LittleWyvern.com

This afternoon when I woke up, instead of sitting down and writing about poker I decided to go to the casino and play. Today’s session was really lame but it was kept somewhat interesting by the other players at the table. After straddling the big blind of the player to my right for the third or fourth time we started laughing and making conversation (If I don’t joke with the guy, straddling his blind is just mean). We got on the topic of our respective jobs, discovering that we both work out of our houses. I found out he is a screenwriter and that he just got hired as the new writer for a television show, “… I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, it’s called House.” I smiled. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it.” Our conversation turned to the show and how, though the show started with a bunch of great writers, a lot of them are all leaving now. They just don’t have any ideas left. I accurately described the problem that my new friend was just hired to solve. “I mean, how many different ways can House almost kill somebody before he saves them?”

On Friday night I went over to Caesar’s to play in the second chance tournament at the World Series Circuit Event. The real events all cost upwards of $1000 but there are nightly second chance tournaments for only $225. I knew going into the tournament that I would either get unlucky and lose very quickly or I would go deep. As it turned out I went deep and then got unlucky. 285 people started the tournament, 27 made the money, I finished in 40th. I came close but couldn’t go the distance. Still, I feel pretty good about it.

Starting with 1000 chips I dumped off 200 playing suited connectors and trying unsuccessfully to make a hand. My first break came in the third level of the tournament with the blinds at 50/100. Action was limped to me in the small blind where I completed with 4-5 offsuit. I mentally booyahed as the flop came 2-3-6 with two hearts. I checked and another player bet 150. I wanted all of his chips, not just the 150 so I only called. The turn paired the board with another 6 and again I checked. My opponent again bet 150 and with only 600 left I just went all-in. My opponent immediately called and turned over the A-5 of hearts for a straight-flush draw. To my delight the river didn’t help him and I doubled up. I folded for a while after that until the following took place. With blinds at 75-150 a very loose and aggressive player opened for 800. Two seats behind him a short-stacked player moved all-in for only a little bit more. I looked down and saw Ace-Queen offsuit and thought for a minute, so long in fact that the players behind me forgot I had the action and folded out of turn. After considering the situation I moved all-in over the top of the second raiser for a total of about 2000. I felt that the first raiser probably didn’t have a great hand. I also was pretty sure that the all-in player was just waiting on any ace to make a move. I figured my hand to be best. I didn’t expect it, but the first raiser, having us both covered, called my reraise. I turned over my A-Q, the all-in player turned over pocket 6s, and the first raiser turned over K-10 offsuit. I was still pretty happy because even if our hands didn’t improve I would still win the fairly large sidepot created between me and the K-10. My happiness disappeared as the flop came 10-high, pairing my opponent. But thank God for running aces. I hit my ace on both the turn and river and scooped the entire pot, sending me to the highest chip mark I would reach all tournament at about 5000.

At that point my luck all but disappeared as I went card dead for the entire remainder of the tournament. I managed to steal a few pots to stay even but when we reached level 8, with the blinds at 200-400 with a 50 chip ante, I hit a total wall. With blinds and antes each of us was losing 1000 chips every 9 hands, and with a chip stack of only 4000 I had to win one hand every orbit just to stay even. Unfortunately, getting absolutely zero playable hands the only way I could win those pots was by going all-in and hoping for everyone to fold. Before things got seriously desperate, though, one interesting hand took place. A large stack raised my big blind to 1200 and everyone folded to me. I looked down to find the Queen-Ten of hearts, by FAR the best hand I had seen since my Ace-Queen. I didn’t want to go crazy with the hand, but I didn’t want to fold, so I called the raise, leaving myself about 3000 chips behind. I was prepared to move on a decent flop and smiled inwardly as I saw the window card: the 10 of diamonds. When the cards were spread, though, I found myself staring at 10 – 2 – K, the king being conspicuously dangerous. I second guessed my earlier decision to move on the flop and checked to the raiser, instead. He hesitated a moment before putting me all-in. I thought for a few seconds and then folded. It just didn’t feel right to me, and I still had some chips to work with. The man turned over a king before mucking, immediately making me feel good about what could have easily been a bad fold. When I told him that I had folded a ten at first nobody believed me.

On life support I started looking for any two decent cards to go with. Unfortunately, they never came. With the blinds as high as they were somebody was forced to move all-in preflop on every single hand. Usually the standard preflop action involved one player going all-in and another player going all-in over the top of him. The action would always happen in front of me, completely taking away any play I might make and forcing me to either take a 3-way all-in with my cards or fold and wait for the next hand. I felt completely handcuffed by the combination of blinds and cold cards and could do nothing at all but watch as my entire stack was blinded away. When I dropped below 1000 chips, with not enough to even survive the next orbit of blinds, I knew that I had to move the next time that:

1) I got a face card. Forget ace-high, at this point even an ace was too much to hope for. If I could catch an ace I would have moved in long ago.
2) I got two connecting cards.
3) I got two suited cards.
4) I got to make the first action. The first time somebody didn’t go all-in in front of me I would have to do the honors, hoping to take my hand face up against the blind and win a race.

After folding another few hands to all-ins I finally got my wish with option 4. In middle position everyone folded in front of me. I didn’t even want to look at my cards before I moved in, I don’t think that they even mattered at that point. I pushed my pathetic stack of chips across the line and made the equivalent of the minimum raise, a bet that the big blind was obligated to call. It turns out he would have made the call anyway with his Ace-Ten (somehow my lack of cards didn’t seem to affect anyone else). I flipped over my hand and we all laughed when we saw them: the 4 and 7 of diamonds. Sweet, suited cards. I was only slight worse than a coin flip, just about the best that I could hope for. Sadly, my opponent flopped an ace and turned two pair. I silently noted that not only did I not even make a pair on the hand, the board didn’t carry a single diamond. It just wasn’t meant to be.

In the end I feel that there was nothing that I could really have done. In hindsight I guess I could have just pushed all-in with my Queen-Ten but I know for sure that my opponent would have called me preflop and had me beat with his kings. The only real question is whether I could have drawn him out. My odds with the 7d-4d were much better than that. Maybe next time.