Progress

Last week we played our third poker tournament at the local American Legion. Two of the guys we normally play poker with came with us, and there ended up being a total of about 130 people playing.

The first bit of exciting news we got that night was that our tournament director won himself a seat at the World Series of Poker. Sure, every Tom, Dick, and Harry are winning seats to the World Series, but this is someone local, and even though we don't know him that well, it's exciting nonetheless.

After we had some food, we went to our tables - I was concerned at first because I saw I guy sitting at my table before the tournament started that I played with before. And he irritated the piss out of me. And not just because he knocked me out the first time we played. When I played with him before, he kind of tried to be the table captain, letting us all know he knew the rules of poker and all that shit [cue eye-rolling]. Hey, I'm there to play, not to put up with that kind of nonsense. Luckily he was just sitting there chatting with friends. Turns out that guy really paled in comparison to someone I met later in the evening. More on that later.

I really don't remember many hands from the early stages of the tournament - I was just being patient, waiting for the goods, and hammering anyone who decided to go along for the ride. It was working pretty well. One of the guys that went with us came over a little while later - he got knocked out. Chasing those damn straights and flushes will fuck you every time, let me tell you. I told him to hang around since they'll ususally play side games when more people get knocked out. At that point he wasn't sure if he wanted to spend more money.

Finally our table started dwindling down, and I got moved to a table with the self-proclaimed All-Knowing-Poker-Genius. This guy left the other table-captain wannabe in the dust. It was the first or second hand I was at the table and I picked up 7-8o in the big blind. The guy first to act before the flop limped in, so I just checked to see what would happen. The flop came out 4-5-2 rainbow. I really don't like playing a hand at a new table until I can check out a little more how the people are playing, so I checked to the other player. He checked, too. The turn came out an A - I checked again. I probably should just have fired at the pot, but I really didn't want to be in the hand in the first place. He checked behind me again. The river came with a 6, giving me a 8 high straight, so I bet about $500 (about the size of the pot). The guy called me with a pair of aces, so I won the pot. Well, the All-Knowing-Poker-Genius, seated to the left of the guy I played that pot with, leaned over to him telling him he made a mistake and it was "so obvious" and he'll "tell him about it later". Well, that pissed me off. I don't know if they were friends, but I thought it was terribly rude especially given I was sitting directly across from him. Jackass. Right before the break, I picked up pocket Aces on the button and raised about 3x the big blind. All-Knowing-Poker-Genius was in the big blind and I was dying for him to call. But he folded, dammit. Luckily I only had to play one or two more hands at that table before we were reassigned again.

Before I got reassigned, though, the guy that got knocked out earlier came over and said, "take a look at this!", as he fanned out a humongous stack of money, complete with a $50 bill on the bottom. He found money to play in the side games after all, and made about $350 off of it! They were playing fourty-four - what I consider to be a completely insane game that costs about $11 to see all the cards if no one raises. It's the game that did me in in the side games last time we went - I lost about $40 in 10 minutes. Obviously it worked well for him though!

Fast forwarding a bit, I made it to the final table! I had an excellent chip stack - probably not the largest, but definitely up there. The philosophy at the final table of the Legion tournaments is Play For Position. The blinds are so high in comparison to people's chip stacks that there could be 2 or 3 all-ins in one hand. So I waited - I even folded hands like K-Jo or K-10o because I just didn't want to get outdrawn on an all-in. It was working great - people were dropping like flies. Then I picked up pocket Kings on the button. There was one limper in front of me, he had a small stack, and the blinds were up to $500/$1000. I raised to $5000 and he called. Ok, so when the flop came out 2-6-6 and he went all-in I really wasn't worried. I figured he had two overcards. Maybe J-Q, J-10, something like that. If he had something like A-K or A-Q he would have raised, so unless he limped in with pocked 6s I was ok. Of course I called. Well, the motherfucker turns over A-6o and holds out to win the pot. Who calls a raise of 5x the big blind with that? Well, he did. And I lost a bunch. I wasn't destitute yet, but I would have to do some maneuvering quickly.

When it was all said and done, I finished in 5th place - definitely better that my last two attempts. Hopefully the trend will continue the next time we go.

But the night wasn't over! Dave was playing in a side game - a little mini-tournament they set up for $10. I went over to check it out and the All-Knowing-Poker-Genius was playing. Sweet mother of God, does this guy ever shut the hell up? He was regaling the table with poker trivia, "Do you know how many possible flops there are? Over sixteen THOUSAND!!!", berating people on the Gap Concept, "I can RAISE with anything I want, you CALLED my raise, see, so I'm smart and you're dumb. Why would you CALL with that? I RAISED!" and the like. I looked over at Dave who cued his own eye rolling at that moment. Where are the poker gods when you want a bolt of lightning to descend down upon the table? But then the All-Knowing-Poker-Genius made a mistake no one but me caught. He made a string bet. He did a "20 aaaaaand 80" when putting his chips in the pot without saying "raise" first. Oh, I wanted to open my mouth soooooooo bad, but I wasn't playing in the game, so I couldn't. After the hand finished (he won the pot and knocked someone else out), I mentioned casually that the hand should be declared dead because he string bet. For the first time of the night the All-Knowing-Poker-Genius shut up. Someone else at the table said something like, "Well, it doesn't really matter, the hand is over." Maybe the All-Knowing-Poker-Genius should go back and review his books!

All in all, though, it was a good night, and I pocketed about $250 for my efforts. Yes, our friend made more in the side games than I made making it to the final table of the tournament, but hey, that's poker.

Until next time...