Last night's tourneys

The Rooster didn't show up last night. He also didn't send me any notification whatsoever. The worst part is that he *commented* on my blog yesterday so I know his 'puter works!

Ok, for clarification sake, here is the rule of Wall Street Poker:
--Begin Rant--
If you've responded YES to an Evite invitation and you find that you cannot attend, for whatever reason, you MUST:
1. Change your Evite response to NO
OR
2. Inform me in writing or by phone that you will not be able to attend. I will change your Evite response for you.

Since only a limited number of people can respond YES to an Evite, your clicking YES and then not showing up is equivalent to taking someone else's seat away from them. It is only good manners to give up your place in line and let someone else join the fun!

Joaquin, if you're reading this (and I hope you are since I don't have your phone number), this is the 3rd time you've done this! I've let it slide in the past because I found you through well-liked players, but enough is enough already. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt because I never clarified the rule to you personally. Consider yourself so notified.

Also, a corollary to the above rule, the more time you give new players to take an abandoned spot, the better off you'll be seen by the whole group. If you change your EVITE response from YES to NO two hours before the tourney starts, it does no one any good. Please, everyone, try to make sure of your plans at least a day in advance. Emergencies happen, I know, but carelessness shouldn't.
--End Rant--

The tourneys last night were a bit of a blur, but lots and lots of fun. I busted out pretty early on a donktacular hand. Matty Ebs had just made some off handed remark about being stupid with 57 and I look down at my hand, in MP, and sure enough it's 5s7s. I find this somehow endearing to play now. Even when PP, in EP, raises to 150 (blind are in their first 25/50 level). I call, Jesse calls, Matty calls and Ken calls. Flop is 7c-6s-2s. I've got top pair and a flush draw. Woohoo! I'm all prepared to take down the pot but PP C-bets 300, a crappy bet if I ever saw one. He's got an overpair, I just know it in my gut. If I push, he will probably call and he's be right to. I smooth call, Jesse calls and Ken calls. There is now lots of mobneys in the pot. The turn is a 3d. Dammit, I have more outs now. A 5 gives me two pair. A 7 gives me trips. A 4 gives me the straight. And any spade gives me the flush! But here's where I screwed up big. PP bets out 750, finally a decent sized bet. Instead of pushing with all my outs, I call. Jesse smooth calls and Ken gets out of the way. I don't put 2+2 together, though it's obvious, in hindsight, that Jesse's on a better flush draw than me. The last card out is Js. PP pushes all in with 1200. I call (<----Idiot). Jesse accidentally says "call" when he meant to go all in, because he has As4s. Jesse and I both outchip PP by 50, so Jesse would have felted us both in one shot! Ken, it turns out, folded a spade draw as well. Matty had it right though, if I had pushed all in on the turn, I would had won that pot. Jesse would have folded with just the spade draw and one card to come for all of his chips. So PP was out and I was left with just 50. I somehow managed to turn that into 250 but got felted when my A9 ran into Bacini Mary's AQ. PP and I dealt and shuffled most of the rest of the tourney and we were somewhat relieved to see Jesse ride his monstrous chip stack into the money. Mary busted out in 3rd and Matty and Jesse went heads up. I was in the bathroom for a few minutes and when I came out, Matty had taken the big chip lead. But the tide swung again on a set over set flop and Jesse finally put the nail down to take it all.

And then he left. In his defense, he never signed up for the second tourney but there were whispers of "hit and run". :-p

The second tourney was much better for me. I had the button on the first hand and was dealt QQ. When it limped to me, I tried overbetting 400 to see if someone aggressive (maybe Matty) would think I was stealing a few limps in position. No one bit but I was OK with that. This tourney was much tighter than the first and while I built a nice stack, I was worried that it was going to become too much of a luckfest if too many people stayed into the later rounds. It took 1.5 hours to get the table down to 6 people and we played 6 handed for a good 20 minutes. But then the pressure of the blinds started wearing people down. Alceste and I were the chip leaders at this point, with Alceste pressuring me with raises every chance he got, it seemed. It's tough to tangle with the big stack knowing you might be able to sit on your chips into the money. It also didn't help that my best hand for 20 minutes was J9o. Marco, who had previously been sitting on a big stack, gave away a bunch to me when he raised PF to 600 (blinds at 100/200). I had Ad5d out of position and the flop was three diamonds. Gin! I checked, he checked. The turn paired the board, but I wasn't scared about it. I checked, he checked. The river was a brick. I had to start thinking about how to extract value here. I bet 1000 and Marco hestitated. He was looking like he was going to fold and I needed to sway him to make a call. So I pulled a trick from Darko's playbook. "What do you have there? A weak Ace? And overpair?". He started to move in his mind. Shifting strategies. I could feel it. I put some more Hollywood on. I turned over my 5d so he could see it. I did it again. Now, here at WSP, you can flash your cards in a tourney provided you are heads up. Don't try this in a casino kids! Your hand would be declared dead in most places. Finally, Marco bit and said, "Ah, you're bullshitting me. I call!". Alceste said, "No he isn't!" and I turned over my Ad to show him the bad news. I felt dirty about it, but richer. That washes out, doesn't it? :-)

With my new larger chip stack being dwindled by blinds, Marco finally busted, I believe to Art. Art, who had been hanging on by the skin of his teeth, was now in a good position and I was about 3rd, with Bacini Mary bringing up the rear. It was at this point that we talked about a 4 way chop since the hour was getting late. But Mary would have none of it. She was here for the points, not the mobneys. Play on! I was dealt Ako on the button and called a raise for Art. The flop came with a whole bunch of nothing. Instead of moving all in on me, Art bet out maybe 1/3 of the pot. I called. The turn was a rag. Now he put me all in, but it was only about 700 and there was nearly 5000 in the pot. I felt I had to call and the river was a brick. I turned up my AK and Art turned over AT! With no pair from either of us, my AK played and I swung into 2nd, just like that. Art finally busted to Alceste when Art pushed and Alceste insta-called with QT. Art had a weak King, but a Queen flopped and a Ten hit on the river for Art's bubble. Mary accomplished her goal of moving up in rank and even got some more money out of it, I'm sure. I busted her a few hands later when my TT stood up against her 87. Alceste outchipped me 14,000 to 11,000 and we chopped at that point.

It was nearly midnight and the tourney had lasted a long time. But it was fun and I'm feeling invigorated for Vegas. 4 more days people!

**Update**
I can't believe I forgot to blog about the most memorable hand of the second tourney! Marco's note reminded me. :-) Basically, Alceste was under the gun and made a larger than standard raise to 2200. Blinds were 300/600 at this point. I was next to act with AQ but I would have essentially needed to re-raise all in here and I didn't feel like going out of the money with a hand that could easily have been dominated and was probably 50/50 at best with people to act behind me. I folded and it got to Marco. He went into the tank for a good long while. No Hollywood on anyone's part, just some serious thinking. The table was completely silent. Marco made a move to his chips but finally folded. He flipped up his cards. KK!!! Holy crap!! The table went ballistic. Alceste only had TT and we ran the board for fun just to see what would have happened. The flop had an Ace (I was ahead). The turn was a Ten (Alceste is now ahead). The river was a King! Unbelievable. I've seen KK folded pre-flop in a tournament in only two situations and both of them had multiple re-raises and all-ins before the Kings folded. Never have I seen KK folded to just a single raise.