A Sunday Post?

I was going to try to write last Sunday but this is as far as I got:
"Since I woke up early today (noon) and since I haven't posted since Monday, I figured today would be a good day to post. We'll see how well my Sunday writing fingers work."


Being as how I neglect this blog enough, it's time I put forth some effort and update! I neglected to follow through last Sunday, so today will be a day of redemption.

Rejecting my desire to hit up the Warped Tour while it was in town yesterday, I found myself driving out to Simi to hit up Paullywood Park, our regular tournament held every three weeks. Our usual night at Paullywood Park consists of two $30 tournaments, each with anywhere from 22-28 players. Every third meetup we switch to one $20 rebuy+addon tournament, which is usually filled with the same amount of players but which turns out almost three times the prize pool.

This year we started with a point leaderboard for our gang, with points being awarded for a designated amount of top finishers determined by the number of entrants per tourney. Our 18 tournament series culminates with a $50 buy-in finale' extravaganza, where every point will be worth an extra amount of chips added to the person's respective starting stack. The final tournament will also be juiced by an additional fund that we pay towards for every tournament.

Overall it's a fun atmosphere with friends and family that we all know, and who all try to play the game. They're bad, but they try (for the most part). The only thing that I don't enjoy all the way about Paullywood Park is that I have to deal full time while I'm playing. I love dealing as much as I do playing, but doing both is a great pain in the ass and not something that I look forward to. With that being said, it's still a fun game.

Going into last night Darsky was atop the leaderboard and ahead of me (tied for second place) by six points. He wasn't going to be attending this weekend, which meant it was my chance to catch up to him. However, this weekend was the $20R+A, which meant there was only one tournament and only five points available to capture, which was first place. If I could get that first place prize, I'd get one of the more juiced up prize pools and I could close to within one point of Darsky.

I was fully expecting the regular 22-28 player turnout for this tournament, but when I showed up I got news that there would only be about 16 players. I wasn't too sure of why there was such a small attendance this time around, but whatever the case was it only meant one thing to me: fewer people to get in my way to chase Darsky's points!

I started off playing my usual aggressive game, and was quickly ahead of the field. I picked up all the dead pots from the weak players, and by the end of the rebuy period I was chipleader having only used my original buyin. I opted to buy the add-on to keep my advantage as big as possible, considering that I had to deal full time while playing, which tends to keep me off my %100 game.

I ended up playing chip leader for most of the tournament, although the structure starts to get pretty fast after the 300-600 level since Paul wrote his structure to skip the 400-800 and jump straight to 500-1000, 1000-2000, 1500-3000, etc. Some casino tournies skip these levels, but with only a 2000 starting stack it can start to hurt your stack in a hurry.

I was able to keep afloat as a bare chipleader with around 16,000, while my friend Mitch was second in chips with 13,000 when this hand came up.

Blinds: 300-600
Mitch has 13,000 in chips
Hero has 16,000 in chips
Hero is on the Button

Hero is dealt [6s 7s]
This is one of my favorite hands to play, and I fully intend to play it from the Button as the chipleader if there's no crazy action before it gets to me.
Mitch calls 600
MP2 calls 600
MP3 calls 600
Hero calls 600
I opted to limp the Button here, as one of the limpers and both blinds had around 5,000 in chips. I was completely okay with seeing a flop against five players with this kind of hand, but I really didn't want to have to pump another 4,400+ into this pot heads up preflop because of the escalating blind levels.
SB folds
BB checks

FLOP: [2d 6h 7h]
BB checks
Mitch checks
MP2 checks
MP3 checks
Hero bets 2,200
BB folds
Mitch raises 2,800 to 5,000
MP2 folds
MP3 folds
Sometimes this smells like a set, but Mitch is pretty new to the game and tends to underplay his hands preflop and overplay his hand postflop. I really don't think he's on a flush or straight draw because knowing Mitch he'd usually just call. If I push here he'll probably stack off with an overpair.
Hero raises 10,400 to 16,000 and is all-in
Mitch calls 7,400 and is all-in
3000 is returned to Hero

Mitch shows [Qc Qd]
Hero shows [6s 7s]

TURN: [2d 6h 7h][9s]

RIVER: [2d 6h 7h][9s][Ad]

Mitch has a pair of Queens
Hero has two pair, sixes and sevens and wins the pot (28,100)



That put me out to the largest chiplead of the tournament as I watched the shortstacks battle it out. I ended up taking out two more and I ended up HU after the now second place in chips took out two more. We started heads up with me having about a 2:1 chiplead. We tangled in a few pots until I doubled him up with TP+OESD against his flopped straight.

Five minutes later I doubled him up again on an A-10-3 flop with me holding 10-3 against his A-10. I ended up getting the chiplead back three times before he ended up hitting quads against my straight. As I tried to battle back against his increasing chiplead I ended up getting all the money in with an A-high FD+OESD against his flopped straight once again. I blank blanked and took a disappointing second.

I was really semi-tilted from taking second place after having such a big chiplead and dominating pretty much the whole tournament. I picked at his stack and won quite a few pots thanks to aggression. Unfortunately I kept getting good HU hands against his monsters, and just couldn't come back after losing the chiplead twice.

I took $225 for second, but more importantly I closed the gap on Darsky's point lead. After taking second, I have now cashed/pointed five times in five tourney weekends, so I guess I can always count on being able to at least beat the game at Paullywood Park. As for beating the games that count, well, that'll be something I have to start working on again.

Until next time.