13 out of 151...

I finished 13th out of 151 cashing for 1.20% of the prize pool (for a total of $36.24) in the WPBT Event on PokerStars!!! I feel like I played really well considering I was able to finish ahead of alot of bloggers that I know to be excellent poker players. You guys rock.

All I can say about last night is... WOW!! What a fun event. I hope we can do this about once every month or so. I really enjoyed myself. I believe everyone is going to post little history pieces from the night so I will do the same. I am going to basically stick to a summary format of the things that jumped out the most at me though due to there being so many different situations that I thought were interesting. The fact is my performance was a bit boring as you can tell from my stats posted below but it was a good performance because I never got backed into any corners until late in the tournament after the only big mistake I felt I made during the night. I simply steadily gained chips until I hit the wall and was crippled on Hand #197

First thing I noticed when I sat down at my table in the tournament was this guy named curzdog which is a buddy of doubleas seated to my right. After reading about his outstanding performances in tournaments recently I wasn't too chipper about him being there. However, I won a pretty good pot from him early in the 1st blind level (Hand #8 to be exact) by flopping aces & sevens to beat his aces. I never had another real run in with him the rest of the night and my anxiety waned.

I caught pocket pairs the first 3 hands of the night. 1st hand brought me Presto! (55 for those that don't know) which I won with, 2nd hand brought me Snowmen (88) which I didn't win with by folding preflop, and 3rd hand brought me... the Hilton sisters (QQ) which I won with by flopping the set.

I steadily built my chip stack during the first 6 levels with steals and late position raises with tier I and II hands. I only went all-in once with the nuts in a fairly large pot earlier and was folded to.

My first big win came on Hand #136 when the following occurred:
Seat 1: NemoD (2211 in chips)
Seat 2: Tapin42 (8087 in chips)
Seat 3: myradiohead (6103 in chips)
Seat 4: tpfelt (3640 in chips)
Seat 5: jaysimon (3629 in chips)
Seat 6: Grasp (2953 in chips)
Seat 7: S.t.B (4150 in chips)
Seat 8: April98 (1295 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to myradiohead A J
Grasp: folds
S.t.B: folds
April98: folds
NemoD: folds
Tapin42: folds
myradiohead: raises 400 to 600
tpfelt: raises 900 to 1500
jaysimon: folds
myradiohead: raises 4578 to 6078 and is all-in
tpfelt: calls 2115 and is all-in

*** FLOP ***
J 5 2

*** TURN ***
J 5 2 2

*** RIVER ***
J 5 2 2 6

*** SHOW DOWN ***
tpfelt: shows 4 4 (two pair, Fours and Deuces)
myradiohead: shows A J (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
myradiohead collected 7630 from pot

I had a couple of more all-in wins with Hooks (JJ) and Pocket Rockets (AA). I busted a guy with hooks and made a guy lay it down after a preflop reraise and a big postflop bet. Everything was looking rosy. I had been about 4th to 8th in chips (at one point I was chip leader) for the longest until my big mistake happened.

Hand #197 is the hand that ended my hopes pretty much...
Seat 1: S.t.B (12275 in chips)
Seat 3: darice (6275 in chips)
Seat 5: myradiohead (15102 in chips)
Seat 7: a104l9 (9677 in chips)
Seat 8: on_thg (7103 in chips)
Seat 9: jcostale (10245 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to myradiohead K A
S.t.B: folds
darice: folds
myradiohead: raises 1600 to 2400
a104l9: calls 2400
on_thg: folds
jcostale: folds

*** FLOP ***
8 3 8
myradiohead: checks
a104l9: checks

*** TURN ***
8 3 8 5
myradiohead: bets 2400
a104l9: calls 2400

*** RIVER ***
8 3 8 5 9
myradiohead: checks
a104l9: bets 2400
myradiohead: calls 2400

*** SHOW DOWN ***
a104l9: shows Q A (a flush, Ace high)
myradiohead: mucks hand
a104l9 collected 15900 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15900 | Rake 0
Board [8h 3h 8d 5s 9h]
Seat 1: S.t.B folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: darice folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: myradiohead mucked K A
Seat 7: a104l9 (button) showed Q A and won (15900) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: on_thg (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: jcostale (big blind) folded before Flop

I was simply trying too hard to make him lay the hand down because I didn't think he caught any of the board. And he hadn't... EXCEPT FOR THAT BIG A$$ FLUSH DRAW STARING ME IN THE FACE THAT I NEVER NOTICED!!!!! It was all down hill from there as my chip stack was severly hampered and the blinds and antes made me wilt under the larger stacks around me.

Anyways... I don't want to moan about it too much. The last 4 times I have played I have won 2 Pot-Limit Omaha SNGs, 1 No-Limit Hold'em SNG, and finished 13 out of 151 in a tournament where I consider the competition to have been top notch. At least IMHO.

It was entertaining and exciting talking with everyone I spoke with and I also found some new blogs to read. Please be sure to check out some of the new blogger links on my updated blogroll. Please drop me a line if you ever get the inkling.

My tournament stats (which I am pretty proud of):
218 hands played and saw flop:
- 6 times out of 26 while in small blind (23%)
- 6 times out of 24 while in big blind (25%)
- 20 times out of 168 in other positions (11%)
- a total of 32 times out of 218 (14%)

Pots won at showdown - 8 out of 12 (66%)
Pots won without showdown - 33

Look forward to seeing everyone across the felt real soon...

www.huntsvegaspoker.com

huntsvegas@gmail.com