Posted by Johnnymac 9:12 PM
Oh no! Not another bad beat story!

I decided at the last minute tonight to play in the tournament that Fro had been talking about lately. Two factors influenced my decision to play - 1.) The organizer modified the format into a one-night event and 2.) He changed some of the rules significantly enough to where I felt the format was back in my favor to play. The tournament started at 7:00 tonight and it's now 8:40 as I write this - you do the math - quite obviously, the format didn't help me as much as I was hoping.

I normally don't care to listen to other people's bad beat stories, so theoretically, I shouldn't assume that you want to hear mine. If you don't want to read it, quit reading and I won't be offended, but if you do care to hear about it, read on.

Still here? Good.

Before I go on - let me say that technically, the tournament is still going on, so I should be writing in the present tense. After all, Fro is still playing and might still win some money. Nonetheless, as far as I am concerned, it's over, so I will write in the past tense from now on with the uncertainty that I don't know how Fro is doing or did or will do. He can tell us tomorrow.

Fro and I both felt that that tourney was very much in our favor tonight because the player pool was esssentially drawn from a crowd of trust fund kids who like to gamble. In the long run, that's great, because it guarantees a lot of action. In the short run, just like playing with Ted, it's tough because it introduces a lot of volatility to the game. (For those of you who live in Houston, Fro's description was, "You know, my usual crowd all went to Lee [High School] with me - I also know a lot of these guys, too, but they all went to Kinkaid!" If you don't live in Houston, do a Google search and you'll get the idea)

So. Let's just get this over with. Stacks started at $10,000 in tournament money and blinds were $100 and $200 - fairly steep as a percentage of one's stack, but for a one night tournament, probably necessary.

The story is that one guy at my table table took off running from the start and got lucky enough early to dominate and totally destroy both my strategy and my stack of chips. He was a very loose player who, like Ted, really had no idea what he was doing, but unlike Ted, always seemed to hit his bottom two pair on the river time after time after calling very large bets to get there. I myself got a couple of small bad-beats from him right at the start, which made a couple of small dents in my ammunition, but I was able to gear down afterwards to try and protect myself against the guy. While he clearly wasn't a very good or experienced holdem player, he obviously was very smart - smart enough to instinctually start doing his best Chris Canonico impression with aggressive raises on almost every hand.

Soon enough, he had managed to knock out two of the other players at our table (who probably should not have been calling his big raises, anyway) and had tripled his stack just halfway into the first hour of the tournament. Two other almost-as-loose players had also accumulated big stacks and my strategy of tight play early won me nothing but a short stack and a desperate situation. My stack dwindled quickly as the blinds ate me up with not even semi-decent cards to try and make a play back - $6000, $5700, $5400, $5100, $4800 - it was relentless and I was eventually was down to $3300 by the time the blinds doubled.

I resolved to either make a stand on my next big blind - or before, if I was dealt a Group 1 or Group 2 hand. Very soon after I looked down on my own button to see AKo. I moved all in.

Now, before I describe the hand, a little education is in order for people unfamiliar tournament poker.

Normally, being down 67% of your stack just an hour into the tournament is not necessarily a time to panic. It's certainly not an optimal situation to be in, but can often be rescued with the proper combination of luck and patience. Why? Becasue most players in tournaments try and stay tight until they absolutely are forced to start taking risks. The common wisdom - especially among people who don't normally play in tournaments - is that there is prestige in staying alive as long as possible. Most of these typical players (incorrectly) view a tournament as a contest of attrition rather than one of skill, and because of this most players are not acting aggressively and there are no great disparities in chip stacks. As such, a little luck and a little patience and some timely raises can often get a short stack right back into the action. Among the three other tables tonight, there had just been one player eliminated up to this point in the tournament, and this probably was because no one was ready to take any risks.

It was different at my table, though. At my table, Lucky Guy had managed to create such a disparity in the stack sizes that he effectively changed the stakes of the game to such a degree that I had no leverage. He could easily call any bet or raise I might make and would feel no serious pain if he might happen to lose. So regardless of how large the absolute size of my stack was, it was very small relative to his and that's really all that mattered. Furthermore, with 2 players eliminated for the full $10000, my stack down $6700, and the other short stack down $5000, not only was Lucky Guy way up himself, but the other two players were also starting to build stacks of their own and the three were beginning to just gamble amongst themselves on every hand. I was getting left behind and with only five players left at my table, the blinds and the subsequent big raises from the other players were rapidly taking my ammunition away. I might not have been in bad shape relative to other players in the entire tournament field, but I was in very bad shape relative to the people I was playing against at my table and that's all that mattered to me and my chances in the tournament. I was captive to the circumstances at my table.

Times were desperate, but I figured I had a chance with my AKo. It was going to turn around.

But then no one chose to call me except for the other short stack. Uh-oh. Why would he call a $3300 bet against his own short stack unless he had good cards himself?

He turned over KK. My AK was in serious trouble. I was already behind and half of my hand was dead.

Then the flop came A-Q-7 rainbow. A miracle! I'm ahead!

The turn was an offsuit 3. Looking great! I might just double up! I might just get that chance! I'm not dead yet!

I won't tell you what the river card was... you should be able to guess by now.

After all, I came home to write this post, didn't I?

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