The 700 Club

I have to begin this post with many thanks to Phat and his buddies for bringing to our attention today's tournament at the Bike. We were able to get 3 Team7Deuce members out to the Bicycle Casino to play the $50+10 Buy in tourney with a $5 optional re-buy. In addition to the 5 players from Phat's home game, we took the Bicycle by storm. Well sort of.

Of the tourney's that we've played in thus far, I think that I enjoyed this one the most. It had a great format as a Main Event like atmosphere. We found out shortly after the first break that 700 players entered into the tournament. The Bike filled their main ballroom, as well as the foyer, and several tables in the main poker room. It was insanity.

Starting chip stack gave each player $5000 starting chips, and the $5 add on gave an additional $6000. The blinds began at $25/50, so it really allowed the opportunity to play some real poker. It was a blast.

Our 8 folks were spread out amongst the tables throughout the casino. The first bust out that I was made aware of was Jordan. He had Pocket Q's busted by a guy who called his pre-flop raise with K-Q, and flopped a K. After the break, we had a few other guys that we met up with who had also hit the rail.

Tim, Steve, Phat and I were still in it, and holding our own. I really controlled the table that I was at, amassing a chip stack of roughly 30 k. Tim was at around 30k as well, and Steve around mid-20's. Phat was short stacked, and eventually would lose after flopping two pair, and the other guy top pair. All the money went in on the flop. But, the other guy got lucky when he turned a K. It still left Phat with some outs as he now had a flush draw, but the river bricked out and Phat left with about 170 players left.

After the break, things went cold for me as I couldn't make anything stick. I was moved to another table and got my hand caught in the cookie jar chasing a flush that never emerged. I donk'ed off about 9k on that hand. Then, after a move to what would be my last table, I made a good lay down after my pre-flop raise was re-raised. But I was left with only around 9k in chips. I got them all in a little bit later with AK os, and was called by one other player who turned over K-5. That hand ended up being my undoing as a 5 spiked the river, and I was toast with about 180 or so players left.

Tim lasted quite a bit longer, playing through the second break. He reached the break with 44k. He lost a bunch when someone sucked out on him. And then lost the rest getting it all with Kc-Jc. Pocket 10's were better, but he had them covered. But he didn't have the K-Q covered that also called, and Q kicker played. Tim ended up somewhere around 115 players or so remaining.

Steve was the big winner of the group, as he nursed a short stack through the first two breaks, and eventually played his way down into the money. He eventually cashed in 43rd, and brought home $120 big ones, doubling his entry fee. An excellent performance for a first time tournament player. Congrats Steve.

It was an awesome tourney, and I'm proud of the way that we all played. More on the next event soon.

Still Alive...

and still playing poker on Friday nights. I just haven't felt the urge to blog about it lately.

I've missed 3 weeks of blogging about Friday nights since Morongo, and the reality is, we saw some really great play here.

3 weeks ago, it was a flush-fest which benefited the ladies a great deal. In her return to the table at pablosplace, Team7Deuce absentee Tay returned in glorious fashion to dominate the felt, taking down a rich pot. Amber came down in second place place, which is her first cash in quite sometime. For all of her time away from the game, she came back a stronger player. I'm looking forward to taking our game out of pablosplace and putting Team7Deuce in a casino again. Soon. We're playing that well.

The last two weeks had Tim controlling action when all was said and done. Last week's heads up action was one for the ages.

Tim had eliminated me (twice by the way with a catch on the River), and left he and Andrew heads up at around 11PM. And at 2:30, they finally woke me off the couch, having just finished. A 3:30 heads up match was longer than us playing the 7 handed action that we played. It was pretty incredible.

I'll get a little more regular updates from here on out, starting with tonight's game (which is on). I'm looking forward to seeing you all here.

Also, I found out from Phat that the Bike is running a tourney on Sunday that looks apetizing. $60 gives you the buy in plus a one time add-on. I think that the pot is guaranteed to be at least 15k. Don't know exactly how many entrants that they have, but we'll discuss possible participants tonight. Gator, P