Encore Club $13K NLHE
This was the usual Friday night tournament at Encore, and it was busy, with 130 entries and a substantial prize pool. I got a little overaggressive in round six and called a 3K raise with [ks qx] in late position. The flop was [qs 8s 6h], with top pair and backdoor send nut flush, I shoved over a c-bet from the original raiser, who gave it some pause before calling with [ah qd]. Another spade came on the turn, but I didn’t get any love from the river. A couple hands later, I shoved 5.5K with [8h 5h] in middle position. SB dribbled in a chip without realizing I was all-in (see the last installment about undercalls), but in this case, the dealer ruled it was a call of the all-in, which was fine at first when SB turned over [8d 4d]. I paired my five on the flop, but there was a [7x] on the turn and [6x] on the river to put me out of the tournament.
Went over to the 1/2 shootout, got [ax ax] and made a few chips, lost most of that when I raised [ac tc], got a zillion callers, had the board run out [8x 6x tx 8x 7x] and laid down to a $75 river raise from a guiy who claimed he had just ace high. Then lost my buy-in with [ax ax] after [kx 9x] hit top two on the flop. On the plus side, I got aces twice in 25 minutes!
Final Table $500 Big O
This was my first chance to play the afternoon Big O game that got going after Portland Players Club closed down at the end of the year. As usual, my unorthodox hand selection (can anything be truly orthodox in Big O?) riled up Butcher, who bet me $5 that I couldn’t make the final table. As there were only two tables to begin with, I was confident that was going to happen. I should have made him pay more. I got to the final with a third of the chips in play, but ran into some bad draws that ended up with me going out in sixth place. Got my $5, at least.
One hour and 45 minutes. -93% ROI.
Final Table 1/2 NLHE Shootout
Played the shootout for an hour while I was waiting for the evening NLHE tournament. Ended down a little because an early hand where I’d 3-bet [qx qx] in the small blind got called by [jx jx] and a short stack with [ax kx], the flop came out [7x 7x 7x], then the river was [ax]. I got a side pot, but the river gave the main to the short stack (who’d had just a few dollars under my 3-bet. So that was annoying.
One hour. -9BB.
Final Table $1.5K NLHE
Mostly went fine through to the bubble. The short stack on my right had doubled up a couple of times. I was regretting folding [6x 6x] in a hand where I would have flopped a set against [ax ax] and a drawing hand (that doubled up the player with the aces and I was down to shove stack territory myself when I pushed [5x 5x] from SB in an unopened pot and the short stack woke up with [ad td], catching a ten on the flop. I shoved [6c 8c] on the next hand with just a few blinds left, know ing that Nu—in BB—would call me, but I also got a call from the player on my right with [ax 5x]. Nu flopped two pair with [8x 3x 4x], and I rivered a better two pair with [6x], but [2x] on the turn gave CO most of Nu’s stack and knocked me out.
Four hours and twenty minutes. -100% ROI.
The Game 1/2 NLHE
The first Wednesday of the month at The Game is Player Appreciation Day, with no door fee before noon and buffet lunch and dinner, along with prizes. So I headed over with a friend and spent a few hours playing very few hands. The guy on my left when the table started up straddled every one of my big blinds, raising almost every one when action got back to him, but during the time he was there, I never had the opportunity to take advantage of it. The guy on my right had gotten felted for the max buyin several times with single pairs within the first hour—with none of that coming directly to me—calling off his entire stack with top pair at best. He moved to my left by the after the aggressive guy left, and started winning back a little bit of what he’d lost. I mostly played smaller pots and picked off a few bucks here and there, making a little over 25BB/hr, my friend did considerably better.
The Game 1/1 and 1/2 NLHE
Went back the next day and played in the pre-noon 1/1 game, where, after losing a bit, I limped in with [6x 6x] UTG. UTG1 raised the pot, my friend re-raised from CO, and SB went all-in for more than I had left. There was so much in the pot already, and it seemed extremely likely that UTG1 and my friend were going to be all-in, so I put my 33BB in and watched my little pair flop a full house against [jx jx] (UTG1), [tx tx] (my friend in CO), and [ax ax] (in the SB). I ended up that session ahead by 85BB, after losing several hands to a player a couple seats to my left, who seemed to have the right amount for me to have to call him on the river dialed in pretty well.
When the game kicked up to 1/2 after noon, I put another 50BB in my pile. Nothing much really happened here, until a hand where the player who’d had aces before noon in the hand above raised my BB and I called with [3d 7d]. The flop was [qx 3x 7x], I checked it and several other player’s who’d called checked, then the raiser put in a big bet and I shoved over the top, with something like 100BB. Everyone folded around to the original raiser and she called for less with [qx jx]. My two pair stayed good. I took a few other small pots, but that was the significant action of the hour. A little concerned that my big wins were from getting it in with 14% equity in the first case and with a hand where I just get lucky and flop bottom two, but I can live with it for now. Ended up +110BB or so and headed out to Hunan Pearl for lunch.