2nd Place

Published on August 29, 2006 By PacDragon In Gaming

Thanks for the concern, but I'm not dead yet. Just lazy about updating the blog. I haven't really had much to write about, but, as was pointed out, that has never stopped me before

I've pretty much just settled into a routine of doing $50 SnG's most nights. I've been winning enough to show a profit there, but not really getting any big scores. And because of the new human expanding my wife's belly, I haven't had a chance to make it out to San Pablo much. I was able to go a couple of weeks ago, but lost at both $3/$6 and the tournament. Some of my friends there let me in on a last longer bet (whoever lasts the longest between us gets the prize pool) but that just ended up costing me extra cash.

I also had a pretty big downswing as I tried out some new games. I gave the Sunday rebuy tournament at Artichoke Joes a shot (in San Bruno), but I wasn't able to keep up during the rebuy period. It's a tough game on a tight bankroll and I didn't want to spend a lot. I've been back there a couple of times for the $3/$6 game (once I found out it's next to my wife's favorite baby store), but never really profited more than a few dollars.

Then I got invited to a couple of private 10-person tournaments with some people from work. Those were fun, but the structure was weird. You start with deep stacks and there's an unlimited rebuy period for the first couple of hours. Deep stacks tend to favor tight play, but unlimited rebuys favor loose play. A combination of bad cards, new players, and not being able to adjust to the structure just cost me a few buy-ins.

So yeah, just a brutal losing streak for a while there. The SnG's were profitable, but playing these other games (that were a little too big for my bankroll) was starting to hurt. Until this weekend, that is.

One of the guys from the home game told me about a private 32 person tournament going on last Saturday. $100 buy-in, top 6 get paid. He couldn't make it, but he gave me the address. I made the long drive out there, a little nervous about not knowing what the location would be like, but eager to get out of my slump. The game was fantastic! Many of the players were new to poker, and for a few of them it was their first time. There were some people that I've played with before, who I knew were tough opponents, but luckily they all drew seats at other tables. By the time I made it to the final table, nearly all of them had busted out.

I played tight and relatively strait-up for most of the game, but turned up the aggression at the final table. I quickly accumulated a nice stack and before I knew it we were down to heads up play. My opponent had a monster stack, having busted the 3rd place guy, so I had a tough hill to climb. But I never even approached the hill, it was over in the first hand.

I had 52o and made a good sized raise on the button. I was hoping to take the pot away later, I didn't really care much about my actual hand. He called and the flop came Q56 rainbow. My opponent then gave me a looooong stare down, lasting nearly two minutes. I ran through my standard array of random facial ticks, hoping to confuse him, and he eventually just bet half the pot. I put him on middle pair or a strait draw and thought his stare down was him trying to figure out if I had a queen or not, so I immediately raised all-in. He quickly called and showed 56s, for two pair, and took the win when his hand held up. I should have picked a better spot, but 2nd place still paid out $800, so I was happy with the results.

It's nice to finally get out of my downswing. The prize totally covered all my previous recent losses, plus a few hundred extra. I can't wait for the next one!

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