Tomorrow is a big event

Just wanted to give an update to everyone. Tomorrow is a $1500 buy-in and should have close to 250 people playing. That means that there should be over a 100K first place plus a seat into the main event (10k). I did not play today as the event was a seven card stud event.

Yesterday was tough as there were close to 300 players in the $1000 event and I place 42nd and only the top 27 were paid. So really looking forward to tomorrow to see if we can hit a big cash. The only exciting thing yesterday was I had James Woods (the actor) sitting directly across from me so when I wasnt involved in a hand I got to listen to tons of stories about the movie business.

He was actually a very good poker player. My table ended up being a very tough one. At one time I had 4 World Series of Poker bracelet winners sitting at my table. It was one of those days were I was just running card dead. Never had a pocket pair over 10s, had AK only once and had no action; and everyone was raising every pot, so I had to do everything I could to just grind out the chips but in the end could not get the cards necessary to stay alive. Here is how the final hand played out. I got a lot of complements on my play based on always being short stacked in this tournament.

We started with only 3000 in chips and I held my own and bested 260 players with my stack only going over 3000 in chips in the last round I played. With AJ I limped in and the flop came AJ5 and I moved all-in and was called by AQ so doubled up there.

OK here is the final hand. I was in the big blind and there were folds all around to the dealer button; he had been raising a lot of pots and raised again. I believe he was probably making a position raise as everyone folded and he could take the blinds and antes down right there with K rag or a weak Ace. So since I was already in the pot for 300 as the blinds were 150/300 with a 50 ante. so the pot was already sitting with 950 in it and his raise was 900 I only had to call 600 in this pot of 1850 so getting more then 3 to 1 on the call. So I did. the flop came 457 with 2 clubs and I am sitting with A6 of clubs so I have 9 clubs and an open ended straight draw and if he does not have an Ace another 3 outs. which gives me on the flop 18 outs which actually puts me at a 72% chance to win the hand so I move all-in. He thinks about it for a while and asks me, "why wouldnt you move in preflop if you had a pair" I just stared at the pot and waited for him to make a decision. Now with that Question I know he has an Ace and probably some sort of face card so now I only have 15 outs and maybe 14 if he has a club. which moves me to a 60%/56% respectively. So now I dont want a call even if I am a favorite I do not want to be in a coin flip for my remaining chips. After a while he finally decides to call and turns over AK. with no club... so I am a 60/40 favorite even though he has better cards due to my flush and straight draw. and if we pair the board twice only the ace will play so we have a couple ways to tie also.

Well as you probably guessed it a 9 of hearts came on the turn and a 4 of hearts showed up on the river to not improve my hand and I was sent to the rail just short of the money.

Tomorrow is another tourney and will update for that tomorrow.

Until next time....