Ok…the recap from Friday afternoon’s home tournament is finally here. I know, I know, I’ve been slacking!

I helped my brother set up his poker table in the living room and brought in some chairs. The tournament was supposed to start at 2:00, but at 1:45 they were still calling people to play. We ended up with 15 guys, which turned out to be a good number after it was all said and done. My brother announced that we’d be paying the top three places, $100, $30, and $20. WHAT?!?! I couldn’t believe it. What ever happened to the standard 50% for first place? And why aren’t the top 4 getting paid with 15 people? Hey, whatever I guess, it’s not my tournament, even though I had to come up with chip distributions and help set everything up.

I drew a seat to the right of my brother at the table of 7. To Isaac’s left was one of the other supposedly decent players in the tournament. And to his left was another player who usually plays solid I was told afterwards. Shortly after 2, the cards hit the felt. On the first hand at our table, one guy flopped a flush, another ended up with a straight, and yet another rivered a full house. Somehow no one ended up all-in on the hand, which I still can’t believe. The full house was last to act and never raised to a river bet. There were only two hands that could beat his hand, KK and QQ for a bigger full house or quads. Neither of these hands were really possible from the way the hand had played out. In the next hand I limped in with two 7s. No one bet or raised all the way, so I put in a river bet, was called by big slick and took my first pot. I remember shaking as I reached for my chips to bet. Just goes to show how long it’s been since I’ve played any live poker.

Twelve minutes into the tournament, we lost the first player from our table. I still can’t believe he went out. He’s holding pocket 9s and flops trips when a 9 comes down. The turn pairs the board with two queens so now he has a full house. Someone lays down the nut flush after some big betting between the pocket nines and another player. The river pairs the other odd board card, a 4. So now the board is showing two pair and his 9. It’s pretty obvious the other player has at least a queen in his hand, but he still calls the all-in. The other player turns over QQ, so the guy that went out was behind the whole way and drawing dead after the turn. It wasn’t like his stack was so low that he couldn’t come back. The blinds were still at 5-10 and he had at least 300 in chips left. Although this may have been the worst move of the day, there were plenty of bad players.

For about the first hour and a half of the tournament I saw a shitload of pocket pair, but couldn’t get a third one to flop. I could have called someone’s all-in with my pocket twos and took him out when a 2 flopped, but I chickened out, not wanting to let someone double up and take a big chunk out of my stack. Instead, the chip leader called and let him double up. I was dealt big slick three times and won all three times without a showdown. After about an hour and a half I was dealt jj. A small stack went all-in before me, so I decided to go all-in over the top, attempting to force everyone else out. Well, the chip leader, who had already taken 3 people out of the tournament, thought for awhile and called with big slick. The first all-in had qt. My first thought was that I had to survive three overcards, but then I realized I only really needed to survive the ace and king to stay alive and make money on the hand. Sure enough, a queen flopped, but no other help came, so the small stack trippled up and I almost doubled my stack.

I didn’t really get anymore exciting hands to speak of and we moved down to one table of eight players. We had lost three of the original seven from our table and also knocked out two more that were sent over from the table of eight. The chip leader had taken out all but one player so far, so he had a pretty substantial chip advantage on the rest of the final table. I have to mention that he was playing just about every hand you could imagine. He was also catching with every hand you can imagine. He’d bet with his ace high on the flop and get two aces to come on the turn and river. He’d come in with two shitty offsuit cards and flop two pair. It was unreal. More on this soon…

Once we were down to the final table, there were some pretty short stacks. I’ve never seen guys so obsessed with going all-in “in the dark”. It was the thing to do I guess. I mean, shit, these kids were doing it when they still had three or four hands until the blinds hit them. Pretty dumb if you ask me. It’s one thing if Doyle Brunson does it because he had a read on the other players at a table, but these kids were doing it because they thought it was cool. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about my chances to make the money.

I called one of these “in the darks” with aj and of course lost to some bullshit that hit a pair on the flop. We eventually got down to 4 players and I was sitting in 3rd place. My brother had the shortest stack and was sitting to my right, so the blinds would hit him first every orbit. After a few hands I looked down at 7s8s in the big blind. The chip leader was on the button and just called. For a second I thought I should raise, but I didn’t. The flop was 9sjcqs, giving me a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. For some reason the button bet first with a minimum bet. He had been folding to my bets all tournament long, unlike all the calls he was giving everyone else. I liked my chances at a draw and thought he’d fold anyways so I went all-in, wanting to win the pot right there. He took a second and called with kd4d. He had a gutshot draw to a higher straight. I hit a 7 on the turn to pair up and take the lead, but of course a 10 came on the river. Neither card was a spade and I was out in 4th, with nothing to show for it. I still can’t believe he called, but he was hitting every card he needed throughout the tournament, so his confidence must have been high.

My brother finished 3rd shortly after and then the chip leader lost heads up. The whole tournament took just over three hours which was suprising. The blinds were increasing every 25 minutes and we weren’t always going up double, so there was plenty of time to play my game. The only regret I have is not raising pre-flop on the hand I went out on. I’m almost sure he would have folded his hand because he had been folding pre-flop to me the whole time. Other than that, I played about as perfect as I could hope for. There wasn’t any other real poker player in the room from what I saw and I’d bet that none of them have every read any books, except for my brother. I played tight the entire way and people were afraid when I put chips in the pot. Even at the final table with one of the shorter stacks I heard several people say that they thought I’d win. All I could think of was getting heads-up against the chip leader. I’d let him bluff off his stack hoping for his miracle cards, but I never got the chance.

It was a lot of fun though. It made me realized that I really need to start playing live poker more.