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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Vegas Or Bust Poker League Tourney

Friday night was the fifth of 16 tournaments in our Vegas Or Bust Poker League. There are ten of us in the league, with the top two finishers winning an all expenses paid trip to the 2013 WSOP.

The winner of each tourney gets 10 points, with second receiving nine, third, eight, etc. I have gotten off (waiting on a comment here from Gary concerning my word choice) to a fast start, placing third in the inaugural tournament and then running off three consecutive wins. My closest competition going into the tournament were Ollie the Accountant, J-Dawg, Philly Phanatic, and Lil' Annie Okie. The earlier they went out, the better for moi.

Seated at the table from left to right on your radio dial were Annie, Ollie, Tin Man, Philly, Dealer Larry, Bobby Dee, J-Dawg, Stamps, Big Daddy, and your humble scribe.

I won the first hand in which I was involved. I raised a limped pot 3X from the cutoff with A-K soooted and got a call from Dealer Larry. We both whiffed the flop, but I was in position and c-bet, resulting in a fold from Larry.

Unfortunately, I gave it back on the next hand I played when Big Daddy's second pair, ace kicker beat my king kicker. Things got better for me shortly thereafter.

Philly got into a big pot with Ollie early in the tournament and was felted when his top two pair ran into Ollie's full house. Tin Man was toe tagged not much later when his pocket jacks were outdrawn by J-Dawg's A-K.

Annie check called herself into becoming the short-stack, and was forced to go all in with her last $50 as the BB. Stamps and Ollie got into a betting war, so Annie knew she was in trouble even before the river card was dealt. She was right and exited in eighth place.

Bobby Dee was next to go when his K-9 was dominated by Ollie's A-K. Big Daddy had his best tourney to date, amassing a large stack early, but started frittering away by playing second pair to the river too many times and finally busted out in sixth place.

J-Dawg went out in fifth on a bad beat. Blinds were at $300-600, and J-Dawg only had $1,300 in his stack. The action folded to him in the cut off and he pushed with K-7. Stamps folded his SB,  which left me with a $700 call from the BB. I hated to call with my 8-5 offsuit, but the pot odds left me no choice. J-Dawg paired his king on the flop, which left me drawing thin, but runner- runner clubs put four of them on the board. J-Dawg didn't have any clubs, but my 5 was a club and sent J-Dawg packing in fifth place.

I also busted Stamps in fourth and Dealer Larry in third and had a huge chip advantage when Ollie and I got heads up. Ollie pushed his last two BB on the first hand and I peeked down at an ace and called without looking at my kicker, which turned out to be a deuce. Ollie tabled K-9, but didn't improve and I won the league tournament for the fourth consecutive month!

Duck Dynasty indeed!

Through five tourneys I am leading with 30 points, followed by Ollie and J-Dawg with 26 each, with Philly camped in fourth with 25. You can click here for the complete standings.

So far, so good, but there's still a long way to go.

Till next time, win the flips.

6 comments:

  1. It's all about the early momentum.
    Make everyone else panic and play bad poker near the end because they have to catch you and you just have to hold them off.

    They will surly be making bad moves trying to bust you early so that they can gain on your substantial lead while you wait patiently and continue with a cool head!

    Great job duck!

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    1. Thanks grrouchie. Early leads are nice, but like tournaments, it's not how you start, but how you finish. I do expect to be facing a lot of aggression later if my lead holds up though.

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  2. Such success and the numbers are too close in comparison. I understand it is "friendly" but look at how poker structures pay out and how these points are distributed. Too flat, IMO anyway.

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    1. You may be right Ken, but the numbers are a little skewed because everyone's two lowest scores have been eliminated. As players have bad tourneys (and we all do), they won't have that crutch to lean on and we'll see some separation.

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  3. Wow -- you actually have a commanding lead since the two scores you have eliminated so far are 8 and 10 points. Going on the assumption (which may be false) that you will have a clunker night coming up, you'll still get 10 points added to your total. Two clunker nights still gets you a total of 18 points! You have built a fantastic early lead. The question is ... will that affect your play?

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    1. I don't think it will affect my play. I'm similar to Phil Hellmuth early in tournaments in that I'm in "survival" mode and play very conservatively. After all, you can't win a tourney early, but you can sure lose one. Once the herd is thinned, I'll open my game up. Of course, the next bad beat is always around the corner.

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