$1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bracelet Event (#27)

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Starting now, and all day, and tomorrow, and Monday, I'll be blogging from my phone, sending up-to-the-significant event reports. (You can take the girl out of the geek but you can't out-geek a girl like me!)

Tournament #2 is a $1.5K No-Limit Hold'em Bracelet Event... wish me luck!

xoxo,
Clio

Where I Am
There were lots of players! 2,700 of them! So many, I wasn't even seated in the main room, but rather in a satellite room... they even used another room beyond this to house all the players!

With the ticket bought and an hour to go, it was time to stuff myself full of a high-quality protein source... mmm... breakfast!

And They're Off!
For this tournament, we get 3,000 chips... here's what that looks like.

The First Two Hours
Not much exciting happened for the first two hours. I mixed it up a couple of times, went up, then down, then up again where I stayed, patiently waiting for a hand.

Finally, pocket Kings on the button with a guy across the table raising 800 preflop. I call.

Flop comes King, King, Ten giving me quad kings! I look weak. He bets 1,600 into me, I hem and haw, frown, and finally call. (Teehee)

Turn comes an Ace, he checks, I check quickly.

River is another Ten, he checks, I twirl my hair and make look like I'm trying to think about bluffing. Finally, after what seemed like enough time to muster the courage, I bet all-in. He thinks about it for just a few seconds then calls. Where's my Oscar? ;)


The Second Two Hours
Didn't play one hand for two hours. I did play the last hand of the level with Seven-Eight in the big blind and three other players. The flop was Five, Six, Jack and I bet 1,000 into a 1,000 pot and took it down. We were then moved (finally) into the main event room.

At the end of four hours of play, I was just a bit behind the chip average of 5,600 with 4,500.

The Next Five Minutes
We played one hand and then the table got broken up. I got moved to the 'old' tables... the first ten tables in the tournament. I'd be here until the final table.

I get Ace-Jack clubs, in the big blind, blinds are 150 and 300 with a 50 ante and I have 5,400 chips left when a little stack raises all-in 1,500 more.

There's 2,600 in the pot already, I stare him down and figure him for a steal, maybe King-Jack or something like that. He's worried I'm considering a call. I make a decision to play... after all, you can't win if you don't play, and I was a long way from the money at this point.

I call, he shows King-Queen. I have the best hand at this point, but I'm just a 60-40 favorite. No matter, I was getting two chips for every chip bet, so, it was a good bet.

Flop comes Jack, Six, Three giving me a pair of Jacks. Now I'm an 80-20 favorite. Turn comes an Eight, now I'm an 85-15 favorite. River comes a Queen and I'm out $2,000. Unlucky.

Two hands go by, and I have Ace-Nine diamonds on the button. A fella across from me raises 600, he too seems weak, so I call with a pretty good heads-up hand.

Flop comes Nine-Nine-Seven. I have trip nines with an Ace kicker! He proceeds to bet me all in; he's got lots of chips. What am I supposed to do, fold? I call, he shows Queen-Eight.

Now, in non-poker terms, that's called absofcukinglutely nothing. I'm a 95% favorite to win. The only way he can beat me is by getting a double-inside straight draw (the guy to my right folded a Queen).

Turn comes Ten, River comes Jack, he gets a runner-runner straight and I go home in 975th place. I'm physically ill.

The whole table was aghast. They all knew I should now have nearly 10,000 chips, and in a rare show of poker sympathy, they tried to console me. Whatev, stupid and lucky wins again.

Afterthoughts
I still feel ill. It's times like this when I question the wisdom of my recent endeavors. Did I play too fast? There's an argument for that. I didn't have to call a double-big-blind bet with Ace-Nine suited on the button just because I sensed weakness. I didn't have to call the short stacks' all-in bet. I had the best hand in both cases, but didn't have much money in the pot with either call, so it would have been easy to get away from them. But no... I played the people. How could I not? I didn't play a hand for 2 hours while I watched these yahoos raise pre-flop and everyone else fold. I know they're getting sloppy and just bluffing.

I hate it when I'm right and I still lose. I was making sick reads too, really on top of my game, except for that part about being really unlucky. And so yet again, for the umpteenth time a poker player mutters, "I'd rather be lucky than good."