Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to play the noon Deep Stack Tournament at The Golden Gates Poker Parlour. I sure love that poker fraternity – with all the “Hello’s” “Where ya been’s” and “Good to see you” it was like I hadn’t missed a day.
Truth be told it’s been more than three months since my last tournament. A few years ago I was playing tournaments 4 – 5 nights a week. Whew.
Who remembers the nightly tournaments at the Colorado Central Station – $110 and they used to provide pizza. How about the all-day smorgasbord of tournaments The Gilpin Poker Room offered ranging from $40 to $500?
Fitzgerald’s used to have a poker room with awesome morning tournaments that were packed – due to the breakfast spread they put out (sausage, pancakes….yum.) When this poker room moved downstairs they had a unique promotion for a while; winning a hand with a 7 – 2 off suit would pay you $25.
How about the morning tournaments at The Glory Hole Casino up in Central City? These were the rustic old days – the poker area was just a few tables stuffed in a room behind the bar and the entire room was decorated with an old western theme.
Back to the tournament. It was a $200 deep stack and started with 99 players. Let’s play cards.
Each round was 30 minutes (rather than the usual 20) and there was additional $10 optional add on for the dealers with all players pitching in. This is a good idea – keeps the dealers dealing.
With the add on, we all started with 35K in chips – I was up to 39K after the first three hands when my pocket J’s held up against pocket 10’s.
The play was fast with many big bets early on. Within the first 10 minutes we had 2 all in’s (one being a bluff) and were minus two players.
For me, it was a slow grind to the first break. After the pocket J’s, it was quite a while until I found another playable hand (or the spot to play one).
Nearly two hours into the tournament, I picked up Ad – Jd near the button with the blinds at $200 – $400 and raised to $1,600 with three callers in front of me.
The flop came Kd – 4d – Jc / a good flop for me with the nut flush draw and second pair. The player in first position bet out 5K immediately with one player calling. I had already decided this was my hand (only had 25K left) and pushed all in dramatically.
The first player thought and thought. He slowly said fold, but held onto his cards (wanted to show them). The middle player folded quickly and the first player turned over his Kc – Jh. He had tossed the top two pair. In reality, with him having 2 pair I only had the 9 outs (while hoping he didn’t hit one of his pair for a full house.) I believe my table image had something to do with the fold … and nope, I didn’t show my hand.
So, I dragged the pot and was feeling great about my play. At this point we took the first break, I had nearly $50K in chips and I was ready to go.
But alas – the poker gods were fickle and didn’t give me a chance after that. I simply had no cards for the next hour until I was in the blind (unraised and with 5 way action) with the 4c – 5c. The flop came 6c – 7c – Kh. I flopped a huge draw (flush and straight – 15 outs) and quickly bet my last $31K and was called by a player who had slow played an Ad – Kd, giving him top pair.
While I missed the draw when the 2h came on the turn and was joined by the 2s on the river – I feel good about the play I made. I could have won it with the bet or I could have drawn out to win the hand, but instead went out in 42nd place.
I played for nearly four hours and as Ozzy said in the recently concluded TV reality show Survivor when he got knocked out, “I’m going out on my terms at least, not someone else’s.”
Overall, I had a great time, some great conversation and played well – yet a bit conservative. I played my big hands well (only had a few) and stayed out of trouble. As I reflect, there was no real hand I could have played differently to make more, unless it was to make a big bluff (and I never felt timing was right).
So, I headed back down the mountain and spent some time Christmas shopping with the thought, “I’ll get them next time.”
Remember – play your game.
