Sunday $100 tournament

On Sunday I played in a $100 buy-in tournament with the Boys Poker Tour. The BPT gang are a bit younger than me (most are around 25 to 29), but they are very good, agressive players. They were hoping for 20 players, but only 10 showed. But it was a very good 10, definitely the best table of players I've had the opportunity to sit with in Rockland.

The tournament paid three spots $600 - $300 - $100... We all got $5000 chips to start, and blinds started at 25/50 with 45 minute levels. So you had some time to play... no bingo here.

My buddy Pecker (well known in the Ottawa poker circles) got knocked out in the first orbit, so he dealt the rest of the way. Thanks Pecker! He's a great dealer, and he made the game move quickly.

I decided once again to play position and to play agressive. I would also always raise whenever I opened a pot. Basically a similar strategy to the one that's got me running so good on Eurolinx.

About half an hour in, I get 45 suited in spades, and I raise it to $200. I get one caller, Eric Desjardins on the button. Flop comes out 10 7 7. I throw in the continuation bet - $300. Eric takes about a minute, and he raises me $1000. My thinking here is that he has a 10, or a small pair. Why? No re-raise pre-flop, so I don't put him on a big pair. I take about 20 seconds, and I re-raise $1500. $1500 makes it look like I'm serious, but I don't mind a call... I didn't go all-in. It also leaves me with $2500 chips if my read is wrong and he calls. He thinks for about a minute, and he folds, turning over A 10 and saying "you must have a big pair". I turned over my hand - and he was left shaking his head, and saying I played it like I had a big pair. That's the difference when you play better players, you can bluff them more then novices. You just have to pick your spots.

About 15 minutes later, I get pocket 10s. I raise again, this time to $400. Eric re-raises me to $1000. In my mind he has a big pair, but $600's not a big amount to call, and I figure if I hit my set he's done... and the beautiful flop came out 10 J 3, with 2 clubs. He goes into the tank, and after about a minute he announces "all-in". I insta-call... he shows QQ and I knock him out.

Then that was about it for the hands I remember... the rest was really just playing solid agressive poker. I raised in position no matter what cards I was holding, picking up lots of smaller pots. When we got to 4 players, and everyone was so tight. We must have played 4 handed for at least 90 minutes. Then 4th place go knocked out when the short stack went all-in with Q6 and I was holding QQ. About 5 minutes after, Sly went out 3rd when his set of 7s got beat by Eric B's set of Ks. And it was on to head's up.

I had 18,000 - leaving 32,000 for Eric. It was already 9:15... we'd been playing for almost 5 hours. I asked if he wanted to split 50/50, he said no. I don't blame him, he held a two to one chip lead.

But then I steamrolled him... I raised every hand when I was the dealer, except for two that I just limped and then made a big bet on the flop, and I re-raised him twice when he made big raises, to which he folded. It's about as agressive as I've ever played, since I didn't really get any cards in that sequence. After 15 minutes, we were even in chips. Then came the last hand... he raised to $5000. I went all-in with Kd2d... not strong, but I figured he'd fold since he'd been folding everything else when I re-raides him. He says "well I have two live cards and I'm tired of playing, so I call". He hadt 10 J offsuit. My hand held up and that was it.

We then played a $40 tourney with 7 guys... I finished third with just two spots paying. But I did get to knock Pecker out first again...

All in all I made a profit of $440 for the evening... that included a $20 tip to our dealer of course!