Flushed Away

This past Thursday, Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, IN kicked off the 2012 Tri State Poker Championship.  Event #1 was the $345 Deepstack NL Holdem event.  This years guarantee prizepool was a whopping $300k. 

My goal for thi sevent was to play solid poker.  I was to make it a point not to get too creative or cute with any hands.  I wanted to focus on position and hand strength. 

There is a new rule being enforced this year.  Any player exposing cards with action pending is assessed a one orbit penalty.  I think I am probably the first player to be hit with this excessive penalty.  During Level 2, I was UTG and in seat 2.  I pitched my rags towards the dealer.  The room was so humid that the cards never easily slid off my finger tips.  Well this time I pitched my cards, somewhat clumsily, and they caught the hands of the player sitting in the 1 hole.  He happened to be reaching for some chips and flicked my cards over.  The floor was called to make a ruling.  The player in the 1 hole said it was his fault.  Nonetheless, I was assessed a penalty.  I had to step completely away from the table until my orbit was up.

With time to kill, I worked the room, looking for friends and fellow poker players I knew.  Part of the reason I love these big tournaments is because it is the only time I get to see some of my poker friends who live out of town.  I have developed a lot friendships with guys from http://www.badbeatspoker.net/.  BBP kind of originated in Central Ohio, but there are members from all over the world.  BBP helped me to go from a losing player to one capable of holding his own with other good players.

When I returned to the table, I was immediately dealt JJ.  I was able to turn my pocket pair into a small money maker.  From that point until dinner break, I quietly, and slowly accumulated a few chips here and there.

Sometime around 7pm, I believe it was Level 11, I picked up AK.   I had an average stack of around 44k.  I opened from UTG and got 2 callers.  The flop came AK7 with two spades.  I can't remember a time where I held AK and flopped both A and K or better.  I bet out around 3/4 of the pot.  The first caller shoved all in.  The second pre flop caller folded and I snap called the all in.  I show my AK and he flips over A4 both spades.  Turn comes an 8h.  All I had to do was fade a spade on the river and I was on my way to making a deep run in this event.  The river comes and........3s!!!!  Oh the pain! 

With 15 big blinds left and the blind level set to increase soon,  I was left on life support.  It was time to play the shove or fold game.  My first chance to get my chips in the middle was with K6o when the table folded to me on the button.  Big blind called with AT and simply crushed the flop.

The good thing about getting busted when I did, was the fact that I had just enough time to register for the $100 nightly tournament.

These tournaments are super soft.  However, the starting stacks are small andwith all the bad players, it's like navigating through a mine field.

I'll make this short by saying I built a huge stack.  I was probably top 5 with 50 players left.  I was on the button when UTG shoves.  It folds to me and I wake up with pocket Kings.  I snap.  He shows AJhh.  I cringe as I see two hearts hit the flop.  The hand is over on the turn as the villain catches his flush card.

I few hands later, I can't get a kid off of his hand when I flopped top pair with a backdoor straight draw.  He called me down on every street and caught a four outer on the river to fill in his gut shot straight.  C'est la vie.

I finished my night with a little $1/$2 action.  I played about 2 hours and made back $215.  It was one of the few times I picked up my chips on my owns terms while being up.  Usually I shut a local club down or have to leave because I have to be home, or I simply busted out.  It was the best part of my night.