Reno Trip

So, I got back from Reno about an hour ago, and I guess you are all awaiting with baited breath the results. Well, less than stellar this time, to be quite honest. My main reason for going up was getting into a free tournament with a $20,000 top prize. The tourny had an unusual setup - 200 people, invitation only, 20 tables of ten players each. The winner of each table gets to a top twenty - those people are in the money. So rather than surviving past a number of other people, you had to effectively win a "final" table to qualify for the money. This is actually a difficult setup, but it assures them that the tournament will be over in a timely fashion.

So here's how it went - I'll just condense and give you the sexy bits. My table of ten had four solid players, five who had barely played before (that always happens with a tournament where they invite guest based on their casino rankings - a lot of slot players get on the tables) and then me. I figured out who was week pretty quick and got a really good sense of how they played in a few hands and managed to punish them and pick up a few thousand in chips (each of us started with 1500 in chips, so my getting that 3000 would be critical if I wanted to win the table). I managed to knock out 2 of the weak players, and some of the better players tangled with each other, leaving one of them weakened to the point where I knocked her out as well, then I got in on a hand cheap with a King-eight of clubs and flopped the nut club flush (the ace was one of the cards) - unfortunately the guy who let me in cheap got his ace paired and pushed his last 500 in, and I took him out, too.

So I'm feeling pretty good, having knocked out four players, and having 1 weak player and two strong ones left, and having the most chips at the table at that point. Then the player to my right pushed me off of a couple of marginal hands that I had speculated on (because of the blind structure, it was worth it). Unfortunately, that guy on my right was a really experienced player - I found out later that he's been playing poker for 50+ years, and consistently makes his living playing poker. He ended up knocking out the other experienced player, which gave him a lot of chips and then took almost everything from the weak player, but left me the kill on the next hand, so it came down to me and him, me with about 6500, him with 8500. A few blinds, bad hands and good bets on his part had me down to 4500, and him up to 10500. He lets me into a hand for just the cost of the blind (1600 at that point) so I am playing an Ace-four unsuited - a pretty good hand heads up. Anyway, the flop is a rainbow 3, 6, 7, and he checks to me as he usually does when he has a reasonably good hand. I take the free card, and the turn hits my 5 to give me the straight. He checks, I bet sixteen hundred, he raises me all in, I call, and he has top pair top kicker (Ace-seven, suited spades), so I win. Now the chips are at 9000 to me and 6000 for him, next hand I am dealt an Ace-king, he raises, I reraise, he pushes all in and I call. He turns over an Ace-ten unsuited, which gives me about 4 to 1 odds to win. Unfortunately, he flops a ten, it holds up , leaving me with 3000 in chips, and my blind of 1600 on the next hand - meaning I pretty much have to go all in with any two cards. I get a King-nine unsuited (that beats about 50% of hands), I go all in, and he has an Ace-six unsuited so he calls. His hand holds, I'm out.

So that was the Saturday morning portion of the tournament. I am then stuck in the "second nut" tourny; a 20 person winner take all with $2500 top prize. I have no luck on the first two hands I play, the big one that hurt was the 300 chip raise I made in late position with Ace-ten of clubs. There was 275 in the pot already (no raises, just four callers and the blinds). I figured the raise was big enough to force most of them out, and leave me against one, and I would be happy to take the 275 if everyone folded. Unfortunately, I got two callers, missed the flop completely and had the two bet strong into me, so I had to fold. They pushed each other to the river, and they both called my initial bet with crap hands - one had a Jack-nine unsuited and flopped his nines, the other had Queen-seven unsuited and flopped her seven. The one with the pair of sevens got bumped out by going all in with that pair, and the other guy called the all in with his pair of nines, even though there was a king on the board. If I sound bitter, I am, especially because the last card that came was a ten, which would have won me the pot, but there was no way I could have stayed with the erratic bets and pray for my 6-out cards to come (especially when they both bet like they had the king so it really seemed like I only had 3 outs). Anyhow, that took me down to 1050 chips, but there were already three other people out (which doesn't really matter, in that setup, 2nd and 20th amount to the same thing - nothing). So I get a King-Queen suited in hearts, bet 200, and have the guy across from me raise to 550. I already know he only plays premium hands, and only raises with really good hans, so I put him on a pair of Queens - still bad for me, but with 1100 in the pot and only 350 to call, the three to one odds the pot was giving me with an over card and a flush draw made it almost worth it, and since I knew that the only way I could survive the game was if I doubled up soon, I called. The guy behind me called as well, which put him all in, making a 100 chip side pot, and a 1750 main pot. The flop comes Ace-two-three of diamonds, I'm first to act, and this is where I made my big mistake. I knew the flop had missed my main opponent, it didn't matter whether the all-in guy had made a hand or not. I figured that if I could bet strong he might lay down a hand. Unfortunately, I had only 500 left, while he had 1800. I figured that there was no way he could ignore the ace, the fluch and the straight that were all possible with the board, but I should have known 500 would not push him off. I bet it, knowing that with 50-100 blinds, my 500 chips left wouldn't matter much anyway. He called, he had a pair of kings (my guess at queens was pretty close), but then I find that the other guy had jack-queen unsuited (he had called after getting pot-committed early), leaving me with virtually no way to win (I would need two queens to come, or a jack and a ten for the straight). Needless to say neither of these happened.

So I got bumped out in 15th place, and thus ends the exceedingly boring poker blog. Supergoober and TheMightyMook might make it this far, and maybe theWarden, but I doubt if anyone else will find it riveting enough to read. More on the rest of the trip later.