My Time is Coming: Week 15 or Beatdown

Not exactly a stellar week on the felt. Maybe I should pack the whole poker-playing thing in and just write about poker instead. Oh, wait….

Final Table Portland Poker Classic $100K NLHE

I had some hopes for making some money in this to take down to Las Vegas at the end of the month, and for nine hours or so, things went pretty well.

Action got started at our table with just two players, with a third sitting down relatively soon and the rest of the seats taken as people wandered in. My friend BP was on my left, and was having issues with the player on his left.

I hit a little snag after flopping a set of fives and trying to trap, then losing to a flush. BP was struggling, and eventually I knocked him out. Got a table change off the fold-up to a real table, and things ran good. Six hours in, I was well over chip average with 100K. Then on a BB hand, I called a raise with [6s 4s] and went heads up to a flop where I had a gutshot straight flush draw. The raising player tried to shake me off on the flop, then went all in on the turn. I called for most of my chips, he had [qx qx] and I made the flush on the river, knocking him out and putting me at about twice chip average, with more than 160K.

20160430 Final Table $100K max chip stack Took a couple hits, clawed my way back up to 140K, then at the 3K/6K level, I made an UTG raise to 17K, had a stack go all in for 93K in middle position, and called witih [ad kd] against aces. That table broke almost immediately.

I had some hope. Even with less than 8BB, I’d just watched RB—the guy who eventually won the tournament, though I didn’t know that at the time, obviously—go from 40K to 200K in the course of an orbit. I missed my big chance, though, by laying down [kx 9x] (offsuit) in early position and watching the flop run out two kings, with a slightly larger stack in late position nearly tripling up with [kx 8x]. My nine would have played. I was out the next hand with: [kx 8x]. Lightning did not strike twice. Made it to within about 20 places of the money.

Eight hours and forty-five minutes. 42nd of 240 entries.

20160430 Final Table $100K

Bovada $500 PLO8 Turbo

Increased my stack by 50% buying in late, flopping the nut flush and winning the low on a side pot on the second hand I was dealt ([4d 2h kd 2c] with a flop of [2d ad 7d]) then out two hands later with [2c 7h ac ts] when a river ace counterfeits my turned low.

Five minutes. 4 hands. 34th of 49 entries.

Bovada $300 O8

Got in with 15 big bets, called a raise in a multi-way pot with [7c ac 2d 6h] and got in too deep to extricate myself.

Fourteen minutes. 6 hands. 37th of 41 entries.

Bovada O8 Bounty

Just a steady downward drift from starting stack, but at least I lasted longer than the other two tournaments.

Forty minutes. 20 hands. 18th of 18 entries.

Bovada 0.1/0.25 & 0.05/0.1 NLHE Zone 6-Max

Do you want to hear about how a river queen gave the guy with trips four of a kind against my flopped full house? Well, I don’t want to talk about it, either.

Six sessions. One hour and forty minutes. 277 hands. -360BB.

Bovada 0.1/0.25 PLO8 6-Max

Big hand in the first session was [ad 5c 2h qd], made the flush and the low against a guy who went all-in on a turn where the board was [6h 5d 7d 6d] with [3d 3c as jc]. In the second, I lost most of my buyin when SB raised 3-bet me preflop and I put him all in. I had [jd 2d as kc], he called off with [5d 4h 3h 6c]. That’s about as even as it gets.

Two sessions. Sixty-eight minutes. 69 hands. -7BB.

The Game 1/2 NLHE

The first hour went well then got in a multi-way straddled pot with [3h 4h] and flopped a gut-shot straight flush draw on a [5h 7h 8x] board. A player in early position check-raised to $75 and three of us ended up all in. The player who’d pushed to $75 turned over [9x tx], thinking somehow that she had a made straight. One of the players who folded had a six, and the other guy who didn’t fold had [6d] and made the straight on the turn.. Obviously, no heart came or I wouldn’t be whining about people who can’t read the board.

Ninety minutes. -100BB

Puffmammy NLHE

The now-infrequent home game where I first started playing NLHE. Got into it early with BW, the eventual winner. He took a bunch of chips off me in the second round and I got them back on the next hand, then he took me again not long after. I did get the high hand, but overall a poor showing.

Two and a half hours. 5th of 7 players. -69% ROI.

20160503 Puffmammy

Encore Club $1.5K NLHE

Managed to get to Encore by the break after the home game bustout. Just about made the final table.

One hour and forty minutes. 11th of 29 entries.

20160503 Encore $1.5K

Encore Club $500 NLHE

Third tournament of the night was not a charm.

Fifty minutes. 9th of 11 entries.

20160503 Encore $500

Final Table $1K NLHE

Just did my basic buyin with no addon. These are still suffering from the early cash table starts; today’s was right on the guarantee. The player in seat 6 was playing just about every hand and winning. I took off one chunk when I raised [kx qx] and he called with [ax 6x] but I didn’t make it even half-way through the small field.

Two hours and forty-five minutes. 12th of 22 entries.

20160505 Final Table $1K

Final Table First Friday $20K

PDX Poker Encore Club announced a $20K opposite Final Table’s monthly event, with $80 buyin/live rebuy and $40 addon versus Final Table’s $100 buyin/rebuy and $50 addon. So I get to Final Table and sit down at the table and don’t notice that they’ve changed it to a live rebuy. Frankly, if I had noticed that before I handed over my money, I would have turned around and gone to Encore PDXPC (even though this will be my last Final Table $20K until at least August), since the max buyin there is $200 instead of $250. And I suspect the prize pool there might top Final Table’s as well.

I had Nu on my immediate left, and he went to work, as usual pulling in some big pots. I was quietly building my stack, then limped into a hand and made a pair of sizes on a straighty board. Nu and another player had called, at showdown I had the sixes with a king kicker, Nu had a pair on the flop with [4x 5x] and rivered two pair. The end for me came with [qx qx]. I raised to 600 from UTG1 after UTG limped at 75/150. Nu called along with several others. The flop was [tx 4x 2x] rainbow. I opened to 2K, Nu called, and a short stack in BB shoved for a little over 4K. I had another 7.5K and shoved over. Nu contemplated a bit, speculated that I had an over pair (correct, sir!), called off about half his stack and showed [9x tx]. The short stack had [ax tx]. The turn was a blank. The river was a nine and Nu took the whole pot. I went home.

Kind of wishing I’d gone to Portland Players Club to catch some Friday night Big O. It’s been a long time. I busted just a little too late to call Chad to let him know I was coming.

One hour. 72nd of 74 entries, but out waaaay before break.

20160506 Final Table $20K

Live rebuys will be the death of Portland poker. Mark my words.