2nd Place at Live Tournament

So on Friday my friend and fellow Full Tilt player 'dyjonkes' asked me if I was interested in playing a live tournament just outside of Toronto with two other friends of ours and a bunch of guys I didn't really know. I was a tad skeptical at first but relented and ended up agreeing to play. So last night the four of us drove to this upper class house in the city of Whitby, Ontario. We're greeted at the front door and told to enter the basement where there are about 12 other guys. I look around and see two large poker tables, a full buffet and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), all of which are free for the players. We sat around and had a beer while the rest of the players showed up.

Before the game started, we had a tournament director announce the rules and in any case of dispute, we'd go to him for final ruling. He announced the buy-in was $45 with unlimited rebuys (for $20) in the first hour. Add-ons were also available for $10 at the end of the first hour, which was also the first break of the game. We had a draw for seating at the two tables and I ended up at the table where none of my friends were, so I was playing with a bunch of strangers. I liked how it worked out because I could study these guys and none of them knew my tendencies. Blinds were timed at 20 minutes per level and we had a starting stack of 3,000. First level of blinds were starting at 15/30.

I didn't plan on having many rebuys, in fact I only brought enough for one buy-in and one add-on. My plan was to sit patiently since the blind level wouldn't eat away at my stack too quickly. I watched as one player began playing extremely loose and bluffing his way to pots, only to be stacked many times and rebuying every single time. Some guys were prepared to pump up the final prize pool and spent over $100 alone to keep vying for a bigger stack once the rebuy and add-on period was over. I didn't win a single hand in the first 45 minutes, and by that time my stack had gone down to 2,400.

At this point I was already updating my twitter status (http://twitter.com/Shane__Kelly), and talking to Nic via MSN. I told him I was going to start mixing it up and playing aggresively. No sooner did I write that when I finally won my first small pot. My tight table image was now playing into my favour and I was able to start bluffing at pots in position and taking a few of them down. I finished the first hour with no rebuys and one add-on, for a total investment of $55. I had about 6,000 going into the first break with 14 guys left, the average chip stack was about 9,000.

We came back from the break knowing that eliminations were about to begin. Blinds were at 100/200 when I found myself in late position with KQo and limped. The same loose player who had been running over my table raised about 1/3rd of my stack from the BB and after a short while I decided I was going to push. He instantly calls and shows AJo. All of a sudden my tournament life is in danger and I'm not feeling too confident. The flop comes 10 J 7 rainbow. The next card is dealt and it's a 9. The river is a blank and I've made a straight to double up and raise my stack to about 10,000.

A few more players are eliminated and we're on the bubble from the FT. A short-stack in early position raises all-in and two players in front of me call. I look down from the BB with AKo and not wanting to push the other players out and thus increase our chances of a FT, I just call the all-in. It's checked all the way to the river where I hit my ace and the all-in player mucks his hand after I show my cards. All of a sudden it's getting very realistic that I could possibly win, as I had about 16,000 and was in about 4th or 5th place. We had another break before the FT and I discussed hands with some of my friends, had another beer to relax and made some twitter updates.

The FT brought my good fortune as I ended up having my two good friends, 'dyjonkes' and Andrew directly to my left. 'dyjonkes' was the big stack at this point and after playing with him many times I had a good feeling I could win pots from him. Two of my biggest FT hands went down like this:

- Blinds are 200/400. Folded around to me, I look down and see KQ spades in the SB. I raise and 'dyjonkes' calls from the BB, commenting that I'm not going to run him over that quickly. The flop comes 10 4 Q with two clubs. I make a continuation bet and he smooth calls. The turn brings another club and I check, he checks behind me. The river brings a 10 and at this point I'm pretty confident I still have the best hand, but I check for pot control. He bets out 8,000 into a pot of about 6,000. I really tank as this is a crucial decision and losing the pot would leave me in a very tight spot. Knowing his tendencies I figured he would only bet if he was bluffing, I ended up calling his bet and showed KQo. He mucked, hallelujah. That pot puts me up to third place with 8 left.

- I'm already ITM with 3 players left. I'm in second place and I'm facing my friend, 'dyjonkes' and an ex-professional dealer, the same guy who was running over my table early in the tournament. I'm in the SB and look down at A7o. The ex-dealer is on the button and raises, I figure A7 to be an easy call so I make it and 'dyjonkes' folds the BB. The flop comes 7 3 K with two clubs and I check. He makes a bet of 3,600 and I still think I'm ahead at this point, but not wanting to get too crazy, I make a call. The turn brings another K and I feel a bit better about my hand. I check again and he bets 7,200. At this point I notice that he just doubled his continuation bet and thought if he had a K he'd likely want to trap me on the river. I'm thinking either he has the flush draw or complete air. I ask him for a chip count. He has 11,000 left. I tank for about two minutes while I stack out 11,000 and realize if I make the wrong decision I only have about 5,000 left. Eventually I go with my instinct and raise him 11,000 for a total bet of 18,200. He instantly calls and I look to the sky and comment 'Well, you probably got it', feeling disgusted. To my astonishment he flips over 97o and realize he only has three outs left in the deck, as any 9 will give him a higher pair. The river is a 6 and I've knocked out my nemesis and gotten it down to a heads up match between my good friend and I.

We have one more break before HU starts. The remaining prize is $700 between first and second, and it was $480 for first and $220 for second. I had about a 2/1 chip lead and offered to stop the game and keep $400 for myself and give 'dyjonkes' $300. He politely declined as we both knew we wanted the first place prize. We decide to come to a compromise and regardless of the outcome, 1st would get $400 and 2nd would get $300. We break for about 15 minutes and then head back into the basement to finish the gruelling match.

HU lasted about an hour, with both of us having rollercoaster chip stacks. We were both whittled down to bare minimums at one point, with him having only 6,000 (I had about 85,000) and myself having only 9,000 when he had 82,000. Eventually we were about even in chips (he had about 500 more than I did) when the final hand went down. Blinds were 2,000/4,000 when I limped on the button with 97 spades. He made a raise for 8,500 from the BB to bring the pot to 16,500. My thinking was that if I could get him off the hand he'd be in a position to be calling for his tournament life, and him folding would put a big dent in his stack. I know he's very likely to raise with anything from that position as I'd caught him doing it many times up until this point. I end up pushing all-in and the fact he doesn't instantly call makes me feel really good. More and more likely it seemed that I would take down the pot and be in a position to win. It wasn't until he commented that 'it would be hard to leave such a big chunk of chips behind' that I didn't feel too good. Eventually he said 'either you got it or you don't' and made the call with KJo. We both shook hands and wished each other good luck. Unfortunately I didn't hit my cards, and finished in second place for $300.

It was a fun night of very good poker, an enjoyable atmosphere and battles of wits. In the end I didn't get lucky to win but I did get lucky to be in that position so I figure the night to be a success. Thanks to Jim, Dats and Nic for checking my updates and giving me words of encouragement. I had a blast and next time there's another cash game or tournament I'll keep you guys updated again.

Great post Not! LOL! Hey... it was great to get a run down on your live tourney experience. Shame you couldn't win it but, it sounds as though you played very well and got a lot out of the experience... and a nice $300 cash! I know what you speak of when you talked about going to a place to play poker with people you don't know. I've done that many times myself over the years, but it always turned out to be a good time..win or lose. I have had a very high burning desire to play in a live tourney or ring game for a while now. I haven't played live for a few years now as several of the ones I used to play with have moved or passed away. Just doesn't seem like there are many people I know that want to play live poker lately. Tough to get enough to have a tourney, but a ring game is pretty possible.. so maybe this winter I will get my fix lol!

Anyway.... good job on the tourney Not... and good luck to you in your next live play! Please do keep us informed of the next time you do enter one of these and are able to tweet us your progress. I enjoyed following you and getting the updates!