I wasn’t sure how I was going to make my return to Portland poker after my unproductive stint in Las Vegas. I thought about the Thursday night game at the Encore Club, but skipped it, then was too busy early Saturday evening to make starting time for the weekly $10K there. By the time I was free, the first break would have already begun, and there was no way I could make it across town. So the 9pm $200 Freeroll at Portland Players Club it was.
Except that when I got there the door was locked and there was a sign saying they were closed for the evening. Yikes! I was on the loose, Encore wouldn’t have a game open for an hour, I was probably too late to make the 8pm at Aces. It just left the dreaded Final Table. So I high-tailed it out Glisan.
The Final Table $400 Guarantee NLHE (T4,000)
I got to Final Table just as Level 1 was ending and took a seat at the empty second table. I had to wait a couple of minutes for the first table to be split, and were started off five-handed.
Took the first hand I played (at 50/100), from SB with [ax tx]. There were three players to the flop, the highest card on the board by the turn was a 9, and I bet 100 to win the poison pot, so you know where this story’s going.
Fifteen minutes into my game, I got [ax jx] on BTN and open-raised to 300, getting called by SB. BB went all-in for 3,000. I had him covered by 75 and went all-in, and SB came along. They flipped over [kx qx] (SB) and [ax tx] (BB). I had the best hand, but I was statistically a hair behind the [kx qx]. The flop put out a wheel draw of [2x 3x 5x] , but the turn was a king, sending my hopes into a tailspin. The river brought relief with a [4x], though, and BB and I chopped up the pot, with me getting an extra 75 for my trouble.
Five minutes later, on BB with [ax jx] and I called 550 from UTG1 (same guy who’d been BB in the split). UTG (who’d had the money in the pot when we chopped it) came along again. The flop was [2x 3x 4x] and I mischievously shoved to open. UTG1 called with [ax qx] but the board double-paired and we split the pot again.
Ten minutes later, I wasn’t so lucky. I was all-in UTG1 with [ax jx] after losing a hand and the same player I’d been tangling with called with [kx jx] He pulled out a straight on the river and I broke the No Re-buy Rule.
I stopped keeping notes after that, wondering if I’d do any better paying more overt attention to what was going on, but it didn’t help. By the break I was down to a half starting stack again, and I lost most of my add-on in a single hand, so I was riding the short stack through to the final table (I did manage to outlast the guy I’d been tangling with).
Made a couple of crucial double-ups, but I was still under T10,000 after nearly three hours of play, with blinds at 1,500/3,000/300. I shoved UTG with [ah qh] and got a quick call from UTG1, who’d been steadily accumulating chips all evening with sometimes marginal (but lucrative) calls. Her [kx tx] did it again, making Broadway and putting me out of the first tournament I’d played in ten days.
Two hours and twenty minutes (late arrival). Eighth of 21 players.
Final Table NLHE Shootout
I’m not normally a shootout player, but I was roped into this one and since I’d been knocked out of the tournament twice by hands that I had beat by 3:1 or 2:1, I viewed it as an opportunity to use up some more of that great luck. I never managed to get ahead far in the game, but I ended up just a few dollars down, and managed to qualify for the high hand bonus for the evening when my pocket tens matched up with a rivered ten to make the best full house possible on the board. So, up a little for the evening because of a fluke.
Looks like I’ve got some serious catching up to do. Here, first of all, but really at the tables.
The Final Table Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
Another one of those PLO8 experiences where you get a wad of chips early on only to lose them, re-buy (resolution broken again), make it to the add-on break, then bust out half-way through the first round after the break.
Eighty-five minutes. -100% ROI. 26th of 28 entries.
Carbon Poker $200 Guarantee HORSE Freeroll
In the interests of getting this update done, not going to bother with a hand-by-hand for this brief game.
Thirteen minutes, 15 hands. 2,566th of 2,798 entries.
The Final Table $1,000 Guarantee
Didn’t rebuy. First player permanently out.
Sixty-five minutes. -100% ROI. 39th of 39 players.
The Final Table Big “O” 5-Card Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
I hadn’t played Big “O” as a tournament before this, but I’d been intrigued by it and my early exit from the $1K Guarantee gave me the chance to give Final Table’s alternate Friday early afternoon game a try. I did reasonably well, I think, except for the part about not making any money.
Two-and-a-half hours. -100% ROI. 16th of 34 entries.
The Final Table $10,000 Guarantee
It’s the game I was waiting for. Didn’t make it as far as the second break.
Three hours. -100% ROI. 107th of 144 players.
Portland Players Club $200 Guarantee Freeroll
Wandered over to PPC after I got booted from the $10K. Came in a few minutes late but started to pick up chips and made it to the bubble. Dropped my median ROI by a bit.
Two hours. +0% ROI. 5th of 24 entries.
Portland Players Club $250 Guarantee
It was the first anniversary of the new regime at PPC and CB had a bunch of prizes added to each of the day’s tournaments. The early game had a month’s pass added to first place; I only made it about half-way through the field.
Two hours and fifty minutes. -100% ROI. 21st of 44 entries.
Portland Players Club No Limit Hold’em
Slid over to the well-in-progress second tournament of the day. I did not last long.
Ten minutes. -100% ROI. 9th of 9 players.
2011/12 Puffmammy Poker Tour Event #14
Couldn’t play the later PPC events on their anniversary because of the home league game. Busted out twenty minutes into the tournament after I was out-kicked by WA. Re-bought (resolution doesn’t apply to the home game), then busted the next two players myself within an hour. Several reversals of fortune happened: I ended up in second place to JT, the first of the players I busted out. The two payouts went to two of the three players who re-bought. Median ROI dropping like a rock.
Three and a half hours. +62% ROI. 2nd of 7 players.
Oak Tree Casino 2-10 Spread Limit Hold’em
After the home game, I headed up to Woodland to see if I could get into some Omaha but there wasn’t anything going. Played spread limit for the first time.
Two hours. +8 big blinds.
Aces Players Club $1,500 Guarantee
I’d really like to play the noon game at Aces more often but it’s just gotten so large that I can’t make obligations in the early evening if I go deep. Not that I did here, but I don’t plan to go home early.
One hour and fifty minutes. -100% ROI. 30th of 44 players.
Encore Club $10,000 Guarantee
This was my first big game at Encore for the new year and I managed to hold on through round 12. I avoided a nasty encounter on the last hand before the second break that would have busted me; my hand was strong but wouldn’t have won. By the fifth hour, I was up to more than 125,000 chips; more than half-again the chip average at that point. Then in the middle of the hour I lost all but 16,000 of it in a hand I can’t recall at this time but likely one of those scenarios where I probably shoved incorrectly. I was out less than two minutes later.
Five hours and fifteen minutes. -100% ROI. 24th of 112 players.
D’s Dealer’s Choice
This is usually a money hole for me, but surprisingly I came out on top for a change. A couple good hands of Omaha made my day.
Four hours. +50 big blinds.
Oak Tree Casino Limit Omaha 8
In my constant search for Omaha action, I drove up for one of the morning tournaments. I have to say, the lack of info screens, low number of chips, and the small size of the field doesn’t really make it worthwhile for me.
Two hours. -100% ROI. 10th of 28 players.
Portland Players Club $200 Freeroll
Nothing like a late-night game at PPC. I mean that quite literally. It can be sort of crazy when people who bust out can re-buy and immediately have more chips than your stack after you busted them.
Two hours. -100% ROI. 11th of 23 players.
Encore Club $1,000 Guarantee
Another game that ended for me half-way through the round after the add-on. Got my double-stamp for the day, though.
Eighty-five minutes. -100% ROI. 27th of 32 entries.
Encore Club $5,000 Guarantee
Didn’t even make it to the add-on in this game.
One hour. -100% ROI. 112th of 117 entries.
Oak Tree Casino 3-6 Hold’em
I had an hour after the $5K before another tournament started. I figured Oak Tree might have some Omaha running on a Friday night and I headed up there instead of waiting. Big mistake. I’d forgotten about their grand opening celebration, they were giving $500 away each hour in a drawing, and every table was packed. Every waiting list was packed—except for 15-30 HE, and even that had a waiting list—there was only one Omaha table, and I was about #15 on the list. As it was, I could have made it back to Encore before anything opened up. I went in on a table, made a little bit, lost a little bit, then players started drifting away after the last drawing of the night and it broke.
One hour. -10 big blinds.
Oak Tree Casino 2-10 Spread Hold’em
I took a seat at this table despite my best judgment.
One hour. -130 big blinds.
Encore Club $10,000 Guarantee
If you’ve made it down this far you know that it’s been a little while since I posted a win. More importantly, it’s been a while since I posted a substantial win. Surprisingly, my In The Money (ITM) percentage hasn’t faltered much; although there are a lot of games listed in this one post, they were played over a period of three weeks and represent a fairly small number compared to the total number of tournaments in my database. But I can’t live forever on past winnings. So I resolved to play this past week’s $10K at the Encore very tight at the beginning.
It didn’t help much. Before the first break, I was down to just over 20% of the starting stack. I did manage to chip back up to 7,500 by the break, then did the add-on, but it was rough, as the most premium hand I’d gotten was [tx tx]. Then, in round 6 on my big blind, I looked down at [qx qx] and decided to go for it. UTG raised, there were a couple of calls, and I shoved with about 10,000 chips. Everyone folded but UTG, he flipped [kx kx], they held, and I was out.
Three hours and forty minutes. -100% ROI. 58th of 80 players.
Encore Club $500 Guarantee
Hung around the club this time for the next game. Don’t remember much about it. Maybe I’m going to start keeping notes again.
Two hours and ten minutes. -100% ROI. 16th of 27 players.
Encore Club Midnight Madness
Not a big field. Not much money. Not a very good showing. At least I didn’t re-buy.
Twenty-one minutes. -100% ROI. 6th of 7 players.
So, a couple weeks of garbage in there cleaned out. On the definite up side, though, a shout out to reader DS who came up to me between games at the Encore on Saturday and said hello after she’d spent a little time to figure out just who the Poker Mutant is (it’s not that difficult now that I’ve grown my beard back). When someone with more success than you have takes the time to say hello, you really can’t complain.
Speaking of which, this next week I get to host a visit from a WSOP bracelet winner and someone who was in the top dozen of the Bluff 2010 Player of the Year list (they’re the same person).
The end of the year approaches and Poker Mutant got in a batch of games the past couple of days. Not exactly good games….
Carbon Poker $200 Freeroll (1,000 chips)
Skated around the starting stack for a dozen hands, then grabbed a few hundred chips only to lose several hundred with the second pair. Got all-in three-way pre-flop with [ks ts] against [8h kd] and [qd ac]. A [7h jh 8d] flop made most of my straight draw but meant I wanted it kept low. [td] for the turn put me in the lead but made the upper straight draw very bad. The river was [qh] and knocked me out.
Twelve minutes, 22 hands. 3,207th of 4,216 players.
Carbon Poker $200 HORSE Freeroll (1,000 chips)
Got off to a good start here in Hold’em in the third hand with [kc th] against my nemesis (see above) [qd as]. Made a king-high straight on the turn and collected 350 chips. A few hands later my opponent hit bottom two pair on the flop, I had top pair and made another on the turn. That pot turned into over 1,000 chips.
My chip advantage had melted away by the time the first four hands of Omaha8 were over, though, and by the time we started Razz I was down to 525.
I won small amounts in three hands there but started Stud with only 380 chips and limits at 100/200. There was a completion ([as] showing) and a call ([kc]) ahead of me, I had [jc 8s] down and [8d] showing. Two of the other jacks were showing. [js] called after me, and four of us made it to fourth street. Showing there was [js 6s], [as 2s], [kc 6d], and [8d 2h] for me. The ace bet 100, the king called, I raised to 200, the other jack called, then the ace raised to 300. The king folded, I put in my last 70 chips, and the other jack called. The ace picked up [2c] on fifth street, I got [3c], and the jack got [7d]. The ace’s bet of 200 blew off the jack and we were heads up for the main pot. The final showdown was my [jc 8c 8d 2h 3c 2d ac] against [tc 4c as 2s 2c 9s 7s] and my two pair was good for a pot of 1,415 chips.
A few hands later I was all-in with two pair on sixth street, up against a better two pair and an ace-high straight that got there on seventh street.
Twenty-three minutes, 39 hands. 2,277th of 2,911 players.
The Final Table $1,000 Guarantee, +$200 First Place (6,000 chips)
Re-buys are just so seductively attractive. I know I shouldn’t do them. Yet here I was at another Final Table tournament, re-buying and adding on even though it would likely be unprofitable unless I won third place or better.
Two hours and forty-five minutes. -100% ROI. 21st of 45 entries.
The Final Table Omaha 8 (5,000 chips)
Bought into this after I’d busted out of the $1K and chipped up nicely enough before the break with a couple of sneaky straights that I didn’t bother to add on. That was probably just as well, since I busted halfway through the first level after the break.
Thirty minutes. -100% ROI. 26th of 28 entries.
The Final Table $1,000 Guarantee No Rebuy (6,000 chips)
Got all-in in the first round with the worst of three hands. I wasn’t the only KO. Took me longer to drive there than I played, and I was driving fast. The less said the better.
Five minutes. -100% ROI. Somewhere in the twenties, but they were still signing up players.
Encore Club 2-7 Triple Draw (5,000 chips)
I headed to Encore intending to (try to) get the bitter taste of defeat out of my mouth by getting in their $1K guarantee game, but manager S inveigled me into the Tuesday mixed game which was supposed to have started at 7 but was waiting for someone else to sign up forty-five minutes later. I’m a sucker, I admit it. With six players there was no chance of making a decent ROI, but how often do you get the chance to play 2-7 in Portland?
I sat down to the table with S, J—a player I’d mentioned in my write-up of the $10K I won at Encore, and L, both of latter of whom appeared to be at least semi-pros. There were a couple of other guys at at the table as well. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start with the guy on my immediate left who seemed to be getting increasingly upset over trivial matters and ended up storming off to demand his money back after just a few minutes.
I did reasonably well in the early stages of the game and managed to outlast two of the players , but bubbled after just about two hours. L had built up a big stack and even through I managed to decent qualifying hands while she was drawing against me, she managed to get there and eventually busted me. I sat and talked to J as they played it out about playing the WSOP Circuit at The Bike in LA next month and the advantages of the Venetian Deep Stack I vs. the LAPC in early February. We’ll have to see how things go, if I get lucky maybe his comments will be relevant. (J eventually won).
Two hours. -100% ROI. Third of five players.
Encore Club $500 Guarantee (5,000 chips)
This was another one of those games where you sort of want to snark at the people giving you poker “advice” that the need to give such advice is a result of a deep sexual insecurity. I drew out on the player to my immediate right twice in quick succession. A hyperactive guy on the far end of the table was predicting doom and gloom on my head. L (see above) was seated at the same table and we were pretty friendly, I thought. She was picking up chips (including some from me). Eventually I shoved with [4s 8s] on a double-spaded board and a pair of fours with a player ahead of me all-in for considerably less. L called from position and opened up with [as 6s]. I was good until the river when my second pair ([8h]) gave L a straight. SH—a regular Encore player—on my left started muttering about how people were “flush-happy”. I pointed out that I had a pair on the flop and straight draw potential—even a back-door straight flush—but that didn’t make him happy and there was general carping all around. Ah, well. I re-bought and continued on.
I had to suppress my laughter when, on the last hand before the break, SH shoved everything in from the button and L called him from the BB with a much larger stack. Even if she hadn’t flipped over [ax ax], the fact that SH put his stack at risk for the blinds with [ax 4x] after complaining about my flush draw call was ludicrous. A4o is at best a 3:2 hand against any two cards between [5x] and [kx]. It’s a 1:2 dog against any pair other than treys or deuces.
Somehow I missed two whole days, but in the meantime I managed to cash for small amounts several times.
Things didn’t start off well, however, with a $3K guarantee Cake R&A game on Wednesday evening. My biggest pot ever was in a $5 re-buy (in which I did not re-buy) but generally I try to avoid both re-buying and playing in re-buy tournaments. I never managed to get my poker legs, re-bought twice, but even the add-on couldn’t save me.
I entered a $1K turbo tournament at the 75/150 level with 1,500 chips, gained a little ground, then managed to double up with [kh kc]. Then I almost lost it all and things were looking grim with less than 1,000 chips at 200/400/40 until I managed to arrest the tailspin and get up over 8K, then settle down to about 5K at 400/800/75. By the 600/1200/120 level I’d been whittled down to 2K when my [ac jh] ran into [ad qh] on my all-in and I went out in 21st place of 181, with 81% ROI.
A $1K turbo 6-max put me out on hand 23 when I called the all-in of a [kc jc] with [ad kd]. Naturally, the jack paired on the turn.
A bounty tournament with a $1K guarantee was the last game on Cake in this series. The only bounty I saw was the one I generated, though. Blinds were 75/150 and UTG+1 had limped in. I raised to 550 from UTG+2 with [as qs]. Action folded back around to UTG+1, who went all-in for 3,875, more than my 2,617. I called and was just a little behind his [5c 5s]. Two spades hit the board but the pair held up and I was out.
Late Thursday night I moved over to Full Tilt and played the $36K Rush Guarantee which was about 20 minutes in. It’s both re-buy and multi-entry but I didn’t do either and was felted after about half an hour when my [kd js] came one card short of drawing to a king-high straight to beat a pair of kings.
Last night it was back to Midnight Madness. It was a slow and steady climb without any real setbacks from the starting stack of 1,500. I think the one real mistake I made was my final hand, calling a larger all-in with [jd td] which had served me well earlier in the tournament. With 15K and blinds at only 250/500/50, I could have given up the $1K bet I’d made, then made a deeper run than 560th and better ROI than 23%.
Despite not having had the best of luck playing simultaneous tables in the past, for most of Midnight Madness I was also participating in a $5K guarantee KO game, with a $0.50 bounty for each player. I don’t know if I was less inclined to take fliers of dodgy hands because I had two games going or if I was just playing well or lucky, but I hit the money here as well. This game was a bit less even than Midnight Madness. I did take in six bounties but at one point I lost more than 6K in the space of five hands with [ad kd] and [ac ks] (picking up 9,400 with [ah jd] over [ac qc] did sort of make up for that). I lost half a 23K stack with [qs ts] when my queen paired on the board but so did that of a player with [ad qd]. I managed to get up to 36K by the time the blinds were 500/1,000/125, then lost a chunk when my [ac th] paired the top card on a [td 5h 8s] flop but lost to pocket [qs qc]. Nothing connected after that and it was [ac jd] running into [kh ad] that put me out with four hearts on the board—[6h 2h ah] [qh] [2c]—and a flush for the better hand. 226th place and my bounties was good for an ROI of 184%.
Tomorrow morning is the weekly Irish Open semi-final qualifier. Only about twenty people registered so far and at least three tickets to the monthly final, which is in the early afternoon and will have more than thirty folks chasing a single $7K prize package plus about $3,850 in cash for second through fourth place.
