Win in AC

Yesterday and Wednesday were the first time I had back-to-back day offs in almost three weeks, so I decided (with the permission of my girlfriend, of course) that I wanted to go to AC to play in a WSOP satellite. The plan was foolproof... except for the fact that I couldn't find one to play in.

Still, upon reading Bluff magazine I saw the tournament circuit schedule for Atlantic City. I decided I didn't want to do an early one (couldn't get up in time), and I didn't want to do a late one (work tomorrow/today). The 3 pm Caesar's $100-$20 fit my plans perfectly, so I figured I'd go play in that one.

My road-dog Kory and I got on the road at about 11:35, arrived at 2:30, giving me just enough to sign-up for one of those Total Rewards cards, register for the tourney and drain the lizard. At 2:58 I sat down at the table... only to be informed that the field was only going to be 20 players deep. Bummer. I came all the way down to AC for this shit?

Then I thought to myself, "You know what? You're here. This is the first time you've played live poker in almost two and a half months, just use this as a tool to work on your game."

I got off to a real sluggish start, barely amassing any chips by level four when the blinds were 400-800. Then all of the sudden things started to click.

Around that 400-800 level, three people limped into the pot. I looked down at J-10 off in the small blind and complete the blind, and the big blind checks. Flop comes something like Q-8-7. I check. Big blind checks. Seat three, who eventually made it to heads-up, bets like $1200. One call. Two call. THREE calls. I'm getting okay odds to call, $1200 to win $6800, and although I definitely put first position on a decent queen and everyone else on some kind of draw/middle-pairish hand, I figured I'm really trying to as many as nine outs: obviously the nine for the straight, but more importantly the jack or the ten as a scare card to bet the queen out.

Sure enough, the jack pops up. I make a "oh shit, I have it so I'm going to bet a really small amount as to not make it obvious" type of bet that most novices make when they hit a huge hand. Big blind folds. First position, I lie to you not, says, "I can't believe you hit that", and folds. Two more folds and I think I'm on my way to taking this pot, except this one dude calls. Great, now I have to shut it down.

Except from observing him I'd received some quality information. Throughout the tourney, he had been calling and chasing and calling and chasing, once calling big bets against another opponent all the way down to the river with ace-high. He loved to see a river.

The river was a blank, and I just knew my jack was good. I wanted to get value out of it, so I bet $3500. He calls, mucking an eight.

That got me moving. I didn't really get any huge hands but I started small-balling to death, getting opponents to fold to any sort of continuation betting.

However, I did almost make a costly mistake. Sitting with about $65,000 in chips at the $1000-$2000 level, an old man in first position went all-in. He had like $17,500. I looked down at pocket fours, and I really thought he was trying to buy it. Horrible call in retrospect. Even if he is trying to buy-it, I'm almost certainly looking at a coin flip situation, and having worked so hard to get that stack, to risk a third of it on a coin flip is Fisher Price: My First Hold 'Em Tournament material. So, of course I lose when he turns over jacks and the poker gods don't want any part of helping such a donkey.

I was halfway out the door with less than $20,000 when I looked down at J-8 of diamonds in the big blind. Long story short, I flopped middle pair with a diamond draw, dude who I barely had covered pushed, I called, showing an open-ended straight draw, no straight for him and I win.

Then I small-balled my way from $40,000 to almost $80,000, sat for awhile I watched myself make the money (three get paid), got to heads-up when my A-Q out-kicked this Asian dude's A-4, and got down to heads-up.

The guy I played heads-up against was probably the player I was closest to at the table. We started out sitting next to each other, and I watched him do his best Jamie Gold impression, dominating the table from the start. I exploited him for that throughout the final table, letting him be the aggressor and just straight up out-playing him post-flop, calling with positive results on marginal hands, trapping him with the big ones. The last hand was no different, as I had about a 3-1 chip advantage. I had the button and looked down at A-Q off, and I just limped. With the blinds at 2000-4000, he raises, like I knew he would. I immediately re-pop him all-in, and, probably tired from the five-hour long journey, he calls with K-5. Ace-high wins, and, yay, I'm just shy of a grand richer.

That last hand was a testament to my style of play. While pretty much everyone else fizzled down the stretch, I just grinded it out, fought my way out of trouble and came out victorious.

That being said, man, I can't believe I drove all the way up there for that shit.

Pictures on myspace coming soon.