Nobody Cares About Your Bad Beats
Played in a Poker tournament last night out in 14051 Zip code which is apparently the 41st nicest place to live in the US. BFD, right? I did see Dave Andreychuk at Tops while Knoebel and I picked up beer. Seeing the captain of the defending Stanley Cup champions on the same day as the NHL announces their new rule changes and picks their draft order a coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!
Anyway, back to the tournament. There were exactly 20 guys, $50 dollar buy-in, no re-buys. The top three were getting paid, the payouts were something like $500 for 1st, $350 for second $150 for 3rd. Everyone started with $1000 in chips and the blinds were 10-15 to start and raised every 1/2 hour. I started off playing EXTREMELY tight folding hands like A-10 suited in early position. I finally picked up a few nice pots and knocked the first guy out of the tournament when I flopped top pair with Jacks.
I ended up going into the final table with about $2000 in chips which actually was one of the bigger stacks. The host of the tournament was on a MAJOR rush and had over $10,000 in chips, me and 3 other guys had about the same amount and then there were a bunch of guys with $1000-$1500 in chips. Both Knoebel and Bona Friar made the final table with me, Bona Friar was short stacked and went all in with K-Qo (I think) he was called by two players and busted out in 8th. Knoebel and I made it to the final 5, I played one hand up to that point at the final table, the best hole cards I saw was Q-9o, I raised pre flop trying to steal the blinds but was put all in. I folded which pretty much made me the low stack with about $700 in chips. The blinds were 150-300, so needless to say I was going to be going all in very soon if I had any playable hand. Knoebel ended up going all in with K-Qo and got two callers, the two big stacks, he was busted in 5th when one of the callers' pocket 8's held up.
So it was me, with the low stack fighting to make the money. I finally started seeing some good cards. I went all in back to back and stole the blinds. I then won a very nice pot when I was the big blind and was dealt J-3o (I saw hands like that all night). The flop came down all low shit cards 5-7-3, I went all in with the 3's against the chip leader figuring he didn't have any piece of the flop. He called and I was right, he had Ace high and didn't catch anything. Another double up. So all of a sudden I was looking pretty good, I was no longer the short stack and I was hot. So, here comes the bad beat story. I was dealt A-9o on the button. The first guy folded I raised $1000, the chip leader called and the big blind folded. The flop came 7-9-3 rainbow. Chip leader checked and I went all in. If he folded I would have again picked up a very nice pot and would be sitting pretty. But, I wanted him to call because I was confident I had the best hand. He did call my all in, and I was right on. He had A-7o, for the middle pair. Only card that could save him was a 7. Well guess what fell on the river. You got it, 7. So I busted out in 4th, out of the money. FUCK.
All in all I played pretty good. For the most part I got cold cards, I saw Big Slick twice, and my best pocket pairs were 10's (which I did turn into a set and picked up a huge pot early on). But that was it for decent hole cards, I saw some nice suited connectors, and had some small pocket pairs but didn't flop anything. As they say that is poker. I won't be quitting my day job any time soon.
By the way Shannon Elizabeth didn't play in the tournament with us, but she does have a nice mouth.
Anyway, back to the tournament. There were exactly 20 guys, $50 dollar buy-in, no re-buys. The top three were getting paid, the payouts were something like $500 for 1st, $350 for second $150 for 3rd. Everyone started with $1000 in chips and the blinds were 10-15 to start and raised every 1/2 hour. I started off playing EXTREMELY tight folding hands like A-10 suited in early position. I finally picked up a few nice pots and knocked the first guy out of the tournament when I flopped top pair with Jacks.
I ended up going into the final table with about $2000 in chips which actually was one of the bigger stacks. The host of the tournament was on a MAJOR rush and had over $10,000 in chips, me and 3 other guys had about the same amount and then there were a bunch of guys with $1000-$1500 in chips. Both Knoebel and Bona Friar made the final table with me, Bona Friar was short stacked and went all in with K-Qo (I think) he was called by two players and busted out in 8th. Knoebel and I made it to the final 5, I played one hand up to that point at the final table, the best hole cards I saw was Q-9o, I raised pre flop trying to steal the blinds but was put all in. I folded which pretty much made me the low stack with about $700 in chips. The blinds were 150-300, so needless to say I was going to be going all in very soon if I had any playable hand. Knoebel ended up going all in with K-Qo and got two callers, the two big stacks, he was busted in 5th when one of the callers' pocket 8's held up.
So it was me, with the low stack fighting to make the money. I finally started seeing some good cards. I went all in back to back and stole the blinds. I then won a very nice pot when I was the big blind and was dealt J-3o (I saw hands like that all night). The flop came down all low shit cards 5-7-3, I went all in with the 3's against the chip leader figuring he didn't have any piece of the flop. He called and I was right, he had Ace high and didn't catch anything. Another double up. So all of a sudden I was looking pretty good, I was no longer the short stack and I was hot. So, here comes the bad beat story. I was dealt A-9o on the button. The first guy folded I raised $1000, the chip leader called and the big blind folded. The flop came 7-9-3 rainbow. Chip leader checked and I went all in. If he folded I would have again picked up a very nice pot and would be sitting pretty. But, I wanted him to call because I was confident I had the best hand. He did call my all in, and I was right on. He had A-7o, for the middle pair. Only card that could save him was a 7. Well guess what fell on the river. You got it, 7. So I busted out in 4th, out of the money. FUCK.
All in all I played pretty good. For the most part I got cold cards, I saw Big Slick twice, and my best pocket pairs were 10's (which I did turn into a set and picked up a huge pot early on). But that was it for decent hole cards, I saw some nice suited connectors, and had some small pocket pairs but didn't flop anything. As they say that is poker. I won't be quitting my day job any time soon.
By the way Shannon Elizabeth didn't play in the tournament with us, but she does have a nice mouth.
posted by p.g. at 9:33 AM
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