Choo Choona Club
Friday, October 16, 2009
All aboard the High on Poker Express. Next stop, TUNA CLUB!
I am on FIYAH! Last night, I decided to return to Tuna Club for their weekly Thursday $20 Rebuy. The crowd was pretty thin, but by the time the game was in full swing, we had about 15 players spread over two tables. I, fortunately, was seated at the crazy table. A couple of the players were willing to gamble it up, myself included, so in no time, we ended up with large stacks of chips. Or, more accurately, I ended up with a large stack of chips.
I started with a double buy-in with the $10 dealer toke for 5000 chips. I played fairly conservatively while I got a feel for how my opponents would play the rebuy. We eventually got two new players, a guy who looked like a young Uncle Fester and one of the room's dealers, a white kid whose birthday it was (why does this sentence feel so awkward? moving right along...). Those two players really loosened our table, and I eventually decided to throw my hat into the ring when I was dealt KQh and faced the 5th raise out of 6 hands from Fester, who was on my right. I called after learning from his hands with Birthday Boy that Fester was making these raises with a wide range, including weak Aces. It folded to the BB, a big black guy who I'll just call Busta because I'm racist like that and he reminded me of a cleaner cut Busta Rhymes. Busta seemed to be the kinda guy who was playing tight, but was willing to play overaggressively against the loose players, essentially vying for his piece of the party. He pushed all-in for maybe a half stack or so, around 2.5k. Fester folded and I took a moment before deciding I was ready and willing to gamble. After all, it was a rebuy period, and I was willing to rebuy as necessary.
I called and Busta showed A8h. My flush draw was dead, but I flopped a Queen and took his first buy-in and the preflop raise by Fester, giving me a 9k or so stack.
The next major hand pretty much made the game for me. Birthday Boy was "throwing a party", a poker term for giving your chips away at the table. Basically, Fester would raise and Birthday Boy would push all-in with any two cards. I mean any two. 47c sorta hands. I held AA in EP and Fester was UTG. He surprisingly limped, but this had happened before and was still met with the Birthday Boy all-in. Birthday Boy had meanwhile loosened up the rest of the table with his antics, except for maybe one player who seemed to have tightened up.
After Fester limped, I decided to limp as well, hoping to induce an all-in. I didn't want to push and hope for a call because I was playing tight, having not raised preflop once (that I can recall), so an open push would look mighty suspicious and probably scare away the party. Amazingly, though, Birthday Boy limped, and the action folded to Busta, who was once again in one of the blinds. Thankfully, someone was listening to my prayers and Busta pushed all-in. Busta probably had about 4k or so and I had about 9k, but to my right, Fester had felted Birthday Boy so many times that he had at least 7.5k. Then he pushed all-in on top of Busta. What's a man with AA to do? Push all-in on top, of course. Birthday Boy also pushed and we were four handed, my AA vs. Busta's TT vs. Birthday Boy's 34h vs. Fester's suited connectors or gappers. By the river, there were a ton of draws, but I dodged them all to become a mega-stack that allowed me to coast to the final table. Don't get me wrong. I didn't go into vault mode and lock down my chips, but I had enough to splash around.
Fester, meanwhile, was gathering last longer bets, something that would usually suck in a rebuy tournament. With such a low buy-in ($20), I wanted to see lots of rebuys to build the prize pool (which, incidentally, already had $300 added by the house). The last longer bets were to see who would need a rebuy first, so it should've encouraged more conservative play, but Fester was a mad man, and he still didn't let up. I felted him at least 2 more times, one of which when I called some hefty raises with a low flush draw and had to make a tough call on the turn with one card to come. Fester was asking for the call, literally, so I gave it to him and luckily hit my flush on the river. Billy the Dealer, who was also playing the tourney, earned $40 in last longers against Fester thanks to me.
Once the rebuy period was over, Busta had made up some ground, hovering at a little over 20k. I had about 27k. Billy had chipped up to probably 17k. The rest of the table, though, were at 10k or less, and only then because of the 3k add-on, which I elected to skip.
I basically had to tighten up as the blind continued to climb and my cards went to crap. When we reached the final table, there were a few people close to me, including Billy and Busta, and soon, they had surpassed me. Whereas I remained tight, they seemed to sling their chips more freely. It may've been that they were more fearless or aggressive, but it was just as likely that they were getting decent cards whereas I was not.
I tried to take a stab at a few pots but failed miserably. I eventually had to opt to wait out the small stacks, including one guy who had come back twice from having one blind left or less. As I waited everyone out, my stack dwindled and blinds began to escalate rapidly. We were down to five players left and I was probably the short stack, with about 20k left but blinds of 1500/3000. There were two other players in the 25-30k range and two players in the 45-50k range.
Birthday Boy was riding the rail and suggested a five way chop because his ride was one of the five left and he wanted to get out of there. The chop would equal about $350. I said I would agree, but I doubt the big stacks would. Billy, one of the big stacks, agreed that he would want more money. There was some haggling, but nothing was going anywhere, so I said, "So then, let's just play it. This is going to be over in 15 mins anyway with these blinds." I meant it too. The blinds were so high that it'd be over in no time, and I wanted decent money for my troubles.
We played another orbit, at which point one of the other shorties made up some ground and I won a hand or two to pump my stack up a tiny bit (just blinds, as I was in push/fold mode). There was some more talk, and the newly pumped shortstack insisted on $300 to make a deal. I joined him in asking for that sum. I only paid $50, so that would be a nice $250 profit, lock in some money and keep my streak alive. It was also probably more than fair to sell my precarious stack. We struck a deal with the three shorties (myself included) receiving $300 each and the big stacks getting a litted under $450. And that's how I cashed in my 4th Tuna Tourney in a row.
$1000, $490, $490, and now $250. That makes over $2000 in profit from four tourneys in a row at Tuna Club. This is the part where people get nervous about being jinxed by discussing their success, but I plan on riding this hot streak for as long as possible, jinx or no jinx.
My yearly goal, which I failed to reach last year, is well within reach. With New Orleans in late November and AC and Vegas in December, I have more than enough opportunit to close the gap on my goal. And if those venues don't do it, there is still plenty of Tuna to be had.
Another fine live tourney win, brought to you by High on Poker!
*A special thanks to Lucypher for reminding me of CHOO CHOO, the new BOOM!
posted by Jordan @ 12:05 PM,
3 Comments:
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At 3:04 PM,
BWoP said...
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Can I just retype the same comment I typed last time?
Thanks. -
At 5:56 PM,
Dawn Summers said...
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Hey, what are the deets on your New Orleans trip??? Mary and I have been dying to go...
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At 10:13 AM,
Lucypher said...
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What else? CHOO-CHOO! And thanks for the shout out, too!
