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4th of July

I didn't fair well enough to make it in the money at the $120 NO RB Tournament at the Bicycle Casino on the 4th of July. Actually, none of us did (we counted 14 in our Poker Crew), except Big David, he made it into the money (Scott was the bubble boy. Yes KPT represented well haha). 10th place to be exact. Unfortunately, 10th place was not a big enough payout to brag to friends about, although i gotta say, 10th place out of 499 crappy players isn't too shabby...

Many of our boys were knocked out pretty early on. So early in fact that when I saw Quincy waltzing into the Tournament Room, i thought he'd just arrived. "Hey Q" i said, somewhat excited. "Are you looking for your Table?". Little did i know he'd already been knocked out of the tournament, DOH! Somewhat of a dumb question to ask someone in a tournament anyway. I also saw Jerome hanging out in the hallway during the 2nd break, apparently he was one of the early rail-birds too. Conrad, Darwin, Rolls made it through the 1st couple of breaks but were eliminated shortly after. Hana i heard also made an early exit... In fact most of us were disposed of fairly quickly. Kind of hilarious actually... But not to be outdone, Frank takes the cake on this dubious early-exit race. Evidently, on the 4th hand of the tournament, he'd bluffed off all of his chips to someone who had Quads, on the river... Frank is Fabulous!

I made it further into the tournament than most but with nothing to show for because it was still 3 tables away from the payouts when i succumbed. I might as well have been eliminated in the first hour. Yes, it is probably more gratifying to get knocked out in the 5th hour as oppose to early on, but once the rush dissipates, you realize you just wasted five hours of your life accomplishing nothing (and you want it back now!!!)... It was a good time though because there were so many of us from KPT that it gave the Tournament a kind of home-game atmosphere to it, despite the 50 tables...

I couldn't help but feel that i wasted $120 of my hard earned dollars though. Okay, so i got to play for five fun-filled hours. But so what? Should i start pretending is it enough just to have played? I came not only to have fun, i came to win! (for the most part!!!). There was this old fart on my table who seemed to have that philosophy down to an art. Jovially he said "It's a buck 20. Its nothin'. Where else can you go and have this much fun for $120, for five hours?". It kind of annoyed me a bit. Who says such things about Tournament Poker? There i was trying haplessly to double up and this old man is honky dory with about the same amount of chips. What a putz... He would get zapped out of the tournament by the Poker Gods shortly for the stupid declaration.

With that in mind, i strolled into the main Casino floor with one mission. I came to retrieve my money. Besides, i didn't like the way i was donkied out of the tournament (just ask Quincy). Anyway, i bought into one of the $40 no limit hold em tables and suddenly i couldn't do no wrong. My fortunes had certainly changed for the better. My first double up came rather quickly. Fittingly i made a Boat with my favorite hand, Jacks full of 9's. It was kind of surreal too because i didn't realize i had a Boat until i got raised ALL-IN on the turn. To recap the hand, i'd basically played the Jack-9 out of habit. Somehow, although i flopped the bottom two pairs (a Jack-Ace-9), only the Jack registered. When the guy on seat # 7 moved all-in, i looked down at my hand and saw a pot of gold (so to speak). Needless to say i took the pot down (the other guy had AK if you're curious). It seemed academic from there on because i was winning larger pots than i was losing.

Eventually, at around 8:45 PM, i left the goldmine of a Poker Table after Hana had informed me that our Horse just made it to the final table. I wanted to be there to support him. That was kind of exciting because i had a 10% stake on David and Hana a hefty 50%. Unfortunately the short stroll to the Tournament Room took longer than David did in the Final Table... He was promptly knocked out in the first hand (He had Pocket 8's vs AQ).

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to re-impose my domination on the $40 NL game because my Parents called from Thousand Oaks for a ride. Apparently the Big Black Mercedes broke down. As much as i didn't want to, I had to call it a night. So under the brilliant Southern California skies, i bid the Casino farewell bound for Thousand Oaks after a somewhat memorable day at the tables. I felt a perverse satisfaction about picking up my parents too because i was never a big fan of the Mercedes Benz decision (too expensive i thought). I was driving my Honda Civic that night, purchased at $4000. Or about $12,000 less than their car... The down-payment that is...

Anyway anyway. That was a fun day boys. And good job Big David...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Thursday, July 05, 2007