River Crashing
Friday, October 27, 2006
Did you ever have one of these experiences in High School or College, when a friend tells you about a party, and you figure it'll be a good time so you get all dressed up and ready to get some tail, but then you show up with your friend and you see a couple of people that you know, but the overwhelming majority are people that you don't know, and they are dressed in entirely different style clothing as you, and while you are at the keg trying to fill up your plastic cup someone says, hey, and you are all, hey, because you don't know anyone really, but you are trying to fit in to get the free beer, and they are all like, how did you hear about the party, and you are all like, my friend, but they don't really know your friend, so you just feel like a tool crashing a party.
Yeah, well that was me last night, but at the end of the party I pulled out a gun and took the place for about $215.
Wifey Kim was passing out early last night, due to her two nights in beautiful Albany, NY at a conference for her state-wide cerebral palsy company. It was not even 10, so I reached for my comp to see what was available. I had missed the donk2shark tournament, and WWdn Not wasn't starting for a while. slb, always handy for some useful info, shot me an IM, asking if I was going to play in Al's RiverChasers tournament. I knew that Al had pimped it, but I didn't know much else. Regardless, if slb was in, I was game, and while I was at it, I grabbed GCox to enter the tournament.
When it started, I was seated at my own table with a bunch of non-bloggers. Quite frankly, it was obvious. The players in the tournament were pretty weak. It reminded me of playing in a brick and mortar casino, actually, because, in my experience, the lower limits at the casino are often weaker (in a different way) than some of the online games. I believe its that recreational player, the one who is so new to the game that playing online isn't really on the radar yet. It's a home game mentality, when the homegame is played by a bunch of guys more interested in the beer (and weed?) than the intricacies of poker. Sure, they are playing to win, but they don't look beyond the two cards in front of them.
So it went. Meanwhile, I played a $8.70 turbo token race (eventually placing in 6th for $5.30 profit, but no token). RiverChasers was going well, because continuation bets had meaning again, and players were fairly loose and readable. One player, AlCantHang supporting cast member Landow, spent a lot of time with me at a table. He was in a lot of pots, and Full Tilt's hand history option helped me get a solid read on him. When I'm in a game at FT and I'm trying to gauge a player, I find the best thing is to his the hand history button and quickly click through the hands. FT shows you the table with the exposed hands (including hands MUCKED at showdown) in the players' seats. So, I look at Landow' position at the table and quickly click through, stopping at any hand he exposed. JTo, A4o, KJo, all from a position other than a blind. So, clearly, Landow was seeing a lot of cheap flops with any ace and any 20 hand (think blackjack when I say 20). It actually is a very good strategy to use in a game like this, since stealing post flop was fairly easy. But since I knew his range, I made a goodly sum off of Landow here and there, raising him with air when I thought appropriate and dragging him along slowly when I hit my monsters.
By the time I got to the final table, I was in the top 3. Now, this was no small tourney. I don't remember how many players were in, but we were over 40, I think. 7 spots paid. As we got to that bubble, I used some of the new techniques I've been learning in the blogosphere and went into my usual aggro chip-stealing mode. I didn't fully commit to protecting the small stacks, ala Lucko, but I did seize the opportunity to become a super-stack. By three-way, we were back to fairly even, but I eventually slowplayed my JT, after the QJJ flop, and got another player to commit with his Ace high (maybe that Ace came on the turn). Heads up lasted all of two hands, when I pushed with 75k to his 15k in the first hand with Q9s (he folded), and then he pushed on the very next hand against my AKs.
2nd place actually went to one of the event coordinators, and apparently there was a bounty on his head, $11 to enter their next event. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that the $$ was transfered yet, but whatever the case, it was a great tournament, and a great group. After I was done, someone asked how I heard of the tournament and whether I was an RC. I said, "No, I heard of it from AlCantHang." Their response, which I am not making up, was, "of course you aren't from RC. you can play." Um, thank you. And I'll be back too.
Now, I'd post the banner, but I really did feel like I was crashing a party, so I won't perpetuate the crashiness of it all. But I'll be back. It's only right, since I should defend my title. And frankly, it was some of the most fun I've had in a tourney in a while. Winning doesn't hurt, either.
I have a story that I will save for later regarding my 3rd place finish in this week's WWdn. I will, however, direct your attention to new link Fuel55, aka Creativity Breeds Madness. Thanks to Google Reader (and before that Bloglines), I've been expanding my reading list, and this guy is tops. I'm still not a fan of bare hand histories (a narrative would be nice every once in a while), but when its chock full of good strategy and excellent play, a bare hand history can be very helpful. He's also one of the bloggers who were published in the FullTilt poker blog. So, give Fuel a read and you can thank me later.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 10:20 AM,
4 Comments:
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At 12:05 PM,
AlCantHang said...
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Great job. I got pulled away for work so I wasn't able to play but I did check in this morning.
BTW, that wasn't my friend Landow, not sure who he was. Landow's FTP name is ScarKnight and I don't think he ended up playing. -
At 2:56 PM,
slb159 said...
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Well played sir, well played.
I only made it through a bit more than half that pack of RC...Uggg. -
At 6:59 PM,
lucko said...
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Good Job!!!
I think I have now become imfamous in the blogger world though. -
At 8:17 PM,
Jordan said...
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Lucko, I only mean it as a compliment. Thanks to you, I re-learned the value of the bubble to a big stack.
