3 down and 1 to go

Its been an awesome weekend, starting with Thursday. I played some really fantastic poker Thursday night in the TPT, culminated with a runner-up finish, that leaves me thinking "What if." With 6 players remaining, I held more than 70k, and my closest opponent held only 11k. But I got unlucky twice, and doubled two different opponents, and I would go into heads up play with a 54k to 45k disadvantage, and then went card dead.

I would eventually stick it all in with A3, and got called by AK, and with the K on the turn, my evening was complete. Still, I was happy with my overall play, and I don't know that I really made any mistakes. The one hand that I could've played differently was calling the all in of the eventual winner with 88. He showed A7 after the pre-flop shove, and flopped his 3 out Ace for the hand, and chipped to almost 30k. But still, I'm very content with 2nd place.

In the home game on Friday, I'm not sure who won, because I got bounced in 8th place. I came into the evening feeling pretty miserable with cold/flu like symptoms, and it got progressively worse as the game rolled along. I made a bad early read with J-T as 6 players limped into my BB, and we saw a flop of J-8-4. I led with 8 (1/2 blinds) and action folded to Jack who raised me to 24. Action then folded back to me, and I went with a read of AK, and stuck it all in. Jack snap called and showed 88 for the flopped set, and I was toast. I would re-buy, and get bounced a second time when Gary made some hero calls, and he was right. And the third time, I'd stick it all in with KTos, and got two callers (Tim and Robert). Robert's post flop re-raise got rid of Tim, and he showed A3 for the win (no ace on the board, but no K or T either).

Then last night, still feeling crumby, I played in the annual Charity event benefiting Devonshire-PALS. It was a very cool venue as it was at Nancy Cartwright's (the voice of Bart Simpson) home. Everything was set up outside, and they had 20 tables which had 9 seats each. They filled everyone of them, and also had a ton of alternates for the tournament.

Something that I wasn't expecting was the lousy structure of the tournament. First, it was a re-buy event, which makes sense given that it was for charity, and they were trying to raise cash. There is a lot less emphasis on which player plays the best to get the prizes. But we began with 2k chips, and 15 minute levels. The tournament was scheduled to begin at 6PM, but cards didn't get in the air until almost 6:45. You could re-buy 2k chips if you were below 2k in your stack for $50, and double re-buy for $100 4k chips if you were down to the felt. I really had to open up my play in order to accumulate chips, and after the rebuy period ended (after level 6), you had an add-on option of 4k for $50, and 8k for $100. Once the rebuy period was over, I was sitting on a stack of 10k with nary a re-buy.

There was one spot at our table that had yet to be filled, as seat one remained empty for the first level. At the end of the level, our table was joined by Pro Poker Player Marsha Waggoner. Marsha was terrific, and complimented me several times on some moves that I made. She doubled early with a Ah-Jh when she flopped top pair, and two other players shoved, she called and hit the flush on the turn to scoop the pot. Later, it was Ac-Jc and she'd double again, flopping a flush.

Things flew by very fast at the end of the rebuy/add-on period because they needed to speed things up. I overheard the staff talking about how last year, the tourney ran beyond the city ordinance of 11PM, and that this year, they weren't going to let that happen. So they skipped the 400-800 level 7 and the 500-1000 level 8, and jumped all the way to level 9 of 1000-2000, 100 ante. It was a giant leap, as everyone in the tourney practically became short stacked. 15 minutes later, I was sitting with a stack of 9500, and blinds had crept to 2000-4000. Kirstie Alley took a seat next to me as they were breaking down tables at a rapid rate. Very cool. Then, doom struck as In the small blind, I squeezed A6os, and went with it. A player had limped from UTG for the 4k, and I stuck my 9500 in from the SB. Alley folded her BB, and the UTG player announced a call with AQ. I didn't get any help from the board, and was eliminated with about 8 tables left.

Because I was still under the weather, I made an early exit at around 9:45 or so to go home and crash. It was an incredible experience though, and was a lot of fun. I got to take pics with the likes of Alex Outhred, Jose Canseco, and Main Event Champion - Jamie Gold. Jamie had pointed to the Twitter Poker Tour T-shirt and found that awesome enough that he asked about the TPT. I gave him the details, and he said that he'd check us out. He asked me to email him, and I got his addy. Hopefully, he'll be playing with us on Full Tilt.

It was an awesome event, and it did raise an incredible amount of money for a VERY worthwhile charity. 5 players ended the evening with WSOP Main Event Satellite tickets at the Rio Hotel, valued at $1k each. Additionally, a number of raffle prizes, silent auction items, and other festivities (live band with a dance floor, Catered food from Outback, and a whole host of celebrities that I didn't get a chance to say hello to) happened throughout the evening to make the event a true success story for Devonshire PALS. It was a great evening.

For tonight, I am on the fence as to whether I'm heading to the Bike to play in the $60 NLHE event. I'm still not 100%, but the tourney doesn't get started till 7PM, so we'll see what kind of shape I'm in later in the day. A full night's sleep definitely helped, and I'm feeling slightly better. I'll give you the full rundown on that event either tomorrow or Tuesday. Until then, cheers! P