Dan Burns
03-29-2005, 02:39 AM
I boarded the MS Oosterdam with confidence that if I ran right I could walk off the boat with $1.5 million. I had gotten all the bad play out of my system the week before and was ready to play a solid game. Not going to go out on a limb with crazy bluffs or anything. I found out upon registering that I would be playing the next day, Day 1. Just what I wanted, as it would allow me to rest the next day before having to play again. Still, it would be bitterly disappointing to have my tournament over just 1/7th of the way into the trip.
I took my seat on Sunday. Table looked good. No name players and a few guys who looked like most of their experience was on the internet. I also discovered we’re playing 8-handed (other tables are 9-handed). Going to have to call an audible on my strategy to play extremely tight. I worked my stack up from 10K to 13K during the first two hours. No spectacular hands. Flopped top pair a couple times and won at showdown. Other than that just took the blinds or won w a bet on the flop. I think I have a line on most of the players at this point. Some highlights: one seat is chip leader and calls everything. Not a very good player, but he’s getting the cards, catching rivers, etc. He’s up to over 20K by the break. Two seat is a solid Asian guy about my age (23). Seems to be a pot odds-oriented player who doesn’t mess w my blind too much, but is not afraid to sometimes. Four seat is me. Six seat is probably the best at the table. Aggro mid-20’s guy, but far from a maniac. Seven seat is doing that Unabomber thing. Very loose. If the nine seat bets, RUN!!!.
Had a bad run during the 3rd and 4th levels of play. Were a lot of situations where I raised with something like TT and the flop came down A-K-7, etc. I only remember two hands vividly. I have about 10K. Blinds are 100/200 or 150/300. I raise from MP w JcTc and the six seat makes it three-bets. Blinds fold. I call. Flop is 9c 5d 2h. I check -call the flop, putting him on overs (he liked to 3-bet w AT and better). Turn is 7c giving me a flush draw and a gutshot straight flush draw. I check-raise him and he looks a little upset. I think he’s going to fold, but eventually he tosses in a call. I am 100 million percent sure he will fold on the river, given my table image. The river is a Qh. I don’t like that card but bet in case he has AJ, AT or AK. He calls and tables AQo after I flip up my hand. Is it possible to calls something a bad beat if the other guy had the best hand the whole way? Another big hand. Australian guy moves to the five-seat. After he has a brief conversation with Mel Judah, he calls my EP raise. I have 88 and get another caller. Three to the action flop of 8s-7s-6s. I bet and get called by both. I bet rag turn and get called only by the Australian guy. River is the 2s putting a 4-flush up there. I bet and he raises. I fold. Probably should have check-called there, but I think he had it. Guy seemed tight. That put me down to less than 5K. I go into the 2nd break with less than 3K.
Get relatively close to the felt during the next level. I get all in with Aqs on a flop of Q-5-6. Six seat tables TT and I hold up. I go on a small rush after that and win about 3 of the next 9 pots to put me back to 10K. Blinds are 200/400 at this point, w 400-800 betting levels. I balloon up to 22K and then am back to about 16K before the break. I am picking on Australian guy’s blind a little, because he’s on a short stack. Eventually he took a stand and blew a ton of reraises at me when I had KK. I took all of his money pretty much. Get moved to the Hudson Room midship, away from the main poker room. Have a whole new cast of characters at this point. Now there are 3 very good players (including me) and no bad players. Still no pros though. Only hand I remember at this table is I raised w AKo and one of the good, aggro players called from the SB. Flop was A-Q-x. Check-check. Turn was a blank. He bets and I raise. He mucks. Told me later he had JJ.
Our table gets broken up. I raise first had at new table from cutoff w AT and take down blinds. Raise two hands later w AQ. Flop is all rags. I bet. He calls. Turn is a blank. I bet and he folds. Only 15 minutes left to play when the hand of the day for me came up. UTG raises EP cold calls and MP moves all in for 3-bets. Blinds are 500/1000 at this point. I expect to be folding, but look down at AK. A little too good to be folding for two more bets. I call and UTG calls. Flop is A-2-3. I bet. UTG curses in another language and folds. EP calls. Turn is a 5. I bet and EP calls. River is a J. Bet call. I table my AK and it’s good. UTG said he had JJ and would have won on the river. EP mucks. All in guys shows KK and gracefully exits. That moves me up to 40K. I have to post the last blind of the day, leaving me with 39K going into the second day of play, well above the average of about 25K. I pretty much fall asleep right way when I get back to my room.
I look at the board after the next day’s play and find out I’m 50th of 280. I’ll take that. Chip Jett has over 100K. Don’t know how he did that. The ship docked in Mazlatan, but I didn’t get off. I am prone to sunburn and wanted to rest up for that night’s play. I watched the Mike Sexton channel for part of the day. That’s right, a whole channel that was pretty much devoted to Mike Sexton. I wonder where I can get a baseball cap that says “Mike Sexton” on it, like they were wearing at the roast. I also now know all there is to know about the 1999 Tournament of Champions he organized. I went downstairs in the evening with Rob to get the free party poker shirts. The guy running it looked at us suspiciously (as a joke) and said I think you guys play on Pokerstars too. Somehow he knew.
I once again get a good table on Day 3. All solid players though. Only guy in the 9 seat looks like he’s nervous. I raise the first hand from MP and the nervous guy calls me. I forget from where, probably the SB. Flop is 9-T-x. He bets and I raise. He reraises and I call. Turn is a blank. He bets. I fold. Doh! A little while later I pick up Td 8d in the BB and call the SB’s raise. Flop is Ad Qs Xd. He bets. I raise. He reraises and I cap. He says “Yikes” when I cap but calls pretty fast. He checks turn 9c and I bet. In hindsight I should have checked as I’m now fairly certain he has an Ace. River is Kd. I made my flush. Check, bet, call. I show my flush and say sorry. He isn’t mad at all. Must be a good player. Of course I lose it all a few hands later when I have JJ and three-bet a MP raiser and a cold caller from the button. Cold caller was a very loose player with a lot of chips. EP calls all-in. Flop is K-X-X w two clubs. I bet and cold-caller folds. EP guy turns over Ac Qc. Turn of a 2c gives him the nuts.
I am down to about 28K or so. 2000/4000 blinds. UTG woman who is not that good raises and loose guy cold calls. I call in the BB w AdQc. Flop is Tc-6c-3d. All check. Turn is Kc. Loose guy bets. I raise. Woman folds and loose guys calls. River is a blank. He checks. I consider betting, but I get the sense he’s calling. I check. He tables KhQh and takes the pot. I hate how I played the hand. Though I did have 14 outs on the river. I soon get AA and double up in a scary fashion. Back to about 30K. Then solid player raises in LP and I reraise from the SB w KK. Mathew Cherackal, who ended up finishing 3rd and cashing for $700K says cap it. LP folds. I get a bad feeling that he has AA. I call. Flop is 6-6-6. I bet and he calls. Turn is a J. I bet his last 3K. He calls and tables AA. River is a blank and he wins a huge pot. Doh!
Hand that really killed me. I 3-bet loose-guy w AQ from MP. Folded to nervous guy who thinks for a long time and cold-calls. Loose guy calls and flop is J-T-X. I bet 4K, leaving me with just two chips left. Nervous guy calls and loose guy foldes. Turn is a blank. Check-check. River is a blank. Check-check. He tables 77 and wins the pot. Grrrr. Cold-calling w 77. I turned my 2K into 10K later when my A2s holds up against Cherackal’s 89s. I lost a few hands later though when I raised w A2s again from LP and the SB reraised. I called. Flop was 6-4-2 and I put me last two chips in. He called and had 44. I was out in 80th place for $10,400. It was the biggest win of my career, but not what I went there to do. At least I got to go out on the beach at the next stop, but the cruise went quickly from there on out. I was back to my practically minimum-wage job before I knew it. The whole experience has left me eager to start trying to qualify for next year’s tourney. I hope all other 2+2ers on the cruise enjoyed their trip.
Random Poker Celebrity Sightings:
Mike Sexton - Freakin’ everywhere. Seems like a nice guy.
Vince Van Patten - Playing pick up ping pong with cruisers near the pool late in the week.
Clonie Gowen - Tanning by the pool Monday.
Josh Arieh - Swimming in the pool Monday.
C. Ferguson and E. Lindgren - Around
Mel Judah and Michael Mizrachi (I think) - Standing on chairs to see the action late in the tournament about 5 minutes after Matt Savage asked everyone to get off the chairs.
- Dan
I took my seat on Sunday. Table looked good. No name players and a few guys who looked like most of their experience was on the internet. I also discovered we’re playing 8-handed (other tables are 9-handed). Going to have to call an audible on my strategy to play extremely tight. I worked my stack up from 10K to 13K during the first two hours. No spectacular hands. Flopped top pair a couple times and won at showdown. Other than that just took the blinds or won w a bet on the flop. I think I have a line on most of the players at this point. Some highlights: one seat is chip leader and calls everything. Not a very good player, but he’s getting the cards, catching rivers, etc. He’s up to over 20K by the break. Two seat is a solid Asian guy about my age (23). Seems to be a pot odds-oriented player who doesn’t mess w my blind too much, but is not afraid to sometimes. Four seat is me. Six seat is probably the best at the table. Aggro mid-20’s guy, but far from a maniac. Seven seat is doing that Unabomber thing. Very loose. If the nine seat bets, RUN!!!.
Had a bad run during the 3rd and 4th levels of play. Were a lot of situations where I raised with something like TT and the flop came down A-K-7, etc. I only remember two hands vividly. I have about 10K. Blinds are 100/200 or 150/300. I raise from MP w JcTc and the six seat makes it three-bets. Blinds fold. I call. Flop is 9c 5d 2h. I check -call the flop, putting him on overs (he liked to 3-bet w AT and better). Turn is 7c giving me a flush draw and a gutshot straight flush draw. I check-raise him and he looks a little upset. I think he’s going to fold, but eventually he tosses in a call. I am 100 million percent sure he will fold on the river, given my table image. The river is a Qh. I don’t like that card but bet in case he has AJ, AT or AK. He calls and tables AQo after I flip up my hand. Is it possible to calls something a bad beat if the other guy had the best hand the whole way? Another big hand. Australian guy moves to the five-seat. After he has a brief conversation with Mel Judah, he calls my EP raise. I have 88 and get another caller. Three to the action flop of 8s-7s-6s. I bet and get called by both. I bet rag turn and get called only by the Australian guy. River is the 2s putting a 4-flush up there. I bet and he raises. I fold. Probably should have check-called there, but I think he had it. Guy seemed tight. That put me down to less than 5K. I go into the 2nd break with less than 3K.
Get relatively close to the felt during the next level. I get all in with Aqs on a flop of Q-5-6. Six seat tables TT and I hold up. I go on a small rush after that and win about 3 of the next 9 pots to put me back to 10K. Blinds are 200/400 at this point, w 400-800 betting levels. I balloon up to 22K and then am back to about 16K before the break. I am picking on Australian guy’s blind a little, because he’s on a short stack. Eventually he took a stand and blew a ton of reraises at me when I had KK. I took all of his money pretty much. Get moved to the Hudson Room midship, away from the main poker room. Have a whole new cast of characters at this point. Now there are 3 very good players (including me) and no bad players. Still no pros though. Only hand I remember at this table is I raised w AKo and one of the good, aggro players called from the SB. Flop was A-Q-x. Check-check. Turn was a blank. He bets and I raise. He mucks. Told me later he had JJ.
Our table gets broken up. I raise first had at new table from cutoff w AT and take down blinds. Raise two hands later w AQ. Flop is all rags. I bet. He calls. Turn is a blank. I bet and he folds. Only 15 minutes left to play when the hand of the day for me came up. UTG raises EP cold calls and MP moves all in for 3-bets. Blinds are 500/1000 at this point. I expect to be folding, but look down at AK. A little too good to be folding for two more bets. I call and UTG calls. Flop is A-2-3. I bet. UTG curses in another language and folds. EP calls. Turn is a 5. I bet and EP calls. River is a J. Bet call. I table my AK and it’s good. UTG said he had JJ and would have won on the river. EP mucks. All in guys shows KK and gracefully exits. That moves me up to 40K. I have to post the last blind of the day, leaving me with 39K going into the second day of play, well above the average of about 25K. I pretty much fall asleep right way when I get back to my room.
I look at the board after the next day’s play and find out I’m 50th of 280. I’ll take that. Chip Jett has over 100K. Don’t know how he did that. The ship docked in Mazlatan, but I didn’t get off. I am prone to sunburn and wanted to rest up for that night’s play. I watched the Mike Sexton channel for part of the day. That’s right, a whole channel that was pretty much devoted to Mike Sexton. I wonder where I can get a baseball cap that says “Mike Sexton” on it, like they were wearing at the roast. I also now know all there is to know about the 1999 Tournament of Champions he organized. I went downstairs in the evening with Rob to get the free party poker shirts. The guy running it looked at us suspiciously (as a joke) and said I think you guys play on Pokerstars too. Somehow he knew.
I once again get a good table on Day 3. All solid players though. Only guy in the 9 seat looks like he’s nervous. I raise the first hand from MP and the nervous guy calls me. I forget from where, probably the SB. Flop is 9-T-x. He bets and I raise. He reraises and I call. Turn is a blank. He bets. I fold. Doh! A little while later I pick up Td 8d in the BB and call the SB’s raise. Flop is Ad Qs Xd. He bets. I raise. He reraises and I cap. He says “Yikes” when I cap but calls pretty fast. He checks turn 9c and I bet. In hindsight I should have checked as I’m now fairly certain he has an Ace. River is Kd. I made my flush. Check, bet, call. I show my flush and say sorry. He isn’t mad at all. Must be a good player. Of course I lose it all a few hands later when I have JJ and three-bet a MP raiser and a cold caller from the button. Cold caller was a very loose player with a lot of chips. EP calls all-in. Flop is K-X-X w two clubs. I bet and cold-caller folds. EP guy turns over Ac Qc. Turn of a 2c gives him the nuts.
I am down to about 28K or so. 2000/4000 blinds. UTG woman who is not that good raises and loose guy cold calls. I call in the BB w AdQc. Flop is Tc-6c-3d. All check. Turn is Kc. Loose guy bets. I raise. Woman folds and loose guys calls. River is a blank. He checks. I consider betting, but I get the sense he’s calling. I check. He tables KhQh and takes the pot. I hate how I played the hand. Though I did have 14 outs on the river. I soon get AA and double up in a scary fashion. Back to about 30K. Then solid player raises in LP and I reraise from the SB w KK. Mathew Cherackal, who ended up finishing 3rd and cashing for $700K says cap it. LP folds. I get a bad feeling that he has AA. I call. Flop is 6-6-6. I bet and he calls. Turn is a J. I bet his last 3K. He calls and tables AA. River is a blank and he wins a huge pot. Doh!
Hand that really killed me. I 3-bet loose-guy w AQ from MP. Folded to nervous guy who thinks for a long time and cold-calls. Loose guy calls and flop is J-T-X. I bet 4K, leaving me with just two chips left. Nervous guy calls and loose guy foldes. Turn is a blank. Check-check. River is a blank. Check-check. He tables 77 and wins the pot. Grrrr. Cold-calling w 77. I turned my 2K into 10K later when my A2s holds up against Cherackal’s 89s. I lost a few hands later though when I raised w A2s again from LP and the SB reraised. I called. Flop was 6-4-2 and I put me last two chips in. He called and had 44. I was out in 80th place for $10,400. It was the biggest win of my career, but not what I went there to do. At least I got to go out on the beach at the next stop, but the cruise went quickly from there on out. I was back to my practically minimum-wage job before I knew it. The whole experience has left me eager to start trying to qualify for next year’s tourney. I hope all other 2+2ers on the cruise enjoyed their trip.
Random Poker Celebrity Sightings:
Mike Sexton - Freakin’ everywhere. Seems like a nice guy.
Vince Van Patten - Playing pick up ping pong with cruisers near the pool late in the week.
Clonie Gowen - Tanning by the pool Monday.
Josh Arieh - Swimming in the pool Monday.
C. Ferguson and E. Lindgren - Around
Mel Judah and Michael Mizrachi (I think) - Standing on chairs to see the action late in the tournament about 5 minutes after Matt Savage asked everyone to get off the chairs.
- Dan