A Couple of Tournaments

we didn't play on saturday. i took a pretty substantial nap on saturday afternoon. i was obviously suffering from a bit of jet lag. we went out to dinner and bopped around a number of places. we met up with a couple of the regular players from the horseshoe in downtown san jose. met a kid, lasse, from sweden who will be going up to vegas for the wsop (official site). he's already qualified for the main event and will play some other events, as well.

we went back to the horseshoe on sunday for about five hours. i won $67 and steven won $11. nothing too notable transpired. we played for about 4 1/2 hours on monday. i made some big hands and won $255. steven couldn't get anything going and lost $46. the table was actully pretty tight so steven just went across the street for a beer at some point and left me to do the dirty work.

we played a tournament at the radisson on tuesday night. the buy-in was $30 for T400 (T400 = $400 in tounament chips) if u bust u can re-buy T600 for $20. u can also add-on T600 before the end of the 4th blind level (at the first break). there were about 50 entries in the tournament. blinds start at 1 - 2 and then basically double from there as they go up. i had dropped slightly below T400 by the first break and paid the $20 for the extra T600. steven had about T1300 and decided not to re-buy.

i got up to about T1200 and then ran into the hand that crippled me. i had 8h 6h in the bb. a couple of people limped and i checked my option. the flop was 6 6 X with 2 diamonds. i checked primarily because i knew the button was likely to move-in. he was the short stack, recently crippled, and an aggressive player. as suspected he moved-in for about T350. i called, hoping for the overcall from one o the other players. much to my surprise, a player in middle position moved all-in. i didn't give much thought to folding - he could have the nut flush draw, paired the X card with a big kicker, or a pp higher than sixes. he had 6 10 and and when my 8 or the board didn't pair i was left with under a hundred. i moved all-in several hands later with pocket sixes and was called by two players. one of them spiked a king on the river to knock me out about 40th. sixes were not good to me that night.

after taking a few minutes to shake it off. i sat down in the side game which was no-limit with $1 - $2 blinds. a couple of the same players were there from friday night. although i initially dropped about $50 or $60, things went much better for me than friday - no aces cracked this time. i won a few nice hands from one of the guys who cracked my aces on friday. he plays a little fast and loose and was on my immediate left. during first hand i beat him a couple of players limped in front of me so i limped with 10h 9h. he raised it to $12. one player called in front of me and i called. the flop was 9 high with 2 hearts. first player checked, i checked, raiser moved-in for about $20. first player folded and i called immediately. he had the brian (specifically he had Ah 2s). a 9 came on the turn and an A on the river. the strange thing here is u don't have to flip up your cards after going all-in and players rarely do.

a little later i found AKo utg. i decided to limp, hoping that one of the two guys on my immediate left would raise. no such luck. i was now seeing the flop out of position with a bunch of limpers. the flop was A high and i bet out $10, about the size of the pot. the guy on my immediate left moved all-in for $25 more, everyone else folded and again i called immediately. he had AJo and never paired his kicker.

one other noteworthy hand - i limped in pre-flop with pocker fours and three other players saw the flop. i flopped bottom set with 2 diamonds on board. utg bet out $14. now, what to do? i decided to gamble a little and just call. the player utg tended to push his big hands if there was either a lot of $$ already in the pot or alot of players who saw the flop so i presumed if i raised right now i would only win what was already in the pot unless someone flopped a big hand behind me. i also thought it was possible for someone to re-raise behind me and then i would move all-in. everyone called. a blank came on the turn and utg checked. now i bet out $60 - no free chances to for someone to pick up a diamond on the river. everyone folded.

i played from 10:30 to 1:15 and finished plus $128. in the meantime, steven was rolling through the tournament. when they reached the final table, steven had about one-quarter of the chips in play. he proceeded to knock out seven of the remaining nine players. as u can imagine steven pushed hard. he said that he was all-in with the worst of it most of the time and won. when he knocked the guy out in third place he cracked aces with a Q 10 off-suit. after tipping the dealers, the take was $730.

steven played in a bigger tournament last night at the fiesta casino near the airport. the buy-in is $50 for T100 with the blinds starting at $5 - $5. there are unlimited rebuys. anytime u dip below T100 u can make as many rebuys as u want at the same rate. then at the break u can add-on $50 for T200 up to $200 for T800. steven's strategy is to start the tournament very late figuring that he is going to have rebuy anyway and to avoid the early levels when people are playing like crazy because of the unlimited rebuys. if he has built up to T1000 by the break he won't take the add-on. this night he was in for $350 -- two rebuys plus a $200 add-on.

he ended up finishing eighth. he suffered a few bad beats along the way including some at the final table that altered some of his play. with a couple of breaks, it sounds like he had a chance to win. on the hand that busted him he raised from late position with AQ. after much thought the sb went all-in and had steven covered. this was the same wild and loose player that i tangled with the night before. partly, because he knows this guy is capable of moving in there with a weak ace steven decided to call. he now regrets that decision because he says that there was a good chance that a couple of other players were going broke on the next orbit. of yeah, the guy had AK and steven couldn't suckout. he won $300 so he lost $50 total.

i decided not to play because i didn't feel ready to play in a tournament that i was likely to invest $300 or more to play properly. i also wasn't about to sit down in $3 - $5 no-limit side game. i stayed home and took it easy.

later this week or next we will head out for a little trip to the pacific side of costa rica. i definitely long for the ocean. i love the relaxed feel here. although i have yet to the see the ocean it has sort of an island feel. looking out from the second floor balcony here, one is surrounded by green hills.