Where Sam doesn't play anymore ...Rick's Cafe Americain

Pregame

Ferrari circulated a proposed structure for the acceleration of the blinds for comment to the regulars at the game.  Rick, Pauly, Coach, and I were unanimous in telling him that the levels should all be shorter than he envisioned them.  So he kept the levels as he had set them on his own.  He did take Pauly’s suggestion to distribute T100 in chips to each player instead of complicating things by using a proxy amount of T10,000.

It turns out that both of these were good decisions.  Most of the night was 30 minute levels.  During levels one and two, when there were still 10 players in the game, one level would barely take us through a single loop and the levels seemed too short. But as people busted out and the blinds increased half hour levels felt just fine.  Using “real” denominations also made it a lot easier to quickly review the stacks around the table.  I spend a lot of time and energy disagreeing with Ferrari, so I’ll give him credit where it is due.  The game flow was smooth as Lagavulin.

With 10 players, places one through four paid 500/250/150/100 respectively.

The Cast

In addition to the core of the regulars (Rick’s staff + Coach + Pauly), Swish made a return appearance from his new home in DC.  Joe College, Casual Mike and Top Gun had all played before in a game I couldn’t attend. Business Mike is a friend of Casual Mike’s.  (Note: “Rick” and “Swish” are also actually Mike. Our tournament was 40% Mike.)

As for the players that didn’t make it ... 

Christian tells us about no limit games that he plays in, but as Pauly notes, he loses everything he wins elsewhere at our games. (Though he has won.) I thought this would be an opportunity to see Christian’s no limit game in action but it wasn’t to be.
Helmut took Sous Chef out for her birthday. 
Ilsa still refuses to play with us.
Marie came late and played in the ring game that grew as people busted out of the tourney. So, let’s see ... didn’t play in the tournament but sat at a table of people who had lost and were looking for blood.
Sam is chicken.

Casino de Coach

Apparently underutilized at work, Coach came up with odds for the tournament. Coach really hadn’t played much with most of the table so this was more a collection of hunches than anything else.  He also wasn’t actually taking action on the game, so odds were for entertainment purposes only. Straight from Coach’s email, here is the tote board:

Odds              to win --- first out --- first all-in

Ugarte              9:5  ---     3:1     ---    20:1
Joe College          3:1   ---   25:1     ---     6:1
Ferrari              5:1   ---   50:1     ---     9:5
Pauly                6:1   ---   50:1    ---      3:1
Rick                  6:1   ---   40:1    ---      3:1
Coach                 6:1   ---     8:1    ---    50:1
Swish                6:1   ---     4:1*   ---      3:1
Top Gun            12:1*  ---     5:1    ---    10:1
Business Mike       20:1   ---     5:1    ---     20:1
Casual Mike        20:1   ---     5:1     ---    10:1*

Game time

On the first hand of the night I found myself in the cutoff with JJ. With one or two limpers ahead of me, I limped in myself.  At .25/.50 I decided that the dollar in the pot wasn’t worth a raise to steal the blinds and JJ wasn’t worth the risk of a flop with an overcard on the first hand of the game if I did get a caller.  Business Mike bet $5 out of the small blind, got two callers and I grudgingly laid down my hand.  A shame, because the flop came J-4-4.  Business Mike threw another $5 into the pot and got the rest of the table to fold.

I didn’t know Mike well enough to know that he was a bluffer.  I know now.  There is a good chance that if we had played out the hand I would have busted him out on the first hand of the night. I think it was for the best, though.  A big stack early probably would have been a bad influence on my temperament.

Pauly posted the first game report, so you can see what he has to say. He has the skinny on the first two to go down (Swish and Pauly himself) and follows with a report on the side game in the Losers Lounge. Because he got cracked early it is up to me to report on the real game.

I was sitting immediately to Coach’s left.  I liked the position because Coach is more aggressive than I am, and playing behind him allowed me to choose the pots I played in without the risk of him coming over the top of me.  Since Ferrari doesn’t have a poker table, I was parallel to Coach, so with a slight body turn, he was staring at my back.  Obviously I couldn’t see him either, but since I don’t think I can read body language anyway I don’t think that is a problem.  I only tangled with him once, but that was enough.

In middle/late position, I looked down to see KK.  As I sat there thinking about whether I should slowplay or steal or ... “$40 to go,” says Coach - effectively making my decision for me.  I hadn’t played a single hand to that point. Sure, I had limped a few times and when nobody raised the blinds I saw a flop or two with junk - but I hadn’t played at all.  It was time to play.  All-in for T87.  The table ran to the hills, Coach thought for a little while and, deciding that it was time to see if I was going to live up to his odds (first out or all the way), called with TT for his last T32.  Because of the long rectangular table, the people sitting on the ends of the table couldn’t deal their own buttons; I had taken the dealing duties for the hand and started turning cards.  With hands shaking like late-stage Parkinson’s, I dealt the burn ... the flop ... the burn ... the turn ... the burn ... the river.  Nothing helpful for either of us (though Coach developed a nerve-jangling gutshot draw).  Coach was out in 7th and I moved into a comfortable chip position.

I promptly shifted back into neutral.  I didn’t play any hands for a long time. Somewhere along the way Business Mike busted out, but I only remember that he actually wanted to lose and go home. (I think he realized that he was dead money anyway and it was already 11:30 on a school night.) The only hand I remember playing is a tight-weak play when the blinds were 5-10.  I raised to 20 before the flop and got called by (at least) Ferrari. Regardless of the turn, I had to lay down when Ferrari bet into me.  As Ferrari was raking the cards I realized that the T20 bet - a bet that would have had the table’s respect three levels ago - was the minimum bet and practically begged for a caller.  Back to neutral.

The blinds had been chewing up my stack, so with the blinds now sitting at 10-20, I decided it was time to take a stand and play some poker.  With A♥4♥ I raised all-in for T105.  Ferrari did a “bullshit” cough, which may or may not have induced Casual Mike to call.  Regardless, he called with a pair of deuces.  I caught an A on the flop and a bonus 4 on the river.  I was up to ~T250 and Mike (the last remaining Mike) was down to T30.  On the next hand, Ferrari made his worst play of the night. (Maybe second worst, but I don’t remember the details of the other one.  I do know that he folded away a significant amount of his stack.)

Ferrari was on the button, I was in the BB.  Top Gun folded and Mike went all in for his last 30.  Ferrari misread the table and somehow thought that Joe College was in the BB with 10, when it was actually only the small blind. Ferrari flat called, Joe College folded and I knew, without looking at my cards, that I was going to toss in the T10 I needed to see the flop. I almost laid it down anyway when I saw J7o, but the additional investment was just too small to run from the pot.  When I called, Ferrari knew that he had let me in cheap.  The main pot was T100 and Ferrari and I were alone to create a side pot after the flop. 

The flop was 6-7-9.  I checked my middle pair, weak kicker and Ferrari checked back.  The turn was a K (I think) and I checked again. Ferrari thought about it for a little while and bet T40 (about half of his stack).  Ferrari wouldn’t play Kx against an all-in and his betting to that point didn’t suggest that this was anything other than an attempted steal. So I called to see the river - a beautiful J!  I was confident that I had the best hand for the side pot so I put Ferrari all-in.  After thinking about it for a while - and considering that he was down to only T45 if he folded - he called.  He had misplayed his A♦6♦ before the flop and allowed me to chase down two pair and bust out Ferrari and Casual Mike on the same hand.

It turns out, though, that the river J was both good and bad news for Ferrari.  Casual Mike had gone all-in with TT.  My sevens had Ferrari beat before I got the second pair, but if I hadn’t caught the J, Casual Mike would have won the main pot and Ferrari would have bubbled out.  As it stood, since Ferrari had more chips going into the hand, Ferrari took back his buy-in and Mike ended up on the bubble.

Before the three way play, a side note.  I haven’t mentioned either Joe College or Top Gun except to introduce them, but that is only because I didn’t go head to head with either of them until we were the last players at the table.  Both played very well.  Top Gun got creamed a few times early - down to less than T10!!! - but he was the living representation of the chip-and-a-chair philosophy. He played very well from the short stack.  He kept going all-in and nobody pushed back. By stealing blinds - and busting out Rick - he slowly built his hand back.  (He did catch one lucky break when his 57s beat Joe College’s AKo, as Pauly reported over at Tao.) Joe College was aggressive with good hands all night and, since he was Ferrari’s favorite to win the tournament, he had me nervous as we started three-handed play with the blinds at 15-30.

My nerves got the best of me when College put a move on me early.  I called a medium-sized raise with A8o.  When the flop came T-T-2, College threw T100 into the pot and I mucked my cards.  He later claimed to have raised with nothing.

We stole blinds back and forth for a while and then, on a hand I don’t recall, Top Gun busted Joe College out of the tournament.

After we dealt the first heads-up hand, there was a debate started by the railbirds about the betting order in heads-up play. The debate was resolved by consulting rule 11 of the tournament rules at Party Poker. I confess that the rule still doesn’t make any sense to me. It didn’t matter, though.

For the duration of the debate, my cards had been sitting there.  Top Gun had looked at his cards, but I didn’t see any evidence of anything.  He just sat there waiting for the debate to be resolved.  When I finally looked at my hand, A♥9♣ was staring back at me.  The blinds were now at 25/50 and I raised to T100; Top Gun called.  The flop was 5♣7♣J♣.  Top Gun was visibly uncomfortable about the flop, so when he went all in, I called.  I had an ace and I decided that Top Gun didn’t have a flush draw.  What he did have, however, was A♠K♠.  I didn’t get a 9 or a club and was crippled - down to T100.  With the blinds at 25/50 - and hitting me every hand - after a few steals back and forth I went all-in with 97o.  Top Gun called with QJo and caught a jack and a queen to thoroughly thrash my measly hand and win the tournament.

I was happy with second here.  I played fewer than 10 hands before the table got seriously shorthanded and tight play worked out very well.  It was a damn good night.

Thanks to Ferrari for hosting and congratulations to Top Gun and Joe College for joining me in the money.  (Ferrari also, if a refund of your entry fee counts as “in the money.")