The Borgata 11:30pm tourney

Let me introduce you to the "Rugger".

$60+15 weeknight at The Borgata with Riggstad and gang in tow. Tourney is a 10k starting stack with 15 min levels. They have been getting around 80-100 players on any given night with an approx payout of $2k for first place.

I get the call from Riggs the day before that they are making a day trip out of it but other obligations kept me from going down during the day and getting a few hours of playtime in. I get on the road around 8pm and get a call from Riggs that they had just arrived. I'm about an hour + away at this point.

Arrive around 9:30 but can't get a seat until around 10:15. I was searching for their new 5-10 limit table but I was 6th on the list... the Borgata got rid of the 6-12 a few months ago and I was all for it. Making change every two hands was not all that time consuming... but it was a hastle. If it wasn't for the damn NJGC I would be vying for the 5-10 KillPot, but the story is in AC you can't play Kill pots with hold'em... BAH.

While I'm waiting for 5-10 a seat opens up at 1-2 NL.... now... I didn't bring enough loot down to get sucked out on in one hand for all my money playing NL and miss my opportunity to play in the tourney, so I sat at the 1-2 NL probably as tight as I was ever going to play. My simple goal was to make the $75 tourney entry fee and freeroll for the rest of the night.

As soon as I walk up to the table, the kid (and will be referred to as kid until the end of the story) 2 seats to my left says, "I'm going to play every hand...". He wasn't joking. He limped, raised, check-raised every pot and his 200 stack was down to 125 in the matter of 15 minutes.

I paid my blinds and just sat until I was in MP with 1010. Kid raises up to 12, I flat call with the hopes to flop the trips and set the trap and take his money and run. Player #3 on the button goes all in for $160. ???? $27 in the pot and you make it $160???

As long as kid goes away I make the call because #3 has to have 88 or 99. Any higher and he would want the action, so all-in wouldn't be the way to go. Any less and he should have thought about laying it down long before he re-checked his hand.

Well... kid says... "I'm all in", and I quickly fold.

#3 has 77 and kid has JackAce off. I threw away the best hand... weeeeeee!!!!!!

Flop 7 5 2. I'm a genius. A river 5 gives #3 the boat and I woulda lost 80% of my stack to his underpair. But alas, this just gave me the right motivation I needed to check the list again for 5-10 limit.

I was second on the list and in about 5 seconds I was called for my seat. I sit down, post up and look down at AK off in MP. No slowplaying as I raise up, get about 5 callers, and flop Ah-10s-5s
. I bet and get reraised immediately by player on my left. Another caller on the end and now I'm assuming that A10 is the nuts vs my AK. The turn brings a brick, I check, player bets, another call on the end, and I call hoping no spade hits the river. Another 10 hits the board as I check again, player bets again, another caller, and I can't assume my AK is good, but 1 bigbet to win 14... I call.

A3 vs ?? vs my AK... winner winner. In my first hand I just won my buy in for the tourney and actually debated walking away. But I still had about 45 min to kill b4 the tourney, so I stayed.

Paid my blinds, got some sweetened iced-t's (mmmm good tea), and cashed out 45 min later with my $75 buy in in hand.

YAY FREEROLL'IN!!!!

It's like Tokening into the Blogger Big Game from a $5 tourney.

Tourney kicks off and I win a few of the first hands and I'm up to 13.5k. I can't imagine that for the next 2 hours I would sit and fold and pay my blinds. At one point, no joke, no lie, no embelishment... I saw 3 face cards in 45 hands. One Ace, one King, and One queen. None at the same time. In a tourney that only lasts about 4.5 hours... not playing for half that stretch wasn't going to get my very far.

At the same time I was getting 8 hi... old man winter was in the 10 seat and had woken up to 8 PP's 10 or better.... 1x10, 3xQ, 3xK, 1xA... and they all WON. It was something out of a tv show. The best part about it is that after all that was said and done, he was at 11k, and I was at 10k.

I was down to my original stack when the blinds were 600/1200 with 200 ante. A full table of 10 puts 3800 in the pot preflop w/o any action. So, in MP after folding for pretty much 2 hours in a row I figured I had earned myself some respect and a move was in order. 2nd to act limps in for 1200 (he limped/folded a lot of hands), I push 9800 in the pot all-in. Someone even says... "Oh, you are here." Pointing out the fact that I haven't done anything in forever.

All folds to the small blind who makes no hesitation in putting his 14k all-in over the top and the rest fold around to me. With his instant action I can only put him on Jacks or better. Nope... AQ offsuit.

Now let me introduce you to "the Rugger". Named after one of my employees who just loved the hand. A monster 10-7. Well... at least I was live. Haha.

Flop 339. I'm a 25% favorite.
Turn 8. I'm a 31% favorite...woohoo it got better!!!
river 7. I'm a 100% favorite... woohooo... I'm a genius.

I'm up to 25k and can now fold for another hour with j7 and j6 for about 7 hands in a row. I wanted to get in the action as there was a lot of blinds and antes to be won, but we were down to 3 tables at this point and with basic math I figured I'd need about 60k to get to the final table and not be the low stack.

I win a round of antes and blinds with an uncontested all-in. I'm up to around 30k. I dust off 9k with a preflop raise (blinds 1k/2k) when the BB big stack calls me. Flop comes KJ4 and he leads out with 10k and I only have 20k left... I have to go away with my 5c6c.

Top 9 get paid... I have a lot of luck to do.

We get down to 2 tables and at this point it is all in or fold for half the players. I am one of them. Again, I couldn't get in the action even with 3 limpers ahead of me. 7-3 just isnt' gonna cut it when there are still 3 ppl (2 short stacked) behind me to act and I know at least one is going all in for another 7 or 8 k. I was right, and it was the right fold. I saved my bets for when I thought I could get in the pot and win uncontested or at least call another all-in with a premium hand (if it was ever going to come).

We get down to 13 players and I got my money all in with the chance to triple up with QJ. Not strong, but couldn't wait any long with my severe short-stack. I got 2 callers and the flop comes Kc8c3h. One player pushes all in and pushes the other away so I assume that he has the K and I'm drawing pretty much dead. He turns over 9c3c. Bottom pair with flush draw. I'm still thin, but a lil thicker than I thought.

Turn brings the Q of spades and the table gets loud, but i don't even blink. The River is the Jack of clubs... I runner runner 2 pair, but the club gives him the 9 high flush.

If I didn't dust off that 9k 20 minutes earlier, the 9c3c couldn't have called my all in. I was all in for 11k and he was a BB of 6k. So it was only 5k more to call with so much in antes/blinds/bets. No fault of his, but again, if I had 21K, he can lay it down and I go heads up and win vs the other player who had A7 and was coming for all his chips regardless.

So, I bust out 13th/90 players. Again, top 9 got paid but there was nothing I could do except win an all in when we got to the final two tables... and no love.

Rigg's didnt' fare well as his KK got cracked by ragrag suited. I lasted the longest as the other gang members peeled off in the middle rounds somewhere. In the end, we all got the same prize, I just got to goof off a lil longer in my freeroll.

I sat down at 3-6limit before I left (no 5-10 at 3:30am) and I won $30 bucks to cover my gas/tolls/parking/drinks.

A long day of poker and a break even day. I think I fared the best of the group, but some phone calls after Turkey Day will figure that all out.

As I was walking out the door, Chang was sitting at the same 3-6 that I was and was in a gambooling mood. He gets the suited HAMMER in mid position and gets in the action with a limp and then a call of a raise when 6 other people call the raise. Flop 774... Yahtzee!!! 3 players get to the turn after a raise/call. A 3 hits the turn giving one player the straight to the 7 with his 56. 3 players again get to the river after a raise/call. The river brings the case 7 and stone cold nuts for Chang. YAHTZEE once again!!

The player with the straight checks. Chang CHECKS. Player 3 bets, the straight calls, Chang raises, player 3 calls and the straight folds.

Chang shows his quads and Player 3 shows pocket 1010.

beepbeep Hammer.