I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d be more likely to play the tourney only because PokerStars had kicked in an extra 2 grand. I hate tourneys. I just can’t stand busting out with nothing to show for it. Plus, I figured I’d be nursing a hangover Saturday afternoon. But the injection of cash put a decent overlay on the tourney, more than making up for the juice, and I remember reading on some blog that you should always get in on a tourney with overlay, and I always do what some blogger tells me. Not to mention the fact that this was my first WPBT event, having missed the last two events due to conflicts with grad school, and really, I should just try to have fun in the main event of the weekend.

107 bloggers play for $7350

Over 100 of us paid $65 in exchange for T$2500 in chips and drew seats randomly out of a wireframe barrel. My first draw was for Table 1, Seat 11. After discovering that there was no Seat 11, I redrew for Table 5, Seat 9. I’m afraid that due to my terrible skills as a blogger, I can only point out a few of the guys who shared that table with me. Poker Prof took the 3 seat across from me and F Train took the 7 seat two to my right. I was less than thrilled to see Joe Speaker take the 5 seat. Having sweated a number of his tournaments on Stars, I knew the guy could very well leave me sitting on the rail. We’d tangled before at HDouble’s home game (a.k.a. the Infamous Home Game, Murderer’s Row, Suckout Circle) where Joe had made a couple of good stands against my aggression, first doubling through and then knocking me out. Luckily, his weren’t the blinds I’d be after.

Shuffle up and deal. Wee….

The early levels

I got good cards. I was aggressive. I stole blinds from time to time. I folded my tens when Joe Speaker raised to 3xBB and F Train reraised to 8xBB (with the hammer and pocket jacks, respectively). I limp-reraised Joe Speaker from UTG with pocket Kings. I stole the Poker Prof’s big blind with the Jackhammer, but no one cheered. Grubby got moved to our table and got knocked out when his Jacks lost to cowboys. The Prof eventually busted and fhwrdh took his place. I slowly built up a stack and by the third break I found I was at or near the chip lead with T$31.5k. fhwrdh had T$29k. At this point, it occurred to me that I had a good chance to finish well, and more than that, two of the LA scene had a shot at the top.

Moving up

Level 10 started with T$1000/2000 blinds. At some point, I more than doubled up someone whom I believe was Otis’ brother when I called his short-stacked all-in raise with a dominated ATo. On at least one other occasion against another player, he managed to have the goods even while raising short-stacked. I stayed out of his way with some of my weaker holdings. But it was around this time that I really understood what Doyle said about building up a stack; he was going to need those chips for when he went into a hand as a big dog. Surviving that kind of confrontation relies not only on your actions at that moment, but your actions up to it. Of course, it could also get you busted early.

I also stayed away from fhwrdh, concentrating mostly on pressuring the short-stacks, particularly when we were getting closer to the money. I had a decent stack, but I knew I was racing the blinds more than anything else and couldn’t afford to sit pretty. My stack dwindled a bit, and then I got really lucky twice. I was holding eights when there was an early position raise to 3xBB. I spent some time thinking it over, put him on a big ace, then pushed. It was folded around to the raiser, who spent just as much time thinking it over, then decided to call. Great call. My eights were dead to his tens until an eight appeared on the turn, saving me from being crippled and putting me back into the table chip lead.

When the blinds were T$2000/4000, I found A4s in the CO and raised fhwrdh’s big blind. We both had between T$25k-30k and I thought I’d widen the gap a little. Unfortunately he woke up with kings and raised all-in. I knew he had a good hand, but I was getting 3:1 for my call, a shot at a dominating chip lead, and, er, they were sooted. An ace on the flop knocked out the 2:1 favorite, sending fhwrdh literally roaring over to the bar for booze. I think I owe Kong a drink at the next home game.

The bubble gave me an opportunity to keep building the stack, and when we made the final table, I had T$72k, or 27% of the tournament chips. Even so, I tried to downplay my expectations, telling myself I could get at least sixth place, but planning to play for first. I’ve played in a few tournaments where I’ve pissed away a large stack due to end-game or near-bubble impatience, so I didn’t want to get too excited.

Final Table

When we got to the final table, I laid low for a while. There were a few short-stacks at the table, and now that we were in the money, they’d be more willing to gamble it up for a shot at advancing a couple places. Plus my at the bubble, short-handed raising hands were generally full-ring folding hands. I got lucky once more when I raised with AJo (“It’s gold, I tell ya!” –Joe Speaker) and cracked -EV’s kings with a flopped ace. I also made a badly-timed steal attempt at Gracie’s short-stack with J8s when her queens helped her double up against me. This was followed by Gracie knocking out much of the table, with an incredible run of cards.

Gracie was pretty cool to observe. There’s nothing more disarming than hearing her say to the small blind to her right, “How much do you have there? Because I’m going to put you all-in.” Especially if you’re the small blind and the action’s on you. When it got down to 3 and she and I were close to even, Gracie kept stating that she just didn’t know how to play the big stack. I chided her once when she folded her small blind to the big blind. She repeated the comment about not knowing how to play the big stack. Then, as soon as she knocked out the third place finisher with pocket rockets (again!), she looked at me and said, “You know, I may not know how to play the big stack, but I play heads-up matches almost exclusively.” I need to work on my psychological banter.

Somewhere in the background, HDouble told me to remember that Q7 was the cutoff.

We had started discussing a deal when we were four-handed, but the action continued faster than we could work it out, and once the stacks became disproportionately uneven, the deal talk petered out. I brought it up again once we were heads-up, willing to go either way, but Gracie had a 5:3 advantage and said, “Those guys wouldn’t let me do it,” waving to the railbirds calling her name. I accepted and continued to play.

A couple hands later, I had AQ in the small blind and raised to T$40k (T$4000/8000 blinds). Gracie raised me all-in and I called. Her small/medium ace didn’t hold up and I doubled up to T$200k. Gracie asked ironically, “Still want to make a deal?” I’m not sure if I answered or not, but with everything going on around me and on the table, I may have mumbled something that trailed off.

It might have been another couple hands when I got K7 in the small blind. I consciously thought, “Hey, that’s better than Q7,” and raised to T$40k. Gracie raised all-in another T$20k with JT. No help for Gracie and the river brought a 7 to give me a pair.

“Aren’t you glad we didn’t make a deal?!”

It’s over

Wow. I had outlasted 106 bloggers and their friends to defend LA’s title in the WPBT. Appropriately enough, first prize was $2572. Offsuit.

I was drained, in disbelief, and ecstatic.

Bloggers came up to me to congratulate me and introduce themselves. “You’re Mean Gene?” “Hey, Poker Nerd! How are you? What’s your real name again?!” (I never said I wasn’t occasionally socially awkward). Hey, Alan! And all the while I had no time to really talk to anyone in the flurry of it all.

So once again, thanks to all the bloggers for making my first trip so memorable.

And I’m still sorry I sucked out on you. But maybe not that sorry.