My Time Is Coming: Report 3 or Suckouts

Final Table $20K NLHE

I wasn’t feeling in tip-top condition during the day, but I really hate to miss this monthly event, because it’s one of the best values in town. I got off to a good start building up a stack of nearly 40K by the first break. After the break, things started to go sour, as I called off a bunch of chips with [kd jd] on a jack-high flop against a [ks ts] flush draw that got there on the turn. Picked up a few chips shoving [8x 8x] against [8x 8x] on a [4x 4x 2x 7x] board. A couple other raises went nowhere and, I was down to under 15BBn when I 4-bet with [ks qs] then called an all-in for more against [jd jc]. The board ran out [ah th 9d 8h 6h] and I was out.

Three hours and twenty-five minutes. 92nd of 166 entries.

IMG_2630Bovada $100K NLHE

Sunday evening is family dinner at Poker Mutant Central, so I don’t usually play any of the big tournaments but since we were missing a key family member due to the Super Bowl, I decided to take a shot at the weekly $100K tournament, especially since I thought there might be an overlay due to people watching the game. I’m about 50-50 for cashing the big events, although they’ve just been min-cashes so far. This was my deepest run so far, getting into the top 5%. No overlay, but the number of entries was about 500 short of the other times I’ve played it. There was still over $21K up top and $110K in the prize pool. I won’t say that I didn’t get lucky a couple of times.

Only 20 hands in, I was almost eliminated with [tc th] getting it in against a smaller stack after I raised and then called his all-in. He had [ks jh] and the board ran out all hearts (with a king on the turn, to boot). I got knocked down to 7BB. I doubled up with [jh js] against [as jc] three hands later against the guy I lost to, then moved back over starting stack beating [td qd] with [qc kh] by hand 30. I got lucky at least once, sucking out on [ax kx] with [kd td], and making a king-high straight.

Five hours. 31st of 739 entries. +194% ROI.

Bovada $500 O8

Decided to play some Omaha Hi-Lo with my ill-gotten winnings. Ran it up good so that I was in the chip lead at the first break, but played a few too many of the wrong hands too aggressively, missed a couple of great draws, and ended up just out of the money by three spots.

Ninety minutes. 12th of 55 entries.

IMG_2624Puffmammy NLHE

It all began for me with this group of guys in a home game tournament about eight years ago. My cousin’s husband invited me to the game after I hadn’t played any poker for more than twenty years. The game’s suffered the same sorts of setbacks since the recession that have afflicted poker in general: we used to get two and sometimes three tables but it’s down to most of a single table these days, though we did start with two a couple weeks back. I blasted through a buy-in early against T, a pretty canny player who used to play a lot online, but after I rebought, he and I were the chip leaders most of the night. We got down to the three paying spots and he was just winning every hand. I shoved [kx 7x] with 5K over his raise of 900 at 150/300/25 and he called with [ax 9x], hitting the ace on the flop. I got a seven on the turn but nothing on the river and took home a small loss.

Two hours and forty-five minutes. -8% ROI.

Bovada 2/4 O8

Jumped into a 6-Max table with four players for five minutes and made $20. Toodles!

Five minutes. +5 big bets.

Aces Full $1K NLHE

I hadn’t been in to Aces Full for a long time but I dropped by because my friend D said he might go in for the weekday noon tournament. It’s a structure different from most of Portland’s tournaments in that there’s no add-on at the break. You can make two live rebuys ($20 per buy-in). Plus, the blind levels are 30 minutes at the beginning of the tournament, which is longer than anything but the larger special event games in town. I got a little reckless, lost some chips, then called a a 3-bet of my raise with [7c 9c] and hit a pair, getting it in against [kx jx] from an aggressive player with just over cards. He hit a king on the turn and I double-paired on the river. Lost the entire thing to the same guy shoving [ax tx] on a ten-high board against his [kx tx] and getting called. Blew another buy-in, then went out just before break with [kx qx] on a [qx 7c 6c 8c] board shoving top pair against the aggressive guy who had called my pre-flop raise with [kx 5c]. He hit the flush on the river and I headed home.

Ninety minutes.

IMG_2632

Bovada 2/4 O8

My old friend. Played on a nine-handed table for a while, nearly doubled my buy-in, then flopped third nut flush into second nut flush and called him down. Played for a little while longer and I was still up a dollar from my buy-in when the Xfinity guy on the street looking for some sort of feedback problem cut off my connection.

Forty minutes. +0.25 big bets.

Bovada 1/2 PLO8

Wow, did I step into a mess here. Half an hour and I’m down 60BB. Time to pull the plug

Bovada 2/4 O8

Was playing this on my iPad the problem? Limit games are the ideal thing on tablets because you only have three buttons for options, you don’t have to worry about a slider or trying to get your bet typed in before your time’s up. I recover part of my losses from PLO8, then stay too long and things start going south.

Eighty minutes. -10 big bets

The Game 1/2 NLHE

Maybe a little over-aggressive after losing in PLO8 and O8? I stopped in at The Game after work intending to just play for an hour, and was up a bit after getting kings, making a set on the river, and getting a couple calls out of a guy on the other side of the table. Nice. Then I overplay [kd qd] when I get top pair on the flop and get it all in against his aces just a few minutes before I planned to leave.

Fifty-five minutes. -100BB.

Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty

I got into this game a little late at the 60/120 level, but with 5K in chips I was fine. I chipped up fast, nearly tripling in the first 20 hands, then stagnated for a while until I nearly lost it and had to make a quick surge back into the ranks. Got down to the money and languished on the edge for a bit, then hit a hand and smashed up to the top. Did I mention this was a bounty tournament? Technically, I took 8 bounties in a 65-entry tournament, though in reality, one of them was a half-bounty and another was a whopping one-third bounty (one bounty being a third of the buy-in). Three bounties before we got to the money.  Made heads-up with a 2:1 chip lead but didn’t really care whether I got first or second since the other guy—who’d been chip leader at the final table before I took it away from him, and was playing incredibly slowly—just sort of pushed every hand to the end, which ended up with me in second.

Four hours. 176 hands. 2nd of 65 entries. +865% ROI,

Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker

I skipped the special $9K at Encore Thursday since I was planning to play Friday night’s game and had to work Saturday. Got tired of writing for a while (big upcoming project for the site) and decided to try to get some more read of the Thomas Jefferson biography I’m supposed to discuss at a book group Tuesday while I played a little game.

As I mentioned in last week’s calendar planner, I have a thing for Survivor tournaments, and Bovada runs a few similar games, the biggest of which (that I know of) is the Thousandaire Maker, a $75+$7 tournament that pays out even $1K prizes, plus whatever’s left over.

I had just been writing (for the project) about how buying at 10BB in a $20 tournament wasn’t such a good idea, then I go and do it for $82. In my case, it worked out okay. I got lucky twice catching the bottom card with hands like [kx qx] against [ax kx], and as we approached the money, I took out two players and swung into the position where I could conceivably have just folded to the money. Not my style. I lost some chips with [6x 6x] trying to take out a short stack who, it so happened, had [kx kx] but I was still in second or third position, with seven full payouts to be made. I clamped down and was never in any danger of not making the money; I let other folks do most of the work from there on out.

We got down to eight and the bubble took almost 40 hands, then I finally clinched it with [ac ks] against [tc ts] and we got paid. Nice way to end the reporting period.

One hour and fifty minutes. 131 hands. 95 entries. +1,120% ROI.