Thursday, November 8, 2018
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Sunday, October 18, 2009
October 16-18, 2009 at The Bicycle Casino
I had the wonderful opportunity of participating in The Bicycle Casino's "Big Poker Oktober" No-Limit Hold'em Championship. The Buy-in for 10,000 chips was $300, +$35 for the rake, etc., and an additional $10 for an extra 2,500 in chips.
The event consisted of two "day 1" groups with the survivors of each day having met today, October 18, 2009. The Day 1 Group of over 350 participants started at 7pm Friday night, October 16, 2009, and played down to 40 players finishing Saturday morning at 4:30am.
The Saturday group, of an additional 350 plus participants met Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 4pm and played until around 2:15am with 41 players surviving.
The 2nd, and final day, today, Sunday, October 18, 2009 left 81 players vying for 80 places in the money. 80th place thru 29th place paid between $600-$880. After that prizes increased into $1,200+ with the winner getting $60,000+ of the $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.
My First Experience in a Deep Stack Tournament
On the morning of October 17, I was in Palm Springs filled with excitement and nervous apprehension. I always get a nervous stomach prior to playing at a poker table. I'm not sure why. I guess it's a form of stage fright and/or anxiety.
I arrived at the Bicycle Casino at around 3:30pm. It was my first visit there. I like the Bike. The parking lot in the back was convenient, and inside was a friendly staff and registering was pretty convenient. I first had to purchase a Bicycle Casino card. Then, I picked up my receipt which indicated the table I was to play at. After that, I was in. I began the tournament in the 9 seat in 10 player tables with my 12,500 chips.
The player to my direct left and right both were missing when the dealing began. The first session had blinds of 25/50. I didn't have much recollection of the table. I remember an older Asian man was fairly aggressive and quickly won 1,000 chips or so with some weird hands. With very low blinds, everyone started with 166+ big blinds!
I decided to take an extremely tight and aggressive approach. I also opted to not waste any chips with weirds hands in early positions. I opted to keep bluffing down to a minimum unless I had a read on my opponent.
In my first table, my recollection of the players were as follows:
1. A younger, "quiet dog" who played very tight and was aggressive only with very strong hands. He looked of Irish American descent and had an introverted energy and resolve.
2.--have no recollection of that player---
3. An older, cynical aggressive Vietnamese man. He was fairly loose and fairly aggressive. His stack was all over the place from what I recall, but he took the early lead. After the flop, he was pretty active, sometimes a calling station, and at others trying to steal.
4. A middle aged man, probably in his forties, caucasian, probably your typical slightly obese meat and potatos American man. He had a confident authoritative presence as if he'd once been in the army and was the first to initiate a reraise after a 3x's blind pre flop raise show his skepticism of raises. His style after the flop seemed aggressive, unless you reraised him. Even with a reraise, he wasn't shy to call.
5.--cannot recall--but was superseded by a woman in her forties with shades but with an aggressive, intelligent style, not afraid to bet after the flop and not afraid to reraise after the flop.
6.--cannot recall--
7. Was a younger white American classic internet poker player trying to play with the boys, equipped with the sun glasses, hat to conceal his eyes, and a rock like presence.
8. An older Vietnamese man, in his late 40s, early 50s, who was fairly loose and fairly aggressive with a strong, comfortable presence and very unpredictable, capable of bluffing, yet capable of having a monster and not afraid to raise uncomfortably with either hand. He was very friendly to socialize with and very knowlegdeable of the chip counts, the hands people had, and of poker.
9. ME, very tight, but very aggressive when involved in pots.
10. A middle aged, filipino man who was a very tight, and very passive player who seemed to be more comfortable folding than being involved in big pots.
I had memorable match-ups against players #1, 7, 8, and 10.
10 was extremely easy to play. He was showing me all his hands and telling me his strategy providing me with tons of information about his playing style. It was funny. I guess he thought that if he acted like my friend, I'd be nice to his big blind. I stole quite a bit from him. Including a nice pot of 800 chips when he made it quite clear by his checks that he wasn't comfortable with whatever he had, which was probably a decent hand. With Queen 10, nothing hand, I was able to make him fold.
Player #8, announced his presence almost immediately, after arriving 30 minutes late, with a whopping 500 chip pre-flop raise with blinds still at 25/50 making the table silently moan either in gesture or breathing. With that warning, I played his next 3 x's the blind raise on my blind when I held A 10 Diamond.
After the flop with my Aces paired, he lead out with a 200 chip raise. I reraised him 600 more which he confidently called and lead out with a 1,000 chip raise on the turn. I called and with 3 diamonds on the board, he upped the raise to 6,000 chips. Although it was quite possibly a bluff, I was not too excited risking half my stack with a fairly weak kicker. I folded with the table sighing as if surprised I wouldn't call or quite possibly convinced he bluffed chips away from me. Bluff or no bluff, I wasn't going to call without a hand that weak and with no information on the player.
With that, I was below 10,000 chips early. I put him as an intelligent maniac who knew how to play players as well as know what they were holding. After that skirmish, I opted to avoid him unless I had a monster.
Within the first hour, this maniac, not too long after he ate a bite of my stack worked on other players with aggressive raises. After player #4, "meat and potatos joe" raised 8 times the big blind, my neighbor maniac confidently proclaimed, "ok, I'll give you some action." With a two card flush and high straight draw showing on the board, our maniac called MPJ's flop raise of about 2,000 chips or so. At the river, our maniac pushed MPJ all in. He called and mucked his hand and touranment chances after #8 showed a nut flush which he turned a straight with as well!!!
After arriving 30 minutes late, "Mr Middle Aged Macau the Maniac" was now a big stack in 10, 15 minutes.
I stole a couple of blinds and then, M8 tried to shove Young Irish Red Cheeks in seat 1. He called with a AQ o/s and pair of queens, his entire stack, to catch m8 bluffing with Nada!!!
M8 slowed down some after that with a good chunk of his stack given to Young Irish Red Cheeks. Playing even tighter, with the blinds at around 50/100 and couple of limpers, in middle position, I raised the action with 300 chip bet with pocket aces. Young Irish Red Cheeks, raised my action to 1,000 chips. Action folded to me. He had me covered so I decided to test his resolve by upping the action with a casual toss of a 5,000 chip. Young Irish Red Cheeks looked at me carefully, "do you have anything?" I looked at him carefully, and cryptically replied, "I can't remember." He put me all in and I snap called.
My AA had his pocket Kings dominated, and with that, I doubled up to around 19,000 chips. Now among the larger stacks on the table, I had was able to play a few more hands and from the big blind called a preflop raise from the younger boy whose stack had been shrunk from an earlier beat was in seat #7. I only had 5(d) 10(s). But the flop landed two spades and an 8. Player #7 and I were heads up and he checked to me with his stack nearly depleted. I decided to call and a third spade hit the board. I lead out with a bet and to my surprise, he was tanking. I encouraged him to go all-in which he reluctantly did. I had a flush draw and he had some donk hand like Jack 8 os and was leading with a pair of 8s. I rivered a 10 and knocked out my first player.
With the wild guy on my right and the passive guy on my left, I was in a comfortable position. I raised my AQ's preflop to 100% folds and kept increasing my chip stack. The passive player on my left pretty much had been folding everything and would only call or limp and would illustrate to me what his thought process was. He was sadly easy to read. So easy to read, I was convinced he was putting on an act and finally, when I landed Q10 suited, and the blinds at 75/150, I decided to test him heads up when from the small blind, I limped and he raised back to 500 and I called. I had him on Ace Queen or Ace King. The flop gave me a gut shot straight draw. My partner checked to me and I checked back. I can't remember the turn, but I decided to lead out and he confidently called. On the river, I raised him 1,000. He tanked for awhile. I actually had the mindset that I wanted to give my friendly neighbor some chips but he bitterly folded to my busted Queen high straight draw. After that, he pretty much went on tilt and busted out fairly quickly.
After about 2 hours of play, I moved to a different table and would spend the next 8 hours of Day 1 here. I have a blurred recollection of when I first got there, but remember noticing some huge stacks. One player was a younger man who had all the stylish poker moves and bragged about how he'd play any hand. Clearly, he was a maniac of some sort. two players to my left was a bomb style player with a huge stack; he was a younger silent but deadly type, probably in his mid-twenties and very predatorial. When I arrived, he was raised at the turn with a board of Ace Ace x queen and had tanked for around 2-3 minutes and shoved a player who called him with a straight, or some decent hand. This guy revealed AQ, a full house and his stack got even bigger.
To my left was an attractive, fashionable African American girl not older than 24. She was very quiet and polite. The card dealer was to my right, and, right of him, or the man directly in front of me was a younger Asian kid, very friendly and easy to read. He was tight and seemed to like to shove preflop to keep the action low. Next to him was an older man with a mediteranian temperament. He could have been Greek, Eastern European, Russian, or even Palestinian. He had a lock on the Asian guy next to him and would often steal his blinds.
For about an hour, since I had a larger stack than the average, I more or less studied my players. I decided to avoid the predator and would avoid the maniac unless I had something big. After awhile, the maniac got involved in a big pot and was surprisingly eliminated. With blinds at around 250/500 or so and my stack size coming down and being blinded away down to 35,000 chips or so, I got KQ suited and raised action to 1500 chips. The attractive woman shoved her remaining 7500 chips, or so and I tanked. After getting a count, I decided to loosely call her since we were heads up. I was glad to see that I was in a better position than I thought. She showed pocket 6s. I flopped a King and turned a Queen, and the most attractive woman in the house was gone. I felt bad, but she was gracious and sincere when she left. She was replaced by a friendly, quiet man who seemed nice to me and shared with me what he was doing. He folded a full house on one occasion and proudly told me he did after another player scooped a large pot with a better full house.
At this table, I was playing super tight and patient poker. I'd steal a few blinds when the position was right. I folded to the pedator once who reraised my preflop raise. Other than that, I was just biding my time. At the table across from mine, I noticed the wife of Men "The Master" Nguyen. She's very personable and seemed to know everyone as if she were a regular.
A couple of new players entered the action as players kept getting eliminated. The first was a younger, aggressive Chinese kid. His stack seemed to go up and down which told me he was some kind of a loose aggressive. In one hand, he lead out the action with a raise and was called by the man just in front of me. I raised action to 7,500 and got folds from both and scooped up a nice pot. My stack was somewhere around 65,000 chips by then. A little while later, that loose aggressive was in a preflop pot from the Big Blind when a raise and was met by an all-in shove. It was KK vs QQ. He mentioned that he folded JJ and luckily survived.
He was constantly getting in and out of hands when a younger kid with a red Liverpool FC shirt joined the crowd. In a key hand, he lead out with a raise and was called by that loose aggressive player. Flop raise/call; Turn raise and another confident call. On the river, Liverpool FC called and Mr LA (Mister Loose Agressive) put FC Liverpool all-in who reluctantly called. The loose aggressive player rivered a gut shot straight draw!!! His stack catapulted to around 90,000 chips or so. He was somewhere in low 100,000s now.
Then, the key hand. With my stack at around 75,000 chips, from an early spot, I landed pocket Kings and lead out with a 3,000 raise with the blinds at 500/1000, the loose aggressive raised the action all in! I was suprised. I knew he could have Aces, but was so excited I called before action go to me. The other players folded straight to me and my KK's met my loose aggressive opponent with JJ!
My stack was now up to around 140,000 chips!!! The loose aggressive was now on the brink of death with his stack in the low 20-30,000 range with blinds even higher. I could hear him mumbling that I'd been pressuring people with AK too often trying to justify his dumb move of putting me all in. I only did it once to him but it reminded me of how players highly perceive everyone. For the next 1 hour or so until he was elminated, he was staring dead at me stone faced from behind his dark shades as if he wanted to kill me. I simply ignored him and just focused on him getting eliminated. He shoved and raised my blinds a few times when I had nada and I politely just ignored him. I could sense that he was hoping I'd screw up eventually. But, I never did and he finally got eliminated when he landed jacks again against the Meditaranian guy's Pocket Kings!!
Still his preflop shove was a dumb move. Shoves are mostly always a sign of weakness in my book.
The event consisted of two "day 1" groups with the survivors of each day having met today, October 18, 2009. The Day 1 Group of over 350 participants started at 7pm Friday night, October 16, 2009, and played down to 40 players finishing Saturday morning at 4:30am.
The Saturday group, of an additional 350 plus participants met Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 4pm and played until around 2:15am with 41 players surviving.
The 2nd, and final day, today, Sunday, October 18, 2009 left 81 players vying for 80 places in the money. 80th place thru 29th place paid between $600-$880. After that prizes increased into $1,200+ with the winner getting $60,000+ of the $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.
My First Experience in a Deep Stack Tournament
On the morning of October 17, I was in Palm Springs filled with excitement and nervous apprehension. I always get a nervous stomach prior to playing at a poker table. I'm not sure why. I guess it's a form of stage fright and/or anxiety.
I arrived at the Bicycle Casino at around 3:30pm. It was my first visit there. I like the Bike. The parking lot in the back was convenient, and inside was a friendly staff and registering was pretty convenient. I first had to purchase a Bicycle Casino card. Then, I picked up my receipt which indicated the table I was to play at. After that, I was in. I began the tournament in the 9 seat in 10 player tables with my 12,500 chips.
The player to my direct left and right both were missing when the dealing began. The first session had blinds of 25/50. I didn't have much recollection of the table. I remember an older Asian man was fairly aggressive and quickly won 1,000 chips or so with some weird hands. With very low blinds, everyone started with 166+ big blinds!
I decided to take an extremely tight and aggressive approach. I also opted to not waste any chips with weirds hands in early positions. I opted to keep bluffing down to a minimum unless I had a read on my opponent.
In my first table, my recollection of the players were as follows:
1. A younger, "quiet dog" who played very tight and was aggressive only with very strong hands. He looked of Irish American descent and had an introverted energy and resolve.
2.--have no recollection of that player---
3. An older, cynical aggressive Vietnamese man. He was fairly loose and fairly aggressive. His stack was all over the place from what I recall, but he took the early lead. After the flop, he was pretty active, sometimes a calling station, and at others trying to steal.
4. A middle aged man, probably in his forties, caucasian, probably your typical slightly obese meat and potatos American man. He had a confident authoritative presence as if he'd once been in the army and was the first to initiate a reraise after a 3x's blind pre flop raise show his skepticism of raises. His style after the flop seemed aggressive, unless you reraised him. Even with a reraise, he wasn't shy to call.
5.--cannot recall--but was superseded by a woman in her forties with shades but with an aggressive, intelligent style, not afraid to bet after the flop and not afraid to reraise after the flop.
6.--cannot recall--
7. Was a younger white American classic internet poker player trying to play with the boys, equipped with the sun glasses, hat to conceal his eyes, and a rock like presence.
8. An older Vietnamese man, in his late 40s, early 50s, who was fairly loose and fairly aggressive with a strong, comfortable presence and very unpredictable, capable of bluffing, yet capable of having a monster and not afraid to raise uncomfortably with either hand. He was very friendly to socialize with and very knowlegdeable of the chip counts, the hands people had, and of poker.
9. ME, very tight, but very aggressive when involved in pots.
10. A middle aged, filipino man who was a very tight, and very passive player who seemed to be more comfortable folding than being involved in big pots.
I had memorable match-ups against players #1, 7, 8, and 10.
10 was extremely easy to play. He was showing me all his hands and telling me his strategy providing me with tons of information about his playing style. It was funny. I guess he thought that if he acted like my friend, I'd be nice to his big blind. I stole quite a bit from him. Including a nice pot of 800 chips when he made it quite clear by his checks that he wasn't comfortable with whatever he had, which was probably a decent hand. With Queen 10, nothing hand, I was able to make him fold.
Player #8, announced his presence almost immediately, after arriving 30 minutes late, with a whopping 500 chip pre-flop raise with blinds still at 25/50 making the table silently moan either in gesture or breathing. With that warning, I played his next 3 x's the blind raise on my blind when I held A 10 Diamond.
After the flop with my Aces paired, he lead out with a 200 chip raise. I reraised him 600 more which he confidently called and lead out with a 1,000 chip raise on the turn. I called and with 3 diamonds on the board, he upped the raise to 6,000 chips. Although it was quite possibly a bluff, I was not too excited risking half my stack with a fairly weak kicker. I folded with the table sighing as if surprised I wouldn't call or quite possibly convinced he bluffed chips away from me. Bluff or no bluff, I wasn't going to call without a hand that weak and with no information on the player.
With that, I was below 10,000 chips early. I put him as an intelligent maniac who knew how to play players as well as know what they were holding. After that skirmish, I opted to avoid him unless I had a monster.
Within the first hour, this maniac, not too long after he ate a bite of my stack worked on other players with aggressive raises. After player #4, "meat and potatos joe" raised 8 times the big blind, my neighbor maniac confidently proclaimed, "ok, I'll give you some action." With a two card flush and high straight draw showing on the board, our maniac called MPJ's flop raise of about 2,000 chips or so. At the river, our maniac pushed MPJ all in. He called and mucked his hand and touranment chances after #8 showed a nut flush which he turned a straight with as well!!!
After arriving 30 minutes late, "Mr Middle Aged Macau the Maniac" was now a big stack in 10, 15 minutes.
I stole a couple of blinds and then, M8 tried to shove Young Irish Red Cheeks in seat 1. He called with a AQ o/s and pair of queens, his entire stack, to catch m8 bluffing with Nada!!!
M8 slowed down some after that with a good chunk of his stack given to Young Irish Red Cheeks. Playing even tighter, with the blinds at around 50/100 and couple of limpers, in middle position, I raised the action with 300 chip bet with pocket aces. Young Irish Red Cheeks, raised my action to 1,000 chips. Action folded to me. He had me covered so I decided to test his resolve by upping the action with a casual toss of a 5,000 chip. Young Irish Red Cheeks looked at me carefully, "do you have anything?" I looked at him carefully, and cryptically replied, "I can't remember." He put me all in and I snap called.
My AA had his pocket Kings dominated, and with that, I doubled up to around 19,000 chips. Now among the larger stacks on the table, I had was able to play a few more hands and from the big blind called a preflop raise from the younger boy whose stack had been shrunk from an earlier beat was in seat #7. I only had 5(d) 10(s). But the flop landed two spades and an 8. Player #7 and I were heads up and he checked to me with his stack nearly depleted. I decided to call and a third spade hit the board. I lead out with a bet and to my surprise, he was tanking. I encouraged him to go all-in which he reluctantly did. I had a flush draw and he had some donk hand like Jack 8 os and was leading with a pair of 8s. I rivered a 10 and knocked out my first player.
With the wild guy on my right and the passive guy on my left, I was in a comfortable position. I raised my AQ's preflop to 100% folds and kept increasing my chip stack. The passive player on my left pretty much had been folding everything and would only call or limp and would illustrate to me what his thought process was. He was sadly easy to read. So easy to read, I was convinced he was putting on an act and finally, when I landed Q10 suited, and the blinds at 75/150, I decided to test him heads up when from the small blind, I limped and he raised back to 500 and I called. I had him on Ace Queen or Ace King. The flop gave me a gut shot straight draw. My partner checked to me and I checked back. I can't remember the turn, but I decided to lead out and he confidently called. On the river, I raised him 1,000. He tanked for awhile. I actually had the mindset that I wanted to give my friendly neighbor some chips but he bitterly folded to my busted Queen high straight draw. After that, he pretty much went on tilt and busted out fairly quickly.
After about 2 hours of play, I moved to a different table and would spend the next 8 hours of Day 1 here. I have a blurred recollection of when I first got there, but remember noticing some huge stacks. One player was a younger man who had all the stylish poker moves and bragged about how he'd play any hand. Clearly, he was a maniac of some sort. two players to my left was a bomb style player with a huge stack; he was a younger silent but deadly type, probably in his mid-twenties and very predatorial. When I arrived, he was raised at the turn with a board of Ace Ace x queen and had tanked for around 2-3 minutes and shoved a player who called him with a straight, or some decent hand. This guy revealed AQ, a full house and his stack got even bigger.
To my left was an attractive, fashionable African American girl not older than 24. She was very quiet and polite. The card dealer was to my right, and, right of him, or the man directly in front of me was a younger Asian kid, very friendly and easy to read. He was tight and seemed to like to shove preflop to keep the action low. Next to him was an older man with a mediteranian temperament. He could have been Greek, Eastern European, Russian, or even Palestinian. He had a lock on the Asian guy next to him and would often steal his blinds.
For about an hour, since I had a larger stack than the average, I more or less studied my players. I decided to avoid the predator and would avoid the maniac unless I had something big. After awhile, the maniac got involved in a big pot and was surprisingly eliminated. With blinds at around 250/500 or so and my stack size coming down and being blinded away down to 35,000 chips or so, I got KQ suited and raised action to 1500 chips. The attractive woman shoved her remaining 7500 chips, or so and I tanked. After getting a count, I decided to loosely call her since we were heads up. I was glad to see that I was in a better position than I thought. She showed pocket 6s. I flopped a King and turned a Queen, and the most attractive woman in the house was gone. I felt bad, but she was gracious and sincere when she left. She was replaced by a friendly, quiet man who seemed nice to me and shared with me what he was doing. He folded a full house on one occasion and proudly told me he did after another player scooped a large pot with a better full house.
At this table, I was playing super tight and patient poker. I'd steal a few blinds when the position was right. I folded to the pedator once who reraised my preflop raise. Other than that, I was just biding my time. At the table across from mine, I noticed the wife of Men "The Master" Nguyen. She's very personable and seemed to know everyone as if she were a regular.
A couple of new players entered the action as players kept getting eliminated. The first was a younger, aggressive Chinese kid. His stack seemed to go up and down which told me he was some kind of a loose aggressive. In one hand, he lead out the action with a raise and was called by the man just in front of me. I raised action to 7,500 and got folds from both and scooped up a nice pot. My stack was somewhere around 65,000 chips by then. A little while later, that loose aggressive was in a preflop pot from the Big Blind when a raise and was met by an all-in shove. It was KK vs QQ. He mentioned that he folded JJ and luckily survived.
He was constantly getting in and out of hands when a younger kid with a red Liverpool FC shirt joined the crowd. In a key hand, he lead out with a raise and was called by that loose aggressive player. Flop raise/call; Turn raise and another confident call. On the river, Liverpool FC called and Mr LA (Mister Loose Agressive) put FC Liverpool all-in who reluctantly called. The loose aggressive player rivered a gut shot straight draw!!! His stack catapulted to around 90,000 chips or so. He was somewhere in low 100,000s now.
Then, the key hand. With my stack at around 75,000 chips, from an early spot, I landed pocket Kings and lead out with a 3,000 raise with the blinds at 500/1000, the loose aggressive raised the action all in! I was suprised. I knew he could have Aces, but was so excited I called before action go to me. The other players folded straight to me and my KK's met my loose aggressive opponent with JJ!
My stack was now up to around 140,000 chips!!! The loose aggressive was now on the brink of death with his stack in the low 20-30,000 range with blinds even higher. I could hear him mumbling that I'd been pressuring people with AK too often trying to justify his dumb move of putting me all in. I only did it once to him but it reminded me of how players highly perceive everyone. For the next 1 hour or so until he was elminated, he was staring dead at me stone faced from behind his dark shades as if he wanted to kill me. I simply ignored him and just focused on him getting eliminated. He shoved and raised my blinds a few times when I had nada and I politely just ignored him. I could sense that he was hoping I'd screw up eventually. But, I never did and he finally got eliminated when he landed jacks again against the Meditaranian guy's Pocket Kings!!
Still his preflop shove was a dumb move. Shoves are mostly always a sign of weakness in my book.
At around midnight, the player count was down to around 85 or so. At around 10pm, a man who looked like a chubby Scotty Nguyen look-alike joined the table. He was a friendly perceptive player. Who liked to get information by talking with players in a friendly manner. Next to him was a humorous classic caucasian Los Angelino horribly dressed but strangely charming with young bushy, unorganized brown hair and a Woody Allenesque with SoCal Undertones sort of a temperament. His poker style seemed tight and mostly passive. A couple of times, he was put all-in and called with rags because he had no choice and survived with lucky flops. His stack was suddenly back up to a reasonable 30k in chips or so. At one point preflop, I raised action, with pocket 10s to his big blind and he called. At the flop he shoved with a board ace. I folded to him reluctantly and he informed me he had Ace Queen.
I pretty much believed him because he'd been very passive prior to that and only had one move with his short stack. Eventually, he was eliminated after fighting off elimination more than once. He finished at around 85th place or so. There was another player, a young caucasian kid maybe in his mid to late twenties who was put all in a couple of times. Once, he was put all in by a dangerous player and called and had the quote of the tournament, when asked to show his hand, he said, "I have KQ and a dream." He won that flop and doubled up again later on. He even shoved me once and I let him take a pot from me because I liked him and was sort of rooting for him to get in the money.
With a bout 60 players left or so, it was 2am. Also, the tables had tightened up considerably. There was a lot of position players stealing blinds or small stack shoves that weren't called.
By 3:30am or so, at another table, with around 45 players left, I saw that former maniac Vietnamese older man who'd taken a big pot from me. He eliminated the 48th and 49th player when he landed aces and called two shovers who both had pocket queens!
With 41 players left, there was one dramatic scene when a player raised preflop to another player holding pocket 10s. The flop brought and ace and a 10. The AK player, a shorter stack lead out with a raise and was reraised all in by the player in front of me. After 5 minutes, he let it go wisely. The kid behind wisely went all in because there were two spades on the board.
Sometime at around 3:15am, a funny incident happened, when I was just dozing off, barely awake when the kid in front of me asked me if I was ok with the entire table quiet and also listening. I opened my eyes widely and said in a loud, playful falsetto, "I'm ok man you?" For some reason, it broke a lot of tension and the entire table laughed. I guess I'd been super quiet for the past 7 hours not bringing up much conversation. It was at that point that I sensed the entire table bonded. At around 3am, a player joined the seat to my left. He was an extremely quiet player but had this annoying hum that really gave me a headache.
We almost got into a hand when I landed 89 suited from the button. I tanked on it for about 30 seconds, which is long for me and mucked it and he raised 3x's BB and took the pot with pocket queens.
After that, it was pretty much nothing until the bubble boy was eliminated. I survived Day 1 and was in the money!
I drove back to Irvine in a daze. I was on the freeway about 2 miles until I realized my headlights weren't on.
Day Two
I began day two with a stack of around 85,000 or so. I was pretty much a short stack with 81 survivors. The table began with new faces. I only recognized one player who was to my right who was fairly passive or an all-in pre-flop bomb type. Two players to my left was a kid with a gigantic stack of around 450,000 chips. I couldn't recall much beyond that. I missed a huge opportunity from the Big blind when I folded two suited spades and watched a big pot brew while I was sat with a folded flush. I might've been able to triple up that hand. But, my patience was rewarded when I finally shoved with pocket JJ's and doubled up against an unpaired AK hand held by a boisterous, chubby Mexican dude (who would later place just in front of me in 28th place). My stack eventually got up to 170,000 or so with the blinds increasing quickly.
Eventually, I got moved to different table.
To my right was a monster, a player whose stack must've been over 1,000,000. My stack looked like a pimple on the face of his stack. To the right of the big stack was another monster sized stacked player who I think was eventually the tournament winner. Across from me was an Asian player maybe in his early 30s who seemed fairly methodical and cerebral.
He ended up taking a decent sized pot from me when I lead out with pocket queens. He asked me the value of my stack which was then at around 120,000. After he probe bet me 20,000 chips on the turn, I lost interest in the hand. I put him with AJ. He probably had a weaker pair.
Later on, he ordered food and the funniest thing happened. I had something like AQ suited and raised all in when he was at the blind. I could tell he was annoyed by it, but folded reluctantly. Something tells me that he would have called me had he not been eating. That's a fun thing in poker I love to do. When someone's eating, I like to raise to distract them from their food. To me, most players fold because their too concerned with eating than thinking.
I made a couple of decent all-in reraises that kept my stack afloat. But antes and blinds were getting huge.
Just prior to a break, I was able to steal blinds when I 3BB raised with A7 suited. To my joy the table folded me everything. The friendly big blind, a larger chubbier, sincere player asked me what I had to which I told him, and he told me he had Ace 4 suited.
After the break, blinds were now somewhere around 10,000-20,000 with antes at 2,000 chips, I was down to around 120,000 chips or so and was simply waiting to make a move. That happened when I landed pocket 8s. I shoved and was called by that player who took my Queens. While he was thinking I asked him if I met my maker. He replied, "I think I got you beat." He showed Ace Jack off suit. The flop was good, but the turn gave him the lead with an ace and the river was nada.
I left the Bike Casino finishing this tournament in 29th place and $860. I was two spots away from $1,260. That's ok. I lost with a chance, roughly a 54% to 46% favorite. No regrets here.
All in all, I had a great time playing the Big Poker Oktober tournament. I will be returning to the Bike Casino soon, probably in March to play in a $200,000 guarantee tournament.
I spent some of my winnings eating Korean BBQ in Los Angeles. It was the best Korean BBQ I'd ever eaten.
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