A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my recent return to the poker tournament ring.
Since then, nothing much has changed – I've been playing better with each tournament, but still not cashing.
Until Wednesday night, that is. On Wednesday, my streak finally ended.
I played a bad tournament. But on the bright side, I still didn't cash.
I've now played 12 or 13 consecutive tournaments at the Venetian without cashing. The average field size is probably about 55 and they usually pay the top 10% of spots, but sometimes as high as 15%. So failing to cash in 12 or 13 straight tourneys pretty much sucks, especially if you're one of the better players (which I think I am).
Last year I had a similar streak of 14 straight. But then I won my 15th and went on a little tear, including winning $11,000 in the Venetian freeroll.
Hopefully I'll repeat that streak this year, as the World Series is about to begin and the field sizes should grow exponentially.
I mentioned I played poorly in Wednesday's tournament. I'm almost ashamed to admit how bad it was!
I lost of my chips about 6 hands into the tournament with QQ. There were 3 limpers and I made it 300 to go. 300 is a really big raise at the 25-50 level, but it's not absurd – it does help define your hand. The cutoff then reraised to 800 total – 500 more. That screamed AA or KK. Since I had 4300 and he had 3100, it would have been fine for me to call the 500 and try and hit a set, but folding would have been okay as well.
I called and the flop came T83, with two hearts. I checked and the guy who I put on AA or KK bet 1800 or so. I knew he had me beat but I had an overpair damn it! So I put him all in. Of course, he had KK.
I then pittered my 1200 in chips down to 800 pretty quickly. Then I picked up a monster hand – Ac2c (sic). I did get lucky with it, flopping 2 pairs, which held up. All the sudden I was back up to 2200.
A couple of hands into the 50-100 level, I pick up Kd3d and limp in MP. I open limped. Horrible. The button made it 400 and I called. Horrible again, though at least there was another caller so it was a big pot.
The flop came K95 with one diamond. I checked, the other caller checked, the button bet 500, I insta-pushed, the other caller folded and the button insta-called with KQ.
Bam! I was disgusted, so I took a walk while I decided whether or not to play 2-5.
Now is a good time to detour to two really crappy hands that I've had to end two of my last four tournaments. Both times I had JTs. The first time I had JTs, the flop came down 9 high with two of my suit. The preflop raiser made a decent bet and I then overpushed the pot. He called for all his chips with AK, no draw. (His call left me with like 100 chips.) Of course I missed the turn and the river, but the annoying thing was listening to this chump whoop and holler thinking that he had the best hand on the flop. Technically he did, but I had the best chance of winning the pot, and I had one of the two hands that didn't have him crushed.
On Tuesday, I had JTs again. The flop came KQ2 with two of my suit. Basically the same action, except this time the guy had AQ with a backdoor flush draw. How can he make that call? I'm only a slight favorite to win, but other than JTs and Axs, every hand that I have has to have him crushed. Anyway, I brick out, and he congratulates himself on a hand well-played. Donkey!
Anyway, back to Wednesday night. I had just played a crappy tournament and was taking a walk to clear my head. It was early and I felt like playing more cards, so I sat in a 2-5 must move game. We started out playing three handed, but the game quickly filled up, and within an hour I was moved to the main game. Nothing eventful happened – I just kept on bleeding my chips down. I bought in for $400 to start and by the time I was at the main game I was down to about $320.
Nothing good happened for quite a while. I won some small pots, but mostly continued to bleed. Finally when I was down to $200, I added another $200 to my stack. I think promptly bled that down, and added another $100. Before I knew it, I was down to $250 or so, stuck about $450.
But I felt like I was playing relatively well. I didn't try crazy bluffs, I just played straightforward poker. Sometimes you bleed chips when you play that way.
There was this Yankees fan at the table who I'd been talking to throughout the night. He was a decent guy, but not much of a player. And course he was a Yankees fan, which is a major strike against him.
I picked up J2 in the BB with him on the button. It was a 7-way limped pot. Flop came down J27, two clubs. I checked the flop, it was checked to him, and he bet $50. I pushed all-in for $175 more, he insta-called with a flush draw, and my two pair held up.
A little bit later, the same guy straddled a pot and I picked up 53s. It's one of those dumb little hands which sometimes I like to gamble with. I raised the straddle to $15, not because 53s is a monster hand but because I've only been reraised once after raising a straddle like that. I get tons of callers, but unless someone has AA, they don't like reraising me. The one guy who reraised me was someone who'd seen me make the play a bunch of times before, and I had to release my hand.
Anyway, I get 8 callers! Yikes. $120 in the pot. Flop comes down 935, two hearts. Checked to me, I bet $90. This guy from San Diego (a BYU graduate) raises me to $180. He's not that great a player and I figure if he's got a set of nines, so be it. There's no chance he's got a bigger two pair, and there's a small chance he's got threes or fives. Most likely, he's got A9. So I decide to jam him all in – a reraise of $360. He thinks forever, I mean forever. Finally, he calls. I know I've got the best hand.
The turn brings a 6 and the river brings the ace of hearts. Shit, I know I'm beat. He either made his flush or has a bigger two pair.
But 35 is good! He's got 97o. (?!?!?!?!) The turn was a big card for him, it gave him 12 outs.
Nice, now I've got $1,100 or so and am up $400.
About 10 minutes later, I'm in the bb with Ad9d. The same BYU dude raises after 2 limpers to $15. I think people from the next table end up calling his raise. Literally no less than 7 callers.
Flop comes down A92. Sweet! I check, gets checked to him, he bets $25 in to the five kajillion dollar pot. I figure he's got QQ or something, but he got two callers, so I need to raise to take the pot down. I make it $125 to go, the guy to my left calls $125 cold (!) and then the BYU dude pushes all-in for another 870. I instantly call, realizing that he's probably got AK, but in the slim chance he's got AA, that's just life. But he was such a bad player that I was nearly 100% sure that he had AK, which he did. My A9 held up and I was pumped up to almost $2,500.
Over the next two or three hours, I just kept on getting paid off by the weirdest hands in the world. I don't remember all of them, but I left the table with $3,728, ending up a $3,028 winner, which is just a huge win for 2-5. My previous biggest win was $2,000 or so.
So I guess the moral of the story is that even though I played a shitty tournament, I still basically ended up winning a tournament of my own making!
© Jed Lewison