Just got back home from the Seneca tournament series on the weekend, and finally managed to book another decent live MTT result. As always, my blackberry is chock full of hand descriptions. I mentioned on pokerforum.ca that my parents told me they read this blog. I asked them if they actually read all of the hand histories, and my father admitted that they kind of skim through those. When I am reading other poker blogs, I actually find the hand histories to be the best part, and Hobbes and pokerJAH agree with me. So, it's me, Hobbes and pokerJAH vs. my dad and Hayley (my mom remained neutral). Looks like there are going to be a lot of hand descriptions in this entry!

Hayley actually said she just skims my blog looking for her name. So, if you see the word "Hayley" randomly appearing throughout this entry, you'll know why.

It was great to see so many familiar faces at Seneca. Regular characters from this blog were in attendance, including my brother Jared, Hayley, Jared's friend Andrew, my parents, and Carl and his almost-wife Gigi. New characters included my brother's friend Chris, my brother's friend Andrew's brother Justin, and many people from pokerforum.ca, including Blondefish, who (disappointingly, no offense) looks nothing at all like the hot blonde chick that is his avatar.

I've also had a request to include more stuff about Anthony (aka "the kid whose girlfriend hit him in the face") but unless I'm at Turning Stone and he happens to be there as well, that's not likely to happen.

ANYWAY.

My band played a gig on Thursday night, and it was a blast, but it left me a little shaky for the early morning drive to Seneca casino on Friday morning. I'd reserved a room at the hotel for Friday night, but I didn't bother reserving one for Saturday night. I figured that I'd probably bust out of the 1K event on Day 1 anyway, and wouldn't need the room. And if by some miracle I actually made Day 2, it would be pretty easy to get a different room there. More on that later.

No problems at the border, we got our room (which was pretty damn nice btw), and went down to register for the noon $330 event. We had 10% of each other, and bizarrely began the tournament not only at the same table, but sitting right next to each other (with her on my left).

SENECA $330 EVENT, 92 ENTRANTS, 9 PLACES PAID, 9K TO FIRST PLACE.

I would describe the structure for this event as average. 5K chips to start, 30 minute levels.

25/50 5K stack.

UTG makes it 150, mp calls, I call in the bb with A5o. Flop T78, checked around. Turn is another 8, I bet 225, utg folds, mp calls. The river is a 3, do I have another bullet? Of course I have another bullet, so I bet 425. He makes it like 1400 and I fold.

Great start. Minus 750, bluffing unsuccessfully, as always. This one might have been a perfect combination of my bluffing problems I described in my last entry:

a) Bluffing in spots that are too bluffable, and therefore obvious, and
b) Bluffing into strong hands.

WTG, me. I can write about my leaks, but I guess I can't do a thing about them. I dunno.

2 hands later, I have 5d6d on the button, there is a small raise multiway, I call, miss, fold.

One limper, I limp Kc4c, miss the flop which is checked around. The turn gives me a flush draw, I call a small bet, miss the river, and fold. Down to 3700. Wheee!

Two limpers, and I limp with 77. Five of us to the flop of K34 rainbow. Checked around. The turn is a 7 (!) which puts a backdoor flush draw out there. SB bets 275, I make it 900, he calls. Heads up to the river, which is a very scary offsuit 5. He checks and I check. (Not sure about this check... sure, any six makes a straight, but I don't think he'd try to c/r a straight here because he can't expect me to bet without a straight myself. Therefore, a value bet was definitely in order.) He has pocket fours for a lower set (put me on exactly 56 on the turn, he said) and my stack is back to even.

Next hand I have Ah7h and open limp in MP. The button (set of fours guy from the last hand) raises, and I fold as it would be heads-up with me out of position if I called.

I am SB with 7c8c and a million players limp. I call. The flop is T78 with two hearts. I love it and hate it... I have gone broke in tournaments before with hands like these... bottom two pair on a co-ordinated flop Hayley. I check, EP bets 175, MP calls, and I call, planning to lead out on the turn if it's a brick. I have to revise my plan when the absolutely perfect turn card arrives... the 8 of hearts, completing the flush draw but giving me a very nice boat. I check, EP bets 275, MP calls, I make it 700, EP calls, and MP folds. The river is a low club or something, I bet 1200, and get paid off by what he says was the nut flush.

50/100, 7600 chips.

I limp 55 after one limper, LP makes it 500, BB (calling station) calls, original limper folds, and I call because Phil Gordon says I'm supposed to. I miss completely and fold when BB leads out 750.

6900

I am SB with Ad9d. MP opens to 300, gets 2 callers, I call, BB (Hayley) folds. Flop K93 rainbow. I REALLY should have taken a stab here, just led out with a bet of 800 or so. Instead, I checked, MP bet 900, and we all folded. Ugly.

100/200, 6500 chips.

Folded to me in MP and I open raise to 600 with KQo. Only Hayley calls, which isn't great because I never know what to do with hands against her in MTT scenarios. We've agreed to play "straightforward" against each other, but I think we might have different ideas about what that means. More on that later. The flop is Axx, I check, she bets 1K, I fold, and she says she had AK.

5900

I limp 55 in EP, Hayley limps, shortstack shoves and we both fold. Hayley said she had pocket fives too.

I lose some blinds and am down to 5300.

UTG limps, UTG+1 makes it 750, I call with 99, the button shoves for 3600 total, and everyone folds to me. I think forever and make a bad call, the button has KK. The flop is 78T with 2 clubs (I have the only club). The turn is the three of clubs. The river is an offsuit jack, ship it to the luckbox pls ty.

(An aside: late in day one of the following day's tournament, this same guy (with KK) was moved to my table. I recognized him, but forgot exactly why, and asked him how he ended up doing in the $300 event. He said: "You busted me" and the table cracked up.)

100/200 a25, 9450 chips.

I am the BB with ATo. 2 limpers, SB calls, I check. The flop is AT3 with two hearts and one club. Checked to the button who bets 1100, SB folds, I make it 3100, MP folds, button shoves for like 1K more, and I call. He has Ac7c, the turn gives him a flush draw, but he misses.

14,700

The table is broken, no more Hayley.

THE WEIRDEST HAND OF THE ENTIRE WEEKEND:

EP calls, and I call in LP with 47o because EP is in the pot and I can get in cheaply. I haven't been at this new table long, but I've been there long enough to know that EP is terrible, and has chips. Yummy. The flop is 356 with two diamonds if you can believe it... I flopped the nuts. Blinds and EP check to me, I bet 400, and only EP calls. (Fish on). The turn is the very ugly 7 of diamonds. EP checks, I bet 700, he calls. The river is the uglier still 4 of diamonds, check check, and he wins with Kc8c.

Let's have a little looky-loo at this hand from his perspective:

He calls in EP with Kc8c (OK, whatever, I have limped in EP with much worse hands and I know it).

He calls my flop bet of 400 (not a huge bet, but still...) on a flop of 3d5d6h with Kc8c.

He calls my turn bet of 700 on a board that now reads 3d5d6h7d with Kc8c.

He hits his 4 on the river.

You can imagine my confusion after that hand.

13,400

I limp 5s6s in EP (see? Told you I limp EP with much worse than Kc8c) and MP makes it 700. BB calls, has lots of chips (as do I, relative to the blinds and average stack) so I call as well. Flop is AsTs6h, giving me bottom pair and a flush draw. BB leads 1500, I call, and MP folds. This is actually a pretty marginal call... the last thing I want is to call the 1500 and then see MP (the preflop raiser) raise. Fortunately he got out of the way. The turn is 3s, giving me my flush. BB bets 3K, I shove, he agonizes forever and finally folds. He tells me he had AK with the king of spades.

150/300 a50, 19,100 chips. 59 players remain.

I have KTo on the button and open-raise to 750. The BB shoves for 2500 more and I fold. Weak.

I receive an email on my Blackberry from a reporter in Quebec who is doing a story about the new poker room in Hull. Apparently the dealer's union is protesting because the casino wants to use exclusively computerized poker tables... no dealers. He wants a few minutes of my time to get my opinions on this subject, but I didn't call him because I was in a tournament, and it's long distance, and I have no opinions on this subject.

18,100 (avg. 8300)

I bluff off some chips chasing a flush and betting when I miss the river. My story didn't add up at all; it was the most transparent bluff ever, and I made it very easy for my opponent to call my river bet. It went like this: I limp along in LP with a million people preflop holding 5h8h. The flop is K99 with two hearts. Checked around. Turn is an offsuit Q. EP bets 700 and I call. The river is an offsuit (not that it matters) K, making the board K99QK rainbow. EP now checks, and I am sure he has a queen, but I didn't have it in me to just give up so I bet 1300, and he called with a queen obv. My biggest mistake here was not betting the flop when it was checked to me. A monkey bets that flop in my spot.

200/400 a50 14K

Card dead, and I kind of need to wait for a hand because my image isn't great (At this table, I have shown that I limp with 74o, I raise in LP and then fold to a shortstack re-raise for not a whole heckuva lot more, which means that I pretty much had rags, and that I like to bet 1300 holding 58 on a K99QK board).

48 players left.

300/600 a75, I have 11K, avg is 11K, 43 players remaining.

Folded to me in MP with TT, I raise to 1800. BB calls. Flop is JJ3, he pushes for like 1800 (lol) and I have the easiest call in the world. He has K8, misses, I win.

14,900

I raise UTG +1 with AdTc to 1800, and the guy who had Kc8c in the most confusing hand of the weekend calls. Flop K93 all hearts, I bet 2500, he folds.

17K or so, 36 left, avg 13K-ish

I am UTG with AKo and make it 1800. MP calls, LP shoves for 6K, Gigi (who is now immediately to my right) calls all-in from the BB for a little less than 6K, I shove my whole stack in to at least get MP out of the way, and he folds. SO. Three of us in the pot, and both of my opponents are all-in preflop.

Me: AK
Gigi: JQ
LP: 33

Board: (get this) AK2 3 T. You can imagine the drama on every street as it went from being my pot, to LP's pot, to Gigi's pot. Gigi triples up, and I am down to like 7 or 8K.

SECOND WEIRDEST HAND OF THE ENTIRE WEEKEND:

Very next hand I am BB with Ah9h. MP raises to 1500, LP shoves for like 2100 total, I call, and MP calls. Flop is 922 with two diamonds. I lead out for 2200, MP agonizes and finally mucks TT. LOL. He says he put me on A2 roflmao. OK, first of all, I probably wouldn't call a raise with A2, suited or otherwise, given the action and my stack. Second, if I actually DID have A2, there is no way in hell I would lead out on that flop. And let's even go a bit further here and try and put me on some other hands. JJ to AA would probably re-raise preflop. 99 wouldn't bet this flop. 88, 77, 66 might. A9 might. TT might.

That was really the worst laydown I've ever seen. Anyway, LP has like 4s5s or something and I win.

I am on the button with 99, one limper and I (bizzarely) limp. BB checks. Flop is J high, checked to me, I bet and win.

400/800 a100, 15,500 chips, maybe 25 left.

Folded to me on the button with AJo, I make it 2500. BB (guy who folded TT LOL) makes it 4K more and has been exhibiting signs of tiltdom ever since that TT hand. I shove 9K more, he agonizes, he folds.

23,000, 21 left, avg 22K

Hayley is still in it, and is at the table next to me.

600/1200 a200

I am in BB with ATo. MP opens to 4K and has more chips than I do. I call. The flop is J82 rainbow. I check, he bets 6K, I shove like 13K more and he folds.

32,500, 19 left, avg 23K

Gigi is UTG and shoves her shortstack all-in. (She had maybe 7500). I can picture her making this play with a wide range of hands, so I call UTG+1 with ATo. It turns out that her range was even wider than I thought... she had shoved blind. Nobody else is in the pot, and she has JQo again, the same hand she pwned my AK with in that 3-way all-in pot. She wins obv.

23K, 18 left, avg 24K

20K, 17 left, avg 27K

I get moved to Hayley's table as we are now down to the final two tables. I am two to her left, and she is very shortstacked.

I am UTG with 88 and raise to 3600. Folded to the button who shoves and has more chips than I do. I will have about 13,400 left if I fold here, and we are 30 seconds away from playing 800/1600 a300, and I am about to be the BB, so I call. He has AK as expected but I lose and that's that.

Hayley makes the final table, (shortstack ninja, she is), but unfortunately gets 9th after her AhQh can't beat As6d all-in preflop (four spades on the board, or maybe it was a six, either way it was gross). It was fun watching her at the final table though... a bit of role-reversal where I'm the one on the rail screaming "NO SIX! NO SPADES!"

She collects like $800 for this, minus a bunch for withholding tax, minus the buy-in itself, minus my 10%, equals a very small profit. Her day will come though.

Hayley busts just in time to play the 7:00 super satellite with me to the next day's 1K event. It costs like $125 to buy in, and only gets 22 or so starters. 2 seats will be given away, with third basically getting their money back. Hayley and I draw seats right next to each other again, but this time with her on my right.

Here's where I'd like to discuss how our versions of "straightforward play against each other" differ. I ended up winning a lot of pots early in this, which was key because the blind structure moved fast and you only start with 2K chips. I think we were playing 100/200, still at two tables, when someone limped and Hayley shoved on the button for like 800 or so. I was in the SB and looked down at AsJs. I had a lot of chips, and maybe this makes me a bad person, but I called and ended up eliminating her from the satellite, beating her pocket tens. She was really pissed off, basically said "nice" and stormed away. The table (and dealer) of course thought this was hilarious and made a bunch of cracks about how I'd blown it with her. We smoothed things out, but we really do need to figure where the line is. Do I fold aces in that spot? Kings? What am I allowed to call with?

If we can't figure it out, it will probably be best if we stop playing in the same events together, because I can't have poker affecting my personal life. I know that I wouldn't have been mad if she'd busted me out of the thing, but she pointed out that I was planning to buy my way into the 1K event anyway, so it was a bigger deal to her than it would be to me. Maybe she has a point there, but we still need to work out the parameters of straightforward play. I thought it meant that we would never steal/re-steal/bluff each other, but I guess it extends further than that.

ANYWAY, I ended up winning a seat into the event, so I saved myself 1K. A nice local kid named Justin won the other seat. I had a lot of chips at the final table, and used them. It was a lot like being the big stack with four people left in a Party speed SNG, and I've been there countless times.

I put down my standard $200/trip for blackjack, actually ran it up to $500, walked away, and managed to not play again for the entire trip. OMFG. Hayley then tells me that she wants to take a crack at a single table satellite, but it's getting late and I want to go to bed and rest up for the big event the next day. She says she's just going to hang around for a bit to see if one starts up, and she'll meet me in the room. OK, I can dig it, she really wants to play in the Main Event and as a poker player I don't blame her one bit.

I wake up at 4:30am and she's not in the room. Again, as a poker player, I'm 95% sure that she's in the poker room playing in some stupid cash game, but as a boyfriend I can't shake the nagging worry that something bad has happened to her. I send a couple of texts and try calling her, but to no avail, and it's no surprise because she keeps her cell in her bag which makes it pretty much useless. No way I was getting back to sleep, so I had to throw on some clothes and drag my tired ass like 5 miles from the hotel room to the poker room, and sure enough there she is playing a $200 max game with a bunch of pokerforum.ca guys who probably think I'm a dick because I walked up to her, confirmed that she was OK, and then left without saying another word.

OK, maybe I am a dick, but I really wanted to get a good night's sleep. No biggie, we made up. It's worth mentioning here that I really do think she's the sweetest and smartest girl in the world despite these little speed bumps.

DAY TWO

Suffice to say that Hayley was reluctant to get out of bed this morning, but we had to check out and eat breakfast before my tournament started at 11:00. I left our bags at the bell desk, we had breakfast, and Hayley went off to the cash game room while I headed upstairs to the Events Centre where the 1K event was to be held.

SENECA $1070 EVENT, 77 ENTRANTS, 9 PAID, 25K TO FIRST PLACE

77 entrants was a disappointment. I personally was happy they had more than 50, but it was obvious that most of the players, and definitely the staff, were very disappointed by the poor attendance. The staff was predicting a solid 150 the night before. I said I'd be happy with 50, and they basically laughed in my face, telling me there would be 100 at the very very very least. NH me.

Some general notes on this event:

Pretty much everything went right for me in this tournament. My big hands got paid off, most of my bluffs worked, nobody really sucked out on me, I didn't really suck out on anybody, I was at or well above average for the whole event. I mean, what more can I say. I wish they were all like this. Carl and Gigi both played in this event and went really deep--they probably busted a heartbreaking 14th and 15th or so. When we were down to two tables they were seated right next to each other, which was uncanny given how often Hayley and I ended up next to each other the day before. My man Tyson was also in the event--I know him from "around"--and he made it pretty deep as well but missed the money. In general, there were tons of Canadian players there. We probably made up about 30 to 40 percent of the field. At my first table I was seated next to a guy who plays at the Bellagio every week (a 25/50 NL cash game club here in Toronto). We know a lot of the same people of course.

The structure was, simply put, amazing. 10K chips to start, one hour levels.

25/50, 10K chips.

I have 5s7s on the button, and raise to 200 after one limper. BB calls as does the limper, I miss the flop, bet when it's checked to me, and win.

I have 4d6d in LP and limp after two limpers. Four of us to the flop, I flop a gutshot, bet, win.

I am in MP with 99 and open raise to 150. The button calls. Heads up to an ace high flop, I bet 225, he calls. The turn is a brick, I check, he bets, I fold.

I lose a bit chasing a flush that doesn't get there, and I lose some more seeing flops, missing and folding with hands like 9sTs. Hayley.

I am on the button with AQo and raise to 175 after one player limps. Both blinds and the limper call, we see a flop of 456 with two diamonds, one heart. Checked around. The turn is the ace of hearts. SB bets 200, BB calls, I make it 700 and they both call. The river is the worst possible card, the 2 of diamonds completing both the flush and straight draws. Checked to me and I obviously check and table my AQ. The SB acts all pissed, and I think my hand might be good, but he tables Qd3d and is actually pissed that I didn't bet the river for him so he could check-raise. Umm... LOL. As if I'm going to bet the river sir. You play bad.

Next hand I have Ah7h and limp after one limper (the guy who plays at the Bellagio in Toronto all the time). Flop AA3, he bets 200, I call, and we're now heads-up. Turn is a 6, he bets 350, I call and now I'm not really sure whether or not I'm slowplaying. The river is a ten, he bets 500, I call, he shows JJ and I win. He says that was the cheapest way to get to showdown with his hand, and he's right.

After all of those hands my stack is at 9850, just about what I started with.

I note that there are a lot of women playing in this event, and by a lot I mean probably like 3/4 of a girl per table. One girl is getting a massage at the table from one of the hot massage girls they have at Seneca, and my mind starts to wander because I am immature.

I am on the button with AKo, MP opens to 150, and I make it 350. MP calls. Flop is 742 with 2 diamonds, he checks, I bet 500, and he calls. The turn is an offsuit six, check check. The river is an offsuit 7, he bets 400 and I feel like paying people off so I call, but he mucks and I win.

I am UTG with AA and make it 150. I get 6 callers LOL. The flop is A96 with 2 clubs. I bet 500, one player calls, the next raises to 1200 and it's back to me. I make it 3600 because that's how I roll with top set on a draw-heavy flop in a multiway pot, the caller folds and the raiser calls. Heads-up to the turn in what is shaping up to be a very big pot. The turn is an offsuit 3, so I still have the stone cold nuts, and I shove for like 7K because again, that's how I roll, and because I'm happy to pick up this big pot right now. My opponent instacalls and the dealer instadeals the river card so I don't even know what my opponent has. The river looks safe enough, not a club anyway, and I see that my opponent has Ac5c for top pair, no kicker, with the nut flush draw.

Yes, he instacalled 7K with one pair, no kicker, and a draw with only one card to come. TY sir. Merry Christmas me. I double my 10K stack playing only 25/50, and the table shakes it's collective head.

Very next hand I am BB with 88. Folded to Mr. Ac5c = the nuts who shoves his last 375. Folded to me, I call, and beat his A5 (offsuit, this time).

50/100, 22,300

I have AKo in SB and just call after 2 limpers. BB makes it a big 700 to go though, one limper calls, and I call. Flop 775 with 2 spades, I check, BB bets 2K, MP calls, and I fold. (Turn offsuit king, BB bets 2K again and is called. River offsuit ace, check check. BB has QQ, MP has Ks9s and wins.)

22,500

UTG thinks he is BB and puts in 100 before looking at his cards. It is ruled as a call. Folded all the way to the guy to my right and I in the blinds, and neither of us raise. We check and fold to UTG's flop bet, and he shows AA.

I am on the button with TsJs, one limper, I call, and BB checks. 3 to the flop: Jxx with two spades. Sweet. Checked to me, I bet 300, MP calls. I turn my flush, he checks, I bet, he folds, and I show this beautiful hand.

I blow 900 chips by raising ATo in EP, getting called by a blind, betting a missed flop and folding to his checkraise.

100/200, 22,200 chips. Average is probably around 10,400. 73 of 77 remain.

The Bellagio guy to my right tells me the following story about the night before. They have a pretty massive bad beat jackpot going in the poker room, but it only applies to tables that use white chips. I think the reason for this is that white chip games are raked and red chip games are not, because it takes too long for dealers to constantly be breaking down red chips into white chips to drop for the house. Thus, red chip games pay session instead of rake, and therefore don't qualify for the bad beat jackpot, as the jackpot is generated by rake and not session. This means that the $5/$10 NL cash game doesn't normally qualify for the jackpot, but they've found a way around this: if all the players at the table agree, they change it to a $2/$5 game with a $10 bring-in, more or less. In other words, the blinds are $2 and $5, but it costs $10 to limp, so if it's an unraised pot the big blind for example has to put in $5 more to see a flop. By adding the $2 variable they introduce white chips into the game, which means that the house can rake it, which means it qualifies for the jackpot. I think you can see where this is heading...

Apparently, on Friday night, some guy sat down in the game and convinced them to just make it a $5/$10 session game instead of the $2/$5/$10 game they were playing. Everyone agreed, and 2 hours later, of course they hit the bad beat jackpot, but nobody got paid because they weren't using the white chips anymore. LOL. Don't quote me on these numbers, but I think the loser of the hand would have received 40K, the winner 20K, and the rest of the table would have split the other 20K.

Anyway, where was I... ah yes, 100/200 with like 22K in chips. Sweet.

I have As5s in MP and open raise to 500. LP calls and BB calls. The flop is A53 rainbow, with one spade. BB checks, I bet 1K, LP folds, BB calls. Turn is the Ts, giving me the nut flush draw to go along with my two pair. BB bets 2100. I can't put him on 24 because I raised preflop, although anything's possible. I'm a bit worried now about AT, but apparently not really worried because I make it 7100. (BB started the hand with like 15K). He calls. The river is an offsuit queen, check check, he has AK, ship it.

I then win with AT and JK, and lose with 99.

31,700, avg 11,600, 66 players remain.

I get moved to Gigi's table, and she is two to my left and has a lot of chips as well, probably 22K or so. I really don't want to play any big pots with her, not only because of her stack but also because she sucked out on me twice the day before (with JQ both times) in some pretty big key pots. Am I superstitious? Maybe a little.

I decide that with 30K and 100/200 blinds I really don't have to do anything, but that doesn't really last.

I have AhTh in LP. EP raises to 600, I call, and BB calls. Flop is QJJ with 2 hearts, EP bets 600, I call, BB folds. Turn is another Q, EP bets 600, I raise to 1600, he instamucks.

I am BB with TT. MP limps, big stack goes to 900, SB shoves for 2200 and I tank. If I was closing the action I'd call, but I'm really worried about calling 2200 here and facing a possible re-raise from MP or more likely from the big stack who initially raised. So I fold, MP folds, and the big stack calls with Kh5h. Sigh... his move cost me the pot, as I would have beaten his hand and SB's AQ by flopping a set.

Another decent stack opens to 1200 (6XBB), and it's folded to me on the button or so with AA. I make it 3600, and he calls. The flop is ten high, he bets 2K, I make it 7K, and he folds. He says he folded QQ, and after pestering him during the break, I believe him. I wonder if I should have slowplayed in this spot, but I actually figured he had JJ or QQ, and wanted to raise the low flop because I didn't want to call and have a king or ace come on the turn and slow him down. I think I play it the same way next time... this gentleman just happened to make an excellent laydown, if he was telling the truth about QQ.

100/200 a25, 38,800 chips, avg 13K or so, 59 of 77 left.

I am UTG with KsJs and raise to 700. BB calls. Flop QT3 with two clubs, he checks, I bet 1300, he folds.

I guess not much else happened that level.

150/300 a50, 40,300 chips, avg 14,250, 54 of 77 left.

One hand I wasn't involved in: Gigi raises EP to like 1500 probably. Another big stack re-raises to like 5K probably. Gigi re-re-raises all-in for like another 15K on top probably. Her opponent mucks KK face up, which I have never seen done preflop before. Gigi doesn't show, but her opponent is convinced she could do that with no other hand besides AA. I happen to agree, but I mentioned to the guy next to me that she could also do that with KK. She told me during the break that she did in fact have KK as well.

I win the blinds with AhKh.

I am card dead and don't really care.

I am SB with Kh7h. Folded to the button who makes it 900. I call, BB folds. Flop is QQ2 rainbow, I check, he bets 900. I can hear my friend from the Brantford Spring Classic telling me "floating sinks", but I decide to float, and call. Turn is a jack, check check. Perfect. River is a nine, I bet 1600, he folds.

42,000

I open raise to 900 in MP with 9sTs. BB calls. Flop JQ3 one spade, he leads 2K and I call. He has a lot of chips. The turn is the 5s giving me a flush draw as well, he bets only 3K and I call. The river is a low spade completing my flush, he checks, I bet 7500, he calls, and I beat AQ. The entire table tells him they would have called as well because they all thought I was bluffing.

300/600 a75, 53K stack, avg 26K. 29 players remain.

With only 29 remaining I can start to taste money. It tastes gooooooooooood.

Here's my low point of the tournament, though:

Folded to a tricky Torontonian on the button (super nice guy as it turns out) who raise my big blind, as he has done a couple of times now. He has about 18K to start the hand. My Blackberry dies right before this happened so I'm not 100% sure about bet sizes on this or any upcoming hands. Anyway, he raises to probably 2K or so, SB folds, and I decide to defend my BB with Js8s and call. Flop AT8 rainbow no spades, and I check and call his bet. The turn is the six of diamonds, putting a backdoor diamond draw on the board. I check, he bets, and I checkraise all-in for his remaining 10K or so. I figure that if he doesn't have it, he's not committed to call here, and he knows it. He'd probably even fold a weak ace in this spot, so close to the money with his tournament life on the line (as a matter of fact, he later told me exactly that). Unfortunately for me, he had Ad9d, which was a weak ace, but that bricky-looking turn card actually gave him the nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw to go with his relatively weak ace, so he called, and I doubled him up.

Down to 35K, which is about average with 25 players left.

After running so good up until this point, I could feel it all slipping away. I was really angry with myself for playing a big pot with marginal cards when I didn't have to at all. Fortunately for me, about five minutes after that hand we went on a dinner break. If we had kept playing I'm not sure I would have been able to play optimally.

The remaining notes on Day One of this event are pretty sparse, and pretty weak, because as I mentioned my Blackberry died and I only wrote down a couple of hands when I got back to my hotel room.

I chip up, and manage to keep up with the average stack as more players are eliminated. The plan is to play down to the final table of nine--at which point we will be in the money--and quit for the night, resuming the following day at noon in the poker room.

Probably 600/1200 a200, maybe 48K chips, avg 48K, definitely 16 players left.

I've changed tables now as we are down to the final two. The player from Toronto who I doubled up with J8 is now immediately on my right, and a tricky player who got second in the $300 event is now immediately on my left. The chip leader of the tournament is a kid named Jeremy who there will be more about later I'm sure, and he's 3 to my right.

Folded to SB who just calls, I am BB with Td7d and I check. The flop is QT6 rainbow, and he makes a small bet of like 1800. I call. The turn is a 7, he checks, I bet 4500 or so, and he calls. The worst river card ever comes next, another six, counterfeiting my two pair. He leads out with 7K, and I agonize and finally call. He says the words I really want to hear: "Good call" and tables 5h8h for a missed turned open-ended straight draw. Ship it pls.

The biggest pot of the day for me, and possibly the biggest pot of the day, period: I open raise UTG to 4K with AdKc. The guy to my immediate left (second in the $300 event) makes it 10K total. He started the hand with about 59K, and I started it with 60K. I call.

The flop is 3 low clubs. We both check our hole cards for clubs, LOL, and I laugh as I point this out despite the gravity of the situation. We both check the flop.

The turn is another low club, and I'm not sure what the betting was here. I think I probable check/called a 15K bet or something, but I'm not sure.

The river is the ace of clubs, giving me the nuts, and I instashoved the rest of my stack. He flipped his hole cards over (which does not make it a dead hand) and got up from the table and walked around. He had AQ, with the Q of clubs, giving him the second nuts. He talked and talked about how I can't have the K of clubs because I wouldn't just shove with the nuts, but then he started to change his mind, saying that's what I wanted him to think, and therefore I either could only have the nuts or nothing at all, because I wouldn't do that with like the J or T of clubs, I'd check/call maybe, or check/fold, or make a small defensive bet, which is actually some pretty decent analysis of the situation.

As you can imagine, I wanted him to call. He eventually did just that, I tabled the nuts, and he smacked the table pretty hard. Ship it. Massive pot... the floor staff helped me stack it, colouring up some 5K's for some brand new 10K chips. I was pretty sure I was going to money with my 60K stack, but now I was pretty positive. What a relief... the stress of bubble-time poker didn't effect me at all. I was definitely the happiest guy in the room, and I was the chip leader. So sick.

My opponent in this hand is a super nice guy... shook my hand, wished me luck, and meant it. And get this... you may remember me mentioning near the beginning of this entry (5 years ago) that I checked us out of the hotel, planning to get a room for the night there again if it looked like I was going to make day two. Well, I checked during the dinner break, and the hotel was booked solid, so if I was in fact making day two, I'd have to find somewhere else for Hayley and I to sleep that night. I mentioned this at the table well before this hand, and the guy remembered and told me that since he was out of the event, he and his wife were going to take off, so Hayley and I could have his room there at the casino. What a guy... I bust him out and he gives me his hotel room. Actually, earlier on when I first mentioned the accomodation problems, he offered to let Hayley sleep with him and his wife, but I wasn't invited. He'd played in the $300 event with her the day before and I guess he liked what he saw LOL.

Anyway, that was very cool of this guy who had just given me 59K in chips. Hayley was nearby and the two of them went off to the registration desk to make the transfer.

HOLY SHIT THIS IS A LONG BLOG ENTRY

I'm kind of glad I don't really have any notes from the final table.

Yadda yadda yadda I have the chip lead around the bubble and I use it, putting pressure on short stacks who don't want to make $0 for tenth instead of the $2200 or so they'd get for 9th. We'd been playing for about 10 hours or so that day, and hand-for-hand was slooooooooow, so a deal was proposed. If it was going to be taking 1K from first to pay tenth I would have said no, but someone came up with taking $100 from each spot to pay tenth $900, and I agreed to that. I wasn't in any particular hurry to leave as I was really and truly enjoying myself and my stress-free bubble existence, but again, the day had been long, and I wanted to go and celebrate with my friends. The shortest stack left was the kid who won the satellite with me, Justin. He was all for it of course. Only one person said no, and that was the other big stack in the tournament, Jeremy... the kid 3 to my right. He and Justin have some history apparently, and Jeremy wanted to see Justin bubble out. Ouch.

So, we played on. Justin was at my table, and was obviously very interested in what was happening at the other table. At one point, the shortstack at the other table had moved all-in with 99, and was called by KhQh. A king on the flop, and it was looking good for Justin, but a nine came on the river, and I think Justin felt as thought he'd lost that pot himself.

He ended up making the money though, (and finsishing 7th!) when someone at the other table went busto. Actually, it was the gentleman who made the great QQ laydown against my AA earlier who finished in tenth.

DAY 3, FINAL TABLE

The final table was played out in the poker room instead of the event centre, which was great because that's where all my friends were. Also, my parents made the drive to watch me play. I had the biggest cheering section there by a mile.

I went into the final table as chip leader by a bit, with Jeremy close behind. I had a great seat draw, as all of the short stacks were to my left and right, and the few bigger stacks were across the table from me.


800/1600 a200, my stack 165,200

The very first hand of the final table, I find Th7h in EP and raise to 5K. BB calls. Flop is Q77, check check. Turn is a ten, I make a small bet and get no action. I table my Th7h and inform the table that I have been running good.

MP raises to 6K, SB shoves for like 35K, I overshove from BB with AKo, MP folds, I beat SB's AQ and eliminate the first player.

1200/2400 a400

The other big stack (Jeremy) opens to 6K and I call with KdTd in BB. I flop a flush draw and check/call his 11K bet. The turn misses me but any four now makes a straight. I bet 16K and Jeremey folds.

I had already determined that Jeremy was going to be my biggest problem. He was the most aggressive player, and he had the most chips besides me. It felt good to pwn him right from the start, and I continued to pwn him for the entire final table. He was young and he had a huge ego, which made him easy to beat up on. I know I'm interrupting the space/time continuum here, but I want to finish writing about this guy. We played threehanded for 2 and a half hours, and he kept trying to raise my big blind, and I kept re-raising, and he kept folding. On one hand against him, I raised his big blind from the small with 23o. I missed everything that 23o can hit (which isn't much), but fired on the flop, checked the turn, and fired 50K on the river with the nut low. He folded. I think I made a great laydown against him with 99 on a Q73 flop. I think I made a great shove against him on the next hand after I raised AQ, he re-raised me big, and I set him all-in. He folded. I eventually eliminated him and got to heads up on the following hand:

I have a huge stack from pwning Jeremy, and Jeremy has like 200K playing 3000/6000 a1K I think. I limp on the button with Kh3h, Jeremy calls from the SB, BB checks. Flop is J73 with two hearts, so I have bottom pair and a flush draw. Checked to me, I bet 20K, Jeremy calls. The turn is the 6 of hearts, giving me the second nuts. Jeremy checks, I bet 40K, and Jeremy makes it 100K. I shove, and Jeremy calls with 67 for two pair. He bust in third after talking about how he feels like winning 25K today, etc, the trophy is his, etc, I'm afraid to play him, etc. I mean, I guess he's nice enough, but he definitely needs to keep his ego in check, which is why I'm writing so much about pwning him, not that he'll ever read this. I'm not particularly egotistical myself, although it may seem as though I am in the last couple of paragraphs about Jeremy (aka "Buttercup").

My parents told me that the girl who was cheering him on (either his sister or girlfriend, I don't know which) told them that I was afraid to play him, and that's why I just put him all-in on that hand. Ummm... no. Look at the hand history ma'am. When I put him all-in, he'd already invested 126K of his 200K or so stack. What was I going to do? Min. re-raise? Besides, I'd played small pots against him for 2 and a half hours threehanded, and my stack only went up. Grinding, small pot poker against him, out on a limb about 3/4 of the time, and I chipped way up and he dwindled to 200K. So yeah, she was probably more annoying than he was.

The rail in general was annoying sometimes. I was so focused on the game that I'd only hear random pieces of conversation from people, but my brother told me that during the final table, one railbird said that he saw that I had pocket kings, flopped top set, bet it big, and got no action. He was telling my brother it was a terrible play. Again, ummm... no. I'd remember flopping top set with kings, and that didn't happen. But even if it did, I was betting and raising so often that betting out with top set would probably get me the most action. GG sir.

Sorry for the bitterness there but all the hotshot ego shit in poker really drives me up the wall. So you've booked a big win or two (not YOU specifically, dear reader). We all have. Big deal. STFU and play.

Anyway, where was I. A bunch of people were eliminated from the final table pretty quickly, and I eliminated at least a few of them. I remember this one: a 65K stack makes it 10K from the button playing 1500/3000. I call in the BB with Kd3d. Flop KTT, I check, he shoves, I think and call, beat his J9o and add another pile of chips to my wall.

That's all I got. That's all the hands I can remember. I took a few notes on my Blackberry when the final table started, and my plan was to write everything down, but there was no way that it could happen. I quickly realized that I needed to stay totally focused on everything that was happening at the table, and I was playing a lot of hands, so I wouldn't have time to take notes anyway. As I mentioned, we played 3-handed forever, and I finally busted Jeremy, which left me with a quiet, tight player to dust off before I got the 25K and the trophy. I went into heads-up with a 6:1 chip lead.

Alas, it was not to be. If you can believe it, my opponent won the whole damn thing in what turned out to be a huge upset. I doubled him up once with my KQ vs his AJ all-in preflop. I doubled him up again (this was a big one) with 2s3s vs his 9T on a 36T9 board... I checkraised all-in on the turn and it obviously didn't work. Then he hit the deck pretty hard. I probably got impatient when things weren't going my way... I had a ton of chips and could have just waited for an inevitable set-up hand to be dealt. But I didn't, and I ended up in second place, for 15K.

They took 4% of the prizepool for the dealers, but I still tipped like 3% or so. They paid out in cash, and gave me a security guard to escort me to my car. The valet took forever, so I told him he could just go if he wanted to, but he said "All I do is stand around anyway. I might as well stand around here with you guys". Good point. The casino kept a significant enough portion of my winnings for withholding tax which I will have to try to get back. I still had more than the 10K currency limit crossing back into Canada, so I had to fill out some forms at the border.

OK this has obviously gone on long enough. Serves me right for taking such meticulous notes at the poker tables. Before I sign off, though, I mentioned on the forum that I ran into a nice girl I used to play at Westside with named Eleanor. She came up to me after the tournament and told me that I had put on a clinic out there. I think I need to remember that, instead of remembering how I blew a 6:1 chip lead heads up.