Tournaments galore

This last week or so I played in a couple of live tournaments – first one being Caesar’s 7pm with a buy-in of $150. Nothing of interest happened there, only thing that bothered me (apart from busting out before the first break), was two guys to my left who didn’t like me raising their blinds. I don’t know if I have such obvious tells or if they were just dedicated blind-defenders, but every time I raised from the button with a mediocre hand, one of them would re-raise over the top – unfortunately I didn’t stay long enough to figure them out, and I lacked the aggressiveness needed to play back at them at the time to get the info immediately.

Second tourney was Friday night at Treasure Island. Thirty-three players and I played pretty well and got to the final table with medium stack. Two big stacks on my right, two smaller stacks on left, perfect actually. There was a constant battle between the two groups, I didn’t know when to make a move so I just sat back and let them do their thing. Which resulted in the blinds and antes dwindling down my stack and soon enough I found myself next to short-stack with 5 players left.
With 9-10 of diamonds in the BB, everyone folded to big stack SB who made a standard raise, so I pushed. He called with Q-7o and got a Q on the flop, my hand didn’t improve and I was out in 5th place. Payout was up to 6th place, so I was in the money!
(In the meantime, Richard was playing NL at Venetian where the poker gods were smiling down on him, he flopped back-to-back sets with pocket 10’s and were doing really well.)

I took my winnings from Treasure Island and went to play at Sahara. Now there’s a tournament I've never been able to make it further than 3 tables left, and it’s bothering me. I needed to get to the final table. (Turned out it wasn’t going to be that night either). Had a couple of UK players at my table, at least I got to make fun of them because SOUTH AFRICA SLAUGHTERED ENGLAND in the Rugby world cup the day before. Also had a biker-dude with an attitude busted by a mousey-looking girl with a diamond in her nose who firmly believed in the power of AK. I didn’t get the diamond in the nose - judging by her overall appearance, she was no fashionista, haven’t heard of make-up or the beauty of L’Oreal #27, why bother prettying up the nose then? Maybe she lost a bet.

Anyway – she took a bunch of my chips on a 6-6-J-2 board, I had pocket 2’s, she was going to town with her A-6, and of course, with the luck of the nose-diamond, the river brought an Ace and her boat’s bigger than mine…. Arrrrrrrr (it was Pirate Day yesterday - if you didn’t know). From there on I was hanging on by a thread for a couple of hands until someone helped me out of my misery. Highlight of the night was definitely the free sandwich the casino provided.

Monday night back to Treasure Island for the ladies tourney. Fourteen players and I managed to get a bunch of chips thanks to big draws coming in, and I was destined to win the darn thing (I’m running out of spa certificates, I needed to win). My big stack didn’t last long ( I really should study short-handed tournament strategy, I suck at this), and before long there were 3 of us left – in the money – and we were pretty even stacked. The other two were friends, and I knew I was going to be their main target, so I suggested a 3-way chop. Nope, they wanted to play. Surprise, surprise.

So one or two hands later, I got AQ in the SB. UTG folded, I raised 3x BB, girl thought about it for quite a bit, and called with a painful look. I put her on a baby Ace and felt pretty good when the flop came Ace high. I figure she’ll bet the flop if she has an Ace, so I checked. She checked behind. Now I’m confused. Turn is a 7 and I bet. She called. River is a 8, I pushed, she apologized and called – she had 7-8 and caught two pair on the river. Still think I made the right play to maximize my profit off that hand, she just got lucky on the river.

Of course as soon as I went out, they chopped. Go figure. I talked to them afterwards though and they turned out to be really nice and apologizing for chopping the moment I went out and explained that they were friends and on vacation, etc. I didn’t really mind, I probably would have done the same thing if it was me.

Next tourney, Caesar’s Ladies Tourney Tuesday night. Here’s where I won the Dazed Donut (thanks, Liz!) award. I got there, signed up and since it was only 6pm, I figured I’ll go wander around the casino until the tourney starts at 7pm. At 6:45 I aimed for my seat just to notice two tables full of women with play in full swing. DUH! The Ladies tourney started at 6pm, I was thinking about the nightly tournament which normally starts at 7pm.

So, I sat down, already one of the short stacks at the table and feeling like a complete idiot. Luckily it was a very passive table and I picked up a couple of pots to put me back to even.

I played REALLY well and built my chip stack to almost chip leader at my table. I have to admit, I still have no clue how to play players which look at every Ace as a winner, if it comes with a big card, they raise, regardless of position or prior action, if it comes with a rag, they’ll just call. Folding an Ace doesn’t seem like an option. Oh well, at least most of the time it’s easy to figure out where you’re at in the hand.

I made one mistake – thought she raised with two big cards and my pocket 6’s were good, and I built a pretty nice pot for her pocket 10’s. Lost more than half my stack there, but managed to get it back with a push when I have top pair and open-ended and same woman called with straight draw and my top pair held up.

I was in pretty good shape when final table started, unfortunately I had two big stacks to my left, one of them very tight, the other either folding or going all-in with decent hands, so I had to be very careful about getting creative.

Four people left – payout is up to third – and with second to short stack, I was definitely competing for the bubble position.
Next hand the short stack went all in with QQ, and got called by AA. GREAT – now the Aces can knock out the short stack and I can get in the money. Alas – a Q hits the flop, the Aces didn’t improve and now I am the short stack.

Very next hand it’s my turn for QQ. I pushed and got called by the girl who just doubled up, holding K-10. Flop is 10-10—x, turn a blank, and to add insult to injury, a K hits on the river and I’m out. I was SO disappointed; I worked so hard to work my way back and then bubbled out. But oh well, I’ve managed the art of accepting poker results like you wouldn’t believe, an hour later I was over it and went home and won a online Razz tournament just to feel like a winner again!