Campfire Stories

Commerce Holiday Bonus Tournament Day 6, $300+30 Final Table... Good news!

I told you this was going to happen!!! About 40 days ago I predicted that I would win a tournament this fall. You can read about it here. 17 live events later including two third place finishes and one 15th place finish, I fulfilled that prediction. I began the $300+30 NLHE event #5 final table tonight at 9pm PST second in chips looking to take down a long awaited first place finish.

When I sat down at the table I was quite happy with the outlook. We were actually ten handed and I was in the ten seat. The good news was that my friend John Turner was in the 8 seat who was the chip leader and the only other serious player at the final table. But, that was about all the good news that I was going to be having in the beginning of the final table. I started out very slow until this hand came up. I was in the big blind on the 1500-3000/500 level. UTG with just a couple less chips than me limped, MP2 limped, and it was folded to me in the big blind. The MP limper had about 35k in chips. I looked down at J J and raised it 8k more. The UTG player, who I have never seen nor played any hands with before called pretty quick, and the MP player folded. The flop came 8 8 2 . I bet 15k and the UTG player moved all-in after a little thought. The raise was enough to leave me with only 7500 in chips. This was a spot like I have never been in before in a tournament situation. The way the hand was played screamed AA, maybe KK. I went into the serious tank and I got absolutely zero read from him either way. I tried every trick in the book and still got nothing. I finally laid my JJ down after showing it to John. The UTG player showed me 7 7 . AYA. But, even though, I still felt that I was in a good spot.

The play went pretty standard from there on out. I actually caught some big hands and was able to put together a ton of chips. I trapped a guy sweet with AA, smooth calling his raise pre-flop, and he shoved with AK on the 9 high flop. My hand was good and I made a ton of chips. I busted him a few hands later when he raised with QJ and I went over the top with A J and my hand was good. Five handed I took a SICK beat for a pot worth over 120k with the 76o on a Q77 flop. My opponent had about 45k left and I knew he wanted to shove badly, so I only bet 15k on the flop into a 43k pot with my flopped trips. He called, and shoved on the 5 turn. I called instantly and he showed 55 and I did not improve.

We got down to three handed with John holding most of the chips and me and the 55 guy being about even. Then this sweet hand came up. I raised the button my standard with the A K , 55 guy cold called the SB, and John folded the BB. The flop came K 7 6 . He checked, I bet 30k, he called. The turn came the A . He checked and I went all-in for just over 65k. He called after some thought with the K T and I had him drawing dead. John eliminated him on the next hand and we were heads up.

Now, John is a friend of mine and also an excellent player, so we decided to make a save. We saved 25k each and decided to play for the remaining 5700. He had a 40k chip lead on me. I picked up a few small pots and then this hand came up.

I raised the button with T9o standard, and he called the BB. The flop came K Q 8 , and I had a gutterball. He checked, I bet 40k, and he raised it to 100k. He played it so perfectly that I really didn't think he had anything that could stand any heat and I shoved all-in. He called quickly with the A A . Ouch. But, running good is running good and I spiked the J on the river to take down the pot and pretty much the tournament. He doubled on a pointless hand, and then I finally finished it all-in blind with the T 9 to win the trophy, the extra 5700, and the few extra best all around points. Such a sick beat that I put on him. I am really glad that we made a save so that it was only a 5k bad beat, not an 18k bad beat. It was only the 2nd bad beat that I put on anybody the entire tournament, and I have taken my extra share of beats this week!

Thrilled to win one. Such a nice bankroll boost to add $30k cash to it. Thanks so much to my Mom who came out and watched, seeing me in action for the first time ever, Doug, Katy, and to Mike C, Kirby, and Mike P who stayed as long as they could before they had to head to the airport. Your support meant so much to me!


A couple of funny things happened yesterday that I want to talk about. First, when we consolidated tables to the money, one player set his chips down on my table, left for a smoke, came back and said, "Where are my chips?!?" His chips mysteriously vanished. Uh oh. Instead of stopping the clock and figuring out what was going on, they continued play on the other two tables and held us up while they figured out what to do. They then gave the guy a new stack of what he said he had, fortunately only 3k. Second mistake. He went busted two hands later, and two hands after that we went on break. Thank God they actually took time to figure out what was going on during the break and held everything up until they came to a conclusion. The surveilence tapes came back inconclusive as to what happened to the chips, which is very fortunate to whoever swooped up the chips, because they would have been disqualified. Bad job not figuring it out immediately, good job taking the time to figure it out on break.

Second, with about 20 players left I found myself against an all-in player pre-flop with the A7o v. ATo. The flop came QJ9, turn 2, river 9, and I turned my hand face down because I thought I lost. The dealer pushed the pot to the other player when John, who was standing behind me watching, said, "Hey! That's a chopped pot!" I quickly grabbed my cards and turned them face up and got half the pot. WOW. Nobody at the table, including the dealer, saw the chop. Thank you John!

So, great great night... one of the best ones ever. Thanks for your support!

Peace and good luck!

Devo

posted by Devo @ 7:21 AM |