Where you left your keys ...Rick's Cafe Americain

I was a late arrival to the table. I had a 7:00 show at The Duplex and decided to stick around after my set to watch some of the other comics. It is both a courteous thing to do and a good way of seeing what is out there. I also met Alex House and chatted with her about Tuesday’s meeting of the New York Comedians Coalition. It is good to see how many comics in the city are supporting the movement.

Anyway, I had the foresight to register in advance so I didn’t get shut out. Just a little blinded off. So, what did I miss before my arrival…
QKo ... 64s (this was the hand that knocked out the first player. lifesagrind went all-in preflop with AKo against DropDHammer‘s AA.) ... 92o ... A6o (I actually won this hand. I was in the big blind and the table folded to me. Inexplicable, actually. By this point it was clear that I was sitting out but larryvq still folded instead of raising me. Some bully! He finished in 19th, though, so maybe I shouldn’t give him too hard a time.) ... A8o ... T3o ... Q2s ... 42o ... KK (Dammit!) ... J3s ... KJo ... 85o ... JTo ... Q9s ... KQs (Dammit!) ... Q2s ... And then I arrived for Q3o. Fold.

It soon became obvious that Trafficant was the table bully. Not only was he raising preflop often, he was berating the table. He decided to pretend that he ended up in the tournament by accident and had his share of anti-blogger comments:

Trafficant: score one for the blog haters
* * *
Trafficant: i hate the internet
* * *
Trafficant: i remember the good old days when clueless ***ks kept their dumb opions to themselves. now they all have poker blogs.
* * *
Trafficant: blogs are like a cowboy hat, sooner or later every ******* gets one
* * *
aboutmattlaw: word is Iggy is out in case folks are interested in that stuff
Trafficant: word is bloggers all suck
Ugarte’s: yawn, trafficant, yawn

Even though I accused him of shining us on, he persisted in his ruse. He persisted even though his reference to “the drunk midget that put the tournament together” blew his cover. He wanted to have fun, though, so there was no point in getting too beligerent in response.

As all of that was going on, I was slowly bleeding away. We were now on Level 3 (25/50) and my cards were awful. It turns out that I had much more playable stuff before I sat down. Between the blinds and a series of missed flops, I was down to 970 and had to make a move. When I got AQo on the button, I raised it to 200. BigSlickNut - who I barely had covered - made a minimum raise to 400. I pushed. He called and turned over Presto! (pocket fives). I caught a king and a ten on the flop and then a jack on the turn to make my broadway straight, (almost) double up and knock out BigSlickNut in 121st. I’m with asphnxma - he really should have pushed those fives. I probably would have called, but the minimum raise was the wrong play with his stack size.

Not much was going on with my play, but I did get a pleasant surprise when stannum50 joined the table, which led to another round of chat:

stannum50: hey ugarte, been reading you for ages, dont take all my chips k?
asphnxma [observer]: ugarte has a reader?
Ugarte’s: you’re the guy?
asphnxma [observer]: who knew!
Trafficant: who the hell is ugarte
asphnxma [observer]: lol
stannum50: yeah, well, i can only read the small words. i write in small words too
Trafficant: what self respecting person would call themself ugarte?

Obviously Trafficant was continuing his ruse, but I have to quibble with one thing: when did I ever say that I was self-respecting. (Also, that plural pronoun was out of place.)

Trafficant then started criticizing everybody’s play. And getting even ruder. This got people fighting back.

Trafficant: now you blogmonkeys are really unlucky. im done with the real tournament. can focus on this low $ piece of crap.
stannum50: dont waste your itme on our account
Ugarte’s: so we are really unlucky because you lost somewhere else?
TNSpaceman: ha
squaptor: nice
aboutmattlaw [observer]: I’m not even playing anymore, and you’re still driving me nuts, Trafficant
stannum50: we arent worth it, really

Trafficant annoyed Artoch so much that he put a knockout bounty on Trafficant: $10 and a half-empty pack of Pall Mall Reds.

By this time I had pissed away half of my chips again and I was down to 800. Push or fold territory. So when I was dealt A♦T♦ in the cutoff, I went over the top of Trafficant’s raise all-in. He had to call, and turned over KQo. The flop had two diamonds but no other help. The turn was a king, leading Trafficant to start cheering for his bounty, but the 9♦ was my money card. Doubled up again.

Soon after, Otis joined the table and sat down as the table’s chip leader. I didn’t make the Vegas trip, so I don’t know as many of the other bloggers as some of my friends do. But CJ and Otis were the first poker bloggers that I found when I googled “poker blog” and the first guys to link me. Now that Otis is doing so well, I am very happy for him. I appreciated this exchange also (even though it went on amidst yet another “poker lesson” from Trafficant after he sucked out on Artoch’s AQ with AT):

OtisBDart: How’s the business of being charles star?
Ugarte’s: not bad. good set before the tournament. set went better than the cards
OtisBDart: good.  hope to catch your act someday if i can make to the city

Trafficant finally copped to his identity (because he wanted to email Otis) and that calmed the table down somewhat. He did keep harrassing TNSpaceman about his play, though, which probably made it extra sweet for TNSpaceman (KQs) when he called Trafficant’s all-in (77) and caught a king on the turn. I don’t know if Artoch stuck around long enough for TNSpaceman to collect the Trafficant bounty. Or if TNSpaceman smokes. (Jason and Matt, by the way, have been sniping away at each other on their respective blogs. No love lost between those guys.)

I was bouncing between stealing blinds and getting blinded. I had respect at the table because I was playing tight. If I were smarter I would have stolen more blinds, but I did not. I soon found myself back at 900 and at Level 7 the antes started. I couldn’t afford to pay 25 a hand or get pushed around. So the first thing I did when I sat down was say hi. i’m shortstacked. please don’t raise my blinds. And when I looked across the table, there was CJ—and he had even more chips than Otis. Those guys can play.

I certainly couldn’t afford to have Spock326 moved to my table with a huge stack. Because Spock326 is Signor Ferrari, and I knew that he would be licking his chops at the prospect of chewing up my blinds. That is just what happened, though. He sat down and instantly said bring it ugarte to which I could only reply bring it with what? I stole the blinds from UTG just so I could pay my next round and, as expected, Ferrari raised my big blind. I had K5o - and I probably should have pushed - but I wouldn’t have been able to face Ferrari today at the NYC blogger event (especially in front of Pauly) if he bounced me from the WPBT. K5o wasn’t worth the risk.

I stole blinds twice - with AQo and ATs - but when I pushed with KJo, easy_wind called with ATo and bounced me when neither of us got any help. I placed a bounty on myself in Pauly’s comments section - a comedy album/book to be named - and once I choose it, it will be on its way to Sommerville, Massachusetts. I have to admit that I was disappointed when easy_life went out just a few spots ahead of me. I was hoping he would take my coin farther than that.

I hung around and watched the end of the tournament, but the first thing I saw was Ferrari tilt away his stack. It was a surprise, because Ferrari is a very good player. Between you and me, I think he is a better player than I am - but I don’t think he plays me particularly well. It started with a typical hand - I don’t remember whether Ferrari had QQ or AA - but whichever one he had, he doubled someone up. Even if he was behind, getting all of his chips in was the right play, so whether it was a bad beat or a brutal preflop reveal, it started the downhill slide. A few hands later he raised UTG with 22 only to be called by a shortstack with 88. Those two beats left him well below average, but strong enough to wait for a hand. He didn’t wait, though, and pushed K9s - which didn’t hold up. Like I said - Icarus.

Congratulations to Kid Anonymous who had the greatest run of cards I’ve ever seen when the table got down to three players.

Final finish for the NYC bloggers participating in tonights tournament:

25: Toby
38: Ugarte
62: Pauly
104 Derek
105: Mas (who sent his brother in his place)
114: Coach (He got knocked out right before I went looking for him to sweat his action.)
127: asphnxma (who, tragically, won’t be able to play today)
???: Monte Christo (I don’t know if he even played in the WPBT.)

Joaquin just announced that he has a wedding to go to, so he won’t be at the NYC Invitational. He has been replaced by Toni. Nixma’s seat has been taken by Julie, who has proven herself tournament tough.