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02-18-2002, 06:14 PM
Another Spirit Mountain Trip Report


Ten days ago I had no plans to make the trip to Spirit Mountain for the No Limit event of the Oregon Open. But in the previous eight days leading up to yesterdays event, I had a nice tourney run. These were all smallish (30-50 players) tournies. I placed 8th ( losing KK to JJ on the river). I then ran 400 chips with 800-1500 blinds into a 1st place finish. And then on Saturday I placed 9th.


Sundays event at the Oregon Open was a $230 buy-in. You get 1500 in chips. There is one rebuy for $100 getting another 1500 in chips. There is one add-on at the end of the 4th round for another $100 gettting you 3000 in chips.


I set my alarm for 5 a.m. so I can make the 3 hour drive and play some satelites. Within a few minutes of arriving at the poker room ( 16 tables and no smoking) they are about to start a $45 satelite. These satelites pay $230 for 1st and $85 for 2nd and 3rd. My 1st satelite goes well as I get headsup with someone. With the blinds being 200-400 and only 3000 chips on the table ( he has 1800) he offers a split. I take the split. I play one other satelite and again am fortunate to split 1st/2nd. So things have gone well so far.


The tourney starts at noon. We start with 94 players. I sit down at seat 9 at table 6 which happens to be the final table. Hopefully things to come. One older guy ( the gambler) takes his rebuy when the tourney starts. With only 1 rebuy I choose to hold off. Blinds start at 25-50. 30 minute rounds.


Tourney starts off well. On the 2nd rotation a mid-position players raises to 200. The gambler calls. I am in the SB and see AKs. I make it 800 and I am surprised when both call. Flop has an Ace. I bet all-in. The original raiser calls and shows QQ. I win a nice pot. A few rounds later with the blinds 100-200, I make it 800 to go with 99. Only the small blind calls. Flop is the beautiful 932. I bet all-in and the SB calls all-in. He shows QQ. This guy was your classic passive NL player. Lots of limping and no raising. If he re-raises all-in preflop I have a tough decision to call. During the rebuy period I did get QQ twice. The 1st time I won the blinds. The 2nd time I lost to AA. Fortunately he didn't have many chips.


The gambler had a bundle of chips in the 3rd round but decided to give them all up within a few minutes. One guy (Calvin) who just moved to the table with 1000 with blinds of 150-300 was the beneficiary of most of them. Calvin had 14000 at the end of the 4th round. He ended up in 3rd place. I had 11900 at the end of 4th round after I did my rebuy and addon. The rebuy was the toughest choice but I figured the 1500 in chips might make a difference. 67 players left at the 1st break.


The 5th rounds starts off bad when I lose a few chips with AK vs 77. They say if you are going to do well in a tourney you need to win the AK vs pair battle. I was involved in many of those battles and except for this one I think I won all of them. On the very next hand I gain some revenge on the player who had AA vs my QQ. We were in the blinds and he only had a few more chips. I raised all-in blind. He called with K6 and I had 65. With a flop of 655 I won the pot. The key hand early for me was when the blinds were 500-1000. I hadn't done much since the break. I had about 10000 chips. I raised to 4000 with JJ. Someone who had me covered re-raised all-in. After some thinking I call. He showed AK. No help for him and I double up. I end the round at 19800 and we have 29 players left.


Blinds jump to 800-1500 and we now have antes of 100. A few key hands in this round. A guy (Chenick) on the button raises to 5000. I re-raise all-in in the BB with AQ and he mucks. The next 2 hands Chenick does the same thing and both times the guy to my right raises all-in. So Chenick goes from a big stack to a below average stack of about 11000. I have 15000 or so. A bit later Chenick limps on the button. The SB just calls and I check in the BB with 65o. Flop is J65. I bet out 2500. Button raises to 7000. I re-raise all-in. He calls. He shows J8s. I show my 65. Turn is K. River is the ugly 8. I was not pleased and I may have muttered the F word. Fortunately no one heard since it is a 10 minute penalty which would have killed me. I am down to 4600 and the blinds are about to increase to 1000-2000 with an ante of 200. As it turned out Chenick took 2nd place. We are now down to 20 players and we draw for new seats. With so little chips I need to find a hand quick. In the 3rd hand on the new table I have AQs. The guy to my right (Dusty) raises. I call all-in. Another player re-raises. Dusty folds and we see AQ vs JJ. I win when an Ace flops and I triple up. A few hands later I have 13000. UTG bets 7000 all-in. UTG+1 re-raises to 15000 all-in. I look down and find JJ. I decide to muck. With 13000 it may have been worth the gamble. I am afraid of all the overcards. As it turns out 99 takes out AK. The blinds and antes take more of my chips and I am left with 7400. The clock shows 1 minute to go in the round. Blinds are about to jump to 1500-3000 and antes of 300. I decide that if it is folded to me I am raising all-in with any 2. It is folded to me and I look down and see the ever powerful 43o. I raise all-in. The BB who is a good player counts down his chips. He probably has 12000 or so. His hand is close and when the announcement for the end of the round comes I think he is going to call. In the end he folds. Whew.


I get moved back to table 6 (seat 2 this time). We are now getting close to the final table (they pay the final 10). I make another out right steal with 54o and get no callers. I then get the hand that propells me to the final table. UTG raises to 12000. I call all-in with JJ. He shows KQ and I survive another 50/50. The final hand before the final table finds me in the BB. UTG raises all-in to 5800 (a raise of 2800). All folded to me who calls the 2800 blind. He shows TT. I show 93s. I river a flush.


We draw seats and I stay in seat 2. I have 35300 and that is 8th in chip count. There is a total of 450000 chips in play. The low chip player is quickly out as he draws the BB. I am involved in the key hand early at the final table. Blinds are now 2000-4000 and antes of 400. I have 32100. I am UTG and find AK. I raise all-in. Mid position player calls all-in with 31700. Seat 10 also calls. Mid players shows 99. Seat 10 shows KK. Ooops. As the cards are being flipped seat 10 gasps as the 1st card off is a beautiful Ace. I triple up and jump to the chip lead. We are down to 8 players when seat 10 raises all-in. I find AA and re-raise all-in. A smooth call may have been better although the lady in seat 3 claims she would have called with presto and hit a set on the river. I easily beat his KJs.


Blinds are up to 5000-10000. Still 7 players in. I am still the chip leader. Dusty who is in seat 1 has 85k in chips. I probably have 110k. On the button he raises all-in. At the time he had not done it much. Later it became an annoying thing. I find TT in the SB. I decide not to risk most of my chips. Seat 3 calls. Dusty shows A9 and seat 3 shows AJ. I would have flopped a set and knocked 2 players out. A bit later, seat 3 & 4 are both very low in chips and are trying to wait each other out. Seat 3 has 9500 in the SB. Seat 4 has 12500 in the BB. It is folded to me and I raise all-in. Seat 3 calls but before the BB calls I show my cards. For some reason I thought seat 4 had no more chips in the BB. My big hand of 86o is declared dead. Seat 3 had 77 and wins the pot uncontested when BB folds. The mistake didn't cost me many chips but it did seem to effect me. For the 45 minutes or so I became a lot more passive as the rest of the table became more active. My chip lead became 2nd and then 3rd as we lost 3 more players. I re-focused as we were 4 handed. With blinds of 7000-15000, the raising all-in war begins. We are all fairly close in chips. 1st place gets 10k, 2nd gets 6.5k, 3rd gets 5.5k and 4th gets 4k. Seat 9 (Calvin) proposes a 4 way split which works out to 2nd place money. We all agree but the deal gets nixed because Calvin & Dusty want the trophy. The raising continues. I am waiting for Dusty to raise all-in when I have a hand but it never happens. Blinds jump to 10000-20000 and antes or 1000. I raise with KQ all-in and Dusty calls with AQ. He has me covered. I am lucky when I hit a King on the river. I can't find a hand to defend with and most raises are being won uncontested. I am in the BB and post the 20k. I have another 75k. Once again Dusty raises all-in. I find K9s. If I have a few less chips I would call but I muck. He shows the bluff with 65o. I win the blinds again and then I find A7o UTG. I go all-in. Dusty calls. He shows AQ. This time there is no miracle river card. 4th place. Dusty wins several hands later with QQ vs AQ. With a big chip lead he gives 2nd 7k and takes home 9.6k.


So although I didn't win I was happy with my play. I made a few mistakes. The biggest mistake was when I was too passive when I had the chip lead. Next time I will push harder.


Ken Poklitar

ohKanada@hotmail.com

02-18-2002, 07:52 PM
Ken,


Great job and excellent report! Congratulations. Wish I would have been aware of this event.


KJS

02-19-2002, 12:44 PM
Thanks, they are planning on having 3 5-day events this year. February, June and October. The October event last year was 10 days but I guess they decided 5 days is enough.


Ken Poklitar

ohKanada@hotmail.com