The Taste Of Victory, Part II - No Not the P.Diddy Remix...

3/28/09

The Taste Of Victory, Part II - No, Not the P.Diddy Remix...

Today, I checked out the new M Resort Hotel/Casino, located
on South Las Vegas Blvd. It's not near the Strip at all,
but a welcome site in a sea of cookie cutter housing
subdivisions in southeast Vegas. But believe you me, this
place is pretty plush. I would rank it as one of the best
looking locals casinos off the Strip.

It seemed pretty busy too, but that may be the fact that
this is a new casino and that we're in the middle of
March Madness college b-ball.

I've been meaning to check out the poker room, so it was
a perfect excuse when one of my co-workers mentioned that
they started NLHE tournys there this week. So, this morning
I met up with him and a buddy of his, to play in the tourny.

The tourny buy-in is $55.00, where you get $3,000.00 in
tourny chips. The blind levels change every 30 minutes,
so you got a little bit more time to play poker and not
necessarily gambo gambo in the first level of blinds.
I think there was a total of 45 players.

I think I've mentioned it before, I'm kinda' glad that
I don't pick up pocket Aces or Kings in the beginning
of tournys, because of the commitment to play them to
the end of the flop at times. And, I hate getting
badbeated or "outlucked", lol. But again, I wish every
starting hand could be either pocket Aces or Kings
everytime, hehe.

Anyway, the 3 of us traded ten percent of our gross
winnings, if any of us make the cash. I always offer it,
it's like insurance for you in the tournament. You have
a couple more chances to win, ya' know.

I made a semibluff early in the tournament to chip up a
bit and try to show my initial table, that I was willing
to gamble with the worse hand on the flop. It basically
went like this. We were about 8 handed on my first
table. A couple of the players had already gotten
knocked out. It was during the first few minutes of
the third level of blinds $100/200. I had only about
$3,000.00 in total at the time and was in the big
blind. A mid position player (pretty erratic guy, but
had a good stack of about $7,000.00 chips) called the
big blind, the next player who called was the dealer
button (filipino guy probably about my age or older,
he played pretty good, he said he was a part time
dealer too), the small blind player (white senior
citizen dude) called and I then peeled up Queen/Four
of Clubs, where I checked my option to raise. The
flop came out 6 of Spades, Five of Clubs and Two of
Clubs. I had a gutshot straight draw, flush draw and
an overcard with the Queen. Some good possibilities,
but basically Queen high at this time. The small
blind checked, I checked, and the midposition player
checked. When it got to the dealer button player, he
stared at the flop for about a minute and made a bet
of $600.00, so now the pot held about $1,400.00 total.
The small blind player folded, so now it was up to me.
I paused to think what the dealer button and midposition
players could have. I was thinking they both held
some type of marginal Ace or facecards, where they
didn't hit the flop, as it came pretty low. I then
looked at my chips and it didn't feel right just to
call the bet from the dealer button player. Since I
had "outs", I felt the better play was to raise all
in. I mean, he could have the better hand at this
time, but I had the turn and river cards to hit my
hand. Like I said before, I don't think the dealer
button player and midposition player had any thing
on the flop, so my bet should elicit folds from both
players. I ruled out flush draws for the other 2 players
as well, as I seemed to notice that they would overbet
their flush draws. Alright back to the grill again, the
midposition player then asks me what I have, trying to
get a response. I just look at him and say nothing.
He folds, whew, now to the dealer button player. He says
to me that he has a pair of Fives on the flop, but no
clubs, again trying to elicit a response from me. He
thinks for about 30 seconds, folds and says "good bet".
You know what, I think to myself, I'm gonna' show my
hand here. I want to show a bit of table image to the
other players, that I am willing to gamble it up with
them, "So don't mess with me FOOL!", hehe.

Throughout the tourny, I didn't get into many confrontations,
where I was called all in for my toubrnament life. The only
all in that was called by another player, was when I had Trip
Sevens. The sequence was that the UTG player (an older
lady) limped in, everybody folded, the small blind player
(white dude my age) just called and I peeled up Ten/Seven
OS. I checked my option. The flop was dealt Six/Seven/Seven
of all different suits. Beautiful, the small blind player
checked, I checked and the UTG player checked. The turn
was dealt a Queen. I decided not to check and made a pot
sized bet (approx $3,000.00, I had about $4,000.00 left)
and hoped somebody hit a Queen. The UTG player went all in
and the small blind player folded (he said he folded Ace/Queen,
wow, that was a good laydown). I of course called and pleaded
the poker gods to not give me a suckout on the river. The
river was dealt a pretty Ace of Diamonds. Dang, I wish she
didn't go all in, the small blind player, might have called
with his eventual top 2 pair. It's all good, I got more than
doubled up.

I also made a good call when this other player went all in.
I had pocket Nines in the cutoff and started to think about
what he could have. The other player who went all in, seemed
to be a pretty good player, but I felt he had a wide range
of what cards he would go all in with preflop. I was also
thinking about what the other players behind me would do.
They seemed pretty tight and would not call an all in
without some made hand or at least Ace/Queen. The lady to
my right even folded Ace/King of Diamonds to this same guy
a few hands ago, when she had him outchipped. I mean, that
is a tight laydown, especially with the blind amounts at
the time. Anyway, I felt that I had the guy beat and I
would take a race if he had overcards (I was thinkin' he
had Ace/Rag though). After I called his all in (I had less
chips), the other players folded and we flipped up our cards.
Whattaya' know, he had Ace/Five OS. Cool, just have to outrun
his Ace on the flop. The flop came out Five/Three/Two of
Clubs, luckily he had no clubs, but gross anyway, now he
had 2 Fives, 4 Fours and 3 Aces to win (he had 9 outs).
The turn was dealt a 6 of Diamonds, whew. The river card
was dealt a nonthreatening Ten of Diamonds, double whew.


I didn't really have any further confrontations the rest of
the tourny. We got to five handed and decided to chop the
pot. The blinds were getting very big and each of us were
pretty much the same in chips. It would be a luckfest the
rest of the way. Got paid about a little over 6 to 1 on
my buyin, I then gave $30.00 bucks each to my coworker and
his buddy for their ten percent. Not bad for a Saturday
afternoon. Wish it was a Bellagio Saturday $1K tourny
win though, hehe.

Funny thing before chopped, was that the last 6 of us
decided to contribute another additional ten bucks for the
bubble person (the tourny was to pay only the top 5 spots),
so the bubble person would at least get most of their money
back. The bubble person was talking pretty bold in the
beginning of 6 handed play, saying that she would chop only
if she got the actual first place money of about $560 and
then the rest of us would chop the rest. She wasn't even
a dominant chip leader at the time, I think she had maybe
3 or 4 more bets than the next chipleader. She was the one
who laid down Ace/King of Diamonds earlier. Then she mentioned
that she wanted to chop earlier, when she only had 2 bets left.
Karma is a biznatch, hehe. She eventually bubbled in 6th place
and got her $60.00 (her net equity was actually negative
$5.00, take that you scurred Ace/King Diamonds laydowner! - the
other guy at the time had Ace/Jack OS - she dominated him, lol).
To live by the sword, you must die by the sword baby...

See y'all on the felt. I will be taking investors in the next
Bellagio tourny or the WSOP, I'll keep you posted, lol...