Look at me, banging out three blog posts today. Huzzah!
Five of us from our homegame piled in for the ride out to Turning Stone on Saturday AM for the 11AM $70 + $15 + $5 +$2 donkament. That's $70 for the prize pool, $15 for the house, $5 for the dealers and $2 for the Indian tribe and/or New York State. I <3 NY Indeed. :-/ We threw in a simple $5 last longer bet just for shits n giggles.
My seat assignment: Table 7, Seat 2. Seven-Deuce. Not off to a good start here.
5k chips to start. Blinds up every 20 minutes. 25/50 to start...400/800/100 to start hour 3 so get going quickly.
It's apparent right off the bat that Seat 3 is going to splash around quite a bit early on. He tables a Q6o bluff early in the festivities. This sets the stage for the first hand of note. At 50/100 with just about all my starting stack left, in the SB I have JJ. There are four limpers. I'd raise this 100% of the time from late position, but with a bunch of limpers plus this crazy guy to my left in the BB, I could get stuck here. Plus, it's early. So I just limp in. Sure enough, the crazy guy pops it up to 800. It folds around to me. My decision is reraise or fold. I'm trying to figure out if he was setting the table up with his Q6 play earlier, or if he's just trying to steal from the limpers here. Well I hate JJ and I hate being first to act and it's only 2% of my stack gone here (1% given the SB that I'm in for) so I toss it. He tables T5o. Nice bet, sir. Well at least I know that he's willing to run bluffs more than once.
From there I built the stack up to appx 8000 chips. Stole a couple of times. Flopped pretty good a couple of times. Just generally chose my spots well. I crafted a TAG image (emphasis on the "T") and it helped. One interesting hand against the aforementioned villain-to-the-left. It's 100/200 and it folds to me in the SB where I find KQh. Villain says he's going to raise (he kept talking all. day. long. ) and so I bump it to 450. He makes it 1000 and I call. Flop is Q-high and I check, hoping to induce a bet. He checks behind. Hmmm. Turn completes a straight draw. Check-check. River is a K and completes more straights plus a flush. Check-check again and he insta-tables KT. I flip over the KQ, much to his chagrin.
I kept getting A-x hands in EP where "x" was tempting but not awe-inspiring. Threw away AQ, AT, AJ from EP. I did make a play - based primarily off my image - with A8s from UTG+3 as I recall. C-bet the flop that missed me and took one down. The biggest problem was that the villain above and the guy to his left amassed megastacks. Both were splashing around and both were card racks (88>KK>AQ, rivered flushes, etc.).
The hand that hurt follows. Perhaps that A8s hand above clouded my judgment. At the 300/600/75 level, I raised to 2000 from UTG+1 w/ AQs. I'm hoping to win this without any conflict. Alas, MP calls and cutoff shoves for 3200 total. I call as does MP. Flop is J-high. Turn is a rag and River is a J. It checks to the river. MP flips over 88 and CO strikes gold with AJ. Standard. Now I'm down near 4k chips as we head to the break*.
* One of the guys from the homegame, let's call him Loose Passive, somehow has 1300 chips still in front of him at the start of the 15 minute break. So he heads out for the restroom. And from there, he's interested in finding where the gift shop is. So he heads off to find it. And he begins to realize what time it is. So he heads back for the poker room. Only he cannot find it. Yes, kids, he got lost inside Turning Stone**. While he was away, he got blinded off. Now it's not like he was going to do anything with that stack anyways, but you've got to at least be there to breathe your last breath.
** I've been to a couple Atlantic City casinos. I've been to Pala near San Diego. I've been to Cherokee in Tulsa. I've been to Mandalay and Venetian in Vegas. I've been to a couple overseas as well. Save for Pala - which didn't have a poker room - none of them are as small as Turning Stone. The poker room is right in the middle of the entire gaming area. Suffice it to say I will never fully understand how or why he got lost for 10+ minutes of action.
Back from break, I'm in MP and I toss two straight A-rag hands in the muck. Now the blinds are 400/800/100 so I can't wait forever here. Then, in UTG+1, I find Ac3c and ship it in. Player two to my left calls, asks if I have a pair, and now I know he has AK. It folds around. And doesn't the donk in me flop a 3 to take it down.
I'm alive. By this point, I've won the last longer bet, but it's the farthest thing from my mind. I need to get chips and get deep into this beyotch.
Two hands later, the guy w/ AK from above shoves from UTG. It folds around to me in the SB and I have KJo. I've got him well-covered and make the call. Once again, I'm up against AJ. Christ. Can't escape that fucking hand. Knocks me down to around 3500 again.
Table change. I slide over to my new seat, throw away a couple hands, then look down at 22. I think about it but fold it. When that flop comes down 4d 2h 6h, I'm livid at myself. Question for the loyal readers (reader?) - shove there with ducks and only 5BB left?
Well next hand with only 2800 chips, UTG limps in and I shove with JJ. UTG is not very pleased with me, but WTF am I supposed to do with 3BBs? I get one caller and am hoping it's Ax. Instead it's QQ. To make matters worse, two players feel the need to inform me they folded a jack. The miracle doesn't happen and I'm out 56th.
I feel that I played too tight at times, but my decent hands were mostly in EP. I feel that I played too loose with that AQ hand from EP, but with the blinds rocketing upward, I had to get some action at some point. Overall I thought I played patient but aggressive poker - limping a little but not way too much. With the two aggro-guys with mega-stacks to my left, I was hoping to stumble into a monster and milk some of those chips over my way. Never happened.
The self-proclaimed best player in our game was first out. He saw a free flop w/ Qd9d, called a bet on the turn, then on the river the flush got there, as did a straight or two. He checks. Two villains remaining. First one bets 1000 chips, second one calls that. Neighbor comes over-the-top all in. First player folds, other insta-calls with the nut flush. Two questions:
a) I'm more than happy to check-call this down or lead out and see if someone raises back. If you're raised, you have to believe you're beaten and you can throw it away - he would've had 3500 chips left.
b) WTF is the guy with the nut flush doing calling the first bet there and not trying to value bet it? Maybe the neighbor had an uber-tell. Hmmmmm. I asked the neighbor what he would've done if the nut flush raised in front of him there, and he said he still would've gone broke. Wow. File that one away for the next time I have the nuts.
