Friday night was the third EPT 20$ buy-in pot limit Texas Hold’em tournament that I’ve organized. We had 13 people show up, which is a new record. But I think we will smash it in two weeks at the next one.
We also had our extra chips (50 green) arrive at long last and I bought a set of 2 KEM decks off someone who had picked up some extras off eBay. So we were loaded for bear and ready to go. Everyone bought in and received their 1000 in chips. No buy-ins, no add-ons, just elimination play with the top 4 taking home money.
I drew the short table and had a good balance of experienced players and dead money. One of the new guys actually plays 5/10$ on-line and has a fair amount of live experience in both home games and casinos. Thankfully he never really had the cards to be too much of a threat. The hand of my tournament was early on, a free play off the BB solo against the SB. I had Q9o I think, and the flop came 932. I figured I was good and bet 100$ into the 100$ pot after the SB checks. SB calls and I put him on a couple of overcards. The turn comes another 3 with no real flush possibilities. The SB checks again and I decide to try to take the pot down here instead of of giving him a chance at catching one of his overcards. So, I bet the pot back at him and he flat calls. The river is a 4, which he checks. I check figuring I am not going to get any more money from him. Of course, he has K3 for the set and I’ve just lost a large pot, putting myself in very dangerous chip position, at risk of going out first in the tournament.
But, I batten down the hatches and try to find an opportunity to double up. I can’t remember the cards I had, but I managed to double through once and pulled a sizable chunk on another pot so that I was around 300. I had some decent hole cards, but I kept missing the flop and was being forced to put a large percentage of my chips in to see more cards. Eventually I end up with A5 in late position. I forget the exact sequence that isolated myself against one opponent, but I figured him on two high cards, but no ace. So, I figure that now is a good a chance as any and re-raise all-in back to steal his bet (and the blinds) He’s in decent shape chip-wise, so he calls. We turn our cards over and he has KJo like I expected. So, I am the favourite, but not a big enough to feel very comfortable. The flop comes 74T rainbow and I’m feeling much better. I figure myself to be about a 2-1 favourite at this point. The river is a blank, but unfortunately the river brings a J and I’m out in 11th. And quite annoyed.
Unfortunately, the night ended with someone winning their second back-to-back tournament. He’s played pretty well, but he tries to make plays from position, but will keep following up on the plays even if the situation doesn’t warrant. He was bailed out a few times this week and last when behind to pull some big pots after his big pre-flop raises. Oh well, I suppose that is the way it goes. I was just unhappy to not only miss the money for the first of these three tournaments, but to miss the final table completely.
We played some dealer’s choice afterwards and though I managed to win a hefty 20$ pot early on, my chips proceeded to bleed away the rest of the night as I kept going in with quality hands to turned out to be second best. Ended up down 13$ in the dealer’s choice to put me -33 on the night. I was hoping for something a little more positive after the way my online play has been going, but I am looking forward to getting to play a bit tomorrow while watching the Sens game.