Yawn

Another slow night...just 10 players, so 2 tables of 5. The dynamics change so much when there are just 5 people...and again, depending on who those 5 are. At my table there was Don to my left, then Barbara, then Christine, then Bill. What sort of table does that make it?

Don is a very, very aggressive player. He raises a lot, will check-raise like a fiend, and will bluff a lot. He likes to slow play a lot so I won't raise with just high cards very often.

Barbara likes to limp with any two cards, dislikes pre-flop raises, but will call them quite often, including with junk hands. However, about 4 times the blinds usually chases her off unless she has a really good hand.

Christine is a solid player. She typically limps/calls and will chase but she knows when to fold and almost always makes final table.

Bill is a different bird. He changes gears a lot but also tends to play a lot of power poker. He will shove with some pretty questionable hands (Q/2, Q/4 type stuff).

Additional factor; the next-door Radio Shack had been broken into the previous day so at 8 PGE was shutting off the power, so we needed to finish by 8 so the blinds were going to be really fast, which I hate doing. And no, I do not get the connection between the break-in and the power outage either, but...whatever. You work with what is, not what should be or what makes sense.

We started slow. I was playing almost no hands and catching no cards. In the big blind I checked with some garbage hand...J/3? Anyway, ended up pairing it. With the splashes and the limps ended up winning almost 400 to get above starting range. The next hand I "played" I had Q/10 suited, the blinds were 50/100 already. I raised to 300, everyone folded. A couple people had limped, so I made another about 500 between splashes and limpers.

Won a couple forgettable hands, forgot a couple, we got down to 8, final table.

Up to this point it had been a fairly uneventful but nevertheless fun game. The dynamics of the table were "friends playing cards". Now that would change. To my left sat Boston John and to my right sat Gary T. To John's left was Don, then to his left my Father in Law John.

Now, Boston John is one of those guys who I really do not enjoy playing with. He calls it "drunken monkey poker" and that is how he treats it. He will raise all-in without bothering to look at his cards, make horrific calls and wild raises not because he thinks he has the best cards or because he is reading people but just because it is "free poker". It is players like him who make the game no fun for people who, knowing it is free poker, still play it "real", play their best game and try to make sense.

Gary plays with his hand face up...or at least, he might as well. I can read him like a book. Unfortunately, he also smokes like a freight train. He not only chain smokes, he tilted towards me so I was operating in a brutal haze. I took to sitting about 3' away from the table, coming up long enough to check my cards, then retreating. Very unpleasant.

Papa John I have essentially taught Texas Hold 'Em. He knows poker but not this version. I taught him quite a bit, and he has enough natural talent that he could easily win a tournament if he caught the right cards.

Now the table is a bit chippy. Gary and Bill are going at each other a bit, John is causing discomfort, and now there is a tenseness and an edge. Suddenly all the joy has gone out of the game for the night for me. About three hands in I am big blind, everyone limps, I look down at the Cowboys. All in. They all fold and now I am over 6K. We only started with 30K in play, so I am above average and at the moment, chip lead.

Bill has been up and down. Right now he is up. Blinds are 2/400. I am playing almost no hands. With about 5 players I check the big blind with 9/10 off. Flop comes A/10/9 rainbow. Bill raises 1000. I put him on an ace with decent kicker. Gary whines and complains as he does when he is beat but he calls. Weak Ace or maybe even the 10. 2 people to act behind me. I check the score of the Blazer game. They are winning. Gary is lighting a cigarette. I decide to either win or lose the tournament right here because with Aces at least one of them will call me. I don't want to sit in the smoke, I would not mind watching the game, but if I win then I am going to win the tournament. With chips in hand, I am good enough to take this table without breaking a sweat if I want to. But I am only going to make a move if I legitimately think I am ahead. I don't mind getting sucked out on but my goal is to always put my chips in with a lead.

I know Bill's game well enough to be pretty confident in my read. If he had 2 pair he would have shoved. Gary would have re-raised with 2 pair or better. Barbara will call if she has any pair, Christine will fold unless she has me beat. I think about what they might have. I put the girls on weak hands, though this is iffy. They have really not had a chance to show the strength of their hands. But Barbara looks ready to release her hand and Christine lost interest in the hand, so I believe they will both fold. I decide I am ahead.

I go all in for my last 5500 over the top of their 1000. Fold to Bill who hesitates. He ponders. He fingers his chips. He starts to release his hand. I revise my estimate to a weak ace or maybe just a pair of 10s or 9s. He calls. Gary folds, claiming he will regret his fold. I put him on maybe the 9. Bill flops up A/7. Cool, I am way ahead, about a 3-1 favorite. The turn is a complete blank. At first I thought it was a 9 and he was drawing dead, but then it proved to be a 6. Oh, well. No flush draws, no straight draws. I am 3-1 to nearly triple up and take a commanding lead.

Until he spikes the 7. He has me covered by 100 chips and I am gone.

Which was more than okay. It gave me a chance to get the tables cleaned up, the place straightened out, and I got to watch a lot of the Blazer game.

Now, in retrospect, most people I know would not have made the move I made. There was a chance I was reading them wrong and someone had 2 pair. I could have just called and seen the river. I could have folded...well, okay, I flopped 2 pair, I wasn't folding to a mere 1000.

The situation is I could have folded my way to the final 2. A couple people were low on chips and the blinds were fast so I was in great position. Why put my tournament on the line where I KNOW I am getting called by at least 1 and probably 2 players (I really believed Gary would call)?

And the answer is simple. I believed I had at worst a 3-1 lead with a great re-draw. Even if I were enjoying the table, I want to WIN the tournament, not finish high in the points. At no point am I likely to have a better hand to double or triple up with. They are in the hand, they have shown interest. If they both have Aces, as I suspect, that leaves them the case Ace to catch trips. That leaves them at most 7 outs; 3 to pair the other card in their hand, 3 to pair the turn, and the case Ace. Even if they hit their card, I have a redraw for the boat if a 9 or 10 rolls off.

I believe I am a better player than most if not all of the other players at that table. I am not, however, more than 3 times as good. I am unlikely to have a 4-1 to double up. I can't win without doubling up multiple times. So I am taking my shot whether it is early, late, or in the middle of the tournament. I am after tournament wins, not 20 or 30 more points because I laid down a probable winning hand.

As I told John in the post-mortem, even knowing the outcome of the hand, had they laid their hands face-up and said they would call, I would have done the same thing. I had the best hand. I had the best draw. Sometimes that works out...sometimes it doesn't.

As I look at it, the situation was win-win. Either I have so many chips nobody there is coming back on me or I get to watch the Blazer game. So yeah...I would do it again. And again. And again. Busting out only bothers me if it is inadvertent or if I get in with a worse hand. Neither thing was true.