Call Me "Bubble Boy"

This past weekend the wife and I went to Foxwoods. On Sunday my father-in-law and I both entered a $100+20 poker tourney which attracted exactly 100 entrants and paid 10 places. Unfortunately neither of us cashed, as I was knocked out in a very frustrating 12th place and he lost with AQ vs KJ on a Q-T-x-x-9 board to finish 24th. I am constantly amazed at how bad most live players are, although I realize that a lot of the folks in a tourney like this are "gambling", which obviously makes me so +EV it's not funny. As usual I was killed by the blind increases - we had 5000 chips and 20 minute levels, so the first 10 or so levels had reasonable blinds but once they got up to 500-1000 instead of continuing to increase incrementally they moved right up to 1000-2000, 1500-3000, 2000-4000, 3000-6000, etc. You're able to play solid, low-risk poker for 8-10 levels and then it becomes a shove-fest. On to the hands...

Very first hand at my table - flop comes with 3 low hearts, and a player in early position with Kh3h bets all 3 streets and 3-bets the river only to ship all his chips to the player to my left, on the button, with Ah9h.

I raised hands like Ace-9 and K-J a couple of times but got 3 bet every time and had to fold. At least it happened with easy-fold hands. Once I raised AhQs UTG and got reraised by the very active player two to my left who was then flat-called by a low stack. I chose to fold, and the reraiser shoved QQ (no diamond) on the flop and lost to low stack's Kd-Jx on a d-d-d-x-d board.

I won a very nice pot a few levels in when I held Q-9 offsuit in the big blind and check-called 3 bets by a late-position player on a Q-9-x-x-Kd board with 3 diamonds. I was going to raise on the river but the Kd filled both the straight and the flush so I could only call his 1500 bet. He claimed top pair, I believe meaning the Q.

In another blind hand, I was in the big blind with Jx5d and 4 of us saw a 5h-3c-2c flop. The small blind bet 400, I called, and the other two players folded. The turn was a delicious 5s, he bet 400, I made it 1000, and he called. The river was the 9h, he shoved about 2950, and I called to find that he had 9c8c. I love me some blind hands !

I limped 7-7 behind a few limpers early, bet 400 on a 10-7-6 flop, and got called by a player on my left. I bet 500 on the 5 turn and 500 more on the Jack river and got paid off by J-T. After he told me what he had I knew I had missed some value on the river.

Several hands later I had an easy isolation reshove over a small stack's early position all-in with 7-7. The player to my left hemmed and hawed for a good two minutes, saying "I don't think I can fold this hand" and such. The last thing I wanted was for him to call. I couldn't see him calling with a hand I was way ahead of, because earlier he had been adamant about his preference for two paints over a small pair, and when he finally called he indeed showed K-Q offsuit, while the small stack showed KhTh. I was able to scoop that pot though, flopping trip 7's again and surviving the 9-7-6-J-9 board. Afterwards I commented to the guy next to me "For future reference, K-Q is NEVER ahead of my all-in".

Soon after, we got entangled in another hand, one which I will never forget. A couple of players limped in at 200-400, so I decided to complete the small blind with 7-6 offsuit, and 4 of us saw a 7-6-3 rainbow flop. I checked, the guy next to me bet 500, it folded to me, and I called. The turn was a Q, and I checked to my neighbor, who bet 1500 this time around. I IMMEDIATELY overshoved all-in for about 10k chips, and once again he went into the tank. After about two minutes, he FOLDED Qd6d face up. I think I turned ghost-white. The funny thing is, 90% of the time against me, that's a great fold, because I either have a set or a 4-5 for the straight. The dealer pulled my cards into the muck and I admitted that I had 7-6, further tilting my new best friend on my left. He said that since it was a limped pot I could easily have the 4-5 or a set, and the dealer also commented that he put me on 3-3.

I felt like Daniel on this hand. With 20 or so players left a guy with a good stack raised it up preflop and got flat-called by a player in the blinds who had only about twice as many chips as the size of the bet. I commented to the guy sitting next to me "boy that's a weird call - maybe he's got a mid-pair and wants to stop-and-go." Well sure enough, the flop came 7-4-3 and the blind shoved all-in, eventually getting a fold from the original raiser who claimed overcards. I said to the guy next to me "he must have 9's", and lo and behold he flipped over two black 9's !

When we got down below 20 players the blinds were going up fast, the tables became short, and my stack was not improving. I was able to tread water though, picking up a few pots by shoving Ace-x-type hands and not getting called. I also shoved AcKc UTG and took that one too, flipping my cards over while saying "best hand I've seen all day" (I had 10-10 once and took the blinds with a raise, and had earlier reraised a short stack's all-in with AK off and beat his KT on a K-hi flop).

On my final hand, my earlier admonition came back to haunt me. We were down to 12 players, playing two tables of 6 players each, meaning the 2000-4000 blinds were coming around fast and furious. I was in the small blind with 21200 chips (19200 plus the 2000 blind) putting me in about 11th place. I knew at least that I was the short stack at my table. It was the last hand before the break, so the blinds would be 3000-6000 next hand. The big stack at the table, who had been raising about every other hand and who had been at the table with me the whole tourney, made it 12000 to go. It folded around to me and I looked down at 8-8. Decision time. If I call, I have 9200 chips left. I can't really stop-and-go and I certainly can't check-fold, so a call is out. If I fold, I have 19200 left, but will be in the 6000 big blind in 4 more hands. If I shove, the pot will be roughly 40k and he will have to call 9200 more, meaning I should have no fold equity. But if I win the pot I'll have about 50k which should ensure that I cash, and I am probably ahead preflop. After pondering my decision for about a minute I decided to shove. My opponent goes into the tank. After a minute he says "I know I'm not ahead but I don't think I can fold for these odds". I say something like "Well at least I am sure that I am ahead" and he says "Oh I KNOW you are ahead," so now I'm hoping he's got something like Ace-rag, and still praying that he somehow makes a terrible fold. Eventually he calls, and obviously flips over the ol' K-Q offsuit !!! He was right, he wasn't ahead, but sadly the board came K-9-x-9-x and I was out. Can't complain though - I played great poker, almost cashed despite getting few good hands, and got my money in good on my final hand with a chance to move way up on the leaderboard.