No Cigar
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Work has really upped the stress lately. Yesterday, I went with the Big Bossman to New Jersey to check out the scene of an accident involving a hydraulic compactor and a blinded man. Before we headed to NJ, we met with a client to discuss a possible case involving a machine press and an amputated finger. This required me to come to the office extra early. During our drive to NJ, we also fielded calls from a woman assaulted in a building vestibule and another case involving a kitchen appliance and serious burns. I came in early today to meet the burn victim. All the while, I'm balancing my other cases and trying to get numerous documents out to Court. I've already set a Saturday date with the office, and until then, I'll be working my poor fingers off trying to get everything else done.
But onto the poker.
I returned to the Wall Street Game last night with the hopes of catapulting myself back to first place in the leaderboard rankings. If I could take first, I'd win 1/2 of the season's accumulated prize pool, approximately $600 taken in $2 increments from each player during the season's single table tournaments.
Upon arrival, Alceste informed me that I'd need to take 1st place in both tournaments in order to win 1st place overall. He was kind enough to offer me his seat in the second game if I won the first one, since I was late in my RSVP and got locked out of the 9:15 tournament.
By the time the 7pm tournament got underway, there were only 8 players present. Those 8 players included everyone's favorite female initials, LJ and CK, along with a couple of other random players. One guy looked familiar. I later placed him as someone I'd seen at Nice Look Poker Club a few times.
The first game went amazingly well. I didn't get any monster hands, but read the table like a champ. I made calldowns with an AKQ on the board with 99 when my opponent bet preflop and checked until a pot-sized river bet. He actually had 55. I made another calldown with 44 when my opponent made a bluffing play at another scary board. Like my HUC5 Round 2, I decided that this game really mattered, so I was using everything at my disposal. By the time we got to 5-handed, and then 3-handed, ITM, I was a commanding chip leader. I took out CK in 3rd, and then found myself HU with the host, Jamie. I probably had him outchipped 10-to-1. He immediately offered a chop if I gave him an extra $10 over 2nd place. "DONE!" I replied. I didn't even think about the math. I wanted 1st place points, and I was cool with whatever Jamie worked out, mathematically. After all, he puts so much effort into these games, and I benefit so much from his hard work, both financially from poker and socially, since his games are always a great time with new people and its conveniently close to home.
After the first game, we waited for some additional players to join us for tourney two. In the meanwhile, we ate the two pizzas we ordered from a nearby place. I also went outside with CK for a cigarette, mostly to keep her company and get a breath of fresh air.
When we returned upstairs, pretty much everyone was there. I, being the addict I am, started to stack chips to encourage the game to start. In no time, we were all getting seated. Steve, a decent player, was actually in great place to win the leaderboard. If he placed 4th or higher, he had the season locked down, regardless of if I won 1st or not. Before the cards were dealt, I announced the bounty. $10 for whoever knocked out Steve...before 4th place...if I'm still in the tournament. People bitched about how I kept adding qualifiers, but I had a goal in mind, damnit!
Once the game started, I could feel the difference. I was still card dead, but I had no opportunities to make moves because of the aggressive table. More accurately, about 1/3 of the table was uber aggressive, 1/3 was fairly aggressive, and 1/3 were super tight. Steve was in the super tight group, and by the time we were down to 7 players (from 11), I had less than 10x the BB. I decided that I had to go for broke, since Steve was clearly not going out anytime soon unless he had KK preflop against AA. I pushed all-in about 4 times in a row. I took down the pots, added to my stack and hoped for more good fortune and timing. Eventually, I got all-in AK vs. Darko's KQ. He hit his Queen and I lost most of my stack (I had him covered). In a few more hands, I lost the rest of my stack in a very unexciting moment.
As soon as I lost, I stood up and said, "This game is stupid." I then followed up with, "And you know what, I saved $10, SUCKAS! No bounty for you." On my way out, I wished Decent Steve good luck. Among the Wall Street crowd, he's one of the friendliest guys, and I was glad to hear this morning that he won the 2nd tournament and the entire season. Congrats to him.
Not much else going on over here. I'll continue to bust my hump and hopefully find some time for some serious in depth analysis. Keep an eye out for an article by PokerPeaker at Pokerworks regarding poker blogs. I answered some questions for him in an interview style format, so I'm interested in seeing the final product.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 4:00 PM,
