Posted by Dr Fro 10:49 AM
I concur with John that Junell’s tournament was very well run. I know first hand ho difficult it is to handle a large number of rowdy gamblers and Junell rose to the occasion. My only beef was that I wish there was some pizza or sandwiches, because I was darn hungry all day! I think what Junell did particularly well (and what I don’t do well) is that he wasn’t too rigid. Race offs of odd chips didn’t occur timely, and quite honestly, that doesn’t really matter. The things that did matter, such as 1) good set of rules 2) starting reasonably on time or 3) quality of set up of chairs, tables, etc were executed well, and that all made for a good day.

My journey was similar to John’s in many ways. I also didn’t win many hands pre-break and I also built my $500 into $1300 + the $500 add on meant $1800 to start the no-rebuy period. Bad flops and blinds knocked me down to maybe 500 or 600, then I flopped a pair of kings and went all in. Wilson had slow played pocket rockets and knocked me out. Got 38th place out of 56. Damn aces.

The guys at my table were very different from John’s. I think they were above average skill for this field. Maybe they were a bit too loose, but then again, this tournament was structured to reward loose play.

What I found interesting was the ½ the guys at my table, some of which I didn’t know plus a few other guys at other tables made comments to me like “so you’re the ringer I heard about…I hear you are the favorite to win this thing.” This comment I found extremely interesting. Considering that I have never won a penny at one of Junell’s tournaments, I would hardly expect such respect. But I noticed that when I did bet, people would fold. So, I played this to my advantage and made a few big bets to steal blinds and it worked. The reason I point this out is not to brag but to provide contrast to what happened at the cash game.

The cash game was $2-$4 pot limit. I did very well. I was dealt some very good hands. But everyone thought I was an idiot. Once I played 2-5 from the big blind and won with a full house. Frankie said he couldn’t believe I played 2-5. The fact that I played it for free from the BB clearly eluded him. Then, I hit a belly buster straight. Again, the ribbing about how stupid I was came, but nobody noticed that I also had a draw to the flush. Last, Frankie made a big bluff with 3To on the river, and I called with something like middle pair. “How could you call me?” Well Frankie, you’ve showed off your rags after every successful bluff, and I have simply used that info to my advantage. My stack is now $840. Those are really dollars, not tournament chips!

I keep playing the part of the fool, making some silly (cheap) raises and it works. But then my luck runs out when I bump into pocket rockets – again! No more money.

I say my luck ran out, but actually I made two critical mistakes as my stack dwindled. One, I forgot (twice) that I was playing the part of the fool. When playing the fool, you really shouldn’t bluff, because everyone calls the fool. Second, I starting drinking Dewars on an empty stomach. Although the total amount of alcohol consumed was fairly small, I should really know better than that. I don’t drink when I play unless it is low stakes, which this was not.

So that was Sunday – busted up twice by pocket rockets.

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