Slipping Away and a Return to Action

The last month and change has brought birthdays, weddings, and other parties that were, in effect, major distractions for me. That is to say, they kept me away from poker…far away. Within that span, the only gambling I got in was at Paul’s for an impromptu home game, a rare gathering of my old Santa Monica home game, and the end-of-the-month game at Paul’s. Unfortunately, we maxed out at 9 players for Paul’s monthly game so we played dealer’s choice instead of the planned tourneys. And the other home games were also low-stakes dealer’s choice. So I hadn’t played any serious poker for quite some time.

More importantly, it had been about a month between trips to Commerce Casino. That’s where I really work on my game with significant money in play. Sadly, it seemed the longer I stayed away, the further it got from my mind. But then Kid started playing (and blogging) more. That inspired me. I began thinking about poker constantly. The need for action grew over several days but I wasn’t able to make the trek to Commerce as soon as I had hoped.

Commerce started their Heavenly Hold’Em tournament series in the beginning of May. This would be a great time to take part in the action…I HAD TO GO. No more wasting time thinking about it. I decided the new journey would start on a Sunday when they were running a $225 buy-in NLH tourney. My plan was to play in that since I had not been in a real tournament in so long. If I busted out early, I would finally take a shot at the 10-20 NLH game in the top section. Sunday came and, with 2K in my pocket, I hit the road.

Traffic was normal for a Sunday and I made it to the casino 45 minutes before the tourney start time. There was a fairly long line for registration which only got longer by the second. After several minutes in line, I heard some other registrants talking about needing a “Player’s Card” to sign up for the tourney. I used to play tournaments there frequently but it had been about a year and this policy was new to me. Fortunately, the TD told us to get in “the other” line for Player’s Club sign-up and just cut in to the front of the registration line when we were through with that. Problem solved.

I started at table 32, seat 2. I normally don’t like the 2 seat in big tournaments but this table was spread in my favor, giving me a good view of everyone except the 10s. As it turned out, he was ultra tight so I didn’t need to see him…If he raised, get away unless you have a monster.

The format of the tourney was also to my liking. 1500 chips; blinds start at 25-25; 30 minute levels. Antes kicked in around the 5th level which seems early, but it meant the blinds didn’t move up so fast. Card-dead for the first three levels, I managed to drag the blinds a few times and take a couple other small pots with continuation bets on the flop. That all kept me slightly above the starting amount. I entered the first break with just over 1600 in chips.

After the break, it was pretty much more of the same. I continued to find rags through the 4th and 5th levels. It also became more difficult to get involved with raises in front of me on most hands when I had position. And I didn’t have enough chips to make those calls. My best play was to continue waiting for good cards and looking for opportunities to steal. My patience was rewarded in level 6.

My stack had slowly shrunk to 1225 when I finally found A-J in middle position. I don’t love that hand in that spot but I was in dire need to make a move. This was the perfect time, too, because no one raised or even came in ahead of me. The blinds were 100-200 with a 25 ante. I made it 600 to go, leaving me with 625 behind. Most people would just move all-in with that amount. I, on the other hand, figured I had enough for a normal raise and I would let others know that I would not fold to a re-raise. So I put in the bet and overtly restacked my remaining chips so everyone behind me would know.

It folded to the button (a guy I had played with in cash games and knew him to over-value moderate hands and tilt easily and often…so I’ll call him Red). He looked over to see how much I had left so I moved my hands. He asked for a count so I told him, “625.” I continued, sharing a smirk with the player on my left, exclaiming, “That’s what we like to call ‘Pot-Committed.’” Red looked up at me and said, “What?” So I repeated myself. He thought it over for about a minute. Then it got fun.

Red stacked up a raise and pushed it in…1200 total. While we waited for the blinds to act, I leaned over to my pal on the left and clued him in to the fact that Red had not put me all-in. I had just told him the exact amount I had left and he fucked it up. The blinds folded and I just called. Red made a move toward his cards and I cautioned him to wait. He looked confused as I told him I was not all-in. He continued looking confused. The dealer finished raking in the chips and asked us to “toon up you cods.” I showed her my lone $25 chip to which she looked confused. I cleared it all up with a quick play-by-play.

The flop came 10-high but that didn’t matter. My chip was obviously going in. I told everyone I was trying “the old stop-n-go.” (That didn’t get much of reaction.) I picked up my chip but paused to look over at Red before throwing it in. He actually waited for me to bet it before putting his in. This was getting more entertaining (to me) by the moment. So I was finally all-in and we revealed our cards. I was worried that he might have A-K or A-Q. To my delight, he turned up 8-8. I had two live cards. I couldn’t ask for much better. Red was excited to see that he was still in the lead…A little too excited, if you ask me. The turn was a blank but an A gently landed on the end. Then Red turned…well…red. He actually contained himself, not saying anything offensive or mumbling as he tends to do. I was now up to 3000 in chips.

It seemed like I would go back into my normal rag state as the next few hands presented nothing playable. Fortunately, it was just the calm before the storm. The two players on my immediate left had started going at each other in a good spirited way, giving action whenever the other bet or raised. I wasn’t too happy about it when they continued to spar on my BB. UTG raised to 600 and his nemesis quickly called. It folded all the way around to me. My thought here, as always, is that I’m going to need to wake up with a big pair or my blind is dead. That’s just what happened…Q-Q. I had already put the raiser on a big A and the caller on paint or a medium pair. So I figured my Q’s were the best to start. My instinct was to raise. However, I knew I would get action from at least one of them if not both and I didn’t really want to put 1800 into the pot as I would be committed and first to act. That would be quite painful if a K or A flopped. I instead decided to call, hoping for a favorable flop or a read on one or both of them.

I got the best flop I could hope for: x-Q-A rainbow. If one of them did have an A, I could check and let him bet for me. Unfortunately, they both checked behind me. The turn brought a scary J so my check on the flop might have come back to haunt me. I quickly decided that I needed to find out where I was and bet out 1000. They fold kind of quick. I didn’t get paid off but at least they didn’t make me sweat it. Now I had almost 4500 in chips. Things were looking up.

That’s all I have time for right now. I really want to get a poker post up so this will have to do. But I will continue with the tournament details in my next one.

SEEYa