Monday, May 29

Kill mosquito with a Cannon

Rolland The Riverman strikes again. The last time Rolland won a tournament in KPT i was so enthralled with his win i was inspired to write a blog. If you didn't read it, it was one of those home tournaments where one player single-handedly eliminated every player, a tournament sweeep if you will. This kind of juggernaut poker has happened before in home games, but the unique aspect of it was that he knocked out everyone but one player (me in the end...) with a straight on the River.

Last Sunday, May 28th he won his 2nd tournament in KPT with a little less flurry but quite unique nonetheless. I guess you can say Rolland has a flair for the dramatic...

Rolland sat directly to my left, which to a lot of players is the best position in the house haha. Rolland limped in on the very first hand with Pocket Aces and then promptly well ALL IN on an "8 10 J" flop which was immediately called by Jee who'd flopped the Nut straight, promptly knocking out Rolland but not after an Ace on the turn for false hope blanking out on the river. Let's just say Riverman hasn't perfected the art of slow-oaring... err playing LOL. Shortly after buying a Phantom Stack Rolland was once again ALL IN, this time against Giant Killer Josh # 1 (KPT has two Josh's both White Guys). Rolland had AJ offsuit against Josh's QQ, i remember this hand quite well because i delt it and i remember thinking to myself " damn Rolland isn't going to last long the way his night is going" after Josh flopped Quad Queens...

But a glimpse of Hope was bestowed upon him on his 3rd ALL IN try. This time A4 offsuit against the Pocket 8's of Scott who initially made a standard raise which was raised to 500 by Rolland (from 200) followed by an over the top ALL IN by Scott, a bang bang hand. The improbable undercard hits the flop and the turn for Rolland for his first double up, saving him from what would have been a record setting 3rd Phantom buy. But low and behold, he sets the record anyway getting knocked out for the 3rd time. This time he had to buy his 3rd phantom stack on table # 2 so i didn't see him again until the final table. This game was actually running quite a bit late, the final table was not set until near 10 PM (almost 45 minutes late from the normal duration).

When there was 9 players remaining for the final table, Rolland had a HUGE stack easily eclipsing everybody else's on the table (except Jee who was probably 4-1). He apparently made a killing in table 2, a complete turnaround from table 1 which to him was far from accommodating.... A couple of short-stacked players went out quickly in the early goings of the final table. But Rolland surprised everyone, turning over a new leaf folding pocket pairs on ALL IN situations. Most notably when Mori called Allan's ALL IN. Rolland was holding a pair of 9's, mucking it with disinterest to the chockful surprise of Jee and I (he would have won the hand easily knocking out two players). But he was changing gears playing for the money, after all he was $85 invested...

Gerry, finishing in 5th and me in 4th both succumbed to Rolland (Jee finished 3rd citing blinded out). So after all the Rolland melo-drama he makes it to the end against Mori anyway. These two are so opposite in play style they're at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Mori a tight solid player while Rolland's style is as loose as loose gets. It's like the brute force of Blitzkrieg against Sun Tzu's cerebral ways or Suicide Bombing as oppose to the Silent Assassin, Sniper and Napalm, Bow & Arrow against a Tomahawk Missile etc etc etc....

But this day the "Killing a mosquito with a Cannon" player philosophy prevailed over the "Smooth Criminal" ...

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