Canterbury Park Event #1 $300+40 limit hold-em
Limit studs in Minnesota...--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Schneider wins again. It's so sick. The guy has two cashes in major tournament history... both of which are limit tournaments, both of which the guy finished first. He is officially one of the best limit poker players in the world today.
Now granted, he did catch a three outer and a six outer, but that's still sick.
The good news is that I had 5% of him. Ship the $1325. The bad news is that he had 5% of me and I finished 15th of 281 players which paid $818 gross on the $340 buy-in.
I love the fall classic for so many reasons. The tournament is a pretty good structure... It's a little fast, especially between levels 4 and 5, but mostly because of the community of people that create such an electric energy surrounding the room during these two weeks.
I had a generally uneventful first event. I felt like I earned every chip that I had the entire tournament. I got maximum value out of almost every hand and lost the minimum out of every hand, except for these couple. Here are the two interesting hands.
With thirty-some-odd players left, top 27 getting paid, I open raised the button with the Q 8 having 13,700 in chips. My image on the table was non-existent other than my youthfulness and my large stack. The two players in the binds had about 8k and 10k respectively with the blinds at 1k-2k, and both players were young leading me to believe that they were successful internet players. The flop came 8 7 5 . He checked to me, I bet, he called. The turn came A , he checked, and I... what is my proper action here? I very often have the best hand here, and even if I don't, I have 14 outs if he has an ace, 7 if he has a set, and somewhere in-between if he has anything else. What I was thinking was that he saw the A as a scare card, and unless he had that A beat he could not call, and even if he did I had plenty of outs. Furthermore, if he had a strong hand he would check-raise me, but there were so very few hands that could check raise me that I would lean towards betting almost any hand, even though a check-raise would make me puke. Comment below and I will give hand results later.
We made it down to 19 players when this hand came up. There was an over $400 jump from 27th-19th to 18th-10th that it was worth it to hang to the final two tables. I open raised the hi-jack with A 9 , and my friend Cory, a very solid player, called out of the big blind with the blinds at 2k-4k. I had raised with 19k+ in chips and he had about 30k+. The flop came heads up of Q T x, and he checked. I glanced quickly at my chips and checked behind. The turn came the Q . He checked, I sensed weakness, and I bet 4k. Cory check raised to 8k. Now, I knew that Cory sensed that I was either very strong or very weak, most likely very weak, and I knew that he knew that I knew this. I also knew that he knew that I was capable of slow playing a big hand, and I also know that he picked up on my checking my chips tell on the flop. I three bet. What sealed the deal in my book was that my 3 bet would leave me with only 3k, less than one big bet. Cory went into the tank and finally called. I was bummed. Hat's off to him for making a good read. The river came a blank, he checked, and I checked behind. He showed the T 9 and took down the pot. Nice play Cory. He went on to take third in the event.
What was so sweet about this event that Mike Schneider, Kirby Rogers, and Cory all made the final table, and they are all some of the best limit players in Minnesota if not the world, and they ended up taking 1-2-3. The entire crew of all of us were there to cheer them on, and it was so much fun to see our good buddies finish strong.
The quote of the day came when Jimmy Sommerfield, tournament director with world series and circuit experience, said to Ed, the oldest guy on the final table, "Ed, where's all your fans? All the people in the gallery are under forty!" Now Ed is easily over 70 and looks it too. Without missing a beat he looked at Jimmy and said, "They're dead," in such a non-chalant sort of way that he expected Jimmy to understand immediately. We all cracked up laughing.
Also tonight Pam from the Star Tribune showed up. Pam is a reporter for the co-major newspaper in the twin-cities area and was doing a story on the poker fad and specifically young professionals involved in it. She hit the jackpot tonight. She was hot and a ton of fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to say about toinight.
Oh yeah, I finished 2nd to Kirby in the $100 14-way last longer split 70-30 for a net of $320. So, that plus $360 minus $40 for Mike's 5% plus $1325 for my 5% of Mike. Good day.
Tomorrow is the $300+40 NL event #2. I'm gonna win one of these damn things!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
posted by Devo @ 2:13 AM
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