You Feel That Sting?

1 April 2010 - Because I'm sadistic, here's a rundown of event #7 at the Beau Rivage Spring Poker Classic on April's Fools Day. I want to feel the sting one more time, and then be done with it. 119 players showed up for this $345 buy-in with a first prize of $12k+.

Unlike my event earlier in the week, I found lots of playable spots in this tourney. Within the first 5 or 6 hands, while we're playing shorthanded because players still haven't taken their seats, the action folds to me in the SB and I find red QQ and open for 125 at 25/50. The BB, a mid 20's random white dude, 3bets to 300 for whatever reason and I just call. The flop is Q57cc and I check. He continues for 300 and I c/r to 750. He calls pretty quickly and we see the effectively nutty 5c turn. I lead for 1100, hoping he has something like AKcc, AJcc, ATcc, JTcc, whatever. He just calls and the river is the Jh for Qc 7c 5h 5c Jh. I don't think too much before I barrel 3300 into 4300. He tanks and tanks and finally mucks what he said was AcAd. After thinking it through, I'm pretty sure a betsize of like ~2100 is ideal because it gets value AcAx, KcKx,+ small flushes and it probably induces big flushes and obviously induces JcJx. Interesting hand.

At 100/200, online poker superstar Ben Mintz (riding the wave of a mean heater online) shows up late and takes the 10 seat. From up front, this 40's-ish white guy who's been drinking beers opens for 600. Now I had 3bet this dude three times already for a variety of reasons, and when I look down at AKhh from MP, I decide to just call because .... well .... I just wanted to do something different. 2 other randoms call behind me and Ben 3bets to like 2275 from the SB, leaving about 6k back. The opener folds and I don't really have any other choice but to backraise-4bet-shove here. Which I do. The callers fold, and Ben looks kinda disgusted but calls equally quickly with JJ and the board runs out xxxxA and I now have a healthy 150+bb stack.

After the first break, I gave some back by missing flops, making the second best hand, and doubling up a few shorties. Things continued to go south for several levels after that. By the time the dinner break came around, the field had shrunk significantly and I had dribbled down to 20bbs. After dinner I quickly found myself nursing ~17 bbs before I doubled with JJ vs AK on the very, very sick QT3J3. Then I busted someone with QQ vs AQcc, and finally I busted two players with AK vs TT and 33 on xxxxA. By 1500/3000 (400a) with 19 players left, I had run my stack to 100k+ (with the average at 62k), which was good for like the 4th biggest stack. Then I busted very painfully.

In the BB at 1500/3000, the button limps and the SB (who covers) limps and I check my option with 85dd. The flop is K46r and it goes check-check-check. The super-sweet 7h nizzles me on the turn and the SB leads out for 4000. I think for just a second and make it 10k hoping to get value from some trashy K or stupid 7. The button folds and the SB insta-overships and I snapcall. He turns over 77 for a turned set and promptly rivers quads and sends me packing. And man it f*cking hurt. From chiplead to bye-bye in one fell swoop. 9.5 hours for nada. As many times as it's happened, the beats still continue to sting. I guess when it doesn't hurt anymore, I'll know it's time to leave.

Thanks for reading.