Last weekend brought the long-awaited arrival of the Hold 'Em for Hunger tournament, a $20 buy-in, 300 entrant tournament in which the winner won a trip to Aruba to play in a World Series of Poker satellite.  The money went to charity, and the top 30 finishers received prizes, the best of which included the aforementioned trip, a 27" flat screen TV, a new Dell computer, and a surround sound speaker system.

I had been gearing up for this tournament since I first heard about it a couple months ago.  I looked at it as my one real chance to show the whole campus that I was the best around.  I was pretty confident in my chances, despite not playing that well since spring break.  For one thing, I didn't have to worry about setting up and running this tournament, unlike the Stacy games, and the top prizes were plenty enough to make me focus, especially in comparison the the relatively paltry sums we could make on Tuesday and Thursday.  More than anything, though, I just wanted to prove that I was the best.

I sat down at my first table and sized up the competition.  Most guys were chatting before we began, so I got a feel for their personalities right away.  They all seemed to be pretty inexperienced players, with the exception of Alex, who was seated across from me.  I didn't think that bluffing was much of an option against these guys, so I just told myself to wait for the best hand, and then bet it strong.

Chaz and Matt, who put the tournament together, did an excellent job.  The tables, chips, atmosphere, everything was top-notch.  The only complaint I had was the blind structure.  Blinds escalated much too rapidly, and this forced players to get all their money in early and often.  This really cuts down on the skill factor, but it doesn't totally negate it.  That being said, I understand why they did it, because it was only a one day tournament and they only had so long to get it done.

We began with $5000 in chips, and blinds at 100-200.  The very first hand, I looked down to see pocket 5s.  I limped in, and I saw a flop with 3 other players.  The flop came down 5 6 7 with two hearts, giving me bottom set.  The small blind checked, and the big blind bet out 1000.  I took my time to think, because my whole stack could be riding on this hand.  The guy that bet was obviously a terrible player, and I knew I had him beat.  The problem was the people behind me.  I didn't feel like raising and seeing them stick me with a flopped straight.  At the same time, I couldn't lay this down now.  I told myself that I would call, and then push on the turn if a safe card fell.  One problem, both guys behind me called.  So there was already almost 5000 in the pot!  Keep in mind that this was the first hand of the whole tournament.  Before the turn card came I prayed for some black paint.  But down came a heart, putting three on the board.  The small blind checked again, and the same kid bet 1000 again.  I knew he didn't have the flush, but I was worried about the others.  I called, looking for the board to pair on the river.  The kid behind me called, and then the small blind went all-in!  This seemed to be the most obvious flush move ever, because the guy had to figure he'd get called.  The initial kid folded, I tossed my set, and the guy behind me folded as well.  I was a little put off that I had just lost almost half my stack on the first hand, but I saw how bad these guys were, and I figured it was only a matter of time until I came back.

I didn't have anything to mix it up with the next few hands, so I just sat back and observed the idiocy going on all around me.  It seemed that noone could raise more than the minimum, as preflop everyone bet 400, and if someone reraised, they made it 600.  Astoundingly bad play all over.  Someone showed ace queen to take a pot, and I told them that I hated ace queen more than any other hand, because I've historically lost with it.  I had had this same conversation with Roy and the guys before the game, telling them that if I got busted with ace queen, then they could kill me.  Well, what do you know, I looked down, and saw ace queen after a weak player raised it under the gun.  With the blinds moving at the rate they were, I knew I had to move, so I begrudgingly pushed with the devil hand.  It got back to the UTG raiser, and he called and flipped over pocket 8s.  I hate getting my money in on coinflips, but it's almost unavoidable in tournaments structured like this.  I knew he wasn't that strong, so I was hoping for a nicely dominated hand like ace jack, but I couldn't complain.  The flop came out a beautiful ace queen jack, giving me top two pair and reducing him to two outs or a runner-runner straight or flush draw.  The turn was the 4 of spades, so that gave him 11 outs, because he had the 8 of spades and I had none.  Amazingly, the river was a blank, and I doubled up to about 5000.

A short while later, I was on the small blind.  One player limped, another raised the minimum, and I called with ace 7, as did the big blind and the limper.  I wasn't sure what I was looking to hit, but these guys were so easy to read that I would know soon enough.  The flop came ace 4 5, and I checked, not wanting to get reraised by a better ace.  Everyone else checked, and I knew I was good, because these guys weren't nearly sophisticated enough to do anything but bet top pair.  The turn was a 9, and I checked again, hoping to induce a bet.  No dice.  The river was a queen, which seemed like a good card because it probably paired someone, and I bet out 700 into the 1600 pot.  The original raiser called me but never showed what he had, so my ace was good.

Before I leave this table, let me write down what transpired in a hand betwee Alex and two other guys, just for future reference that I wasn't hallucinating when this occurred.  One of the guys that kept calling the 1000 bets on the first hand, wth only 1200 in his stack, limped in for 400 in middle position.  OK, horrible play, but I forgive you.  The guy that kept betting at that first pot, who now had only 800 left, ALSO LIMPED IN on the button, leaving him with 400.  The small blind folded, and Alex, in the big blind, checked.  The flop came jack 2 4, and Alex said, "I'll put you guys all-in."  The middle position player thought for a few seconds, and then called, and the button man thought and thought and thought and folded.  What the hell is happening here?  Alex turned over jack 9 for top pair, and the short stack, whom I'll just call Confused and Sluggish Black Guy, turned over king 6 for... king high.  Alex dodged a king on the turn and river, and Confused and Sluggish Black Guy was dead.  Let me take this time to implore anyone who doesn't know how to player poker this: Learn how to play before you play!  Otherwise, you're better off just buying a ticket and not showing up.  At least the charity gets the money then.  Wow, this guy was bad.  And it took him 3 full minutes to deal out everyone's hand when he had the deck.  Just dreadful.

This hand saddened me for a short while afterwards, as I reflected upon how many imbeciles populate the Earth.  It got me quite depressed, but I snapped out of it in time to get moved to table 6 (from table 31), which was all the way in the opposite corner of the room.  I went over there with 6600, not a terrible stack, but I wasn't keeping up with the blinds as much as I had hoped to, so I needed a pot rather soon.  We only got in two hands at that table, then we took our dinner break.

After the break, about half of the players were busted out, leaving about 150 of us.  Stacy Poker Tour was thriving, with some huge stacks, like Roy, Jesse, and Alex, and a bunch of guys who thrive on grinding it out, like me, Pascale, Joe, and Godwin.  I came back to one of the most incredible rushed I've ever gone on before.  A few hands out of the break, I picked up ace jack of hearts in the small blind.  A middle position player raised it, and I read him as being pretty weak, so I pushed all-in on top of him.  He called with ace ten, and I hit top two pair on the flop to take it.  A few hands later, I picked up pocket tens after two people limped on the now 400-800 blinds.  I moved all-in, and everyone folded, giving me a nice 2800 pot.  A few hands later, I got pocket 8s in the same position.  I pushed, and no one called, so I took all the dead money.  Then, on the small blind, I picked up ace king of hearts after someone under the gun raised it.  I thought about flat-calling, but I'd rather do that with position, so I pushed all-in.  The big blind then started thinking and thinking, and finally he called.  The under the gun player just shook his head and folded, as it was a substantial amount more.  I turned over ace king of hearts, and the big blind turned over ace king off, so I was fine with that.  For one thing, we had the UTG players dead money in the pot, and I was almost freerolling for a heart flush.  The first two cards off the flop were hearts, but the poker gods didn't deem it fit to give me another one, so we split the pot.  The under the gun player then told us that he had pocket 9s, which would have been good, eliminating both of us.  Whew.  Later, on my small blind, I picked up ace king of diamonds when a tight, early-position raiser came in.  I had him covered easily, and I put him all-in.  He called reluctantly, because he was pretty pot-stuck, and he had ace jack.  Big slick was good, and I took him out.  In a way, it was poetice justice, because he was the guy that took me and Pete out in the intramural pool tournament a while back.  That one was for you, Pete.

Just because I ended the paragraph doesn't mean that my rush was over.  I just want the reader to get a chance to catch his breath.  After this pot, I was the second biggest stack at the table.  The guy who had pocket 9s began to lose his mind, and he pissed his money away in about 5 minutes.  The blinds were now up to 1000-2000, so the players were dropping like flies.  A new player sat down to my left, and he had everyone at the table covered.  He seemed fairly decent from the first few hands I saw him play, but he looked like he could be set up for a trap, as he liked to bet big post-flop.  By this point, most preflop raises took down the pot, even minimum ones, because to call would mean to commit a big chunk of your stack.  The big stack decided to double the blind under the gun, and wouldn't you know it, it was my big blind.  It folded to me, and I squeezed a king 9 of spades.  I called the 1000, and we saw a flop of king 10 4.  I checked, thinking I was good, but not completely certain.  He thought for two seconds, then went all-in, which was a huge overbet.  With about 9 thousand in the pot, he bet enough to put me all-in, which was about 27 thousand.  I went into the tank.  What could he have?  He could easily have big slick, aces, or king queen with the raise under the gun.  I looked him up and down, and he was giving me the best withering glare he could muster.  He seemed to be trying too hard, though, as if he wanted to scare me, and I decided that he was really pretty weak here.  "I call," I said, and pushed my money in.  He flipped over ace 10 of hearts, giving him second pair, so my read was right.  I stood up and threw my cards on the table and yelled, "One time let the best hand hold up!!!"  The turn was a 9, giving me two pair, but an ace or a ten would still beat me.  The river was a rag, but it put for clubs on the board.  I clapped and then looked back in horror to check if he had a club.  Two hearts doesn't equal a club, though, so I was safe.  This was easily the biggest pot we had seen at the table, and I was now the chip leader at our table, and quite possibly the whole tournament, with about 64 thousand.

Right before I went on my rush, they showed the top ten chip leaders at the time.  Roy was in third, Alex was in 7th, and Simkins was in 10th.  The chip leader had around 35 grand, so I had definitely put myself in the top 10 at least by time I got my 65 grand.  For the rest of my time at the table, I stole a couple of blinds, but didn't get involved in any other big hands.  By time we combined to four tables, I was sitting pretty comfortably with 65 grand.

Unfortunately, some of the Stacy guys were starting to bite the dust.  Roy lost all of his money when he got in preflop with ace 9 against ace 7, only to see two 7s hit the board.  Alex also got whacked, along with Ferris, Pascale, and Pete.  Still going strong were myself, Godwin, Andrew, Baby Ace, Yush, Simkins, and Joe from the third floor.

The blinds got really ridiculous when we made it to four tables, beginning at 4000-8000.  I had a relatively large stack, but I didn't even have ten big blinds.  Damn you, fast structure.  I played pretty tight, as making even one raise meant committing half your stack to the pot, so I didn't want to get busted by nonsense.  I picked up pocket queen in second position one time, and I just pushed all-in, rather than raise half my stack and then have to fold if an ace or king hit the flop.  I took it uncontested, and when we combined to three tables, I had about what I had started the last table with, only now, other people that had survived had built their stacks.  I was still fine, though, barring any major Matusow moments.  I got seated to Andrew's right at my new table, and I was also confronted with the fact that Steven, card cheat extraordinaire, was still alive.  This didn't please me too much, but I figured it was the least I could do to take him out.

$1000 antes were now in play too, so with 5000-10000 blinds, it cost $25,000 a round to play.  I couldn't get anything worth playing, and I tossed pocket 4s under the gun, because I didn't want to commit my stack with such ugly crap.  Finally, it folded to me on the button, and I saw 2 3 of clubs.  Very ugly, but Andrew, in the small blind, would only call me with a premium hand because he didn't have much money, and drunk guy in the big blind had been playing very passively. So I raised it 12,000 on top of the 10,000 blinds.  Andrew folded, and drunk guy called.  The flop came ace 8 6, and after drunk guy checked it, I bet 10,000 and he tossed it quickly.  Thank God for that, or I was in trouble.

I called a raise from Maniac Indian guy in the big blind later on.  I held ace jack.  The flop came king rag rag.  I checked, and so did he.  This was very strange, because on all of the pots I had seen him play, he had bet out on the flop after raising.  I figured he must have had the king and was hoping I caught something.  The turn was a jack, giving me second pair, top kicker.  I checked again, and he bet out 15 grand.  I thought and thought, but I was almost sure he had the king, otherwise why check it?  I hadn't played with this guy where he would be scared of me.  I folded it, deciding to wait for a better spot.  I later found out that I had him, as he just had ace 4 for ace high.

With the blinds so high, the action went quickly, because almost every pot had an all-in.  Andrew finally got whacked after tripling up and doubling up, and a few hands later we were down to the final table.  By this point, I hadn't picked up a ton of pots, and I was down to about 45 grand, good for 6th, I believe, out of 10 at the final table.

Right before the final table began, they turned off the lights and played a clip from Rounders, the scene where Mike McD bluffs Johnny Chan.  That got me pretty excited, and during the time before we commenced playing, I paced around outside the table to calm my nerves.  Stacy Poker Tour was wel-represented at the final table, with myself, Godwin, and Baby Ace.  I'm not sure how Josh made it there, but he must have done something right.  Also, Steven the Cheat was on my right with a healthy stack.  Godwin had a mountain of chips after tripling up at his last table when his ace 3 hit a boat against two other guys.  The blinds started at 6,000-12,000, with 2,000 antes, so each round cost 38,000.  Being that I only had around 45, I needed to make a move.  My hands were a bit less than stellar, though, ranging from 2 5 off to 4 9 suited, at best.  Once, a short stack moved all-in from under the gun, and I thought of repushing with queen ten, but decided against it, although I would have taken it.

Sadly, i got anted away.  The table was playing pretty tight preflop, and a raise usually took it down, although a raise meant committing your whole stack with the way the blinds were.  A few times it folded to me in pretty late position, and rather than push blind, I kept tossing my trash hands.  In retrospect, I wish I had pushed a couple times to stay afloat, because if I got a big stack I would have murdered this table, as they were pretty unimpressive as a whole.  Finally, with blinds at 7,000-14,000 I got ace 6 off under the gun.  Not a great hand, but I would be committed on my big blind next hand, and this sure beat that, so I pushed.  It got over to Godwin, and he looked at me with this awful sadness in his eyes.  I knew he had a big hand, so I told him, "If you gotta do it, you gotta do it, man."  If anyone was going to take me out, I'd rather it be Godwin so he has a chance to do some damage.  He finally called, and everyone else folded.  He tabled pocket 9s, and the flop consisted of a nice mixture of trash and rags, so he held up.  I got up and received a nice ovation from all of the players and spectators, which helped lessen the blow of coming so close only to fall short.

Baby Ace went out in 10th, and Godwin lasted all the way down to third, where he just couldn't overcome the nasty cards that this girl Kaylie was getting.  She went on to beat Cheaterman heads up on a hand he played absolutely awfully.

Overall, I'm very happy with my play.  I played very well the whole day, getting away from hands that could kill me (the set on the first hand) and always getting my money in with the best of it.  Fortunately, my hands always held up, which doesn't always happen in big tournaments like this, so I couldn't have asked for much more.  I just regret not pushing a couple times at the final table, because I know I would have won if I got anywhere above an average stack. I just know it.

Stacy Poker Tour REPRESENTED in the tournament.  Six of the final 30 players were Stacy players, as well as 8 of the final 34.  I think we showed that we're the best collective bunch on campus.  And congratulations to Godwin, who outlasted us all, in third.

I also want to thank everyone who stayed around to cheer me on after they busted.  Roy, Gibby, Will, Pascale, Pete, everyone else, it made me feel really good to have you guys behind me.  When I went on stage to collect my prize, I also got a nice hand from everyone.  I took home an extremely nice poker tabletop from Empire Poker, 300 gold-embossed, 11.5 gram clay chips with racks, and two decks of cards.  I'll also be receiving a t-shirt that states that I made the final table, which I think I may value even more than the other prizes.  I may not have won the tournament, but I think I at least let everyone know that I'm one of the top players on campus.

In other news, I've been in a drought at Stacy, with no money finishes since before spring break.  I've done fairly well on Thursdays though, and I have three boohbahs this semester.  I won tonight, hitting lots of hands, but played very well, and I took out Moonie heads up.  Despite the prizes, I'm just going to subtract $20 out of my bankroll, because that's what I paid the entry fee out of.  But I definitely got my money's worth.

After the tournament, we went and hung out at Bobby's apartment all night, playing ping pong and a freeroll HORS tournament for a black chip.  Pete got a big stack early, and Ryan decided to bet Roy and I that Pete would win.  We gave him 5-1 odds on a $3 bet, and he sweetened the deal by offering to throw in a green chip that said "Pete sucks" in Sharpie to the guy who eliminated Pete.  Roy got busted early, but I took all of Pete's money on a big pot-limit omaha hand where he had kings and I had aces.  He barely survived, and Andrew took him out on the next hand to receive the yellow chip.  Having just won $3, I offered it to Andrew for the green chip, and he readily accepted, so I now have a token of Pete's suckitude.  I went on to beat Andrew heads-up, and I claimed my black chip, as well.

Quote of the day: "When it got down to 40 people, me and Gibby were ready to put money on you to win."- Matt, who put together the tournament.

Terrence's bankroll:  I have no idea what all the individual numbers are, but the sum total is $985.

Currently feeling: accomplished
Posted by Terrence on April 15, 2005 at 01:26 AM | 3 comments
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Comment posted on April 15th, 2005 at 03:28 PM
i'm always impressed by how well you remember so many hands, even 5 days after they happened. definitely would've been curious to see what you would have done had you procured a bigger chip stack at the final table.
Comment posted on April 15th, 2005 at 09:52 AM
How the hell did cheat guy finish in 2nd? That's a question for the ages.
Comment posted on April 15th, 2005 at 01:33 AM
I hope your sum total calculated the $5 coin toss I won. ;)