Touring Arizona - Part 2

The next day Felicia and I went to the Biosphere II. It was really neat to see the place and take the tour. $20 was a little high, but we both really enjoyed it. After hitting Red Lobster, we went back to the Desert Diamond.

I started out playing 3/6 again. I made a mistake of calling early position with a small pocket pair during a kill pot. I didn't realize the kill was on and after I called, late position raised and I had to call that. Then I get a straight draw with the pair and now I'm stuck to the river. I ended up having to muck to the river bet, I was pretty sure the raiser was wired, and I was right. There was an all-in player in the hand and I got to see the showdown: QQ. I ended the table almost even when AK stood up.

Then I got called to $3/6 Omaha. Felicia, since there was no Stud being played, ended up playing in this game. She said it was good, so I tried it out. I got so few hands that when they called the list to open a 6/12 table, I couldn't rack my chips fast enough. Yeah, it was a good game, but I was getting no playable hands.

At this $6/12 table, oh my! It was great! There were two ATC players. One had bought in for 2 racks from the get-go (they use $2 chips for the $6/12 game, so he bought in for $400)! Once again, I was getting no cards though. I did make a good isolation play that brought me up a few chips. 88 in early position. Mr Two-Racks raises UTG (I saw him raise _limpers_ with ATo) so I reraised. My tight image did not go unnoticed, and I get the desired effect of heads-up. He bet the flop and I raised, he reraised, I capped. K on turn, he checks, I check. K on river; check-check and MHIG. Not long after this, the game broke as people started to head to their tournament table.

I ended up finding out that the first 5 rounds were played LIMIT and then the rest of the tournament was NL! HUH? Weird. Felicia wanted to cash out right then, but they wouldn't let us.... we already paid. Felicia ended up doubling up rather fast. Yes, during the limit portion! Can you say "bad tournament players"? My table was a bit more aggressive. I get AA and I had someone capping it on ME! Of course, 74o took down the pot. I am now at one win for the last 7 times I held AA. Did I mention it was capped preflop? As I said, "bad tournament players".

Then I get AKo taken down. Flopped a K, but someone else flopped a set. With another AK in the hand with me, the pot was bet hard. I ended up having to take a rebuy (I didn't have to do one the previous tournament). Before the first break, I got AKo that stood up and I had some chips again. Then, last hand before the break, I have QQ in the SB, the BB reraises all-in, and Mr 74o caps; limp-reraising. I catch a Q on the flop and am all-in by the river, which paired the board and I double through again. Chip and a chair baby!

Later in the tournament, someone shoves all-in with AQo and I end up with KK on the button and reraise all-in. AQ has almost as many chips as me and I almost double up when he gets no help. Now I have 6000T and pretty much sit on them. I try to steal the BB when I'm SB, but both times the BB ends up going all-in. What am I going to do with 85s for 2000T more? Muck, that's what ;-)

I go for a steal in late position with ATo and get reraised all-in by a short stack. Fortunately it's not much more for me to call and I get shown a worse Ace. He gets no help and I add back to my stack.

Finally, I get to the final table! This is the first time for me in a while.. final table in a live tournament (not counting satellites; remember I made the final table during a WPPA super multitable satellite).

Did well. Made steals with good cards. AT, AQ. One time I got AQ, someone else had the same hand and we chopped the SB (he was BB).

Then the killer happened. I was BB and the SB thought he'd try to steal my blind. I woke up with KK and reraised all-in. He looks at me and says something like, "I really have a hand", and then he sees my KK and groans, tabling his AJo. Yes, he got his Ace on the river. This left me with almost no chips (Mr Ace-Jack-off just doubled through no too long before the hand and had almost as many chips as I).

With blinds at 1000/2000, I ended up shoving in with K7s and I got called by the BB. He ALSO had K7s. Would you believe the flop was K7x?? Amazing. So I end up chopping the SB with the BB. 'woo hoo' (lower case intentional -grin-) Once the BB got back to me, I called the SB raise blind to find KQo. SB tables JTs. I flop a King, he flops a flush draw... and of course, he got there. However, I got 5th place money, about double what I put into the tourney, making it even for Felicia and I.

Ah well. I had fun and was happy with my play. The current chip lead was very aggressive and I felt like I could take him out if I could trap him enough if those KK's would have held. Such is poker.

Again, I was happy with my play. I had so many good reads on the players. I could usually tell when the people behind me had a hand and when they didn't. They always looked at their cards first. Sometimes holding chips when they were going to raise. Some of the older people holding them to stop others from raising. One of the young guys to my left would shuffle his chips or tap the table when he was going to muck; hand over the cards to protect when he was playing/raising. I pretty much knew when I could steal and when I couldn't, but I always made sure to have something; worst I ever had was Q9s on the button.

As long as I have a good structure (like the non-doubling all the time and 20 minute levels), I know that I can do well. I look forward to entering more in the future. I'll keep you posted on results ;-)

Posted by Glenn