The Club Regent Hackfest Part 2 - Tuesday Tournament

I wanted to talk a little more about Club Regent. Instead of focusing on the cash games I would like to talk a little bit about the Tuesday night turbo tournaments. I guess I don't have much else to talk about because there haven't been any exciting high limit home games and I haven't been playing a lot of online (as previously mentioned, I am taking a break from higher limit cash games and only log on to slash around in the occasional tournament). Don't worry, LA is just around the corner, I'll have many bad beat stories to share then.

Anyway, Kathy and I went down this Tuesday to play the rebuy tournament. I rarely play this tournament because the blind increase too quickly, but it just so happened that nothing was going on this week and neither Kathy or I had played the tournament in months...so bring on the punishment.

In typical fashion, I had a fun and expensive rebuy period. During what I call 'the power hour' I issued a few beats to those I knew would issue them back after the rebuy. Luckily, I won the last hand of the rebuy with 86 all in preflop. I was up against 99, 1010, and AK, they didn't stand a chance as I rivered a straight. This sent a couple rocks to break talking to themselves saying 'how could he go in with a 86, he must not care about money' and 'the rebuy period is silly, its not real poker, they should just get rid of it'. (of course I will not get into the varying strategies behind rebuys nor will I explain the pros and cons of this tournament setup as most of you already know what I would say. Unfortunately, the typical Regent rock is clueless). So anyway, as we transitioned from rebuy donkey poker to post rebuy donkey poker, I was off to a good start having almost 10k in chips.

Over the next few hours I managed to tread water as I was unable to get anything going. With tournaments so situational, I just couldn't find many spots to pick up chips. People were pushing before it got to me or they would hit the flop against me when I was the aggressor. So, with a little hacking here and slashing there, all of a sudden I looked around and we were down to 3 tables. As I looked a little closer I could see that 15 to 20 of the usual suspects remained as it was now time to put on the blindfolds and start shoving. I have played both the rebuy and the freeze out enough times to know when situational luck takes over completely. In the rebuy its when the field is down to about 30 and in the freeze out its when the field is down to about 15. In both cases, this is far too early as far as I'm concerned, but beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, with about 10k in chips and the blinds at 400 / 800 a shooter who has shoved about 5 times (called twice showing a4 and k10) announces before the hand that if he gets any ace he will shove again, sure enough action is folded to him and he shoves for about 6.5k. I look down and find AJ and decide I probably have the best and I go over the top all in for 10k. Everyone else folds and shooter shows an AK suited, sweet. I lose and am crippled. Next hand I play is when I was in the small blind with 2800 chips, action is folded to me and I decide to push with 63 diamonds hoping the big blind has nothing. Unfortunately he has AK suited, fortunately though, I win the race and have a little room once again (Note: suckout #3 in about 25 tournaments at Club Regent, I usually run like a three legged horse with a 3oo pound jockey). After the suckout, the blinds kept moving up, and after a couple blind steals and eventual flop bluffs when called preflop, I found myself at 35k without showing a hand. At this point Kathy got bounced and we were down to 22 players with an average stack of about 15k.

It was at this point that I ran into problems with my most problematic hand, AQ. A rather tight player had raised twice in a row from early position and he was once again raising. Both he and I had the most chips at our table. He just knocked someone out and the blinds just went up to 2k/4k that hand. There were 2 big blinds and he made it 8k to go. I knew it was risky but I felt that he would fold anything less than QQ, KK, AA, or AK to my over the top all-in and I could pick up 16k, so I moved in after his raise. All of a sudden everyone was trigger happy and two smaller stacks called all-in followed by the original raiser who had 30k....ouch! I was up against AA, KQ, and KK from the big stack. The KQ was the smallest stack and won the main pot with a flush, the AA took side pot 1, and KK took side pot 2 leaving me with about 5k to maneuver with. Thinking I'm dead, I pushed in the very next hand UTG with Q7 and was isolated by AJ and won. This tripled me up. Then, the very next hand while in the big blind, the button limped and I had 109. This individual was a weaker player that would only bet if he touched the flop so I figured I'd rather see a flop than move on him and maybe get called. Sure enough the flop was rags and he checked behind me. The turn was a K and thus I checked again afraid this card could likely hit him, KJ/K1o,K9 suited, but he checked again. The river was brought in a 4 card straight with 236K5 and I decided to go all-in knowing that card couldn't have helped as his limp range would not hit that card. Sure enough he folded. I pushed all in on 2 of the following 3 hands with quality and all of a sudden I was back to almost 35k. Not two minutes later someone open shoved for 15k with 99 and I found KK and it held. This put me at 50k and now I would lean. By this point we were down to 18 and they paid 15 so it was the perfect time to apply pressure especially when the only big stack was to my right. So, I raised 6 of the following 8 hands and made my way up to 80k before everyone hit the money. Once everyone was in the money, it took approximately 5 minutes to eliminate 5 short stacks that were obviously hanging on to cash, congrats, enjoy the $183.

Final Table:

I started the final table tied for chip lead at 81k and I knew there was going to be a lot of opportunities to steal blinds because there were at least 5 short stacks, most of whom were more inclined to climb the money ladder then to clash with chip leader. However, with blinds at 3k/6k there was not much room for mistake. All said and done I was as confident as one could be about winning given the situation. So, without much delay Tony announced the chip counts, the dealer cut for the button, and we were on our way. On the very first hand I was dealt AQ of diamonds under the gun and raised to 15k. Everyone folded to the big blind who had half her stack invested in the blind and chose to call with A6 (can't say I blame her). The hands turn up, the guy to her right declares he folded a 6, and the dealer reveals a Q for the door card...beautiful. Unfortunately, there was a 6 on the flop, and unfortunately, the case 6 hit the turn. Nice way to start the final table. Instead of moving to 100k I was chopped down to about 65k. Over the next 5 hands, short stacks were pushing, usually with the worst of it, and each time they won. After folding these hands and paying the blinds I sat at about 55k when I picked up JJ in mid position. The blinds just went to 4k/8k and I open shoved. Immediately, I was called by a tight player and I knew I was beat, he showed KK. I laughed to myself wondering how I could be the first out? Was I not a good person, good people deserve better fates. Anyway, without having to wait a jack was the first card out and I soon found myself on top again with 120k, beautiful. I had the poor guy covered by about 2k. The very next hand I had 109 diamonds and raised, unfortunately a short stack found aces and won, down to 108k. Two hands later I was in the blind when another short stack who was going to pay the blind next hand pushed in for 12k, everyone folded to me and I had 89. I called another 4k and he showed me a9, yuck. I lose, down to 96k. Next hand I'm in the small blind and another short stack who also was under the gun raised all in for 14k and everyone folded to me. I only had Q7 suited, but given the fact I had 4k invested, that the big blind was a rock and only had 20k total, I figured I could probably isolate against the desperate short stack and be risking an additional 10k to win a 36k pot. Anyway, somehow the short stackers kept finding legitimate hands, and of course once again, I did not have live cards as he tabled QJ suited. I lost, down to 82k. Over the next 15 or so hands I folded everything as people were pushing all-in every time and not once did I pick up a hand and not once did I have a reasonable situation to steal. During this time I did get free pass on my big blind. Then, in the following big blind I had QJ suited. This guy Wayne from early position min raised to 16k. Wayne was the only guy at the final table with a clue and frankly he was starting to accumulate chips and starting to open too many pots so I decided to call and check blind. I don't check blind very often but I know Wayne will push if I check the flop givin the money already in the middle, so with QJ you either hit or you don't, unlike a small pair where I would like to fire all in if the flop was rags. Also, he may check if he misses as he knows I'm capable of playing the same way with AA or KK. Anyway, the flop comes 532 rainbow and he checks behind me. I know he has missed so I say to myself anything but an A, K, or 10 and I push into him. Turn is a K, I check he fires all-in I fold and he shows me the K. Sick turn or I take down a monster and become big chip leader.

The next time I played a pot we were down to seven players and the blinds were 10k/20k and I was sitting at 70k in the small blind. Everyone folded to the button who was tight and he pushed all in for 28k. I looked down at j10 diamonds and deliberated for a minute. I felt this was the toughest decision to date. I figured I was behind and if I called and lost I would be dangerously low to a point I could no longer steal blinds without showing down. On the other hand, if I could win this hand I would be back up to almost 100k and could apply significant pressure once again (it seemed that every time someone would accumulate a big stack, they would play tight trying to outlast their opponents instead of applying pressure. So, I thought if I could get a good stack again I may be able to steal my way to victory). The big blind had about 38k so if he called I had limited additional exposure. Anyway, I decided to go for the win and call. My opponent tabled AQ and won.

The Final Blow:

2 hands later I had k2 off. On the previous hand, someone was knocked out, which resulted in an extra blind being posted (don't ask me to get into their silly house rules). The action folded to me in the cutoff and I couldn't resist pushing my 42k (besides I didn't have many more looks before I would be blinded out). Both small blinds were short stacks like me and the big blind was the chip leader. I figured that both blinds would fold unless they had a monster hoping instead the big stack would knock me out and each of them would move one step higher on the pay scale. Unfortunately Wayne found AJ and called. The big blind folded and we were heads up for about 125k with all the dead money in play. I lost the showdown and finished 6th for about $1,100.

Its tough to play with the blind structures offered by Club Regent. Maybe one day they will host a real tournament where skill plays a bigger part. In any case, I thought I would provide some rationale behind my decisions. I do know the peanut gallery was snickering from time to time when I revealed some of my less than formidable showdown hands, but what u gonna do? I play to win.

Cheers,