For quite a while now, I've been going to the Brooklyn American Legion tournaments.
I really like this tournament, the structure, how it's run, the players, etc. Jim and his crew run the tournament like a well-oiled machine. Eight players per table until the finaly table. It starts on time, blind increases are announced loud and clear, 20 minute breaks allow enough time to enjoy the great buffet and chip up. The buffet has the tastiest brownies and sloppy joes ever! Rules are clear and enforced consistantly.
The biggest problem I've had with the Brooklyn Legion tournaments is this: I'm always finishing at the 2nd to last table - just out of the money and on the bubble. Frustrating as all get-out! At the last tournament in February, I donated two UMichiganPoker t-shirts for the Legion to give out to players. Jim decided to give the first shirt to the first person to bust out of the tournament. The 2nd shirt would go to the person on the bubble (in this case, 11th place). I finished in 12th place and almost won my own t-shirt. Talk about frustrating....
This Saturday, I decided it was going to be different. I needed to change up my play and make sure I had a decent chip stack towards the end of the tournament - either that or go out in an amazing blaze of glory!! Back to the basics was my strategy. Choose good starting hands - if the hand wasn't good enough to raise, fold it. Bet aggressively when you're in a hand - don't let anyone catch a free card to beat me.
One hundred players showed up to the tournament. Ten places to be paid with $1000 going to the overall winner. I sat down at Table 11 to start. It was strange, no one said anything during a hand. All calls, raises, folds and checks were made with hand signals or just by sliding chips into the pot. Very quiet and kind of unsettling. The quads were hitting like crazy all over the room - every table but ours it seemed.
Players got knocked out, tables broken down and players re-arranged. After the first break, our table was taken down and I was put at Table 6 with one very large-stacked player, two shorter stacks than mine, and the rest about even. About two hands after the break, I was the player before the dealer. Two positions ahead of me, the player went all in for about 5K chips. I looked at my cards to see pocket 10's. With about 8K chips in front of me, I was torn. Pocket 10's is a decent hand for calling an all-in. I hadn't seen this person play any hands - we had both folded the previous hand - so I had no idea what type of cards this guy thought was all-in worthy. I counted out the chips to call him, took a deep breath and pushed my chips in.
Mr All-In flipps over A-Q unsuited.
The flop came J-10-4(I think). With Trip 10's - I'm feeling like this was a good call!
The turn 8
The river 9
Mr All-In doubles up through me with a river straight. OK - it's true - I dropped the f-bomb after that hand. Steaming - I folded the next four or five hands.
After cooling off a bit and getting my head back on straight, I got back to the game. Other players were making moves, knocking eachother out. I claimed a couple pots - rebuilding my depleated stack. Before I knew it, the 2nd break was upon us and it was time to chip up again.
Four tables went down to three, then two. Blinds were starting to take bigger and bigger chunks of our stacks at 500/1000. Everyone's talking about the bubble. Fourteen players left... Thirteen....Twelve.... The big stack straight across from me had a huge stack of purple (5K) chips - I have one purple. Suddenly I'm feeling doomed. We're all waiting for the bubble to go out. This is usually where I'm so short stacked the blinds will eat me alive and I have to make a move. It's feeling strangely familiar - an eerie deja-vu, but this time it's different. My stack isn't huge, but it's pretty healthy. I don't have to make a desperate all-in move to survive. Just sitting back and folding is a perfectly viable option! A player from the other table goes out and guess where I find myself??!?!?
At the final table - really!!
I folded a lot of hands, had some hands fold-around to me to collect the antes and blinds, and made a couple moves with good cards to scoop the pot a couple times. Suddenly we were down to four players. The short stacked under the gun player went all in. I had junk cards and folded. The small blind went all in too. Mr Big-Stack thought about it for a while, but with his big blind already in the pot - it was an easy call no matter what cards he held. I don't remember what cards any of the three players had - the end result was that Mr Big-Stack knocked out the other two players. Hand shakes and "Good Games" all around.
Suddenly I found myself heads-up against an even bigger-stacked Mr Big-Stack. He had me out-chipped about 15 or 20 to 1. Needless to say, this heads-up match didn't last long - the blinds ate up my stack pretty quickly. It was a great game, and I was thrilled to come out in 2nd place!! Congrats to Mr Big Stack. He played a smart, quiet and lethal chip-hoarding game.
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