The Rockets Red Glare…or how I won a poker tournament in my poker league.
I played 2 SNGs yesterday and it was very satisfying to say the least.
Both were $30 buy-ins. $270 in the prize pool.
1st – $150
2nd – $80
3rd – $40
This isn’t exactly the WSOP but hey it’s still poker and who doesn’t like poker? It’s the new American pastime.
But before I get to the action, I want to give the readers some background information.
I joined a poker league about a year ago. There’s about 30 regular players in this league. The league is broken up into quarters. Each player donates $1 into a quarterly prize pool for every sanctioned league game. The top 10 ranked players in that quarter vie for the quarterly prize. You need to play at least 1 league tournament a week to qualify. The pool is usually between $600-$1,000.
Players earn points depending on where they finish in the tournaments. The points rewarded are adjusted depending on the amount of players playing in the tournament and the amount of the buy-in (it’s based around the PokerStars formula). Some players play up 30+ games a quarter, others only the minimum 16, so we have a weighted average formula that comes into effect. It’s not the most perfect way to rank poker excellence but it works for us.
And it’s not only Texas hold em we play, occasionally we’ll play Omaha hi and hi/lo, Razz, or HORSE.
I bubbled the last quarter and placed 12th overall in the standings. I had a horrible quarter as I only cashed in a handful of games and they were all 3rd or 4th place finishes. Hardly anything to write home about (but certainly something to blog about). This quarter I vowed to make it to the quarterly finals.
The players in the league vary in skill level. Some are pretty good players, others not so much. The majority of players are pretty decent though so the competition can become intense at times.
The 9 players at this particular game are two newer guys that I’m not that familiar with, 3 super aggressive players and 2 conservative players and 1 player who is very unpredictable. Then there’s me. I would classify myself as unpredictable also. Sometimes I play super aggressive and loose and other times I’m a rock. It really depends on the situation and the texture of the game.
7k in chips and the blinds start at 25-50. 15 minute blinds. 3 players get paid. $270 up for grabs.
I start off slow and I’m down about 700 by the time the 3rd level kicks in. The blinds are now 100-200. Now the pots start to get interesting. Players who were loose in the beginning are now feeling sorry that they played so many pots early on. You raise the standard 3x the BB and it means something now. The price of playing poker has now gone up where you actually start to feel the sting of losing chips. So far the two most aggressive players are slowly amassing chips. I’m hovering around 6k in chips and I’m picking my spots. I’m stealing blinds and winning enough small pots just enough to stay ahead of the blinds. Jimmy is the big stack. He got there by going all in on a open ender against two pair, he backdoored a flush (where have we seen this before?). He’s pounding people and he’s hitting. A deadly combination. He’s in full control of the table at this point. Ray, one of the new players, gets taken out when his A/K falls to Chris Ferguson’s 77 (honest to God that’s his real name…pretty funny isn’t it?). We’re down to 7.
Blinds are now 150-300. The players that were gambling too much early on are now suffering the consequences. They’re short stacked and desperate to double up. I’m still playing steady and staying at about 6k when I pick up JJ in the BB. There’s an early limper (gotta love those limpers, dead money all the way) and Jimmy raises to 1,200. I go all in. He folds. I pick up 1,650 in chips. A few hands later I pick up 2 black 10s UTG. I limp hoping for a raise. I get one caller and the BB comes along for the ride. The flop is 8,9,3. I check. Limper raises 1,000, BB folds and I call. The turn is a blank. I check again. The limper bets out 2k. I go all-in. He goes into the tank and finally makes the call. I have him covered. He shows A/9, not good enough and I take down a nice pot.
Now I have some momentum. I have over 13k in chips and there are 5 players left. Jimmy’s been running cold and while he’s been trying to stay aggressive but I feel he’s trying too hard to take out the remaining shorties, which causes him to play some very marginal hands that he wound up losing. Jimmy had just about half the chips in play at one point but the shorties have chipped away his huge stack and now he’s down to around 22k. Tony is second in chips with around 16k, I’m third. Oleg is fourth with about 9k and Chris is the extreme shorty by this time with about 3k in chips. Chris gets taken out soon after when he goes all-in with J/10 suited against my K/9 suited.
4 players left. Bubble time.
We go back and forth for a level and the blinds are now 500-1,000. The chip leader is now Tony, a super tight player with 30k+. Jimmy has fallen on hard times and he’s at 10k. I got hit hard when my straight lost to Oleg’s rivered flush. I double him up and Oleg is at 16k and I’m back down to where I started - 7k. This is where it gets interesting. I’m on the bubble but I have enough chips to so some damage as long as I can manage to dodge lady luck. There are only 4 of us and the blinds will eat me up. I get the feeling that Jimmy and Oleg are nursing their stacks as they want to cash, so this is my cue to start being aggressive. I have nothing to lose as I’m in 4th place so I’m pushing with any two suited cards as long as one of them is a face card.
I pick up 4k in chips when Jimmy raises to 3k on the button, the SB folds and I push with A/9 suited. He folds.
Jimmy squanders the rest of his chips when his K/Q spades runs up against Tony’s KK. Jimmy curses at his luck. Here he was the chip leader at one point with over 1/2 the chips in play but somehow he lost it all. Poker is a cruel game sometimes. Down to 3 and we’re in the money. Tony has about 38k in chips I have 11k and Oleg has 14k.
Blinds are now 600-1,200. When the blinds hit 500-1,000 we lowered the duration of the blind levels to 7 minutes each round. I pick up the blinds here and there just to keep afloat hoping that the other two can take each other out. I strongly feel that I’m the favorite out of the 3 of us. I’m the most aggressive out of the 3 of us and I’m not afraid to bet when I smell weakness, even with air. I just need to get heads up with one of them and I can win this thing. I get my wish when Tony finally chokes out Oleg.
This was a well played hand. Tony was the SB and Oleg the BB. I fold and Tony completes. Oleg checks.
The flop:
3, 7, 9. They both check.
The turn:
6
Tony checks, Oleg bets out 3k, Tony calls.
The river:
10
Tony checks. Oleg bets out 3k. Tony goes all-in. Oleg insta-calls.
Oleg shows Q/8 for the straight but is crushed when Tony shows the nuts. J/8.
I found this hand interesting because I felt that Tony made a real nice bet at the end there. I later asked him if he put Oleg on an 8 (he said he did or at least two pair) and if he did then pushing all-in was a great move even if he didn’t have the J/8. It would’ve been a great move even if they chopped. This move put enormous pressure on Oleg to make the right decision and he had the straight which made this call even more difficult. Oleg made the mistake of re-raising Tony because he was only going to be called or raised by a better hand if he raised, plus he gains nothing if they both have the 8. In retrospect calling would’ve been the best option in this spot.
It’s now heads-up.
Tony has roughly 7x my stack and the blinds are at 750-1,500.
I offer a chop. Tony declines. I needle Tony about how we both know I’m the superior player and he knows that it’s in his best interest to chop. Besides people are waiting for the next game to start already. I’m trying to get under his skin, in a good natured way. I didn’t expect him to chop but I fully expected him to make a deal. I tell him I’ll take an extra $20 bucks for me to disappear. He gets $130 and I get $100. Sounds like a fair deal right? Especially with gas prices and inflation these days, it’s nice to pick up an extra $20 I say.
Tony politely declines. He’s playing for points. He wants to win. Fair enough. Shuffle up and deal.
Tony has 55k in chips and I have 8k.
I’m the BB and Tony raises to 4k. I see K/10 and I push. He calls with K/8 suited. My 10 kicker plays and I quickly double up.
We go back and forth for a few hands when I wake up with a monster in the SB. TWO RED ACES. How appropriate POCKET ROCKETS for the 4th of July!. I smooth call. Tony checks.
The flop comes out Q, 4, 7. rainbow. Tony bets out 6k. I go all-in. Tony calls instantly. He has Q/8. I double up again.
I’m the chip leader. I have 38k in chips and Tony is at 25k in chips. Tony, now changes his mind and offers to chop. It’s my turn to decline. I don’t forget to remind him that I offered this deal a little while back. He snickers and we continue to play.
Blinds are now 1k-2k. I maintain my edge in chips when Tony raises my BB to 5k. I look at my hole cards. 33 a pair of boobs I like to call them.
Any pair is pretty strong heads-up but this why I call 33 a pair of boobs. Besides looking like a pair of boobs (ok maybe this is a stretch), 33 can be so easily dominated and it’s a toss up between two over cards basically, they can easily be counterfeited and only a boob pushes with this hand unless he/she is short stacked.
I go into think mode. 5k isn’t a huge bet. He coud be making a weak play at the pot. If he had a huge hand I think he would just flat call perhaps, given my aggressiveness heads up. If he had a small pair his tendency would be to raise bigger to get me off my hand or just limp in to see the flop cheaply. As a matter of fact I’d be a little more suspicious if Tony would’ve just completed the BB rather than raise. Sounds weird, but I know Tony’s tendencies.
So I guess I’m the boob and I go all in.
I get the feeling that Tony is getting tired of being pushed around. He is seriously thinking about calling. Now I know I have the best hand. He finally calls with J/10 clubs. I’d prefer a fold truth be told, it’s a loose call but a correct one once he sees my threes.
Classic race off for the top prize. Flop is A, 6, 8. No help.
Turn is another 6. Uh oh. Why must poker be so cruel. He gains 6 outs. An Ace, 8, 10 or Jack hits the board and I’m the boob (see what I mean? lol).
The river is no help and I take down the tournament. Now that’s some fireworks for you. There’s nothing like coming back from way behind to win a tournament.
I also finished in 2nd place in the second tourney which was a modified HORSE tournament (we replaced the stud hi round with triple draw lowball 2-7). So all in all a good showing for me in my league.
I apologize for this extra long post and in the future I will try and keep my posts more brief, but I really felt good about this tournament and wanted to share what goes on in my poker league to everyone who happens to read this blog.
So have a Happy and safe 4th of July to everybody out there!
Related posts:
- Tournament Poker 101
- # 1 in my Poker League
- Target on My Back
- Folding Aces in a Tough Spot
- Controlling the Pot Size From Early Position
Categories: Poker Stories
