Party Time!

I'm pretty happy with my play lately and a few bad beats have stopped some deeper runs. But even with those beats, I had two nice scores yesterday: a final table in $30 MTT (not on UB) and 14th in the Party Wednesday Super last night (out of 786 players)!

I was in the 8pm $40 on UB when I got AA and raised the 20 chip BB to 90. The guy next to me re-raises to 210. Now this is early -- he has 3300 chips I have 2400 or so. I had a good feeling that his reraise meant he had KK or something so I just went all-in right there. He insta calls and proudly flips AQ sooooted. Oh my. He hits a straight and I'm out. He got a nice big donkey note added to his name.

Then in the 9pm $200 on UB, things were going well. I was up and was a few hours into the tournament when I got 8 10 spades in late position. Something like 6 people limped so, what the heck, I did too. The flop came a beautiful 6s 7h 9s. I have the nut straight and a straight flush draw. Early player bets pot, I go all-in, and he calls and flips trip 666. I then catch my flush (but not the straight flush) but the board pairs giving him a boat and I'm out. Nothing you can do.

Because I was out quick in the $40, I wanted to play another tournament. Party had a recent big software upgrade, I thought I'd take a look. There was the Party Wednesday Super for $165 entry fee so I jumped in. Then I see almost 800 players are in it -- and it's LIMIT! Doh! I have no idea how to play limit except for one piece of advice I remembered from a Phil Hellmuth book (when you get a good hand -- jam it, jam it, jam it!).

I'm mostly paying attention to the UB $200 and apparently I'm making some donkey plays at Party because I see some sarcastic remarks coming my way in the chat. I don't investigate because things are going pretty well.

I finally bust in the UB $200 and take a closer look at Party. We're down to 300 or so and you can't tell what place you are in! How dumb is that, geez. I confirm with the table that you in fact can't see easily (you have to pull up the lobby, then look at each table and count, sigh). So I start editing a PokerXFactor video by this pretty good pro and just bet when I have good cards. Playing good cards continues to work but after a river suckout the table is steaming at me. I apologize and tell them that I thought this was a no limit tournament and say I have no idea what I'm doing. This seems to make them madder. ;-)

I just focus on the video and the next thing I know we're down to 140 people but I'm a bit low. I get AA. Raise, get called and flop an ace. I check he bets, I raise, he calls. Turn is a King. Lots of betting and raising all the way thru the river. He flips KK and my trip aces take down a monster pot.

We get to 90 players and I'm chip leader. First place pays $25,000 but I never dare to dream about that because I know I actually don't know how to play this. Then something terrible happens: we go to hand to hand play RIGHT THEN with 90 to go even though the top 80 pays! UB does this only when you are one spot to pay. And this is limit with NO ANTES! Ugh. This adds an entire hour to the tournament. Very painful.

Over the next two hours things go okay. In one hand I get AK off and I'm heads up against a smaller stack. So in my No Limit Brain, that's simply all-in baby. Flop misses, he bets, I call. Turn misses, he bets I call. River is a King, he checks, I bet and he painfully calls and flips 10 10. This doesn't make him happy. Apparently every "bet" in limit is precious and I'm not playing right. Ten hands later he's still steaming and tells me that he hopes that "vipers from hell feast on my eyes" or something of that nature. I thought that was pretty funny.

I can only remember two hands I now really regret in the tournament. One, I had 99 and there was a raise then a reraise by a tight player and I foulded it. A 9 hit on the flop and the two players went at it big. It turns out that one guy had trip 6s. If I stay in that hand I go from 200k to 500k easy and go deep into the final table. The other hand: I had JJ and made a great read with a Q 10 10 flop. But I lost on the river to A 5 when an ace fell. That took most of my chips.

I finally get down to the final 14 and get a free flop in the BB. I have Q 4 and the flop is Q 4 9. I get all-in with a big stack and he has 9 4 for a lower two pair but a 9 hits and I'm out. Still it was a great return on my entry fee, which makes going to bed at 3:30am okay.

Good luck today!