Ugarte's Poker Grovel #32, or Don't Call It A Comeback (Redux)Nixma plays in a weekly tournament with his friends at the Upright Citizens Brigade. The buy-in is low ($10), the tournament is a multi-table affair (25 to 30 players) and it is a chance to meet more people in the comedy arena. What could be better?
Cashing. But you are going to have to read on to find out if I did.
Actually, there was one thing that could have been better—the payout structure. There were 25 players and 4 places paid: $100; $75; $50; $25. That means the winner only takes 40% of the pot instead of the typical 50%. That is a small complaint, though. The tournament is run well, the players are mostly nice folks, and the quality of poker was fairly high. There weren’t a lot of fancy moves (slowplaying, check raising, etc.) but people tended to play tight and consider pot odds. Certain players were aggressive after the flop and took advantage of demonstrated weakness. Nixma gave me the scoop on three players before the tournament; only one review matters. He told me that Joe was a loose-aggressive player. Joe ended up on my immediate left when we drew for position. Everyone started with 2000 chips and the blinds at 25/50, increasing every 15 minutes.
I have actually been feeling pretty good about my tournament play. I won a $20+2 satellite on Party Poker by destroying the table from beginning to end. It was as well as I have ever played online. I then took a look at my True Poker account and saw that I had $8 left from a deposit I made for a blogger tournament. (Whatever happened to those?) And look! A $6+1 Stage 1 WSOP qualifier satellite. I played solidly but busted out in 5th on a bad beat. (Raise UTG with hooks; flop 4-6-7; I bet my trips and was raised all in by the player on my left with TT. Turn, 8. River, 9. Game over. True Poker still has the stupid all-in blur and giggling avatars. Avoid at all costs. They can have my last dollar.) My limit game still has a lot of holes, but if I could keep my head in the tournament, I thought I stood a good chance.
I drew the button on the first hand and looked down at Siegfried & Roy (I will not follow Pauly and change the name of this hand). Two limpers in front of me and I raised it up to 200. Fold, fold, fold, fold and after one hand I am up a cool 175. Maybe I should have slowplayed the ladies, but with two limpers I didn’t want anybody catching an A against me on the first flop. Second hand? AQs in the cutoff and I called. The flop was all small; I winced and threw away my cards to a $2 bet. The only thing I remember about the hand is that I didn’t regret mucking Big Chick because it would have gone down hard.
When the blinds came around to me for the first time I was dealt Motown in the big blind. Nobody raised the flop, so I got a free look. I saw 9-5-4 rainbow. I bet $3 and Joe called me. He called UTG and then called again after the flop. I was worried that I was being set up but when the turn was an 8 I decided to make a stab at the pot and I threw in $5. Joe laid it down because he realized (and did NOT realize this on the flop) that I saw the big blind without a raise, and I could be holding any two cards. Good logic, though he probably had the best hand—and I took in another modest pot. Joe got me back a few hands later when he flopped the nut straight in the BB after my limp-in KT from the small blind turned into two pair. I wasn’t the only person victimized by Joe’s aggressive play. By the time Joe was moved from our table he was probably half of the table’s chips. Once he left, our table was like the purples in Monopoly. Enjoy our chips on Park Place, Joe. We’ll muddle through here on Baltic.
Somehow all that folding worked. I slowly mediocred my way onto the final table. Mostly I folded and the increasing blinds were killing me. I was down to 1000 and facing antes of 100 and blinds of 300/600. The one premium hand I was dealt, Bullets in the big blind, may as well have been The Hammer; the table folded to me and I threw my cards into the muck face up in disgust. I survived an an all-in, had JT hold up on another hand from the BB when the SB and I checked down our hands and he had nothing but T8. I moved over to the final table with less than 2000 chips and found out that the blinds were jumping to 400/800 with antes of 200.
At the final table, my play was almost perfect. I called an all-in with A7 and dominated A5 suited, doubling through and knocking the other player down to 200 chips. I called Nixma’s all-in with A9 and Nixma flipped over A7. I then nearly eliminated myself against the weakest player at the table when I bluffed big at a pot with nothing but Q high. I put him all-in and he called ... with K high. I was down to 3300, the blinds were at 1000/2000 and the ante was 300. I was as good as dead, and likely to bust out in the bubble in fifth.
I sat tight until the BB when I was dealt AJs. Two players folded to Nixma on the button, who looked around the table and decided to go all-in for 8200. I think he was trying to steal the blinds, but it didn’t work out that way. The small blind thought about it for a long time before calling. I called for my last 1000 and found that AJs was the worst hand of the three. Nixma was holding Presto and the small blind had Big Slick. But I got a J on the flop and another on the river. I more than tripled up on the hand, and found myself with slightly over 10000. Nixma was about the same, but Big Slick was down to his last 300. He bubbled out two hands later after being forced all-in on both hands.
Down to four, I run into K high in exactly the same situation. In the entire night (and I have been at his table all night) I have never seen him check any hand. So when I river a small pair after substantial checking, I bet 4000 into a pot of 6000 and he calls. With A high. Why he decided to respect my raises so little, I have no idea, but it cost him this time. I busted him out a few hands later when I luckily rivered a second pair. I learned a lesson about the merits of cooperating against an all-in short stack. And I didn’t have to pay for the lesson.
Joe busted Nixma out on a hand that I don’t remember, and we went heads-up with roughly equal chips. He was probably ahead 27000 to 23000. The blinds were up to 1500/3000 by this point, so letting your blind get taken would quickly get expensive. Nothing had a chance to get expensive, though.
On the second heads-up hand, I was dealt 44. Joe bet $90 preflop. I had to quickly decide if he was holding overcards or a larger pocket pair. I put him on an ace, and opted to push him all-in. Unfortunately, I said “call” instead of “all-in.” When I counted off my chips to let him make the call, Joe quickly pointed out that I was stuck with my verbal call. Fair enough. The flop was a beautiful 5-5-4 (almost perfect!). For the first time all night, I checked the nuts (no, not the absolute nuts, but I was confident that Joe wasn’t sitting on quads), and Joe backed up his preflop raise by going all-in. I quickly called and flipped over my fours. My full house crippled him (he was bluffing with KJs), leaving him with only 1900. Two hands later, my Ax held up against Kx and the tournament was over.
And I won my first multi!
Suddenly I was a little bit annoyed by the payout structure, but no matter. This is a game I like, and I’ll be coming back. No game next week, but I’ll see them in August.
And once again, on a successful night, clear skies for the trip home.
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