So before we started the first tournament I was informed it's 12 tournaments in the schedule, not nine. See? I'm suuuper good at this! Clearly a wise investment.
Anyway, here's our cast of characters, by position...
1 - Captain - as in Captain Obvious, because whenever he has rockets/kings/the nuts/a huge hand, he can't help but broadcast it to everyone by his betting and actions. Played with him for three years now. Hasn't learned, as will be discussed below. Super TAGgy with emphasis on the A, but it seems like flops just regularly smash him in the face and only hate him a little bit for hit. As fate would have it, he and I have sat next to each other (on varying sides) in every tournament we've played in together.
2 - Sonny - because he always wears sunglasses to our casual poker tournaments. Held indoors. At night. Played against him in five tourneys now. Knowledgable, but can't seem to execute when it matters.
3 - Riverboat - Half because he likes to gamble, and half because he hit boats on the river twice. Played against him in three tournaments. Somewhat LAGgy, but not a LAGtard.
4 - Donk - First time playing aginst him, but the early & fairly obvious read is he's just not very good. Rarely sees chips he likes.
5 - Raider - He was wearing a Raiders shirt and raided the pots early and often. Fairly stoic. Seems at least competent but not yet sure how to brand him.
6 - Sherrif - Played with this guy for aboug 6-7 years now. He wears a white hat and maintains order. Quiet. Generally TAGgy. Very smart. Owns his own cybersecurty and forensics firm and does VERY well for himself. Doesn't play poker for the money, and tries to play good poker whether for 5c/10c or $20/$40.
7 - Bones - That's how he was introduced to me. No idea why, but whatevs. He doesn't seem to be a great player, and if his dealing was any indication he's generally unfamiliar with table procedure.
8 - Oscar - Because he deserves one after last night's performance. Known this dude for 20+ years, but only played with him one time in a cash game for quarters 12 years ago. Director of Finance. Hyper smart, hyper humble, and apparently hyper sneaky.
9 - ...and then there's me.
I had provided folks some reasonable strucutres to consider. What was chosen was a typical daily tournament structure at random Vegas poker room which kinda frustarted me but *shrug*...adapt and overcome. T10k starting stacks, 100/200 starting blinds, 25m levels, antes starting at level 5.
First curiosity of this really hit me when there were two (unnecessary) all-ins in the first level! Never seen that in STT before. Both survived.
A few hands of note...
Blinds are 200/400, I'm in CO and look down at
. One limper. I raise to 1200, Captain calls quickly, table folds. 3400 in the pot. Flop comes
. I bet 2000, Captain quickly raises to 4000, and now I need to make a decision because he's just told me he either has KK or AA with how he's betting, his voice, and his motions. I know he's telling me to get out of the hand, but I want to see if he's learned his lesson yet. He's shown time and again over the past few years that if you call one of his raises like that on the flop and then check he'll check to the end (if you raise, he'll re-raise/shove). I call his raise and we check down the rest of the hand which comes out
. I show my pair, he shows his, he takes the pot. But now I know he hasn't changed his play for this tournament, and I don't suspect he will for the future ones. He also didn't change his play for the rest of the night. At this point I don't think he'll change it ever, or at least not throughout the league.
*****
At 300/600, I'm on the button and look down at
. I open to 1200. Captain folds. Sonny tanks in the BB for a few moments and raises to 2400. Table folds. I put him on a pair between 6s and 9s based on past experience with him and call the squeeze. 5700 in the pot. I have about 5500 in my stack at this point; Sonny barely has me covered. Flop comes
. Sonny checks. I bet 1800. If he calls, then I'm thinking he's got a set of 8's and then I'm fishing for a flush; if he raises I'm prepared to shove. Sonny raises to 3600. I shove. Sonny tanks a for a few more moments and shoves as well, revealing
. Cards run out
leaving Sonny with 500 and me with a much healthier stack. I knock out Sonny two hands later - the first casualty of the night.
*****
Blinds are at 400/800 and Oscar is short stacked at 2800 UTG. He looks at his cards, sighs, thinks for a moment, and then reaches for 2k chips and puts them in. THEN reaches for his 500 chip and puts that in. THEN reaches for the rest, at which point Sonny calls out that's an illegal string bet, and his bet is actually 2000. Oscar looks stunned, claims ignorance, laughs it off and puts 2000 in. Riverboat calls. Sherrif raises to 4k, Oscar's all in, Riverboat calls. Flop is
. Checks. Turn is
, checks, Flop is
. Checks. Riverboat has
, Sherrif reveals
. Oscar shows
to triple up, sneaky bastard.
*****
We're at 400/800/100ante and Captain with the big stack opens for 2000. Sherrif calls. Rest of the table folds. Flop comes
rainbow, Captain bets 2000 again. Sherrif goes all in with 6600. Captain snap calls. Sherrif reveals
, Sherrif reveals
. Turn is
. Sherrif is the 2nd casualty.
Then Captain wins an entire fucking orbit by flopping a set, two straights, a flush, and one nut flush, knocking out two more and putting him at around 39k chips.
Poker is stupid.
*****
Blinds are 500/1000/100ante and I'm in the BB with 4k behind. Things aren't looking good. Table folds around to Oscar (stack about 5500) who completes. I look down at
and check. Flop comes
. Oscar rolls his eyes, kinda flails his hands, and checks. I think he's basically got nothing and I shove, partly motivated by the fact that it's 10pm, I have an 60m+ drive home, and a 4:30am wake up call. Then immediately comes...
"Call I flopped a straight"
Just like that. Single clause, no pause. He couldn't show his cards fast enough, revealing
. Turn comes
, #GG.
At this point the table now realizes that Oscar has somewhat acted his way into fairly significant wins, and he then parlays that into the tournament win.
*****
I might have been able to survive longer had I not shoved on the hand I got knocked out on, and it's only after I'm out that I consider that every point in the league matters. This is new to me and I'll need to adjust my thinking accordingly. Fortunately most of the rest of the tourneys will either be much closer to my home or on Friday nights so the sleep situation won't matter as much.
In any case, here's the point standings after the first event...
Oscar - 15
Raider - 13
Captain - 11
Riverboat - 9
Psypher - 8
Bones - 7
Donk - 6
Sherrif - 5
Sonny - 4
