Sloe Times

With much anticipation this year, especially after becoming much more involved in playing poker and improving my poker skills in general I was anxious to play in the poker tournament this year at Gen Con hosted by GameStation. I had almost sabotaged myself by scheduling an overlapping event for the first day of the tournament qualifiers but had fortunately been able to reschedule another game to start earlier.

The tournament was scheduled to run from 8pm until 12am playing to elimination down to the final 3, or three highest chip counts at 12am, which ever came first. The top three finishers from the three qualifiers would then play a nine handed final tournament that would have prizes and awards that would total up to $1000 for the 1st place finisher. There could not be a cash prize for legal reasons, but that's ok.

Each qualifier had 200 players (actually a little more than that, since all three events were sold out by the evening of the first one, and some folks were allowed to sit by paying with generic tickets to fill out a few empty seats. The first qualifier had 203 players. I was a bad blogger in that I didn't record any notes despite the fact that I had brought a note pad and pen with me to the event. I'll just have to let my hazy memory recall the details as best as possible.

Each level was 30 minutes long with a max of 8 levels, the blinds starting at 25/50 and doubling at each level. There were no antes at any point. The players in general I would say were pretty casual. I think I only ran up against one guy that I felt was a good player, everyone else fell into the average or worse category. There were definitely some Moneymaker/WPT/ESPN/Travel Channel experts out there but that just meant that it was a target rich environment.

I played through the first two levels, 25/50 & 50/100 on the same table before being moved. At the move point I was the chip leader on my table having around 14000 chips from a start of 2000. On this table the guy to my right was weak/aggressive. He was playing ok starting hands, but he would keep pushing chips in, even raising, when the flop missed him. I had him for my opening snack. Fortunately he had scraped some from the other folks at the table through aggressive play and at least one showdown with the best hand after bluffing a few folks out of a pot (and showing his trash after they folded) a few hands before that incited them to call him all the way down to the river despite some hefty bets/raises. I think it took 3 hands to bust him out once I figured out how and what he was playing. The rest of the table wasn't doing much of anything but shuffling chips around to one another.

Next to go from my table was a guy fresh out of the Navy. He talked too much and paid attention too little. The weak/aggressive guy had stolen a few pots from him and he was already wounded. As the first level wound down he got jumpy about his small stack and pushed all-in against a Hagrid looking fellow who liked to try and stare into your soul when you bet into him. Our table was down to eight as we started level 2 and the next to go was a largish fellow to the left of Hagrid. He was playing weak tight and for the most part just giving his chips away a few hundred at a time. Next to go was a Marine who was playing tight, I'm not suggesting he was weak, but I don't recall many of his hands lasting beyond the flop, even after some decent bets that he called pre-flop.

Next was a hand I do remember. I hadn't played a hand in awhile and wanted to generate some action so I played 43s with a little raise pre-flop. Hagrid checked my soul and called with the rest of the table folding. The flop was x34 and I checked. Hagrid also checked. The turn was a 4 and I believe there were now three hearts on the board. I checked and so did Hagrid. I wasn't happy about that because I figured he was on the draw initially and that would have made his flush. If I was wrong then I'm not sure what he was drawing to and if the river didn't help him, I wouldn't get any more chips out of him. The river was a big heart and since he didn't bet the turn I thought maybe he might not actually have a heart and was afraid I had the heart flush. So, when the 4th heart came up I gave a disgusted sigh, shaking my head, and rapped the table with my check a little too hard and waited. He thought for a few seconds, looked into my soul, and tossed out a pot sized bet (~1000). He had about 3000 left in his stack and I stared at his stack, then him, his cards, my cards, his cards again and said, "I don't believe you" and raised it up 2000 more figuring that he wasn't on a big pair and had just slow played his flush and if he was reacting to my false tells then this would just provoke him into pushing all in thinking I was easy money with an inferior hand. If I was gambling on how people would act and react I would have been a rich man by the end of the night. He quickly raised all in to my raise and I called. He turned over an A high flush that he did indeed have on the turn and was visibly stunned when I showed my house. After he recovered, he shook my hand and said I played that well and left. A nice guy to be sure, and basically the last guy I busted out that left in a semi-pleasant mood. They added a couple of guys to our table to bring us back up to 8 and then shortly after busted up the table and moved us to some other tables.

On the new table, I was not the chip leader. I had about 14k in chips, and the chip leader had 21k. I vowed to make his chips mine if I could. The problem was he was a good player and was playing tight and aggressive. I was able to out play him on a decent pot with a high card scare but after that I didn't get any more chips from him. As an aside note, always protect your hand. The chip leader got heavily invested in a pot with one all-in from a short stack pre-flop and while calling a second all-in accidentally pushed his cards into the middle with some of the other mucked cards from folded hands. When he went to flip over his cards to show before the turn and flop, he realized what he had done. The table was pretty relaxed and allowed him to peek at the two cards that were closest to him and see if they were his. Unfortunately, they were not and he lost about a quarter of his stack (~5k) to that.

After that point he wasn't in many hands and the cards started slapping me in the face again and more people were eliminated. When the table broke up, I was the chip leader for the table with 24k in chips and moved to another table where I was now about 3rd in stack size. This was about level 4. On this new table, the chip leader was a maniac. A very lucky maniac. The table was talking about weird bullshit plays like calling bets/raises pre-flop blind with 93o and catching his set or house by the river. I figured anyone playing like that wouldn't have made it this far so he must be playing some legit hands but really building a rep with the crazy stunts and lucky draws. Then I watched him knock out three people pulling one of these stunts.

He declared he was playing this hand blind and after looking at my cards I cried. I had shit and folded. A couple of others raised it up pretty hefty and the blind guy called. The flop was rags and the first to act went all in, second to act also shoves all in a few thousand more than the first guy. The blind guy decides now might be a good time to look at his hand and studies it and the board for a few and calls. He had 84o in the whole and one of the board cards was a 4. This call right here convinced me of his maniac status. First to act had a pair of kings and second to act had the rockets. The turn was a blank, and the river was an 8. The table erupted and I just sat there in awed silence trying to figure out how this guy was still in this thing.

A few turns later I get A6s in mid position and call the BB. It folded around to the maniac who raises and folds back around to me and I call. The flop was xAx. None of my suit but other than the A, pretty much rags, I think it was 3/4. I'm first to act so I put in a pot sized bet, ~3000, that he calls. The turn is no help to me, but he called my pot sized bet so I'm not sure what he might have and I check. He checks and I figure he has nothing or he would have been more aggressive. The river was a 5 which would have given the straight to 2x or 67 but I didn't put him on either of those so I shoved all-in with about 20k that he quickly calls. I figured maybe he had two pair and I just didn't see it. I show my pair of aces and he shows his 47o for a pair of fours.

After doubling up there I was solidly in the lead for chip counts as we moved into the final level. A few more people bust out and we're consolidated down to the final two tables of 9 players each. On my table is the maniac, a professor, and then everyone else. The professor scared me a little until I realized that he was just spewing garbage he'd read in some book or online without really knowing what he was talking about. I busted him out with a pair of nines. I'm pretty sure I hit my set on the flop but he was chasing what turned out to be a busted flush. The maniac went next to someone else, and then three more in quick succession to one of each of the three of us left at our table. There were 20 minutes left and there were 8 people still sitting at the other table. With the blinds at 3200/6400 I raised the concern about the table imbalance but got no relief.

I didn't think about trying the hand for hand argument until it was too late, and was too tired to think to stall by pulling shit like counting out my chips like I was going to go all in or asking my opponents to count out their chips in an effort to kill time. Instead I blinded down to about 41000 while my two opponents were at about 25k each (both nowhere near the top 3). They finally declared last hand and I was still in first place to I folded. The guy to my left checks and the third guy goes all in for the steal. The guy to my left thinking that it was a steal and might be able to get into the money calls with complete garbage. The end result is that he put the third guy into first place with about 52k in chips and similar shenanigans took place on the other table (where there were still 8 players) that put two people who split at 45k and 43k respectively and left me sitting in the cold dark 4th place with 41k in chips.

To say I was upset would be putting it mildly. I was absolutely fucking livid. In the time that I had blinded away about 15k (3, 3 handed orbits at 3200/1600) in chips not even a full orbit had occurred on the other table. I had gone from first place to fourth in minutes and in my mind, was cheated out of my seat at the final tournament.

Ultimately I was disappointed with how the final level and tables of the tournament were handled. I was not displeased with my play because I played a solid winning game that should have left me in the chip lead over 202 other people by the end of the time limit. It didn't work out and there's not much else to say about that.

I had tickets for the other two qualifiers and tried to play in the second one. I had to arrive an hour late because of other commitments and sat down just before it flipped to level 3. The table they put me at was pretty aggressive but were playing pretty tight so after the first orbit I found ATs and raised it up to 500 and caught one caller. The flop was no help and only gave me one of my suit. The caller checked to me and instead of checking like I should have I decided I would try and make a move and take down the pot with an all in. The caller thought for a little bit and decided to call. I turned over my ace high, and he turned over his kings. The turn was another of my suit and I was hopeful, but ultimately denied when neither an A or another card of my suit hit the table.

There was still a chance to rebuy but I figured that coming in an hour late and starting out short stacked wasn't a good combination. Especially considering I was still a little steamed from the previous nights events. So I left and went and played Settlers with the guys which was ultimately a better thing to do socially and personally. I didn't even bother with the third qualifier and instead scalped my ticket just before the event and went and helped my friends take down the sets and props for the event they were working over the next 9 hours. Then we played more Settlers. Catching a theme here? ;)