I’m sorry … yes it’s true that I like to leave my readers dangling, give you a little cliffhanger, etc … but I never expected to neglect you for this long. With Team Huge in town and satellite tournaments heating up I just haven’t had a moment free when I wasn’t playing, socializing or sleeping. Even now I need to crash, but I’ve just gone through one of the weirdest poker tournaments ever, so I’m going to write the uber-cliffnote version of recent events…
The good news I referred to last time was that I won a mega-satellite. Yay! $550 entry, 209 players, top 10 got $10,200 (enough to buy into the WSOSP main event, but we could just take the cash if we wanted). When we got down to 12 players we had a crazy negotiation session in which the bottom 4 chip stacks took $7500 each and everyone else got $9,000. My pocketing the $9,000 was a major accomplishment for several reasons:
1. Lost 6,000 chip pot with AJ vs A4
2. Lost 17,000 chip pot with AK vs AJ
3. Lost 55,000 chip pot with AA vs TT (OUCH!)
4. I had barely more than the 4 short stacks when we cut the deal, so for me to get $9,000 was a major negotiating coup.
So that was the major good news. Mitigating that good news is the fact that Mark and I decided to pool our resources in the mega-satellites and split any profit, so it really was only a $4,500 prize, or a $4,000 profit for me personally. Nearly nullifying the good news is that since then Mark and I have played in several more mega-satellites with no success, bringing us to just about flat even.
Having Team Huge in town was super good fun. They played a lot of tournaments at Planet Hollywood, with very impressive success, and I joined them for a 2AM tournament there, which turned into an interesting episode in itself. I think I’ll let Dan and/or Pete write that one up if they’re willing … boys?
The last and most bizarre installment was today’s $1060 mega-satellite. I can’t do the story justice and still get some sleep, but here are the bullet points:
1. 472 players – 45 will get $10,200 prizes
2. Good start from 6,000 chips up to 16,000
3. Big hand all-in preflop for most of my chips with AK vs QQ. Nothing on the Flop or Turn, beautiful Ace on the River to put me in great shape.
4. As we start to approach the bubble I’m in ok shape but not remotely safe
5. Most of my chips in preflop with 99 vs AT (horrible call by the AT), Ace on the turn and I’m crippled, nearly dead
6. I get all my tiny stack in with AQ, am happy to see one opponent turn over A8 but not so happy to see the other one turn over AA. Flop has a Queen (tiny ray of hope) but also three spades, and the A8 contains the Ace of spades. Turn is a blank. River is a QUEEN and Huge more than triples up!!!
7. Soon thereafter I raise with A9, get a bad call from the big blind, he checks the KQ7 flop and I think he must be weak and I shove. He turns over K9 and I’m nearly dead once again. Turn is a blank, RIVER IS AN ACE to bring me back from the grave to actually having an above-average stack!
8. We get to the serious bubble and all hell breaks loose. Imagine 48 poker players trying to make a deal, all of them trying to come to consensus. It was insane. No overall deal was struck, but 8 players at my table all agreed that if one of us busted out, the other seven would kick in $1,000 each so that the bubble boy would end up with $7,000.
9. A player busts out and I get moved to a different table. First hand I pick up QQ. I’m going to be all in in the big blind in about 4 hands, and I don’t think the bubble will burst by then, so I think getting my chips in with Queens is the best spot I’m gonna see. I shove, get called by the woman on my left, and the big blind folds. Woman has AKs. If I win this hand I’m completely safe with the $10,200. The flop and turn are no threat to me and I’m about to celebrate when the dealer throws down a King on the river and I’m out in 47th.
10. The players from my last table start weaseling out of the deal, because we never explicitly said what would happen if someone moved to another table. WEASELS!! Long (and I mean LOOOOOOONG) story short, they each ended up giving me $500, so I ended up with $3500. Weirdest poker shit I’ve ever seen.
More satellites tomorrow…
huge
p.s. In light of lackluster financial performance so far, I’ve been waffling about playing the main event. I still think I’ll play, but I’m giving myself a couple more days to think about it. I think that if I do play I will probably choose Saturday as my start date.