happy with the 8K, especially after being down to the felt pretty much not once but twice in this tournament. I know I got lucky a couple of times, but you know, we all need luck and I think I played about as well as I can play, in general. I stayed positive even with a microstack, and that is really key. Tipped the staff, and did the freaky little walk to the car, hoping not to get mugged. It was 4am on Thursday morning and if you live in the GTA and were up at that time, you know that the fog was THICK. 4am, empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere, thick fog, 8K in my pocket. Not optimal. No trouble though, and after a white-knuckled slow drive home through zero visibility, everything was great.
ps: I know that I am omitting and forgetting a lot of hands, some of which are probably interesting. If any spring to mind I will add them to the bottom of this entry as they come up.
RANDOM PIECES OF CONVERSATION
Most of the talk at this tournament was about big buy-in poker. A lot of these players have BIG tournament scores under their belts. One guy won the last River Rock main event for a couple hundred thousand I think. Another guy went really deep in a WSOP event a few months back and made a couple hundred grand. And so on. So most of them are going to River Rock in a few weeks, and most of them are playing the WPT event at Fallsview this week. The 10K buy-in event.
Now here's what I respect about these guys, and I am writing this with no trace of sarcasm whatsoever: They win money at poker, and then they use that money to play BIG. I win money at poker, and it sits in a bank account while I continue to play my little 1K buy-in tournaments. These guys immediately will try to parlay it into a multi-million dollar score, with no concern at all about losing it 10K at a time. And you know what that takes, folks? BALLS. That's what. These guys are gamblers in the purest sense, and believe me, I mean that as a compliment. Am I buying into the 10K WPT event at Fallsview? Hell no. I'm not even trying to win my way in, because I know I have four important (to me) days of work that I don't want to cancel in that time period.
A lot of the talk was also about a 19 year old kid from Woodbridge who is CRUSHING the poker world right now at PokerStars. He multi-tables the absolute highest buy-in NLHE ring games they have, and he destroys them. Apparently he has 1 million in his Stars account right now. He takes out like two hundred thou at a time and gives it to his dad, telling his dad not to give it back to him anytime soon. He doesn't want to lose it back. I forget his screen-name, but it's like a license plate... three letters and three numbers maybe, from Toronto.
The guy next to me at one point had two cell phones in front of him. I asked him why he had two cell phones, and he said: "What do you want me to tell you man? I'm up to no good! Whenever you see a guy with two cell phones, he's up to no good. One's for personal, the other's business". I asked him what kind of business. He said sports betting, and then I noticed that they had the horse races on the tv in the corner, and then I noticed that some players at my table were really into the races.
A guy two to my right was having a cell phone conversation... I overheard him talking about some auction this weekend. He had his eye on buying 65 golf carts.
Apparently someone's friend is currently banging "14 out of 10 ass" in Brazil.
Everyone and their brother has made it heads up on Party for a WPT Fallsview seat, but nobody has closed the deal.
Etc.
See you in Vancouver.
Comments
Yeah that is AZDF, something like that...a lot of discussion on him on 2+2
I'm sure SirWatts will tell us about the kid from Woodbridge. He's smart too. Giving the cash to his Dad to keep. Very smart.
Congrats on the payday, and GOOD LUCK in Vancouver. (We'll have snow by then, so enjoy the weather)
That sounds very sleazy. Since the club didn't announce the prize change until bubble time, it would have been honourable for them to take a little money from their $3,000 rake and give a prize as promised to the fifth place finisher. I hope the owner who won his own tournament will give a fraction of his $14,000 windfall to the bubble boy.
Interesting decisions. Unless I felt I was less skilled or more sleepy than Octavio and "Larry", I wouldn't have wanted to uncap the blinds or offered such good deals.
Making sure that you make it safely to your car should be an available service of any cardroom with a high buy-in. I would give a little of the tip to the security guy (or any club staff) to escort me to the parking lot. I've also seen female players request the club for an escort to their cars.
No, it does not mean that we are gambling degenerates. If your winning bankroll is big enough, you can easily "invest" in a satellite or buy a $10K seat at a discount, and playing at a $6 million event is a great +EV experience.
It's too bad you're too busy next week. I was looking forward to taking pictures of our Casino Brantford novelty cheques with all the poker celebrities.
Thanks for the very interesting report. Congratulations on the $8K win!
Congrats on the $8000 win.
Again, good luck. Lemme know if you're going to River Rock, we can meet up for some drinks or something.
stp
That sucks Watts, but totally understandable. Gogogogogo.