Once again, I returned to Hustler to try my hand at their tournament.  This time, it’s the Oktoberfest $500 buy-in no limit tournament, with 7,500 in starting chips, and 40 minute rounds.

This is the type of tournament structure that I like because it gives you plenty of time to make your moves, and you can make 2 or 3 small mistakes, or even 1 big mistake and still have enough chips to play.

Before the tournament, I decided my strategy was going to be to play a lot of pots and try to accumulate chips to push people around in the later rounds.

In the first round of play, I limped in with 6, 9 and 3 others were in the pot with me.  The flop was 9, 5, 3 rainbow.  One guy bet 200, and everyone folded to me and I just called with my 6 kicker.

The turn was the 8 which put the second diamond on the board, giving me top pair and now a flush draw.  The guy checks and I bet 350, now feeling better about my 6 kicker.  That lasted about a second because he check raises me to 1,350.

I had played long enough at the table to notice that this guy was pretty tight and didn’t look like a guy that would bluff this early in the tournament.  I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, but I felt pretty sure he wasn’t on a flush draw so my 9 high flush would be good if I hit it.

The river was the 3 giving me a flush.  However, the guy comes out betting 1,000.  Since I hit a back-door flush, I felt I could get some value out of raising and made it 3,000.  He thought it over for 3 seconds and called.  I showed my flush and he flips over pocket 8s for a full boat.

Whoops.  Crap.  I made 2 mistakes in one hand.  First, I should have raised on the flop and he would have probably folded.  Then on the river when the board paired 3s, I should have just called the 1,000.

This put me in a big hole but I wasn’t out yet.  Unfortunately, the same guy got pocket Kings when I got pocket Jacks, and I lost more chips.  Amazingly, I was able to get away from my pocket Jacks pre-flop so I didn’t lose all my remaining chips.

Eventually, I had to make a big bluff to try to get some chips and the move failed and I was out.

I’m not really sure if my original plan was a good one or not.  Perhaps playing 6, 9 suited got me in the trouble that I got into.  If I was playing tight, I would not have even played that hand.

In any case, I’m going to try again next Sunday for their $1,500 buy-in.  Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

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.

A few weeks ago, I went to a poker tournament at Hawaiian Gardens which was a $340 buy-in with no rebuys. I don’t normally play there but I like this particular tournament because you start with 3,000 chips and there’s no rebuys.  I didn’t do very well in the tournament but there was one interesting hand for me that went like this:

Cochinoman			Player

Flop				Turn	River

I raised from middle position with pocket 4s. Only the button called me. I flopped middle set and came out betting $650 into a pot of about $800. The player flat called me with the nuts. I didn’t think there was any way that he had the straight with 3-5 because he called my pre-flop raise so I put him on an overpair to the board. He must have gotten a boner when he saw the flop. When you call a raise with 3-5, that’s a dream flop.

But next, the board paired with the 2 <heart> which gave me a full house. I didn’t even realize that I sucked out on him. Anyway, I didn’t want to scare him off so I checked and he bet only $500. At this point, I wasn’t sure if he was betting small hoping for me to come over the top (because he had a monster), or because he didn’t like the board pairing. I made a comment about the strange bet and flat called.

The river brought my dream card giving me quads. As I started to think about how much I should bet to get a call, the player went all-in out of turn. As the dealer started telling him that he bet out of turn, I quickly called his all-in. The player took back his bet and the dealer had to call the floorman, who ruled in my favor. It was a nice double up early in the tournament. In hind sight, I guess he went all-in out of turn as a defensive bet, hoping I wouldn’t be able to call.

Unfortunately, a few hands later, a lady with AQ went all in when the ace flopped, which I called with my AK. But then got her Q on the river and took a bunch of my chips.

I returned to this tournament again yesterday and got further but still didn’t make the money. My friend Cheryl was also playing and we busted out almost exactly at the same time. During the break, she and I talked about Arial Clark who we both knew from Caribe Casino who died in a car accident with his producer/director father Bob Clark. Ariel was so talented and taken so early. He’ll be missed by many.