The streak continues

Last night, Ferocious Kitty, his friend and I went to Seabrook Greyhound park to play some live poker. Due to some travel complications, we ended up having to go separately I left left a little late. Unfortunately, there was a bunch of traffic on the way up and I didnt get there until 20 minutes after the tournament started. Luckily, they were still taking alternates and I immediately signed up. Eighty dollar buy in, and 5k starting stacks and 34 people started. I get my seat assignment and I end up being seated directly to the right of Ferocious Kitty. I wanna say hi, but he's already involved in a big hand.

As I take my seat, I hear Kitty call a bet on the flop. The board reads AKx rainbow, the turn comes out another low card. Kitty checks, his opponent bets out and Kitty shoves for a little bit more. The guy tanks and starts talking: "I have a good hand. I dont know if I can fold this. I guess I gotta gamble that -- (at this point I assume hes got a pair with a flush draw or some mid-ace) -- you dont have an ace or a king." WHAT?! He just put his whole stack in, you think he doesnt have an ace or a king? He finally calls, turns over QQ and Kitty shows him AJ. Luckily the guy still has a bunch of chips left over for the taking.

I get dealt my first hand in early position and look down to AKcc, nice first hand. I raise it up and take it down with a cbet on the flop. The very next hand I pick up AQhh. I raise it up and get called in 3 places. The flop comes out AK3 rainbow. I cbet 3/4 pot and the villain from ferocious' hand minraises me. Everyone else folds. I start thinking, I have TPTK, a bunch of my stack committed but this is just my second hand, do I really wanna go broke here? But, I did just see him overvalue 3rd pair and show that he clearly has no idea what he's doing. I decide to go with it and shove. He insta-calls. Crap. He flips up his cards and shows A9. Wow. He doesnt suck out and I barely cover him, so I double to over 10k in 2 hands. After that I dont have many hands of note for a little while. I raise and take it down a bunch either preflop or on the flop with cbets. While I'm accumulating chips I witness some of the worst poker playing I have ever seen. Calling over 80% of their stack and folding to a river shove of 1/8 pot. Betting 2.5x pot because even though they had top two pair, they "didnt wanna get sucked out on" and other absurd moments.

I also witnessed something that I had never seen at Seabrook, or any other cardroom Ive been at before even though I've played live a bunch. Someone was thrown out of the cardroom. Basically the guy was being a douche to everyone at his table and was inconsiderate to both his opponents and his dealers. Finally, both an opponent and the dealer warned him that he should calm down. The guy responds: "What? Are you two F%#$ing?" The dealer immediately called the floor and had him thrown out, no refund no nothing. After talking to that dealer later, apparently the player had a long history of being out of line and this was the 3rd or 4th time he had to be removed.

A little after this occurred, I had my next big hand. I had about 13k with blinds at 200/400. Im in the BB, the SB calls (stack of 8k) and I look down at A8 suited. I pop it up to 1.6k and my opponent calls. The flop comes down AA7. The SB instashoves and I instacall. He flips up 87 and I have him pretty much drawing dead. He doesnt hit his miracle and Im up to 21k.

I didnt really have any other hands of note until the final table, which included a couple of short stacks, some regulars and Kitty's friend Joe who skillfully ninja-ed his short stack to the final table. Coming into the final table I was probably 4th in chips with 23k but 1st and 2nd must have had at least 45k each. Unfortunately, the short stacks kept doubling and I wasnt picking up any hands. The structure at Seabrook is not great and blinds were getting HUGE. Finally, some shorties busted, and I was able to keep myself afloat by stealing some. The two huge stacks got into a big pot with 7 people left (4 paying) in which the CL tanked for like 5 min and eventually called with the 3rd nuts (J hi flush) vs the other guys set. The CL was a nice guy, but he could not stop talking about how great of a call he made, even after a majority of the stacks were in the middle on the turn.

At the final table I was unlucky enough to have Joe on my right. Usually its good to have a good player on your right, but when blinds are big and the only moves are shove or fold, its not good to have someone who understands stack dynamics in the SB to your BB. He would correctly shove into me on my BB and I wouldnt have the cards to call him with. It was getting frustrating. Luckily I was able to pick up a hand against one of Joe's shoves when I was in the SB. He shoved on the button, I look down at KK and over shove. He shows A9. I hold and I send Joe to the rail. Very impressive first showing for Joe (Kitty and his roommates have all final tabled their first time at Seabrook, maybe its something in the water in Woo). With 5 left, we discuss a chop but cant figure anything out. A couple hands in the massive CL gets his stack chopped down twice by a competent player on my left who then became the CL. One was a cooler, one the CL got outplayed (he wasnt too hard to read). We knocked out a sweet older woman on the bubble and made it into the cash. We again discussed a chop but nothing could get worked out. We went around a couple orbits (avg stack 42.5k, blinds 3/6k!) and I stole some from the CL. After whittling the CL down some, he offered a chop where he got a little more than 2nd and us 3 would split the rest (each would get $460, a little less than 2nd place money). We happily agreed and the tourney came to an end.

I dicked around at blackjack for a bit and then treated Joe and Kitty to a fine meal at McDonalds (a tradition for my poker crew: if anyone cashes for more than 100 profit, they buy everyone else McD's).

All in all, it was a very fun tournament (always more fun to win money) and Ill definitely be doing it again soon.

Good Luck Everyone!