BC Poker Championships, $1000+100 NLHE
Live poker? Me? Well, when it's in your backyard and 20 minutes away, I guess there's not too much excuse. Especially since I competed on the weekend and damn near got my arm taken off by a dude 40 lbs bigger than me. Since I don't anticipate being in the gym this week, I might as well hit the felt.
When I arrived at the River Rock in Richmond, I saw a massive registration line, 11-handed tables, and heard an announcement that we'd be starting 45 minutes late. Often I let this type of poker tournament clusterfuck get the best of me and I end up finding some stupid way to give my chips away because I don't want to be there any more. But today I was determined to give myself an attitude adjustment and not play like a retard for the sake of going home early. I decided to act like a professional today. This is, after all, what I'm paid to do. If I had a regular everyday job and things were going haywire, I wouldn't start doing a shitty job. I might hate every minute of being in the office, but I would do the best job I could. I certainly might slack off a little and surf the web a little too often (which I certainly did), but I would do the job to the best of my abilities.
And pretty much today, I (somehow) managed to do that. Of course, I still busted before dinner, so I managed to both spend a minimal amount of time actually playing live poker and still had a guilt-free bustout -- a big win!
The value in this tournament, by the way, is incredible (I guess it would have to be, with 11% rake). I probably had a great table draw, but you'd be hard-pressed to even find tables in the WSOP 1ks this soft. It was a dream table. It's not often you're into the 150/300/25 level and still getting 6-way limped pots. I think I saw more limped pots in my 3.5 hours of play today than my entire 2010 WSOP.
The postflop play was just as bad. The guy who was chip leader when I busted got his start by calling off half his stack with AT-high, no draw, and spiking an ace. In the first level, with 200 BB stacks. This guy was 70 years old and exuberantly fist-pump celebrated every time he sucked out on someone (which was a lot). My favourite was the time he rivered the nut flush on someone and exclaimed "old men can play poker!" Anyway, if I went on to detail every atrocious play I saw today, I'd be doing nothing else but writing this post tonight. And I really wasn't even paying attention. Just that every time I looked up, there was some huge pot developing and at least one absurd hand at the showdown.
My embarrassing moment of the day was not how I played a hand, but what I did after it. At 150/300 (no ante), the old guy limps utg, another dude limps utg+1, the guy on my right (utg+3) makes it 1200, I make it 3300 with KcKh, folded around to a young guy who tanks and while he's tanking, the guy on his left cold-calls the 3300 out of turn. The young guy continues to tank but eventually folds, Mr. Out-Of-Turn calls, old guy calls, second limper folds. So we're seeing a flop four ways after it was 3-bet from early position. Pretty standard. Flop comes ten-high with two clubs, old guy bets 3k, guy on my right ships for 9k, I don't like it but I re-ship, old guy snaps. Old guy AcJc and guy on my right TT. Club on the river. For whatever reason, I thought the old guy had me covered so I get up to leave. As I'm composing my bustout Tweet in the hallway, a floorman comes up to me and tells me I had the old guy covered. How embarrassing, oops! I was pretty sure I had him covered. I will say (since I am often critical of tourney staff) that this was nice of them and they didn't have to do that. So I go back and expect to have like half a blind or something, and it turns out I have like 3800. A bit of insight into my state of mind that a big part of me must have hoped I was broke on that hand when I actually had 13 BB behind.
Anyway I end up going broke a little while after that flopping top pair of aces in some other 6-way limped pot and getting run down by a flush draw. But I played well in a local 1k, even if I was miserable while doing it. Score one for professionalism!
Back at it again for the $2500+200 main event on Thursday, which is probably even more of a fish-fest. Fingers crossed, at least.
When I arrived at the River Rock in Richmond, I saw a massive registration line, 11-handed tables, and heard an announcement that we'd be starting 45 minutes late. Often I let this type of poker tournament clusterfuck get the best of me and I end up finding some stupid way to give my chips away because I don't want to be there any more. But today I was determined to give myself an attitude adjustment and not play like a retard for the sake of going home early. I decided to act like a professional today. This is, after all, what I'm paid to do. If I had a regular everyday job and things were going haywire, I wouldn't start doing a shitty job. I might hate every minute of being in the office, but I would do the best job I could. I certainly might slack off a little and surf the web a little too often (which I certainly did), but I would do the job to the best of my abilities.
And pretty much today, I (somehow) managed to do that. Of course, I still busted before dinner, so I managed to both spend a minimal amount of time actually playing live poker and still had a guilt-free bustout -- a big win!
The value in this tournament, by the way, is incredible (I guess it would have to be, with 11% rake). I probably had a great table draw, but you'd be hard-pressed to even find tables in the WSOP 1ks this soft. It was a dream table. It's not often you're into the 150/300/25 level and still getting 6-way limped pots. I think I saw more limped pots in my 3.5 hours of play today than my entire 2010 WSOP.
The postflop play was just as bad. The guy who was chip leader when I busted got his start by calling off half his stack with AT-high, no draw, and spiking an ace. In the first level, with 200 BB stacks. This guy was 70 years old and exuberantly fist-pump celebrated every time he sucked out on someone (which was a lot). My favourite was the time he rivered the nut flush on someone and exclaimed "old men can play poker!" Anyway, if I went on to detail every atrocious play I saw today, I'd be doing nothing else but writing this post tonight. And I really wasn't even paying attention. Just that every time I looked up, there was some huge pot developing and at least one absurd hand at the showdown.
My embarrassing moment of the day was not how I played a hand, but what I did after it. At 150/300 (no ante), the old guy limps utg, another dude limps utg+1, the guy on my right (utg+3) makes it 1200, I make it 3300 with KcKh, folded around to a young guy who tanks and while he's tanking, the guy on his left cold-calls the 3300 out of turn. The young guy continues to tank but eventually folds, Mr. Out-Of-Turn calls, old guy calls, second limper folds. So we're seeing a flop four ways after it was 3-bet from early position. Pretty standard. Flop comes ten-high with two clubs, old guy bets 3k, guy on my right ships for 9k, I don't like it but I re-ship, old guy snaps. Old guy AcJc and guy on my right TT. Club on the river. For whatever reason, I thought the old guy had me covered so I get up to leave. As I'm composing my bustout Tweet in the hallway, a floorman comes up to me and tells me I had the old guy covered. How embarrassing, oops! I was pretty sure I had him covered. I will say (since I am often critical of tourney staff) that this was nice of them and they didn't have to do that. So I go back and expect to have like half a blind or something, and it turns out I have like 3800. A bit of insight into my state of mind that a big part of me must have hoped I was broke on that hand when I actually had 13 BB behind.
Anyway I end up going broke a little while after that flopping top pair of aces in some other 6-way limped pot and getting run down by a flush draw. But I played well in a local 1k, even if I was miserable while doing it. Score one for professionalism!
Back at it again for the $2500+200 main event on Thursday, which is probably even more of a fish-fest. Fingers crossed, at least.