morgant does the 300+ foxwoods tourney...

[morgant]

cross post from the zoo.

WARNING: This a semi'self serving long post, that should be worth the time spent, well at least it was for me.

I headed to foxwoods for the Friday 300+ NL tourney. I escaped near tradgedy on 95 if any of you heard of the tanker explosion, it happened about 5 minutes after I got off the bridgeport ferry, that is fate, i am going to rock this tourney. I play thursday night but who cares, friday is the meat and potatos. Rumors were floating that the tourney would be around 1000 players, so i thought my chances were well 1/1000, so i played all of thurs. night until 6am, slept about two hours and high tailed it back for the 10am start.

Tables are playing 12 handed and I am seated in the keyhole. Table has a nice feel to it, a couple decent players, average mix, no a-holes, and thank god no old goats complaining about everything under the sun. I start off really well, got some 3 kk's(won 2/3), and 2 qq's in the am, and managed to send a bunch of people home. I had about 3k in chips when an interesting hand comes up. I am in the bb with 22. EP player goes all in for ~600, MP calls with only 150 left. The table for some reason gets chaotic during this action and it gets folded to me. Before i am given time to consider this, the ep tables his hand ATs, in turn the MP tables AQ, they quickly pick up realizing i am still live. Whats your play? result in white
i called flop came low with another 2, i sent them both home, i felt unfair about it, but i did nothing to make them think i didnt have a hand, decent pot!

I am still chugging along picking up pots and increasing my stack. mid afternoon i am around 10k, i pick up TT in EMP, i make a nice sizeable raise(dont remember blinds) but 3xBB, folded to the BB who reraises twice my bet, he was playing solid and only showing down strong holdings, i called him? flop comes rainbow 9 high, he goes all-in. Whats your play? results in white
i went into the think tank hard, i couldnt let myself fold, he flipped over rockets, and i am crippled down to 3k

Shortly after i get moved to a new table for the first time around 5pm. I am directly on the left of an asian with about 30k, i have a measely 3k and this guy is my ticket. I go into vulture mode and circle for the appropriate times to double through him. 3 hands into the table it is clear his is being way overaggressive and is very successful cause the table is letting him. F that, i doubled through him 3 times, and head to the dinner break back to ~12k.

We move downstairs with around 100 people left and i am card dead from then until a little past midnight. Folding is boring, folding after 2 hours of sleep is painful, folding after 2 hours of sleep and an additional ~12 hours of play is downright exhausting. Somehow i kept my wits about me, and patiently mucked mucked and mucked some more.

Fortuneatly now i have the super rock image of the universe, unfortunately i am severly short stacked when we enter bubble time. I did manage to push a few small edges and put some beats on people to get to this point, but holy chit, i am 1 player from being in the money...OMG. I am far the short stack at my table, when one kid my age with a very healthy stack says to the table, it would be proper for us to fold to the bb for an entire orbit, let a player from another table fold, and we all make the loot. I emphatically agree, so does another large stack. Now I need to encourage these kids to swing the old goats votes, which eventually happens, and we all play as planned!!!!!! I make the f'n money.

Now i can play, and try and make some money. My image is super tight, so i get lucky enough to double several times, and now have a playable stack. I can limp early and the table automatically thought i had aces. I made that play once, with crap, even the table loud mouth aggressor folded, flop came, i made one min. bet, lost the blinds, and someone asked to see my aces . I make it to the next cutoff of money with a midrange stack.

Now it is final table time. I have a decent stack and just need to wait this out. I brought up the fold play from before, as another kid at my table was severly short, they all agreed, all of sudden this kid on his bb says i want to play, prior to seeing his cards. The bb put him all in. The sb looks at him and says are you sure, i will fold, kid says play it and lost the hand.

I MAKE THE FINAL TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OMG

they introduce the final table and i am in 4th or 5th? chip position with ~110k. table is playing aggressively, and rarely ever seeing a flop, and never seeing a showdown. We lose a guy on the first hand of play, he was overaggressive and finally got what was coming to him. Enter my stupidity, i am in the BB with 100k and the button makes a 40k raise, and has me covered. I look down to see AK, and something in me said call, instantly. I look down, and think, jesus chris, why didnt you go all-in, now i am praying for a nice flop, but say, if it is raggedy i am going in, regardless, this guy was also an aggressive player and i had several hours of play with him, so i felt good about my thoughts. Flop came 9high. I went all-in, he goes in the tank, and finally folds. I pick up a few more antes and blinds, we lose another two players, and i am lookin good, roughly around 200k. Stack on my right with a tad over 100k, doubles the bb from his small blind. I look down to see 66. What is your play? Results in white
i pushed all-in, he calls with AA , silly move by me in this spot....i tend to act to quickly, and really need to work on this., I get no help.

I am now the short stack, a couple orbits later i find QJ spades in MP, i push, and get called by a late position AK. I finish in 6th place at around 4am....What a long azz day

[Mike Gallo]

Congratulations.

Very nicely done.

[Toro]

I could be all wet on this but I think the "all fold to the BB agreement so we can all make the money" is collusion. Anybody else agree with me.

[Glenn]

"I could be all wet on this but I think the "all fold to the BB agreement so we can all make the money" is collusion. Anybody else agree with me. "

Yep, that's definitley cheating...I asked another poster when I read that too, and he agreed. If I were a player at another table and I found out that happened, there would be a problem. Also, it really speaks to the incompetance of the Foxwoods staff that the dealer and the floor either didn't notice or didn't say anything.

[Joe Tall]

Wow, well done. BottlesOf and I checked out the final table when they were reading the rules. What seat were you in? I was right there, too bad I didn't know it was you, surely I would have watched.

Very nicely done!

Congrats,
Joe Tall

[RollaJ]

$12,000 not a bad day huh! Congrats!

[regisd]

congrats!

btw - the things that look like they should be in white aren't in white.

[ohkanada]

Congrats on the nice money finish!

I am surprised that the dealer would let your table openly collude to make the money. You are lucky the TD didn't hear you talking about this. And this was when you guys were playing hand for hand?

Ken Poklitar

[RollaJ]

BTW no intention of passing judgement but what did you tip for a payout like that? You can pm me if more comfortable

[morgant]

I asked the floor what i should pay, he said 3% is customary, i gave him $400.

as for all the collusion talk, i agree, i was more or less a bystander in the situation as i had no chips during the decision making process, i had never encountered a situation like that, and in hindsight it is certainly collusion, while it was happening, the last thought i had was collusion, it was i have a short stack, if i bust now after 12+ hours of play i am not making a dime, plus we are speaking out loud with the TD standing directly behind me, and the dealer is obviously aware of our interactions.