The Epic Poker League, which was started as a exclusionary professional poker league similar to the PGA tour for professional golfers, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to hold off its creditors and to try to re-organize to have a chance at re-booting.

The rest of the season may have to be canceled but a final decision apparently has not been made and might depend on if a larger company or organization will come in to rescue the money strapped league.

Well, it’s time once again for the LA Poker Classic at Commerce. In case you don’t know what it is, it’s 54 tournaments in 44 days, sort of like a smaller version of the WSOP in Vegas. Most of the tournaments start at 1pm and are 2 day events if you make the final table or play 13 hours. There is a 1 hour dinner break around 7pm or so.

Event #1 is their $1,000,000 guarantee 5 day event with a buy-in for $335. They have 4 day ones, then one day 2. This one brings in the big crazy crowds. Last year, I made the mistake of trying to register on the day of the event and literally had to get a refund because my alternate number was so large, I figured it would take about 3 hours before I would sit down.

This year, I registered a week before the tournament so I wouldn’t have that problem. As I played, I watched the line going so far back, I didn’t even know where it ended.

You start this event with only 5,000 in chips so there are a lot of people doing some crazy all-ins to try to accumulate chips. So if you can get a hand early on, you can collect the chips of these fast players.

On my last hand, I flopped a lower flush against a higher flush and thought I was slow playing, but in reality, I was being trapped. Coincidentally, the person that knocked me out was the person I knocked out last year (in 4th place) with flush over flush. I guess we’re now even.

In another tournament, I made it to day 2 with only about 10 times the big blind, saw an ace on the very first deal, went all-in and got called by pocket Jacks and got knocked out. That was quick. While I was getting paid, the guy told me I had about 5 minutes to get into that days tournament before the break was over. I had taken the day off from work so I figured, why not?

This tournament was also starting with 5,000 in chips and since I came in 2 hours late, some people already had some big stacks. I slowly managed to accumulate some chips and noticed people going all-in when they got down to 2,000 or so. After a while, I managed to get up to almost 30,000. Then on one hand, the chip leader raised, there were 2 callers and I called with pocket 3s.

The flop was Ace, Queen, 3 with 2 spades. I’m hoping the raiser has AK, and sure enough he comes out betting. If he has a big ace, I know he probably won’t be able to get away from the hand so I make a big raise to try to get him all-in on the turn. Instead, he goes into the tank, then goes all-in and I snap call.

He shows King, Jack for a gut-shot with no flush draw. WTF? Wow, Now, I see how he accumulated his chips. Nothing comes and I double up. Now, I have some chips to really play with.

The table breaks and I move to a table where the chip leader is on my left and I basically just wait it out. I managed to get up to about 140,000 during this waiting period.

Next, we move again to what would be the final table if I were to make it that long. At this table, everybody pretty much has the same amount of chips, from about 80k to 160k or so.

Once, when everybody folded to me in the small blind, I looked down and saw 2, 3 off suit and remarked to the big blind that I would give him a walk this time, but that would be the last time that would happen.

I just say these things to mess with people’s heads.

The next time everybody folded to my small blind, I raised and he folded. I tried again after that, and he folded again reluctantly. I could tell that he wasn’t happy about it and might not take it much longer.

About an hour later, everybody folded to my small blind again. But this time, I looked down to see pocket rockets. Nice. The blinds were 2,500 – 5,000 so I raised to 12,500. I had been raising to 13,000 previously, but I didn’t have the correct change so it was a little less, making it look a little weaker, hopefully.

Sure enough, the big blind 3 bets me another 20,500. I pretend to go into the tank for a while, doing my best acting performance, then finally announce all-in, another 60k plus on top, putting him all-in.

Now he goes into the tank. I figured he was just trying to make a move so he would eventually fold after pretending to think so that I would think he had a real hand. However, after some time, he says, “I call.” This surprised me and now I put him on Queens.

I show my aces and he shows pocket 5s. Holy smokes. Pocket 5s!? WTF? He tells me he thought I was making a move with no pair. I guess he wanted to gamble because 5s are at best a coin flip against 2 over cards, which I would have even if I had 2 random cards.

But this was a great situation for me. I’m a 4 to 1 favorite and would almost double up to over 200k, which would put me in a great position to make it to day 2.

All that sounds great. Unfortunately, the window card is a 5 and I get nothing and basically I’m out of the tournament.

Ouch.

Well, that’s poker. That’s what people who got bad beats always say anyway.

I have a few more events that I want to try so maybe you’ll see another post about a bad beat.

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.