Quick State Tourney Update

I got beat up a little bit on Interpoker yesterday morning when I shouldn't really have been playing. I am impatiently trying to finish off my bonus and ended up losing $15 in the morning while I was playing and also setting up my youngest son's train set. It was a little distracting.

I did a bit better in the live State Championship tourney yesterday though. Although there were 62 people on the invite list, only about 30 showed up for the tourney. That was good news since the top 16 would advance to the National Championship.

I was really card dead through the first couple levels. I only played 2 hands until the break. One was with AJo on the button. I raised to 3xBB and was called by 3 people. The flop was J high rainbow and I bet out half the pot and had one caller. The turn was a blank so I bet out half the pot again and was called. The river was another blank. I put out a smaller bet and was called again. With about 2000 in the pot, we flipped over the same cards and it was a chop. Grrr. Ok, so I am still about even there.

The next hand I played was with QJc. I limped and the flop came out 10 high with 2 clubs. I bet my draw with about half the pot. One guy called me. The turn was a K which also gave me the straight draw so I bet out half the pot again and after some thought was called. I figured this guy probably had the pair of 10s. When the river was another king, I checked and he checked and showed me his bottom pair of 6s with his 5 kicker. Pretty ballsy I thought of him. Put be in the hole by about 1000.

After the break, I got involved in another hand and lost son chips. The blinds were now at 200/400, I had about 2200 left in chips and had been a human folding machine for 2 hours. I was also the short stack at the table and only 1 person had been eliminated from the tourney so far. This was very rare and I knew they would start to fall soon because the blinds were rising.

Finally, my patience paid off. I looked down at pocket Aces in MP. The guy on my right, who had been playing every hand and was up and down had me covered by about 400 but limped into the pot. I thought for a couple seconds and thought, if I pushed, he might call me. Even if he didn't, I would chip up 1000 from the blinds and his limp.

I pushed and everyone folded over to him. He thought for a minute and called me. He had K7d. He did hit a 7 on the turn but no further improvement doubled me up. I had about 5000 at that point and coasted for a while as people started to get bounced from the tourney.

It quickly got down to 17 people and I still had a healthy stack. I had started to get into more hands and winning small pots with continuation bets. There was one bubble hand that pissed me off though. We had a guy all in, in the big blind and everyone folded over to me. The blinds were at 1000/2000 and I had about 8000. I had been folding KQ, QJ, A9, etc because they just weren't worth calling on the bubble. There were more than one hand where, if I had played, I would have already eliminated another person so I guess I was getting a little antsy.

Anyway, I looke down at K10 suited in the cutoff and everyone had folded to me. I thought a bit and limped, hoping that the understanding would be to surround this guy and get him eliminated, getting us all in"the money". The button folded then the small blind looked at my stack and pushed! I was ripped as I folded my cards. He turned over something ok like Ax, nothing great. The BB had K2h. The flop missed them both and so did the turn. There was a 10 out there so I was already aggravated, but didn't care that much, as long as the BB got eliminated. Well, of course, he river was a K, winning him the pot and pissing me off completely. It was pretty obvious I was pissed and said something. The SB didn't even look at me. The button tried to justify it saying he did the right thing trying to eliminate us both. What do you think about that? Would you have done the same? I had obviously only limped so the SB couldn't make anything by doing this. Wouldn't you have just saw how the board came down and then bet it once you hit? It is like bluffing the dry side pot if you ask me. Again what you do you think? What would you have done?

The long story longer is that I survived and went out in 9th place. I had 6000 left with the blinds at 2000/4000 and we were down to 4 people at my table and 5 at the other. I got pocket 6s on the button and pushed. The BB had pocket 10s and I was eliminated on the final table bubble which was kind of a bummer. Even though the top 16 advance, the final table got T-shirt and certificates for where they placed. Pretty dorky I know but still kind of a bummer. Also, the winner got a 3 night trip to Vegas and being so close was again a bummer.

The shitty part of this is that, what I didn't realize is that you just get an invite to the tourney. You need to get yourself there and pay for everything but the tourney. Not sure if it is worth it or not so I need to figure it out. There were only 4 people from the bar I play at that made this tourney but 3 of us made the top 16 so we might go together. More on that as I know more. The winner of that tourney does get an entry into any WSOP/WPT 10K buyin event so it might be worth the shot, but I also think that if it is going to cost me $500 for the weekend, it might be better served in entry fees in online sattelites of the same? What do you think?