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Friday, September 12, 2008

Tunica 1

Well, the trip did not start so hot!
Arrived in Tunica at around 3:15am...had to stick around the house and watch football all day! Get here, and the lady at the front desk tells me "We are in the middle of nightly audit and I cant get you into your room for 10 minutes or so."
WTF!!!!???
What a joke. So I sit in the lobby on my laptop....for 45 minutes...finish winning a $5.50/45pp sng....HUGE WIN BABY! Ship that $67! And getting eating alive, that's right...INSIDE THE HOTEL LOBBY...by mosquitoes! YEP! And finally she gets her act together and gets me into my room....which I discover is CLEARLY a smoking room. LOVELY. I get to sleep at 5am.

I wake up at 11:35am. Dammit, only 25 minutes to get across the street to the tourney. I don't shower...and run over there, to find that it started at 11am!!! WHAT!??? Lord...well, even though it was past the deadline, they let me go in as an alternate. I was very impressed when I saw the structure. 8000 starting chips with 40 minute levels....and a good blind structure. Cool. So I really wasn't missing anything in my stack.

What knocked me off my feet was that there a grand total of EIGHT tables! 77 players. GOOD GAWD! Oh and they moved the poker room downstairs. Not sure if I dig it or not. Since it switched from THE GRAND to HARRAHS TUNICA...they did a lot of cosmetic work in there...its more attractive I think. LB STEAKHOUSE is now 37. Its cool looking. I want to win some money so I can go eat a KOBE steak in there!

Well, as I look around I see a lot of players I know. There is CUB, there is BJ from Baton Rouge...theres Gabe...oh and I get put on a table with THE CLAW...Claudia my house buddy from Las Vegas and new 'Big Deuce' buddy! I lot of other guys I know well, I would say each table had 5 solid players, 3 total donks, and 2 complete unknowns. Well, after winning the first three hands I played...I would run into SUPERDONK...and he would end my day. Holding As10c I raise from 200 to 650 in middle position. SuperDonk calls me on the button with 10s8s...what me, JD and Charlie (Smoke, from Baton Rouge) call "the Smokey Special." I would get dusted by the Ol smokey special...as the flop came all spades little. I checked, he checked. 4 of clubs on the turn. I bet. He raised. I made the big over the top all in. He calls...of course...and I brick the river. SHIT! Day over. I really didn't need to go there..it was really a little overaggressive. I just thought this clown was putting me on AK AQ, didn't think I had any of that flop....and that I could get him to fold by moving in on him. Would of helped a bunch if the little dealer Latania would have slid me a spade on the river! But, no-no!

So I go sit down and play a $65 sit and go. We get down to 4 handed and the blinds are 500-1000! They go up and the dealer doesn't have a higher level on his sheet! They double! To 1000-2000. We started with only 1500 chips. It was a joke. One guy proposed a four way chop. After all, it was now a total crapshoot, and we had $180 in the last longer ($20 times 8 players) so it wouldn't have been TERRIBLE to chop. Well chipleader refuses. I move in with k10 on the button and get two callers. 44. and A5. i hit the K on the river. One guy leaves, and chipleader is now shortstack. A couple hands later it was over. Thanks Boys...ship it to the Monkey.

I go check on Gabe. Claudia has been whacked. Gabe has chips. Cub doubles up with QQ against BJ's AJspades in the BB...a big all in by Cub...kind of a loose call by BJ...but I have seen him make this play a lot. He's a solid player, I cant really criticize him...I just think he gambles a little more than I do. Anyway...long story short...I go to play the 6pm $340 limit tourney...that only ends up having 28 players. Good gawd. So its paying 5! But I'm thinking about making a final table and getting some Rounder Points! Before we start Gabe walks by and informs me that he just went out 10th....on the BUBBLE! Oh hells bells Gabe. The day before he was down to 2 tables....had a lot of chips then too, when disaster struck and he missed the money. I hate that. I didn't see Cub at the Final Table either. So his chips went SOMEwhere.......

I start bad in the Limit Tourney. Cant ever get top flopped pair to hold Cant ever hit a draw.Lose with a set in a four way pot. Its just going bad. But I stay smart, and tighten up around 50/100. Start picking off pots when we go to 200/400. I end up making the final table and am getting close to an average stack. Then...with 6 left...I raise this lady with QJ clubs at the cutoff....from 400/800 to 1600. She makes it 2000. Well, I call. Flop comes J-J-10. WHOAAAAAAAA...nice! Right?

Sure, if you had J-10. She bets. I call. Turn 5. She bets. I raise now. She re raises. Huh? Don't tell me! I just call. River is a blank. She bets again. Her bet is all but 200 of my stack. So I move in for the rest. She rolls over AJ. Son.....of.....a.....bitch! And like Gabe...I go out on the BUBBLE as well! Dammit.

Well, all tourney I had been slamming Red Snappers with Russ Bozeman from Alabama, my good buddy who I final tabled with in New Orleans. Him and I decide, against better judgement...to sit down and play some cash game. We played til 6am..which made me totally useless enough that I sat out today's tourney at 11am. I will just say that my cash session at one time was going very well. It ended...um.....not so good. I had one of those clowns at the table that I just COULDNT ever beat. He would NEVER let go of a hand. EVER. And I could never get him into a pot when I actually HAD the nuts. The nastiest hand against this bozo went like this. Unraised pot...I have A2 c. I call. He raises 12....which means nothing...he is now up to about 1500 chips (in a $1-$3 game) and raising all the time. Flop comes 2-2-5...with two clubs! Not a bad flop. I check. He bets 40. Someone else calls. I raise to 120. He thinks for awhile....and calls. Other guys folds. Turn is a 4, non club. So now I have a straight draw to go with my flush draw, and boat draw. How can I lose this hand? I decide, this guy always hits WHATEVER he needs, I might as well just shove for $244 here! So I do. He tanks. I tell him....TELL HIM...dude, I know you have like KK or QQ....your over pair is no good ....but go ahead and call, you ALWAYS call. He does, he calls. With his "oh well, ah shucks" standard reply.....turns over his...SHOCKER...>QQ.......and on the river.....what does the dealer do? Delivers his stupid ass a QUEEN! I just sit there in total astonishment. Russ is like...."did you have 55?" NO.....I had A2c. "No way!" Yes....yes I did. I wanted to put a gun in my mouth. But instead I rebought....again. It was not a good night. But at least I finally got some sleep and got all caught up on my pools and fantasy leagues. This weekend was a total shitfest for 35% of all the players in the Survivor Pools...and I have a one time rebuy for the first 6 weeks...so spent all day reviving everyone and collecting their rebuy money!

Their is a $240 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tourney that starts in an hour that I am thinking about playing. If I don't play that...I will try to find a SNG to play. But the SNGs are only going off about ONE an HOUR! Its terrible. Bad fields, understaffed with dealers....so even when a lot of players show up...they don't have tables....they were literally taking alternates every day...while there were about 15-20 open tables, and dealers walking around! I don't get it. I honestly would love to have a casino approach me about being their tourney director. I really think I could be one of the best. Maybe not, maybe I just THINK I could...but holy cow...its not that tough a task to put on a good tournament. Its not rocket science. I think there is a good chance I may be blowing out of here early. We'll see. In the meantime....ya'all take care....Hope Ike misses everyone....sounds like its heading towards SW TEXAS...guess that's the best-case scenario...not as populated over there I don't think. More updates later!!!

MONKEY

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

MonkeyDude,

Hang in there. Anyone who has played in Tunica (well, basically everywhere else too....) knows this kind of crap [shoot] happens. In the long run, you'll do fine as skill ultimately overrides luck.

Couple of words....focus- don't spread yourself to thin..last time I played with you, you were playing 2 in-person sng tables, hopping from table to table at the same time. Stay within yourself...don't let the players/crowd distract you from your game. And finally, change things up 3 or 4 times....what I mean is: 1. you get your opponents read, 2. they get your read, 3. you realize this, so give your opponents the 3rd and 4th dynamic. As in...."I know monkey boy is loose, maybe even slightly hungover, I know he is capable of calling/playing anything from J9os, to connectors, (certainly depending on position, equity, players, donks, etc.) I can play my xx and win on a flop/draw." Said another way, adapt/consider your game to your opponents/donks style of play. Even though you may be heavily favored, consider the outs the variables.