so yesterday, my gf was spending the day and nite at a bachlorette party leaving me to a full day of poker. the main event of the stars and stripes event was today at the bike with a prize pool of over $200K expected. the buy in for the event was $300 + unlimited rebuys + 2 add-ons at the first break. so basically you have to buy-in and do an immediate add-on and 2 add-ons at the break at a minimum to compete essentially making it a $1200 buy-in event. well i wasnt about to invest $1200 in a tournament so i decided to try a satellite. btw, there will be a lot of name dropping in the entry so bare with me....
i got to the bike at 11am and hopped on a $120 1 table satellite which pays $1000 in entry fees and $100 in cash. the table had two local pro's on it, both of whom ive played with frequently. by local pro, i mean that they play for a living but by are no stands pro like phil ivey or anyone. they play the small NL games and local tourneys. anyways both of them got some tv coverage at last year's WSOP, not for winning braclets but for their mouths. the first "pro" was Alex Powers. you may recall him from one of the preliminary WSOP events as that former homeless guy, the old black guy with dreadlocks that was talking mad shit at the table. the other "pro" was this guy tony something (i forget) but he was the dude in the WSOP main event that was sitting next to jesus furgeson and talking about how he is gonna write a book entitled "how i survived jesus furgeson on the first day of the WSOP" and then promptly got busted out by jesus furgeson on the last hand of the first day. anyways, my s&g experience online must have helped as i easily cruised to the final two. i busted out alex powers when he raised it up from early position with AK and i slow played my AA. when it was down to two, i was outchipped 2 to 1 and the guy offered me $300 in starting chips and the $100 cash and he took the $700 remaining playing chips. well being that he had me outchipped 2 to 1, i was getting the better end of the deal so i took it.
so i took the cash and sat on the next $80 satellite that was starting up. before we started, me and 3 other players also put up $20 each as a last-longer side bet. man o man, i just crushed this one. i got to the final three with the guy i just chopped the last one with and his buddy, both of whom were in the last-longer. the guy starts talking about a 3 way deal and im like fuck no since i have a chip lead. i bully the fuck out of them and bust him out. his friend has really taken a disliking to me for constantly going over the top of him and putting him all in every hand saying something to the effect of "you go all in every hand preflop. this isnt the internet ya know." (i was wearing my pokerstars sweatshirt, sunglasses, and MP3 player to give my online punk "watch too much WPT" image.) anyways this guy is just hating on me and by the time it is heads up i have him massively outchipped and offer to give him the last-longer money to call it quits. but he refused and im like fine but i will not offer a deal if you come half way back then. anyways, my worst nitemare starting coming true, he started sucking out on me. i put him all in when i had 10-10 and he decides to take a stand and calls with Q-5 suited. of course runner-runner 5's and he doubles up. i put him all in with AK and flop an A but of course runner-runner straight for his 3-3. anyways so he is now even with me in chips and starts talking shit like i told you no deal and all this bs as this hand is dealt. i get Q-10 in the BB and he limps. i just check and he says sarcastically "what, no more all in huh?" all cocky now that he sucked out on me and has equal chips. the flop comes down Q-10-10 for a full boat for me. he is still talking shit as he bets, im like naw your too good for me, no more all in, andi bring up a possible deal after this hand so i just smooth call after hesitating like im scared of him. he is still talking shit saying i thought you said no deal, and im like well i change my mind, i will make a deal after this hand. he's like no way and goes all in on the turn while talking shit expecting me to fold and he shuts the fuck up real quick when i instantly shove the rest of my chips in there and turn over the boat without saying a word to him. instead im ignoring his stunned ass and grabbing the last-long money from his grubby lil paws and calling over the floorman to get paid. i take the money and leave without acklowleging his ass as he stares dumbfounded at the board (apparently he has A-10) and is embarassed by falling for my bs talk of making a deal. laters biatch!!!!
so now i have $1000 of the entry fee covered. the tournament started at 4pm and i buy-in and do my immediate add on ($600 total) and start wtih 1000 chips. we are playing for half and hour and the seat next to me remains empty and is getting blinded off. then in the far distance, i see men the master (a usual at the bike, his home casino). he is talking to some players. then he starts walking my way and im like who does he know at my table. then he proceeds to sit next to me and im like awww shit, great! men the master to my immediate left. but he actually wasnt too bad, not too aggresive, guess he just didnt catch any cards. but he is entertaining as hell, keeping the whole table in stiches. when he wasnt telling jokes, he was thumbing through coupons in the newspaper. man is this guy cheap or what (refer to earlier post). but apparently he had put about 11 of his students into the game. he had about $10 grand in cash in his pocket and throughout the first two hours, several of his students would come up to him and take money and rebuy. anways, other notable pros there were brett jungblut (from "the crew"), can kim hua, tony ma, and john pham (yes #1 ranked card player fresh off his #4 finish in the WPT championship with over $1 million in earnings in the last 4 months). man leave something for the lil guys!!!! i guess since there are no major WPT or WSOP events rite now, they are all home in LA.
anyways, none of the pros lasted that long. men went out with an unspectacular bluff with 2-3 suited. but i was just not catching anything at all. by the end of the rebuy period, i was dead even. so i decided to two the two add-ons and really give this thing a go. so now im in this thing for $1200 (only $200 of my own money after satelitte chips). but needless to say, i still couldnt get anything else going. the highest i got to was $3000 in chips but somehow managed to last about 5 hours only to bust out with 8 tables remaining. we started with 301 players with a prize pool of $240K and first prize of $84K.
so afterwards, i head over to commerce at about 9pm. i checked out the $400 game but it looked as all the players had been there all day. they all had about $3K in front of them and i didnt feel like getting pushed around all nite. so i sat in the $200 game and discovered something interesting. it seems that all the best $200 players are now playing the $400 game against each other. these guys are no phil ivey by any means but these guys are good and play daily. but now a lot of the weaker $200 players were left as well as some $100 players who had moved up. this left the $200 game really soft. now im not claiming to be a pro but i can hold my own. i put in my dues in the $100 game almost daily for a year and crushed it regularly. ill be the first to admit that the good $200 players are better than i am but they had all moved on to the $400 game. i could probably stay in the $100 game and consistently win but the pots are just not big enuff. so i found my new pond that i will be fishing in during my vacation.
anyways, my table was extremely loose and fun. about 5 guys my age and 4 older guys who were really fun as well. anytime anyone raised it to $15, everyone would call just as a joke but this led to pretty big loose pots being dragged down by some ridiculous 8-3 suted or something. i still was not catching any monster hands but some how i managed to grind my way up to about $700 from my original buy in of $200 until this hand came up at about 2am. utg raised it to $15, the next 3 guys call as is tradition at our table. i find AK. now i havent got any premium hands all nite so i announce that fun and games are over and i raise it up to $75. as i said, i havent had any premium hands all nite so i wasnt raising too much, just playing real lose with a lot of junk cards to see a flop. so everyone noticed this raise. next two guy folds to this young guy on the button who says "shit, i havent seen this guy raise all nite and now i have a real hand." he reluctantly calls and is pretty much telling me he has like QQ or something and is afraid of me having AA or KK. UTG calls too and everyone else folds out. so the pot is already at $260 for those of you following along at home. board comes K high with no draws. UTG checks, i bet out $200, button thinks for a long time and throws his hand away. UTG reluctantly calls and now the pot is $660. turn is a J and button is cursing and kicking himself (obviously he had JJ). UTG checks and i move all in for my remaining $450 or so. UTG calls immediately having me covered and im thinking did i fall into a trap??? river comes K and the guy proudly turns over KQ thinking his set beat my AA. when i turn over AK, he is shocked and i scoop the $1500 pot!!! thank god i didnt allow the button to stay in cuz he woulda made a boat (J's fulla K's) and i woulda gone home broke.
nuthing really eventfull happens and i call it a nite at 4 am after 17 hours of live poker. although i didnt really catch many great cards besides the one above, im really happy with the way i played today. i didnt make a single mistake. i never drew dead, i made good lay downs of decent hands, i didnt fall into any traps, i didnt bluff off too many chips. the only thing i did bad was play wayyyy to loose. basically any two connecting cards (even 3 holers) or suited cards, i was in. but that was how the table was. i shoulda played tight against this loose table but the table was having fun and i joined in. its been awhile since ive been able to have a good time and actaully win at commerce. the past few weeks, its been so frustrating with being completely card dead and being sucked out on. poker is no fun when you get 8-3, K-2 all nite and you play like 2 hands an hour. anyways this is a nice lil bankroll builder and confidence booster before i start my vacation as a wanna be poker pro. 1 more week to go....