Keg's Almost Kicked, But I Made It To The Party

Yesterday was the first Riverchasers TOC of 2009. Making these it not all that hard. In fact, 400 donkeys are invited for each one, in each region. So having qualified for each and every one since I started playing in Riggs' little sandbox a little over 3 years ago is, to me, really no big deal. In fact, during one cycle, I was able to qualify in both regions. Unfortunately, back then, both tournaments were held on the same day, so i was SOL.

The bigger accomplishment is that around 225 of the 400 show up each time around and I have been heads up at the end of the last 2, having won the last. Previously though, the final tables in each region would reconvene at the Borgata for a 2 table freeze out, with the winner grabbing a buyin to a major tournament there. This time, there is a TOC day 2 involved where each day 1 is played down to 30 and stopped. Then, those 60 players combine to finish off the tournament with whatever stacks they had remaining. Essentially, the individual regions no longer have their own TOC, but each make up a day 1.

Anyway, it was a super deepstack, slow (for riverchasers) structure that held the potential for a lot of play. Everyone started with T400, level 1 was 1/2 (no antes at any point), and 30 minute levels. I generally played my tight game, but called a few more raises in position with speculative cards. I won't go through the entire 6 hours of play, but will note a few of the key hands that I was involved in.

I called a raise from LP with 44 against a known LAG and flopped a set. When he bet out, I min raised on the rainbow flop as I was only mildly concerned about a possible straight draw and wanted to build the pot a little. I raised bigger against the same opponent earlier with a flopped set and he folded. Lo and behold, the case 4 comes on the turn and he leads again which I call. The straight card comes on the river and he fires a 3rd bullet. I honestly thought he was stronger than he was and massively overbet to which he folds 66 unimproved face up. Damn.

Later I called another raise with 7c5c in position that I knew would also get flatted by the pre-raise limpers. Flop is AQ7 with 2 crubs and I knew I wasn't going anywhere. Yet. Limpers checked as did the raiser who I observed as one who tries to slow play big hands, so I took the free card and hit my flush. After another pair of checks, he fires T100 (pot-sized) and I call. I'm not thrilled with a 7 high flush, but I can't put him on a made flush unless he raised with something like KJc or KTc. The other players get out of the way and the flop pairs the 7. I'm less than thrilled, but call the second 100 chip bet. He tables AQ for a flopped two pair and says show me two clubs in quite the condescending manner. So I do. He mutters about 75 suited for the next 15 minutes until JJ cracks his AA and is gone.

Soon after that, millerd33 gets moved to my table directly on my right and all hell breaks loose. He is already short stacked, and starts open shoving with alternately air and big cards. He has most of the entire table on tilt but I just laugh about it with him. Right up until he forgot that the BB will defend with almost any 2 cards and shoved with 6 high and couldn't catch up to KJo.

Right before miller's exit, I open-raised with AhQh from the SB and got flatted by a notoriously tight BB. Flop was jack high with 2 hearts and I check raised her for the rest of her stack, but she had the one hand in her range I didn't want to see, JJ. I really thought that my A was still live when she bet out (I had her on KK or QQ at that point) and that I was about 50/50 and willing to race. Oops. Down from T1300 back to a starting stack.

Doubled with QTo through the same guy who busted miller when I four flushed his KQ. Then I got a little revenge on JJ when I completed from the SB with T7o with a few limpers already along for the ride. I bet the T74 rainbow flop and BB called. Limpers got out of the way. A 6 came on the turn and I shipped the rest of it and she called with 55 for an OESD and 4th pair. After fading the 3, 5, and 8, I was up to around T2600 and there were under 40 left in the room.

We broke down to 4 9-handed tables and I decided that it was time to try to accumulate some chips for day 2. The shorties were desparately trying to hang on (why I have no idea as this wasn't a satellite) and the big stacks at my table we generally willing to coast. After a few hands, I picked up AhQh again in MP and raised 3x BB to T600. The tournament chip leader who had just been moved to our table was in the BB and had a tad over 6000. She had seemed willing to coast, but when she looked at her cards, shrugged, called, and bet 1/2 pot on an A75 flop. I called, hoping to solicit a turn check where I could take the pot, but instead she put me all in when the turn brought a K. At this point, we are on the day 2 bubble, and I'm down to T1400 so I tank for a good 2 minutes. Eventually I come to the conclusion that she really is strong and fold. She flips A7o for the flopped top 2. FAWK.

The bubble bursts at another table during our next hand, so I made day 2, but not in the position I was hoping to be in. 214 showed up to play in the Eastern day 1, so about 86,000 chips are moving on for an average stack size of a little under T3000 and the chip leader with around 8 or 9k. The blinds were stopped at 100/200 when we got down to 35, so hopefully we play level 1 starting from there. If we pick back up at 200/400, even the chip leaders will have less than 20 BB to start and that will make for some sub-optimal poker to say the least. Personally, I'm hoping for a 50/100 start so that chip leaders will be rewarded with approximately a standard riverchasers starting stack (usually 100BB) and the rest of us, while (much) shorter will still have some hope. I know multi-day tournaments generally don't work that way, but this is all new for RPT and they are pretty good at finding and implementing creative solutions to less than ideal circumstances.

fawking AQ. I call it Al Qaeda for a reason. It always blows up in your face making playing it a suicide mission.

And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...