Yet another tournament to try at the Bicycle last Saturday. Since it was the day after the big iPhone release, I talked to a few people with brand new iPhones.

The buy-in was $120 (including fees) and there were about 297 people in the no-limit, Texas holdem tournament. It was $10k for 1st palce. We started with only 1,000 in chips but the blinds started at a low 5 – 15, and went up every 30 minutes.

My first big hand was early and I had pocket aces against pocket queens and almost doubled up. I remember a similar situation at another tournament and knocked out a player on the very first hand I played.

Unlike other tournaments, I decided to play super tight. My next big hand was pocket 10s aginst 2 players. One was the chip leader at the table and the other guy was the short stack all-in. I went all-in, and the chip leader called. They happen to both have King – Queen off suit, so I was happy to see that, and I more than doubled up there.

Near the money (they paid to 27), I tried to steal the blinds with an all-in holding Ace – 6 off suit and ran into AK. Damn. I figured I was out and stood up to get ready to leave. The flop brought me an open ended straight draw and got the needed 2 on the river. Wow. What a suck out. This kept me alive to make the money.

At the end, a guy with pocket 9’s goes all-in and I look down to find pocket Kings. Nice. I go all-in, then the button with the big chip stack also goes all-in. Unfortunately, he had pocket Aces, a 9 flops and I come in 3rd in this last hand. Well, at least I made the money.

On to some live game action.  By the way, they are finished with the expansion of the upper area and now goes all the way to Yosh’s sushi restaurant. In fact, there’s an entrance directly from the poker side to the restaurant.

Anyhoo, coincidentally, several of my friends were playing live at the Bike. Ted and Hugo were both at the same $80 no-limit table, and David was at the $100 table. I started at the $200 table and moved to the $300-$500 table (blinds $5 – $5) after a few hands. One of my big hands came up like this:

Cochinoman			Small Blind Player

Flop				Turn	River

Everybody limped in and I also limped in with a terrible 4 – 5 off suit on the button. With a hand like that, you really should raise on the button but I don’t play that way. The small blind wakes up with aces and pops it up to $40. The big blind calls, and another guy calls.  According to Cardplayer’s odds calculator, 4 ways, pocket rockets is about 54% to win, and I’m about 13.9%. Heads-up, aces would be 81.93% and I would be 17.70%. Frankly, I thought I might be able to steal after the flop, since I had position.

Before I called, I asked the small blind if he wanted me to call. He rightly says, “No!”, but the big blind says “Yes!” Heh, heh. With those pot odds, the money looked too delicious, and I called.

A dream flop came for me. In fact, I looked at my hand again to make sure. That was a tell, if anybody was watching me. As the small blind got ready to bet out, I said, “Be careful.” Which he ignored, and bet out $160. Big blind calls quickly. The 3rd guy folds, and now it’s to me.

If the big blind didn’t come in, I would have slow played it, but with the flush draw, I felt I needed to get rid of him drawing on me so I poped it all-in. I covered both players with over $500. The small blind with aces thought long and hard and made a big fold and showed me his hand. The big blind calls about $260 left of his stack.

I don’t know what the big blind had but I know I don’t want to see any clubs. When the 8 comes on the turn, I’m not really happy because he could have had 9 <club> & 10 <club> , and made a higher straight.

The Ace comes on the river, with no clubs and the big blind mucks his hand. He told me he had 2 pair but I’m not sure that’s what he had.

In any case, I was happy. Kept getting lucky at the table and made more money but that hand was sweet.

After the Hawaiian Gardens tournament, I decided to stop by the Bicycle Casino on my way home for some live action to get my money back.

On one big hand, I flopped a small flush against A <heart> & Q <diamond> , who was the initial raiser. The flop was all <heart> , and the top card was a Q. I checked and the initial raiser bet out strong. I went all-in for about $400. But since he had top pair and nut flush draw, he called.  Unfortunately, the <heart> came on the river and I got felted.

But I re-bought in and got pocket rockets, got one caller who flopped top pair and called my all-in after the flop.  He came to the table with a lot of white chips ($100) and was an action player at our table.

After that, I entered a pot raised to $20 (blinds are $5 and $5) holding Q <spade> & 8 <spade>  , along with 4 other people.  The flop was Q <club> 8 <club> 7 <diamond> . There was already over $120 in the pot, and the guy to my right bet out $100 into the pot. He was the tightest player at the table and I had not seen him play any big hands before this hand. There was a straight and flush draw so I went all in for $550.  Everyone else folded, and it was back to the tight guy to my right.

He called time and thought about it for a long time. He had over $1,000 so he had me covered. I figured he didn’t have a set or he would have called, even being a tight player. Now, I was starting to think he had a monster draw, like 9 <club> & 10 <club> , giving him an open ended straight flush draw. After what seemed like forever, he finally blurted out “I call.”

The turn was a <club> completing a flush draw. My heart sank figuring I was now beat. Then on the river, I got the 8 <heart> giving me my full house! I opened my hand to show my full house and the other player mucked his hand.

The action player on my left asked the dealer to open the cards. Personally, I never do that because I think it’s poor etiquette to do that to the losing player. The dealer opened his hand and it was 9 <heart> & 10 <heart>  which meant that he was only open ended and had 8 outs. That’s a crazy all-in call from what I thought was a tight player. I guess he got bored waiting for hands.

Not much after that, I decided to semi-hit and run and left.