Live Poker Rebuy, Flopped Straights truly never win.

Coming off my uber fun donkament victory on Friday night, it was a buddy’s hockey team fundraiser the following night. I was also just coming off a nasty cold and I committed a few weeks ago to go to this would be donkfest. Showing support seems to be contagious and I am not one to back out once I commit. Having said that, I could have taken a pass on this one because I was still a bit iffy and wasn’t feeling 100%. I must have picked up the dirty bug from my nephew who has recently been attending day care. His little runny nose was apparently contagious as well. I’m actually not entirely sure I got it from him, but I’ll go with it.

So I show up 15 minutes late anticipating that I would most likely have to wait around 15-30 minutes before we got started. I was right. $100 buy in, the team takes 30% off the top which is slightly above average from my experience. No big deal though because they sure made up for it with the 20 pizzas they had donated, along with a nice spread of platters and chips. I had a few carrots.

I still wasn’t feeling my best, but I knew that I could final table this sucker if I just played solid poker. I gifted some chips three times from what I can remember. I did manage to fold a lot, but only because I had to. Looking back now, pocket pairs were very scarce. I chipped up well in spots. I had to pick the right players to bluff, because calling stations were bountiful.

Bounties were offered for all of the dealers. $25 if I knocked out the designated dealer/player. Our dealer was a she who rebought twice. I could rebuy for half of the starting stack of 3,000 chips for the first hour for $50. Otherwise full rebuys were $100. As soon as I sat down I realized how few rebuys there actually would be. I mean it makes sense. It is a fundraiser and most of these people have obviously not played a lot of tournament poker. They are going to play tight and get their monies worth.

I decided to limp as many pots as I could and hit some big hands. That was the plan anyway. I didn’t do a very good job of it though because there were at least two instances where flopped boats would have helped. I wasn’t getting any top hands and I didn’t stick to the plan by limping everything early.

The blind levels were actually surprisingly long. 30 minute levels which bumped up to 45 after the sixth level which also introduced antes. That was another something that the dealers had to keep track of. Not many people were digging it so the TD decided to get rid of them on the next level. The pizza arrived and we took a 30 minute break. People were getting drunk.

We were down to 21 and I was hovering at about 5,000 chips when I doubled up with Akc on the button. Things were tightening up and I decided to switch it up and start stealing and re-stealing. It went well, but I still feel there were some missed opportunities.

The payout structure was such that 8th – 12th place got $75. The final table was supposed to be seven, but when there were nine left they decided to make it a final table. I am not sure if that would have changed my strategy had I known that before. In the end I am happy with my play. I was very aware of my leaks and weaknesses when I was at the table, yet often I still couldn’t stop them from happening. I guess knowing is half the battle but seriously, smarten up. I am not sure if reading a chapter on bluffing from the Theory of Poker did me a disservice or not because I found myself bluffing more than usual which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to do in this type of a tournament. Bluffing just does not work against people in a fundraiser. However, bluffing was on my mind. I am positive I need to read that chapter a few more times.

Anyway, my flopped straight was destined to lose but I would play it the same every time given the situation. I was in the SB with 67o and we were playing 6 handed. UTG limps and it folds around to me and I call hoping to see a cheapie. The BB (the chip leader) checked it and the flop came 3-4-5. I check it; like clockwork the BB leads out, UTG raises all in for 18K. I have about 14K and insta-call. BB also calls so I am a nice favorite for a triple up. Flush on the turn and IGH. Dude on my right called it a cold deck. I’ll go with that. He’s also the dude that flipped over aces 3 times. My highest PP was 10’s. Need those big hands at the right times to go deep.

So all in all I mucked it out and grinded. Got some good live poker practice in and worked on a few things throughout the night. I had one beer that buddy bought for me (can’t say no to Heineken) and wasn’t really into it the rest of the night. The $2100 first prize would have been great, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The team made some good money and everyone was having a great time. At midnight there were still over 50 people there pounding booze and laughing it up. Just before I left they were down to 7 and I witnessed a pretty sick hand where the chip leader folded pocket 9's after two All-ins. They flipped QQ and AA (the cold deck commentator from my busto hand) and the flop came 9-Q-9-4-5. The Aces made the nut four flush and had the worst of it. The drunk chip leader freaked out. I laughed on the inside as I snuck down the stairs and out the door.