Commerce 50K

As previously stated, my brother-in-law and I played the 50K guarantee, last Friday night at the Commerce. They got 304 runners, with registration open through the first 3 levels. The buy-in was $220, and for that you got 5K in starting chips, with opening blinds at 25/25, and 30 minute levels, and a buffet coupon. The buffet was setup outside the tournament area, on the 2nd floor, and made it convenient for the players. Nothing fancy, just sandwiches, pizza, chips and drinks.

My plan going in was as it is in any MTT I play, namely, play solid poker, pick good spots, and have a good time. My opening table was a pretty good one, and after playing the first few orbits, I quickly ID my mark. He sat in the 6 seat, an older fellow, who could have been Hugh Heffner's twin brother, only this guy was more burly, and had quite the stare. He was your basic calling station, so I felt I could really outplay this guy, and get some chips if the opportunity arose.

Well that happen at the 50/100 level. It had folded to me OTB, and I raise 3x holding QJoff. Hef decides to cold call and we see a flop of Q94. He checks I bet 600, he calls. Turn is another Queen, and now he leads into me for 2K. So I stop and think for a second or two, figure he's got the 9, so I go ahead and shove. So he gets out of his chair, and proceeds to give me 'the look'. I don't know about you guys, but when this happens, it just cracks me up beyond control. So there I am basically smiling/smirking back at him, and he's just giving me the stare, with smoke coming out his ears! Then I get the speech about how he has a big hand....blah...blah....blah....and he mucks. Shortly after it was the 1st break, and as I was relating the story to my BIL, he walks by and I could swear I could still see the smoke coming out his ears! LOL!!! So after that hand, I had my stack up to about 8K or so.

I basically went card dead after that, until near the end of Lvl 6, and just before the 2nd break. I'm guessing the blinds were about 300/600. I had blinded down to about 4k, when a guy in late position opens the pot for 3x. The SB calls and I have AQ. Big hand at that point, and given the late position raiser and the cold call, I had no choice but to raise all in. The original raiser folded, and the SB tanked and finally decided he was getting proper odds by declaration, and called with JT sooted. So I'm ahead, but not too crazy about it. Luckily, I faded his outs, and more than doubled up to about 10K or so.

Next orbit I'm in the BB again, this time with 88. UTG who had just got his KK cracked by Ace Rag, opens for 4x. Folds to me and I have 8's. I can see the guy is steaming, and felt his raise was not of a premium hand that he could call an all-in. So I shoved, and he snapped called with 7's...Hooray...double up again, now sitting at about 21K or so.

Then the very next hand, I finally get AA. So I raise 3x and it folds to the JT guy previouisly mentioned in the SB, and he makes the call. He has me covered, but not by much. Flop comes J high rainbow. He leads into me for about 2/3 pots, I shove and he tanks! After telling me again that he has a big hand...blah...blah...blah....he makes the call and tables KJ, and is utterly in disbelief with he see's my rockets. That look was classic. I faded his remaining outs, and all of a sudden I'm sitting on a 44k stack, going into the 2nd break.

Caught up with with my BIL, and he had about 12k, and I of course told him of my good fortunes to finish off that last level. Knowing he had to make a move pretty soon, he unfortunately busted when his AK couldn't outrun AQ, and he was out shortly after returning from the 2nd break.

I had one other hand of interest right around the bubble, which was a pretty ridiculous beat, which for once, I gave and it felt pretty awesome, although outwardly, I remained cool. I don't like to show anyone up, and felt pretty bad for the guy. Basically, he open shoves about 8k from early position with AA. Folds to me OTB with KK. I have him covered, and of course, I call. I see his AA, rap the table, say nice hand, and watch as the flop comes AQT, giving him a set of Aces. The table starts rooting for the Jack, given we were close to the bubble, which of course was not cool, but nothing I could do about that. Turn is a blank, and with the table in full chant, the dealer flips the J on the river, to send this guy home just short of the money. Unreal, live poker has to be rigged!

But the poker gods being what they are, I knew that it could happen to me, so I curb my elation by celebrating internally, but dang forgot them poker gods can read your soul as well!

So this takes us to the bubble. Man oh man was the bubble CRAZY. So basically what starts the comotion is that the TD declares that the bubble has cracked. So, at our table, the dealer deals the next hand, which didn't make sense to me, since if the bubble broke, we were down to 27 players, and thus should have been shrunk to 3 tables. Yet the 4 tables dealt the next hand, so thinking that we were in the money, one of two shorties at my table moves in for about 6K from middle position. Folds to shorty #2 in the SB who calls all in, and then the guy in the BB who had them both covered with about a 12K stack, calls both of them with QT. 1st shorty has KK, 2nd shorty has 99, and they run the board giving QT 2 pair on the river, and thus eliminating 2 players. Well once that happens, the TD yells out that he had made a mistake, and that the bubble had not busted the previous hand. So of course, now all hell breaks loose. The shorties said they wouldn't have been in the pot (yeah right Mr KK), but certainly the QT would not have called. Apparently some other tables had similar issues, and it took them a good 20 min, which included giving all the players a break to sort it out. In the end, the the shorties at my table were giving the 27th place money to split, and that was that. I went and got a drink, as I didn't want to really be in the middle of it, but certainly EVERYONE else had an opinion, and as ugly as it was getting, I just walked away. Pretty crazy.....

Ok, so fast forward, we are down to 18 players, and I open from early position with 8's. Folds to the guy in the SB who had just lost a fairly big pot, having been one of the chip leaders, and still had about 30k left. He decides to flat, and the flop comes 256. He insta shoves and I have him covered with about 50K, but certainly take time to think about his play.

Let me take a pause here to say that it's situations like this, is where there is a big difference between online vs live play. If this happens online, I think it's a tougher call, of course you would factor all the numbers, and the players stat, style of play, etc...but in the end, nothing beats looking right at your opponent, and making your read. I mean you really get alot of information from the player's actions/mannerism's/demeanor, etc. Now it's a whole other story about how well you can interpret these signs, but certainly, when someone is truly uneasy, it's very hard to hide. Of course there are reverse tells, hollywooding, etc, but what in my short live experience I have found, is that unless it'a pro, people really can't hide their feelings in big situations.

Ok, end of stating the obvious to many of you, but I finally called him, and he tables 77. I managed to not get sucked out on, and bust the guy and now have 80k or so, and probably top 3/4 stacks out of the remaining 17. The chip leader I should mention is sitting to my left. He's a very cool cat, dressed in a 3 piece suit, pink tie, D&K Sunglasses, and let's say he could have been Charles Barkley's twin. We had been sitting together for the last couple of hours, and frankly he stunk. However, you can stink and still get a big chip stack. He had been on my left, but when we redrew at 18, he got the seat to my left. Let me tell you how he ammased his about 200K stack.

When we were down to 20 players, button opens for 4x, so 3200. The SB has about 20K and flasts, and Barkley had about 100K and flats as well. The button has about 80K. Flops comes J86, two crubs. SB shoves, Barkley declares he's all in, and to everyone's surprise, the Button also calls all-in, creating a massive 2ook pot. So the SB had flopped a set of 8's, Barkley had flopped a set of Jacks, and the button had AK of crubs. AK's sweat ended on the turn as the 6 pair, and that was that. Thats when we redrew, and Barkley got the seat to my left.

So this takes me to my final 3 hands I'll discuss. We are now down to 13. I'm sitting on about a 80K stack. I open for about 8k with 77, and the BB flats me. He has me covered, with about 140K stack. Flop comes 7Q9. So theres about 20k in the pot, he checks it to me, and I bet about 13K. He thinks for a moment, then declares he's all in. I insta call him, and he makes the 'oh shit' look, and tables AQ. So now I'm sitting pretty, with 160K, and I'm sure 2nd to Barkley.

Now I did lose about 30K to the same guy a few hands later, when he had AK vs my AQ, but we both played it slow, and so I had about 130k going into my very disgusting bustout hand.

Last hand Barkley opens for 9k from UTG. Our table btw is 6 handed. Folds to me, and I'm staring at AK sooted in spades. So after mentally reminding myself about the 18K 1st place prize money, and the fact that I would be entering a hand with the chip leader, I promply re-raise to 21K. He insta flats. The flop comes:

AKQ

I somehow get mentally transported to LaLa lands equivalent of Bum Fuck Egypt, blinded to all thought and reason, and somehow manage to get all in, only to be showned QQ. What can I say? That's about as bad as it gets. To play what I thought was solid 8 hrs of poker, and to see that run end that way, was by far the biggest disspointment I can think of ever having at a poker table. Had I taken a moment to think about it, I should have gotten away from the hand...yes, even though I flopped top two. I had played with the guy for probably now close to 3hrs+. I had seen him be a cautios calling station. He never RAISED once! Given I had the AK, the only hand he's happy to get all his chips in on that flop, would be with QQ...it's the only hand that makes sense, yet I foolishly gave away my tournament.

So instead of fighting for the top $'s, I got $600 buckaroo's, which netted me about $400.

So there you have it. The last 2 trips to Commerce have resulted in deep runs for me, the last time actually making the final table, which I blogged about before. If you want to read about it, just type Commerce in the Search box above right, since I'm too lazy to link after writing this rather long post.

2BA