MotorCity Mafia

I had an overall good day of poker yesterday in both tournament and cash play.

My bankroll was up overall. But, I came up short in the tournament.

I had not lost a hand until the final table.

With the overwhelming chip lead but still out of the money, I am in the big blind with 9-7 off.

With two limpers, we see a flop of Q-9-7 rainbow.

The small blind checks.

I overbet the pot to give any caller only 1.5-to-1 pot odds.

The third player in the hand pushes all-in. It was about 30% of my stack to call.

Like a donkey, I call. The small blind folded.

He shows K-Q and gives himself a speech about knowing better.

The turn is a blank.

I got unlucky when a King came on the river.

I came up short.

After going card dead, I blinded my way to last place.

Another tournament where I should have finished first had it not been for good old fashioned luck by a less experienced player.

I had it in good. Again.

At least it was not a runner-runner longshot …

Next time, I hope I do not come up short.

I am all for table talk. But it has to be relevant and appropriate.

The line gets crossed when one player criticizes another’s play or style.

I normally do not get involved with the talk unless someone needs help defending themselves.

In a tournament last week, I am in seat 4 and sitting directly across from seat 1 due to us being eleven handed.

A very young gun was in seat 5. He was nervous as hell. Under the table, both legs were shaking anytime he was in a hand.

Seat 1 was a 40-something man with sunglasses. He was a classic calling station that thought A-K was the nuts no matter what was on the board.

Me and seat 1 were in a hand before things got reckless.

I had Q-Q and raised like I had aces.

He calls.

The flop comes K-9-3 rainbow.

He checks.

I bet half the pot.

He min raises me.

“You have Ace King,” I say to him.

He stares me down and says, “It is a good time to have Ace King, isn’t it?”

I thought he was cocky and arrogant. I would have loved to see a Queen on the flop and bust his sorry ass, but the right play was fold.

A couple hands later, the young gun raises from the big blind. I was not in the hand, but it felt like he was trying to weed out the limpers.

Afterall, 8 players limped in.

Having that many players in the hand by limping is not poker to me. It is bingo.

The flop was A-4-2 rainbow.

The kid checks.

Mr. Player from seat 1 bets hard.

The kid comes over the top.

I put him on a straight.

Mr. Player played back at the kid all the way to the river.

The kid shows 5-3 for a straight.

Mr. Player shows A-K for top pair.

Then, he lost it.

“You are reckless!” the guy in seat 1 says.

“Reckless?” the kid responds.

Seat 1 goes on this speech about raising with 5-3 and so on.

This kid clammed up. Nobody had ever  yelled at him. I really thought he was going to cry.

Well, we were not going to have any of that. There is no crying in poker.

Not at the table anyway. What happens in your car on the way home from a bad session, stays in your car.

I digress.

Compelled to help defend the kid, I explain that he was making a play at the pot to get the weak players out.

Sure, the kid got lucky by flopping a straight. But, a real player would have folded A-K with a straight out there.

Then, I criticize seat 1 for over-playing A-K.

This put him on tilt. He donked off all his chips by the end of the next round.

The hand he went out on? Ace-King.

I had a good day overall yesterday.

Against my better judgment, I played a tournament. Because of the holiday, the casinos were busy!

The tournament had a field of 110. This was the largest event I have played to date.

I played well. The only hand I lost was the last one.

You guessed it: I flopped Aces but lost to a runner-runner Q-4 to give my opponent two pair.

To win a tournament, you need to catch cards and not get unlucky.

I was card dead for most of the tournament. Solid play and good decisions kept me alive.

The blinds were like piranha. They ate me alive. I finished 10th.

Afterward, I played a cash game at a different casino.

That room had a promotion that paid cash for 8-8, 8s full, and quad 8s. As you can imagine, the room was full.

Full of donkeys and calling stations that were losing $388 to win the $88 pocket 8s bonus.

Holidays and promotions seem to bring out alot of casual and first time players.

The odd thing is, this particular casino has a total bad beat jackpot pool of $1 million (quads over quads or better). That does not seem to keep the poker room full 24/7, but the pocket 8s thing filled the room.

I had two calling stations at my table.

I felted one of them. Twice.

The other caller was in a hand. I was on the sidelines.

I burst out laughing when the caller went all-in. His opponent did not realize the all-in and raised $100.

The caller says “I call”, stands up, pulls his wallet out of his pocket, and throws a $100 bill on the table.

It was the funniest thing I ever saw at the table!

Within 48 hours of my first cash and first 1st place in a tournament, I won my second tournament!

My play was solid and I was completely in the zone.

I lost only four hands during the six hour tournament. I had my money in good for those four hands and got outdrawn.

Like cash game sessions, tournaments come down to a couple key hands - a couple key decisions.

Here are my two key hands that helped propel me to the final table:

The pivot point centered on the third break when we were at three tables, down from nine.

We were only a few players away from going down to two tables.

I was moved to a new table. I was slightly ahead of the chip leader at this new table.

The blinds and antes were quite high at this point.

Right before the break, I call a min raise from a player that I feel has a pocket pair.

I have K-Q of clubs.

The flop comes with two clubs.

I have 15 outs to hit a higher pair or a flush. I am a 60% favorite to win the hand.

I also have position on my opponent.

He pushes all-in.

“You have pocket Jacks or pocket 10s,” I tell him. “I am a 60% favorite to win with two over cards and a flush draw.”

His all-in was for half my stack.

At this point in the tournament, I did not want to risk half my stack on a draw even though the math makes it a “good” call. If I lost, I would still have the average chip stack. But, I wanted to coast to the final table.

I fold and show.

My opponent shows J-J.

When I returned from the break, the dealer did a Rabbit Hunt and told me I would have lost the draw.

The first hand back from break, I am in the big blind with 9-9.

Action folds around to the button who raises to $45,000.

It did not feel like a steal. The raise told me he had some kind of Ace.

I min raise to $90,000.

My opponent calls.

No re-raise all-in tells me he definitely does not have a pocket pair.

He has at least an Ace in the hole.

I figure he is pot committed since he has half his stack in before the flop.

My bet is about 1/3 of my stack.

“I have two overs to your pair,” my opponent tells me.

This was his first mistake in the hand: telling me what he is holding.

I now put him on a big Ace.

We stare each other down from across the table. Behind our sunglasses, we glance down to see the board. Our heads, however, never move.

The flop comes K-Q-7 rainbow.

I check.

My opponent checks.

Now, if he had A-K or A-Q, he would have bet. Frankly, I was expecting a continuation bet.

No bet on the flop was his second mistake of the hand.

At this point, I put him on A-J or A-10.

If I see an Ace, Jack, or Ten - any of which gives him either a bigger pair or a straight, I am done with the hand.

The turn card is an 8.

I check.

He checks.

The river card is a 2.

No flush possibilities.

If I bet, he folds.

I check hoping to trap him into second guessing his read. I want him to put me on something like A-9 suited.

My opponent fires out $70,000 of the $90,000 or so he has left.

The trap play worked.

“I am all-in,” I declare.

He folds in disgust. His cards were so high in the air, I could see an Ace.

“You had Ace Jack right?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

“You were beat the whole way.”

I showed the 9-9.

Normally, I would not show, but I wanted to show him and the table that I “had it” figuring it would help me later in the tournament.

With him not betting me off the hand on the flop or turn, I now had the dominant chip lead.

All I had to do was go on cruise control all the way to the money.

This tournament paid the top 9.

Once we got to the final table, the players decided to give the bubble player $20 each. I thought the gesture was very cool.

That was enough money to pay for the tournament buy-in plus $100 profit for the afternoon.

As for the rest of us, we played another couple rounds to the next break.

I had the chip lead, but two others were very close in stacks. The rest of the table were about even in chips.

The next round was alot of folding due to the high blinds and antes.

Guys are trying to read hands blind when someone raised.

“You had a pair,” one player says.

“No, he had Ace Queen,” I say.

The player shows Ace Queen.

We go on break.

I see the players huddled up but I don’t think much of it.

Right before we sit down again, a friend of mine pulls me aside.

“Sammy, you fucked up.”

“How so?”

“You really need to stop reading hands blind. It is going to cost you money.”

“Just trying to establish a table image with my new opponents,” I reply.

“We had a meeting. They do not want to tangle with you. We want to chop.”

With 8 players agreeing to chop, I obliged. We all took down the equivalent of second place money.

Not bad for 6 hours of play.

I have only played a few poker tournaments in my career. One final table and no cashes.

That is, until yesterday.

On the entire drive to the event, I told myself I was going to win this one. Like Little Boy Blue, I needed the money.

From the first hand, I was getting frustrated with the bad play at my table. These guys were over-betting with K-3 off in early position. I just wanted to play competitive poker, not bingo.

So, I walk up to the Tournament Director and ask if there are any unsold stacks at one of the other tables. To my delight, there was.

“Ok, I am going to put it in dark on the next hand. Just get me off this table,” I tell him.

I rarely get tilty, but I was running on a few hours sleep and got frustrated. I just knew that I was going to end up putting my money in good and somebody was going to knock me out with a trash hand because they are there for fun.

I am there to compete and win.

With the Tournament Director standing behind me with my buy-in money and my new seat card, I push the entire stack in.

I lose the hand, but have $75 of the $8000 left.

“Ok, next hand,” I say.

I put it in dark. And win.

This goes on for several hands. Me trying to knock myself out dark.

Several hands later, I have $10,000 or so in chips.

“Guess you don’t need the rebuy,” the Director tells me. “You got what you wanted. I need you to move to a short-handed table.”

Sweet.

The new table had very solid players. I got in the zone.

In my head, I hear “If you want to win, then start playing like a winner.” My conscience was right. I had a fresh start.

And then I went on an incredible run.

With $300,000 chips in play, I went from $75 in chips to over $200,000 making me the dominant chip leader.

I had about 2/3 of the chips in play when the top four cashed at the final table.

To put this in perspective, I went from 0.025% of the chips in play as the short stack to about 67%.

That is a 2680X comeback.

How did I do it?

Simple: I caught cards when I needed them and outplayed my opponents after the flop.

My first cash resulted in a first place.

I was so happy!!

I shared the good news with my friend Barry who also played the tournament. He gave me a big hug and congratulated me. Barry was genuinely happy I won, especially under the short-stack circumstances.

From the moment I changed tables to the end, I simply outplayed the table - some of my best poker play ever.

There was no bracelet, but my 7 year old son is commemorating the victory by wearing his “My Dad is the Man” T-shirt to school today.

My first cash. And my first win.

My table games payout form sums it up nicely. It simply says “1st”.