veeRob’s Blog

So today I decided to take a drive up to Lake Elsinore to participate in their WSOP Event Qualifier. Now this isn’t the main event we’re talking about, just a $1500 NL event towards the end of June. I saw an ad for this tournament and others when I was at the Lake Elsinore Casino for the Southern California Poker Tour a few weeks back. My buddy Steve-O and I really liked the room, and I was impressed with how they ran their tournament, so we drove up there. The food was really good there, too, so we hit up the diner before the tournament. (I had the chicken quesadilla with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and Steve-O had the enchiladas with the soup as well. Delicious.

So the tournament was set up very interestingly… it was only a $20+5 tournament, and they gave you 1000 chips to start. Blinds started at 25/25, and they raised in normal B&M progression with 20 minute rounds. Not a great structure but here’s the kicker — they gave you two optional $20 rebuys. I’ve never heard of it structured like this, but basically it was 2 add-ons, not rebuys, at any time. Any time you wanted, from the time you sat down to the end of the 3rd level, you could rebuy 1000 more chips. The smart play, as I told Steve-O, is to sit down and buy your extra 2000 chips for $40, so we both did so. Nobody else at my table did, and this is a huge mistake I was happy to see. Their view was that if they got a big stack that they wouldn’t have to rebuy (and one called this an overlay since the other players would rebuy). I’m happy having as many chips as I can, so when I double through someone, it really counts.

So we start the game and I’m getting chipped down with nothing exciting. I’m down to 2500 chips or so and pick up QQ. I raised in EP from something like 100 to 500, and get called in two spots, one being the chip leader at the time. He had built his chip stack from just 1000 I think to 5000 or so, but I wasn’t too impressed with his playing. The flop came nine high, but two diamonds, and I just wanted to take down the pot right there as I didn’t even have the queen of diamonds. I pushed all in and got called from the big chip stack, and was happy to see him turn up an offsuit A9. Thanks for the double up!

There were a few hands here and there, but nothing substantial, and we hit our first break. It was announced that there were something like 91 total players and 129 rebuys. OK, $4400 in the prize pool. First place got the seat in the $1500 NL event as well as a seat in Lake Elsinore’s $100+15 WSOP Main Event Satellite. Second place got $100+15 voucher as well. All top 10 got cash, too, with first and second at $650 and 7-9 anywhere from $350 down to $160. OK, I had some work to do with 5-6 tables left.

I limp in from MP with KJs and see a flop of KTx. One of the blinds comes out betting 1000, and I raise the minimum to 2000. I’m pretty sure that even though this is a minimum raise, it’s enough chips to see if I’m ahead or not. He instantly reraises all in, and after debating, I fold. He shows KT to a limper’s all in. Good fold.

A few hands after the break I find TT in EP. The blinds are already up to 300-600 at this point, and I have around 5000 in chips. My table had actually been pretty loose, so I knew a raise would do no good — big cards would be calling. If I moved all in? Same thing… I’d be racing. I needed a double up at this point, but I just didn’t feel like pushing there. I simply limped in, which sounds like a big mistake and probably was. Four more people limped, the SB completed, and the BB checked. The flop comes 98x and the SB (the same guy with the KT) comes out betting 2000. This scares me, and I wonder if I should have raised preflop. Actually, I know I should have raised preflop because I really think he caught two pair. But I called to see a flop with all low cards, and I have to go with it. I raise all in. If he has top pair, I’m golden, and if he has two pair, I have a few ways to suck out. Unfortunately, to my horror, I watch as two people call my all in, as does the original bettor. Uh oh, a lot can hurt me now. Turn is a beautiful ten, but puts 89T on the board, so any 67 that hung around just made a straight. Let’s just hope JQ isn’t in there either. There’s only two live players left in the hand, and the original bettor goes all in. The other live player folds, and the original bettor is very excited to turn over his two pair, 89. I show him a set and he’s not too stoked. I win the hand and more that quadruple up, while knocking out two players. Huge.

After this I go on a huge rush. There’s a raise and a reraise and I find pocket kings. Someone raises and I go over the top with aces and get called, and my aces hold up. Another raise and a reraise and I find aces again. I literally can’t remember any more details because these hands happened so fast, but I had huge pairs, and I was getting paid off and they were holding up every time. Not one bad beat. Amazing.

So now we’re at two tables left, and everyone’s slowly dropping as the blinds eat away at their stacks. It’s pretty clear I will make the final table, and I have a nice chip lead over the rest of the field. I just might win! We lose a player from our table when we’re at 10 players, and the other table also loses a player on the same hand, so we’re down to an 8 handed final table. Break time, and time to go celebrate being in the money.

We come back and I’m informed that I am the chip leader. A few people drop, and then an interesting hand comes up. They deal the cards, and I find AJs UTG at a 6 handed table. I’m about to announce my raise when UTG+1 announces he only got one card. I swore the dealer dealt it to him, but it’s strangely absent. The hand is declared a misdeal, and I have to say goodbye to my nice hand. As the dealer is about to deal out the next hand, I request he counts down the deck. He says he’ll do it as the hand progresses. He deals out the cards (12), and there is some action, an all in, and a call. Both players have AQ, so they deal the flop, turn, and river. It’s a chop. The dealer counts down the remaining cards and gets 31. 5 cards on the flop plus 3 burn is 8, plus the 12 dealt is 20, plus the 31 is 51 cards. He counts it down again and gets the same number. We call the floor and he declares that hand a misdeal as well, and one of the AQ’s is very upset as he was low chip stacked and was on the big blind. We try to explain why the decision was made, but he doesn’t understand that if he had counted down the deck before the hand, the hand wouldn’t have happened, so it didn’t matter. We get a new setup, and after we deal out the hand again, UTG+1 finds the missing card under the rail. Doh, I knew the card was out there… damn my blind stealing hand!

Had a hand where I lost a few chips on a bit of a gamble. A solid player raised from EP and I called with 9To from the BB. The flop came Q9x, and I checked to him to see what he’d do… he went all in. It was just a big enough bet that it wasn’t an easy call. The player was solid, but what could he raise with from EP position that would have nines beat? AQ? TT-AA? I wanted to believe I was beat, but I also kept seeing this image of AK in my head. If I called and I was wrong, it wouldn’t be a huge dent to my stack. But if I was right and my nines were good, I’d take out another player and gain more chips. And if he did have something like KQ, I still had a chance of sucking out. I was really 50/50 on my decision when I noticed his hands covering his mouth, which can or cannot be a tell of someone bluffing. He was looking away from the table as if he didn’t want to get called, and that was it, I called. He shows QJ, whoops. No help and he wins the hand, and I double up a dangerous guy.

A bit later I find AA again on the button, and all have folded to me. I raise to 3xBB and get called by the dangerous guy in the BB. The flop comes jack high, two diamonds, and the BB moves in on me. I call instantly, and am not stoked to see Qd Jd. Luckily the turn and river blank and I bust out one of the guys I was worried about having at my table. I guess the chips I gave to him with my pair of nines was just a loan.

I try to steal a blind a few hands later with A2o on the button with a minimum raise, but get called by the BB. The flop comes A34, and I move all in when he checks to me and take it down.

Somewhere around there we lose the 5th player and are left 4 handed. The low chip stack suggests we make a deal for the cash and play for the seat. I have most of the chips and say I’m fine with a chip count deal, so we run some numbers. My share comes out to $670, which is hilarious since 1st place is $650, so I’m happy to take the deal. Unfortunately, the TD tells me that I have to sign a bunch of papers and pay taxes on anything over $600, so he recommends I give away $70 to other players. I hate to give up cash, so I offer two players to take $40 each if they’ll give me $10 back after the tourny. The TD walks away so he doesn’t hear that part. We have a deal, and I’m guaranteed $610. Now we play for the seats.

At this point, I notice that one of our players is heavily intoxicated and is playing pretty recklessly. Even better, I watched him bust out player #5 when he limped in with aces and sucked out on him when he rivered two bigger pair to the BB’s flopped two pair (hmm, didn’t that happen somewhere else in the tournament?) — he limps with big hands and raises small hands. OK, let’s try to use that. So he raises a few pots, and the low chip count decided to gamble and calls with TJ. The loose raiser tables K9 and wins the pot with king high, so we’re now three handed.

At this point, I have lost the chip lead to Drunkie, but I am confident that a misstep of his will cost him a huge pot and will give me the chip lead back. My other opponent doesn’t have many chips, so I’m not too concerned about him, though he seems to be a decent player. Drunkie raises a few pots and takes them down uncontested.

Then Drunkie makes his misstep. He’s on the button and raises a bunch of chips that he hasn’t even counted… just shoved a few uneven stacks in the pot, and that looked good to him. The SB folds, and I look down at AJo in the BB. I think about it and decide that this is the hand. If I push all in, who knows what will happen. If he has AQ, AK, or JJ-AA, I’m in bad shape, but he bet so much that I doubt he has any of these hands. If he has a pocket pair, I have a coin flip. And if he has worse, well then I’m sitting pretty. I push all in and he calls in a heartbeat. Uh oh… maybe I was wrong here and he does have AQ/AK, or even a pocket pair. I can’t believe it when he flips over QJs. An INSTANT call with queen high. Wow, that is about the best hand I could have seen him table.

Of course, the story must come to an end, and it does when the final board reads something like 28T96, and he sucks out a straight on me to bust me out in 2nd place. I can handle a bad beat every now and then, but this one really got me steamed. With that hand I’m suppose to double up, cripple Drunkie, and be dominating that table with a 90% chance of winning my $1500 NL WSOP seat. Instead, I am out in 3rd. I do have 1st place money to console me, but I was playing for the seat and would have had it 75% of the time. Amazing how such bad play can occur at the final table.

Even worse is I find out he’s already won two satellites at Lake Elsinore, one to the main event. Dead money, anyone? Of course with the other guy so short stacked, it doesn’t take long for Drunkie to win his 3rd seat and donate to all of us that will be playing the prelims at the WSOP.

So that’s my day. I did blow off some steam at the “baby no limit” table, where it’s a $20-$40 buyin and $1-$1 blinds. Got my $40 buyin up to $215 before I cashed out, which is hilarious. It’s like free money over there.

Anyway, kudos to Lake Elsinore Casino for running such a nice tournament and having such a great staff. I will be back again to claim my seat, and I will be tipping the TD and dealers since they were gone by the time I was done steaming from my bad beat.