Legends Trip Report - or How I missed the final table by a few feet

[Scooterdoo]

Hi, guys. I haven’t posted or visited in a while. I felt a needed to take some time off after my marathon sessions at the WSOP. I did play in two events at the Hustler Casino a few weeks ago. In a $300 event I was just about 10 off the bubble in average chips position when my KK was cracked by AT all-in. I monied in the heads-up tournament which was nice.

Question… Have you ever lost a chance at a final table by only a few feet? Any idea what I’m even talking about? Read on…

Last night I played in my first Legends of Poker Event at the Bike. I was planning on playing in quite a few events, but I’m pretty burnt-out on poker right now. I’ll probably play in one or two events next week, but we’ll be away with the kids for the final weekend and I’ll be missing the WPT event.

Last night was a $500NL event with 311 entrants. The structure wasn’t very favorable with only 1,000 chips. The levels were 45 minutes and blinds started low at 5/15 which was a plus. I never could get things going. I got a bunch of AK-AT, KQs type hands, would raise and miss every flop and have to fold either when I would make a continuation bet and meet resistance or when someone would bet. I quickly went down to 500-600 chips within the first two levels or so. I didn’t get any great hands but did manage to hit some flops or bluff at pots and clawed my way back up to 1,000 or so.

I went card dead for much of the tournament, but forced myself to be patient and pick my spots. I played for 10 hours or so and had AA once in an early level (won less than 100 with it) and had QQ one other time, but had no callers to my 3x raise. I did have KK once but couldn’t play it (see below). Other than that I rarely had a premium hand. I don’t recall ever having so few good hands either pre or post flop and doing as well as I did.

I had one suck-out mid-way. I pushed with about 1k in chips with AJ and was called by QQ. The flop comes xJxxJ!

At one point with about 7 tables to go I get moved from my table when they needed a player on another table. The table I got moved to only stayed for about 5 hands and was broken. I draw the exact same seat where I had been sitting! I played at this table with Warren Karp for a few hours. Very nice guy. He had a big stack for a while but slowly lost a bunch of hands – no one hand in particular comes to mind – and he was knocked out with about 50 or so left.

One interesting hand… I’m in the BB and UTG calls for 300 (150/300 blinds). Warren calls and the SB calls. I look down at A9. I think I had around 2k at this time. I didn’t like just checking and being out of position if the A hits. Raising was an option, but the pot was pretty nice at the time (about ½ of my chips) and I felt I had a high likelihood of taking it down right there. The only player I was worried about was UTG. If the other two had a hand worth calling my all-in, I was sure they would have raised. It was possible, however, that UTG could have been playing a big hand tricky, hoping for a raise. I studied for a while stacking my chips, counting, thinking, etc., and was convinced that UTG didn’t want me to push, based on his body language. He probably had a hand like mine, probably A8 - AT or a low to mid pair. I voted to push and everyone folded.

On another hand against the same player (UTG) I’m in the small blind with A3 and he’s in the BB. Blinds are 50/100 or maybe 100/200 – don’t recall the specifics, but it doesn’t matter for this description. It’s folded to me, I complete and he checks. Flop comes 25Q. I bet around 300-400 with the over and gut shot and he quickly calls. The next card is a Q. I decide to check and give up on the hand if he bets, but he checks too – he could very possibly have hit the set and is slow playing. The river is my miracle 4. I want all his chips (of course he can have a full house or 46 but I’m not going to worry about that here) and try to figure out the best way to do that. My options are check-raise, make a small bet and hope for a raise, or make a big over-bet that looks like I don’t want a call. I’m worried that if he doesn’t have the Q he will not call a strong value bet of ½ or so of the pot. I’m also concerned that if I check and he doesn’t have the Q he might just check too. I decide to push (I have about 2k+ left) thinking that this will look like I don’t have the Q and don’t want a call. To me this option will get a call from both a Q and perhaps a medium pair, and even a hand like A5. He spends quite a bit of time and decides to fold. I think he had a medium pair, but who knows. Perhaps my only chance of getting anything was to make a bet of a few hundred which he might feel he has to call. Many players in this tournament, however, would have called my push with a TT type hand. This guy just wasn’t one of these players – oh, well. Not sure if I really left anything on the table here.

John Phan was moved to our table for about an hour. Fortunately for us he was fairly short-stacked. He had about the same # of chips as me – fluctuating between 2-5k when the big stacks had 8-15k. He made a few aggressive plays and showed down junk when everyone folded. He ended up getting busted when he pushed with 44 and was called by a higher pair. At one point I pushed from the button on his blind and he thought for a while. He pretended to push his chips in and I joked and asked if he was trying to get a read on me. He said it doesn’t matter because since I was all-in there was nothing he could do since he couldn’t bluff me out. Clearly he had nothing. John is a really nice, fun guy to play with. I guess he’s living the good life right now!

I usually don’t play to just make the money, but next thing I know we are down to 35 or so people and I’m pretty short-stacked again. I basically was playing very few hands. There was a period of 5 hands or so when we were at 50 players and I was short-stacked where I pushed once or twice with Ax/KQ type hands and didn't get any callers. I then was finally at a position where I didn't have to play all-in poker (I hate doing the all-in thing as my only move) and was able to take down pots with normal 3x type raises. I also made some strategic pushes with nothing, when there were limpers or when I was on the button and had just enough to scare my opponents off of anything but premium hands. I really wanted to make the money to feel that I accomplished something and also getting $780 for my trouble wouldn’t be too bad. I didn’t get any playable hands during the bubble period and people started dropping out so next thing you know we’re in the money. They took a vote when we were one away from the money and everyone agreed to pay 28th place out of the 1st place money rather than be forced to go hand-for-hand.

During the next hour or so I stay around 3-5k which was very low. Forget the exact blinds during this time, but probably around a 75 ante and 400-800. I tried to steal a pot every orbit or so and I’m able to stay relatively stable, but still low. I finally get a good hand from late position – AKs – and push. Another late player calls me with 44. I was bummed hoping for Ax. Anyway, the board comes something like QQJx… My opponent is rooting against an A, K or T, but the river is a J. My opponent is all happy and I point out to him that the board just counterfeited his 44 and I double up!

Once again I get no cards for quite a while, but am still able to hold at 7-9k by not doing anything stupid and stealing an occasional blind. I did get blinded down to about half and push with KQs, get called by 88 and win the race so I’m up to 7-9k again. This has been my MO the entire tournament. Get nothing, blinded down, double up, get nothing, blinded down, double up (on some levels I don’t actually double up, but I grind with steals).

Then disaster strikes. We’re down to 19 places and we will bump up about 500 for 18th place. So I’m rooting for one more person to go out. I’m out of a hand at my table and there is a big commotion with a major all-in on the other table so I get up to watch it. While I’m there I notice that the hand at my table ended quicker than I expected and they are dealing the next hand. I’m in seat 1 and UTG on this hand. I quickly head back and I’m a few feet from my chair (hence the title of this thread) when the dealer grabs my cards. I don’t make a commotion out of it, no big deal (I think!) since I would rarely play from UTG anyway and I’ve been basically folding every hand I see the entire day. I ask the dealer if I can see the cards (he’s holding them at this point by themselves right next to me). He says not now, but they will remain on the bottom of the pile and he’ll show me at the end of the hand. I then decide I don’t want to see them and tell him to forget about it. An early position player raises and another player pushes. The early position raiser folds after much deliberation. The dealer then proceeds to show me my hand – KK (remember, I asked not to see it). Everyone learns what it is and the all-in guy breathes a sigh of relief and says that he would have lost a lot on that hand. He had a huge stack so conceivably I could have moved up to 20k! Of course I could have lost the hand too – I have been knocked out of many tournaments with KK.

Just a short while later I get 44 and raise to 2k – blinds are 400-800 I believe. I get called by a guy with 99 and I miss the flop and he bets and I fold. A few hands later I get 44 again and push from late position with about 5k of chips (there’s roughly 2k in the pot). I get called by one of the blinds. He has AQ and hits an A and Q. I only have 5 $100 chips left. There is a 100 ante now. I take my time to decide to fold on the next two hands and our hands play long. Somehow I survive one more player during these two hands and we move up one more pay slot to $1,555. The rail-birds applaud as we hit a 10 minute break. I have 3 chips and am going to be posting the first BB after the break at the 600/1200 200 ante level.

I come back and post the ante and have 1 chip left for my BB. An early position player with about 6k pushes and Brett Jungblut who has been playing at my table for a while and has a nice sized stack calls. The first guy turns over KQ and Brett has a medium pair. Believe it or not I have AKs. On the one hand it’s amazing that I have such a powerful hand. On the other hand one of my K’s is out. I hit an A on the turn and win the antes and 3 chips so now have close to 20 chips – not bad in one hand to increase your stack by 6x. On the next hand I’m in the SB and it gets folded to me. I push with A7o and the BB does his mandatory call with 75o and my hand holds. I now have gone from 3 chips to over 50 chips in two hands. Is that some kind of record?

Unfortunately I never get another playable hand and with each orbit costing 2600 or so, I don’t have much time. Every pot is either raised prior to my action or I have a hand like 72o. Once or twice I had hands like A5, but there are two players in the pot and I just want to try to be the first in with something playable. My strategy tonight has been to be patient and I don’t want to change now. I reason that with so much in the pot due to blinds and antes I can wait on a hand up to having on BB left since if I win just one hand I’m at 4k and if I can then double up I’m back to 8k. Anyway, after the blinds go through me I did have two opportunities that I passed up. One time I had K9, but was in early position and felt I would get a caller since I didn’t have much more than the BB so I decided to wait for better position – this was probably a mistake, although the next player made a 4k bet so I assume he had a better hand than K9, but who knows. Another time I was on the button and it was folded to me. I had only 56o, and had only a bit more than the BB so would have to play the hand to showdown; if the hand was only marginally better I would have played it. I decided to fold.

On the next hand with 1.4k left, BB was 1.2k, the guy to my right makes a 3-4k bet. I look down at T9s. I reasoned that he would be making this move with a variety of hands such as an underpair to my cards or one overcard; in both cases I’m even-money and I’m getting huge odds to call – 1.4k into a pot of (1.4k in antes, blinds of 1.8k and his bet of 1.4k) – so over 3-1. The worst case for me is that he’s paired one of my cards or he has an overpair (overpair is about at my pot odds), but given the range of hands I feel I must call. Of course this all assumes that the blinds don’t come in, but I’m counting on them to fold because the other player has a big stack and I see them getting involved with only premium hands and a big A wouldn't be bad anyway given that the initial raiser probably has an A. My other consideration, which was pretty big was that I only have a few hands left until I will have to post the blinds and be forced to play.

Anyway, I call, the blinds fold and he turns over A3o which is about what I figured him for and is a perfect scenario for me since I’m even money against this hand. Unfortunately he hits both an A and 3 on the flop and my T on the turn isn’t enough. Oh, well. Just a few feet and I probably make the final table!