Neighborhood Charity

A few of the wives in the neighborhood are doing the Avon walk for breast cancer next month. It is a 3 day walk where they sleep in tents at night and walk all day. They have done a number of creative fund raisers like an NCAA pool, Masters pool, etc. Last Saturday night one of the husbands hosted a poker tourney. The buy-in was $50 with $20 going to the charity and $30 going to the prize pool. They also did a raffle for a bunch of donated prizes. It was a great idea with a great cause and I pimped it to a bunch of my buddies that play in my regular home tourneys.

The date was set for this a while ago and I had committed to play well before I knew I would be away for the tourney in St. Louis and then in Munich all week. I realized it just before I was leaving for Europe and mentioned to my wife that she should come too. There were a few other wives playing I thought, and although she had never played anything more than a single table tourney, she liked the game and would have fun. Plus, it was going to be a highly mixed crowd and I wouldn’t be leaving her at home as soon as I get back after being gone for the last 2 weekends, and all week.

We talked about it Friday night when I was home and she didn’t want to go. Basically, she didn’t want to waste the additional $50 plus another $50 for a babysitter since I would just be playing anyway. I was feeling big guilt, but at the same time I wanted to support the charity (yeah, I know, I could have just made the donation) and play in a tourney that someone else was hosting for a change. Plus, I had loaned him everything for the tourney like my tables, chips, etc. and wanted to play after not being able to for the whole week. On top of that, the raffle prizes were pretty good and I thought it would be a good time overall.

We had 2 baseball games on Saturday and then we went to a first communion party in the afternoon. I was going to have to leave a little bit early from the party so I could get to the tourney in time but I finally convinced my wife to at least call the babysitter and see if she was available. She called one of the other women to find out what the deal was, who was actually playing, then decided to go if the babysitter was available.

The babysitter was available so we both got to go. I went a little earlier to help set everything up while she put the kids to bed. They were hoping to get about 50 people but ended up only getting 28. Even still, with the entry fees plus the raffle, they raised a lot of money for the charity.

The crowd was an interesting mix in that I knew about half of them from my tourneys but the rest were friends of friends that didn’t really know what they were doing but wanted to help the cause. I was seated with the guy I went to St. Louis with, the woman who won one of my tourneys, another 2 that had played at my house before and 2 others who I didn’t know. My wife was seated with a few of the guys I knew could play, including the host. He actually had won a $3 nightly freezeout on Stars a while back with 2000 people for a nice $1K.

Anyway, the play at my table was pretty good except for this one guy who didn’t know what he was doing and it really hurt him. He had a set of Aces cracked by a runner runner flush, then a set of Jacks cracked by a rivered straight. He didn’t know how to bet and was just a calling station. It was almost like he was slow playing but it was unintentional. Anyway, he didn’t last too long. I didn’t either and I wasn’t too happy about it. I was pretty card dead then got AQh in MP and raised 3xBB. The woman who had won a tourney at my house when she was blind drunk thought for a minute than called it. The blinds were 100/200 at the time, so my 600 bet was a good amount to call and she didn’t have a big stack at all. Anyway, the flop missed me totally when it came 5 7 3. I bet out another 600 and she quickly called. I checked the turn because I didn’t think I could push her off her hand and we both checked the river. She turned over 58o and I was out of about half my stack to a pair of 5’s. Now I am pretty weak I guess because I would never call that raise pre-flop with that hand. Big blind or not. That played into my WWdN last night, too, but more on that in a minute.

Anyway, a couple minutes after that, there was a rumble on the other side of the room at my wife’s table. I heard, “she’s all in!”. Naturally, being afraid for my money already, and hoping that my wife wouldn’t be the first out of the tourney (this was before the guy at my table was out), I ran over to see what was happening. They hadn’t turned over their cards yet and my wife just says, “I had to call?!” They were just waiting for one person to act but she had called another guy’s all in. Being the ass that I am, I grabbed her cards to take a look just as the other guy folded. I looked, put them back down, turned around, and raised my hands in the air in victory. For her of course. She had pocket aces and had hit a set on the flop. The guy who pushed had hit a set of Ks on the turn. She basically doubled up+.

A little while after the break I was still short stacked and dealt pocket 10s. I pushed and was called by KQo by the same woman who had taken a bunch of my stack earlier. I was good until the river Q and I was out in the middle somewhere.

My wife was still doing great. She had about the second largest stack at the break and at the point I went out, was still sitting on it pretty well. I decided to play a side game but was distracted as the players dwindled and my wife was hanging tough. When it got to the final table and she was still in the thick of things, I pushed with crap and was put out of the side game. I had been playing like crap anyway and wanted to watch how she did.

She played great. Just sat back and played good cards when she got them. She has no clue about betting, bluffing or stealing but was catching enough cards to stay healthy. I guess she put a beat on someone with marginal cards and he was pissed. Cool. She won a nice pot with 5 people left but then started limping, then folding to raises. This happened like 3 hands in a row and it cost her about half of her stack because of the size of the blinds at that point. I wanted to say something to help her but kept my mouth shut. She was still in the game, and my ass was on the rail, so who knows what they are going better anyway right?

She then called a 3xBB bet when she was the BB and I was looking over the shoulder of the guy who had raised. It was the guy who was hosting and had won that tourney on Stars so I figured he was probably just trying to steal since he had seen her fold to every raise.

The flop came K x x and I saw him look at his cards. He had K 10o and pushed. She had him covered but just barely. If she called and lost, she was on life support. She thought for a second and called. I looked at her and said, “oh crap, he has the K, hope you do”. She rolled over KJ to outkick his ass, knock him out, and take a nice big pot!

Down to 4, she was the 3rd stack, my buddy from APL was the short stack, and the woman that put me out was the big stack, having the second stack just barely covered. My wife was the BB. My buddy folded and the 2nd stack limped. The big stack thought for a minute and then raised 4xBB, which put my wife all in with a call. She thought for a second, mentioned something about having to relieve the babysitter, and decided to call. Just for reference, 4th got $40, while 3rd was $120, 2nd was $240, and the winner was $370. The action was on the 2nd stack and he thought a minute, and then called also. The flop came out and the big stacked pushed! The 2nd stack again thought, then shrugged and called. They all flipped over their cards and my wife had the nut flush draw with A5c. The big stack had top pair while the 2nd stack had top pair, lower kicker! My buddy was sitting pretty as the short stack knowing that at least one was going out here.

The turn brought…A CLUB! My wife didn’t even realize she hit the flush actually. It happened pretty fast and I didn’t even say anything about the draw before the turn card was flipped. When the card came, everyone started cheering for her and she was pretty psyched up. The river was no help to the 2nd stack and he was out in 4th.

The final three played for another 10 minutes or so. Just after my buddy tripled up and had about 25% of the chips to my wife’s 35% and the big stack’s 40%, he proposed a split. Even though he was the small stack, he was the best player and wasn’t trying to fool anyone. He just threw it out there knowing my wife was done pretty much and the big stack might go for it too. They all readily agreed and that was it. $240 each with the extra $10 to the charity.

Nothing against my wife or the big stack, but unless he went completely card dead, I think he would have come back and won it. It was a good deal for everyone because the only way anyone makes more was if they won it and noone was a clear favorite with their stacks.

My wife was very excited, which I am sure will cost me in future tourneys! I was really happy for her though. Happy for me too since I was able to get her buy in back from her and put it back in my Vegas stash ;)

As far as the WWdN last night, it was ugly. I was doing ok for a little bit but had some playas at my table. Typical WWdN stuff really. Hoyazo, having played with me many times now knows I am not a huge defender of my blinds unless I have chips. Especially when it is early, I will fold to a raise unless I have a real good hand. Anyway, he got caught by someone else when he raised my blind with 87o and lost a chunk of his stack. Being the player that he is though, he chipped back up pretty quickly and was healthy again when a few orbits later, it is folded to him and he raises my blind again. Now he hadn’t had to show down to chip back up so I really didn’t know what he was playing other than the crappy 87o that I saw him lose with. I have KQo and decide to see the flop. It came 10 J J and I figured he probably missed. I bet out 500 into a pot of like 1100 and he raised me. I had him barely covered and thought it was probably just a typical Hoyazo play. Not wanted to be weak (Leak! Leak!), and thinking I probably had a bunch of outs, I foolishly pushed with my open ended straight draw. He had to call because my push was only a very small re-raise. I was right, he had missed, but unfortunately he did have big slick and I was dominated. Still, any Q, an A, or a 9 still gave me the pot. I missed my draw and was on life support. I wimpered out a little while later.

Did I play this like the donkey I am or what? Opinions being sought.

A big congrats to Carmen for making her first WWdN final table. Nice playing! Congrats to everyone, including Garth who also made the final table.

Have a good day all and see you at the Mookie tonight.