I Heart You Holmes
Friday, February 11, 2005
Last night I played in a NL tournament held at a local brew pub here in Greensboro. The tourney was the first of what looks to be 20 tournaments culminating in a final tournament for those atop the leader board. The last man standing will either have a seat at the WSOP Main Event, or have a seat at a Satellite Tournament to get to the WSOP Main Event. Details are hazy, to say the least, but I'll explain more when I know more. Since poker is illegal in North Carolina, these tournaments are free to the players. However, the final 3 players each night are rewarded prizes from the establishment and the final 8 players are awarded points towards the final tournament.
As for last night, we were told only the first 50 to sign up would be able to play, however nearly 75 people were seated when it was time to play. Just before the tourney started, the owner came in and informed us that not only is the tournament free, but everyone could have the first beer on the house...provided it was one of the home brews. Interestingly, after the owner made this announcement, he promptly plopped his butt down at one of the tables and prepared to play. Guess I'd do the same thing if I were in his place. He's paying, so he should be playing. More on him later...
I will not bore you with a ton of hand explanations...except for one. This was the pivotal moment in the tourney for me. I had just been bad beated by a guy when the following hand came up. The guy who had bad beated me on the river raised it up in middle position. I looked down at A J of hearts and decided it was time to take action. The guy had committed about 60% of his stack on the raise, so I decided to put him all in. Of course he flips over rockets. Though the loss would not take me out, it would certainly put a dent in my above average chip stack. The flop brought 2 hearts and the 3rd heart came on the river. My buddy who had already been knocked out said, "somebody remembered it's almost Valentimes day baby!" In my head, when I was shaking the guys hand, I was saying, "I Heart You Holmes." That win put me in the top 5 in chips and I was able to coast to the final table. 9 people were at the final table, so 1 unlucky person would be on the bubble at that point. Over the next 45 minutes I watched as I did not get 1 playable hand, but moved up to at least 5th position as 4 other people got knocked out. I then started catching a few playable hands and or tried some steals and built my stack up quite a bit. It finally got down to the final 3 with myself, the restaurant owner, and this lady who had a massive chip stack, but barely knew what the hell she was doing. I ended up in 3rd place when, with a high open ended straight draw and a back door flush draw, I shoved 20k in the middle with over 20k out there already. I was hoping that the lady would bolt, but she had top pair and called my raise easily. I recall hearing "never try to bluff a bad player" on occasion and I guess "never try to semi-bluff a bad player" would be true too.
I must say I was pretty trashed by the end of it all, and I had a great time. By the time we were at the final table, the owner was giving free beers to anybody willing to drink them. I can't even recall how many pints I had. On top of that, he's interested in our weekly cash game and plans to bring a mini keg whenever he comes. In the honorable words of Cartman, from Southpark, "Sssswwwweeeeeetttt." When it was time to go, I asked what I won for coming in 3rd, and the event coordinator said 50 points towards the tournament final...whatever the hell that means. He then said I needed to ask the owner what my prize was from the restaurant. Clearly, they had not thought this through before hand because I asked him while he was still playing the tournament and he said, "how 'bout some beer?! I gladly obliged and ended up walking out the doors with 2 Growlers and a drunken smile on my face. A Growler is a jug that they fill up with their home brew. Each holds over 5 pints so I'll be getting fashizzle this weekend.
As I mentioned to a friend in an email earlier today, it's just like me to have one of my best live tournament showings when the stakes are $0 and the only thing I really walked out with is a hangover and more beer. Nice!
p.s. I recognize I mispelled Valentines as Valentimes, but it's cause my wife has said it that way all her life. Some of the things she says are a trip. In fact, in many ways she puts the Trip in TripJax. Can't wait to take her out this weekend for Valentimes Day.
posted by TripJax @ 7:14 PM,
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