So a week from Saterday I leave for Las Vegas. I will be there from the 18th to the 21st, then off to San Jose to play in the Bay 101 open 22nd through the 27th. I will miss the first two tournaments at the Open but, one of them is an Omaha tourney, and I have played Omaha tourneys before, it is not my best game. Depending on work schedule I may play in some of the week day tourneys when I get in that Wednesday, but if work is too busy, then will just play live. but I do plan on playing in the main event, hopefully I will win enough before then, or get in cheep through a satelite. The last day is a partners tournament that I am looking forward to playing with my Dad. Every 30 minutes you switch partners and you are allowed to have a live game going at the same time. So one player can play tourney and the other play live game and you switch every 30 minutes. They also have a cheap tournament near the end that I may play just for fun. It is called All-In or Fold! So I guess you only get two options on your action.....All-in or Fold.
So since I had not played in awhile I thought I would run down the street yesterday and play in one of the local tournements. I have played alot of these types of tournaments over the last 6 or 7 years so am very comfortable with the structure and at what point the tourney turns into just straight luck from the blinds getting so high. they typically range in price from 40 - 60 with a starting chip range of 5000-10000 usually with 15 or 20 minute blinds. the one down the street is a 60 buy-in, 7500 Tchips, 15 minute rounds. usually between 20-40 players. last night it was pretty small only 22 players.
The tourney paid out 3 places, it was good to get back into the swing of things and since I do not play tournaments there alot there are alot of faces I dont recognize. Again all good practice for Vegas and San Jose. One guy in particular was playing alot of hand blind and I did not realize this at first. he bet me off some big hands early and I lost a good amount of chips to him. Then I realized what he was doing, he even made an off hand comment about my folding and wanting to be in pots with me for some reason. That kind of took me a bit off my game, by that I mean, i wanted to bluff him big when he was betting into me, and then show him. Not good to "target" people like that, you should play your cards and situations instead of trying to target people....but it worked out for me and I noticed that he visibly was not so happy and got a lot more quiet.
I limped in with K-5 off. He pre-floped min raised like we was doing. The cool thing here is he annoucned that he "looked at his hand this time". I called. The flop i hit bottom pair, with 2 diamonds on the flop. I checked he let out a big bet of 1700. I called. The turn was another card that did not help my bottom pair, i checked and he made the same bet of 1700, at that point I went all in with my remaining 4100 in chips. He thought about it a little while, laughed a little and then mucked. I showed just the 5, and said, "What you cant beat a 5?" He said, "5 does not scare me at all i had that beat." I then flipped over my K which was nothing to my hand and said, "I guess I made a good bet then." I must say that felt good.
Pretty much straight forward tourney till the end. i was doing pretty good. When we got down to 6 players we agreed to give 4rth through 6th their money back. We took 90/60/30 out of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to pay the 180 back. I had one more great moment. It was a loose call, but I was already guaranteed my money back. The chip leader was pushing alot pre-flop to try to grab the extreamly high blinds at this point. Under the gun he pushed again, and I looked down at AJ, with the A of diamonds. We where the two chip leaders at this point and there where two players that where pretty short stacked. I had about 45K in chips, was not exactly sure, but he had me covered. I thought about it for a little bit, and then decided that since he was being over agressive my A J may be good, and since i was guaranteed my money back I would take a shot. I called (I meant to push, but verbalized call so could not push) i was left with 8K chips with blinds at 2K/4K. Well the flop comes K, Q, 10 all diamonds!!! You could not ask for a better flop. I pushed my last 8K into the pot, and he called me with pocket 4's. I guess he figured that he was so far in, that seeing all those diamonds and three overcards he may still have a chance??
i was able to make it heads up, with, wouldn't you know it, the guy I showed my bluff to early on in the tournament. The blinds at this point where 8K 16K, so neither of us really had enough to make proper raises etc. he had me out chipped as well, and it just became who go lucky pushing all in. He got lucky i did not. But after my buy-in, returning 60 to pay out my share of 4rth through 6th place, and a tip for the dealers, i went home 300 richer.
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