Mr. Invincible...The Idiot

We started season II of our poker club last night. We had a solid turn out. We ended up having 31 players, and if I am not mistaken every player but 3 or 4 joined our league. For those who don’t know- a buddy and I started up a poker league, and it has been growing like crazy. We have a board, by-laws, a member only web site, member dues...the whole 9. We even have some math wizzes that came up with a point scoring system that is top notch. We actually had to cap the membership this year because we had so much interest.

I will say that I love our league. We have some solid players. I do, however, hate our blind structure. It is way too fast and we don’t start with that many chips. BUT- there really isn’t a way around it. This structure was chosen by the board for two reasons: 1- Time. This league is hosted at members’ homes. We don’t want to overstay our welcome and keep our host up until 3 or 4 in the morning, plus we all have regular jobs that we have to report to the next morning. 2- We are trying to use the same blind structure as the lower buy-in WSOP events. At the end of the season we will be sending several players (based on point earned during the season) to a WSOP circuit event. We figured why not go ahead and get used to using that structure now…it sure couldn’t hurt. The real problem is that we just can’t use the 60 minute levels like the WSOP, there just isn’t enough time in the night. So we had to cut them down to any where from 30-20 minute levels (they get a little shorter as the levels go on). It is sick!!

On to the play: 31 players (3 tables- yep…we had one with 11). I had an awesome table draw. I was salivating. I am not saying that I think all the players were crappy. I am just saying I’d take my chances against just about everyone at my table. The only thing I was going to have to look out for was donkeys over-valuing the strength of their hands. I was feeling good.

First hand I look down at 6c6d, and bump it up. Of course I get two freaking callers, and the board comes out 7 J K. I know I am no good. There was a bet and a call…I fold. Oh well. I really didn’t catch many decent cards for a while after that . I didn’t really miss-play any either, but before I knew it I had about 1300 in chips and the blinds were up to 50/100. I knew I had to start gambling if I was going to have a shot. So I pushed with a couple hands that I normally would push with, and had to take some races that I normally wouldn’t take. I just waited for the best spot I thought I could get and took it.

There was one early hand that I thought was pretty funny. There was a new guy to the league…I had played with him before. I have zero respect for his play. He is the type of player that will call a big raise and a big re-raise with something like Q J. He will hit some miracle flop (QQJ) and then try to say he knew this and he knew that- just a real donkey. We will call this guy player D.

It’s pre-flop. I’m on the button. The blinds are 25/25. It folds around to D. He throws in a 100 chip but does not announce raise. Someone asked him what the bet was and he said it was 100. Since I don’t like the guy (and since I can be a jerk sometimes) I say no it’s not. He never announced raise. That is only a call. So the guy behind D calls, and it’s on me. I look down at a 6s2s. A nasty hand, but I just wanted to see if I could get at D. I call, and both of the blinds check. The flop:

2c 6d Js

Geeze, am I a poker genius or what? I am hoping that D has a jack. It checks over to him, and he bets out 100. It folds to me. Now this is where I could have slowed down and just called. He probably would have fired again on the turn, but I couldn’t take it. I raised to 300. I was hoping he would let his pride get in the way and re-raise me…thinking that I didn't hit a thing. It didn’t go that way though. He did a little acting job, and mucked his cards. I shot over a little comment like…you should have said raise and you would have taken it pre-flop. He just sat there…looking like the tool he is.

Back to the tourney- The blind structure pretty much forced play on just about every hand. Stealing blinds became increasingly important, and hand selection was key. Players were dropping out left and right. Soon the 31 was down to 26. Then 20. Then 18…

Pretty soon I find myself at the final table…nursing a short stack. I got one lucky hand in the small blind. One of the bigger stacks raised early to a little less than I had left. It folds around to me. I look down at two beautiful black aces. I casually grab my stack and slide it out. The big blind sat and though for a few minutes. I was praying that he would call…but he didn’t. It gets back to the original raiser and he says “man, you got me.” He calls the remaining 1,000 or whatever it was. I just looked at him and said yeah…I do as I flip over the rockets. It actually wasn’t a bad play by him. He was the chip leader at the time, hadn’t played a pot in a while, and the table was playing tight.

A few hands later I more than double up again. A short stack had pushed (about to be hit with the blinds) and got one caller. I look down at AsKs, and move all in. The caller ends up calling my all in, and he had me covered. He flips over JcJd. I hit an ace, and that's all she wrote. After that I went on a little run. I'm not saying that I went into every hand, but out of the next 10 pots I did enter I took down 9 of them. The biggest of the 9 I won on a monster bluff. I was feeling great. I felt like I could not be beat. I was Mr. Invincible...at least for another hand or two. Then just when I was building a big chip stack...I let my inner idiot out. I really blew it.

It was only one hand, but it was a string of mistakes in the hand that killed me. 1st- I brought weak cards to battle with the only player who had me covered at the table. 2nd- I got greedy. I should have let the hand go pre-flop. 3rd- I didn't even look for a read. I looked at the board. 4th- I went in with second pair and a weak kicker. I wont tell you guys the cards. I don't want to ruin any credibility I may have earned as a poker player. Let's just say I was an idiot. I really blew it. I should have taken the entire tournament, but in the end I'm out in 4th...all because I thought I was invincible.

The night wasn't a total loss...my last hand excluded. I was able to come away from the night with some pretty big positives- 4th out of 31 isn't too bad, the prize money covered my league fees and my tourney buy in, and I earned some valuable points for the season. I just wish I could have that last hand to do over again. Next time...I will do a better job at controlling my inner idiot.