Rascal's, Take Two

On Thursday, I made another trip to Rascal's Casino, this time for their $60 Double Stack tournament. Unfortunately they had too many people sticking with the cash game, so they could only use the two remaining tables for the tournament instead of all three (yeah, it's a small place). I don't know if that's the standard or not but I would prefer a bigger tournament.

I didn't have much to work with starting hand wise, and I lost 1\3rd of my stack fairly early when AQ
For the most part, it was a straight-forward weak-tight game: lots of limp-calling preflop, no positional pressure bets or flat out bluffs, most bets represented strong hands. The only time I recall a bluff was when a gruffy man on my right, who was literally limp-calling with K8 to TT, let out a huge sigh on the river. It was one of those classic tells that are beyond obvious. The old man on my left picked up on it too and immediately shoved. With straight & flushes possible, the gruffy man made a crying call with two pair; old man shows down A high. That was the only time I saw anyone making anything that could be considered a move.

After the 2nd break, I was down to 3.5 blinds after mistakenly trying to push out some limpers from the SB with sooted connectors. I didn't hit and had to fold the turn after getting my c-bet called. But luck would turn my way, and I won the next two hands with K4 > 76 and A6 > 99. With 15k in chips, I was alive, and made it to "the final table" shortly thereafter.

Once we got down to 9, I found myself making a tough laydown PF with JJ, after seeing two limpers then a 6k raise by the chip-leader. I could have been up against a smaller pair, but I had played a couple hands with him in the last tournament, and I figured that I would be flipping at best. Plus, most of the players to my left were being extremely tight, so I knew that if I couldn't get my money in better, I could still steal some pots.

In fact, I tried stealing one pot a couple hands later with A6. The BB, the chipleader still, called, and we saw a Q23 flop. I went for the c-bet again and got a caller. I paired my 6 on the turn, giving me some outs, and pushed the rest of my short-stack in, thinking I needed some help. However, the CL states "I've come this far" and makes a crying call with....KTo? The turn is low and I get a much needed & surprising double up. Nevertheless, I still only had about 16 BBs worth of play left.

I made a crucial laydown in the BB with AQ against two even-stacked shorties who showed TT and 77. I would've flopped a Q only to end up four-flushed by TT. The TT, some drunk douchebag, was proud of himself, declaring that "I got him to lay that hand down" with his talk. Instead, what made me lay it down was that the 77 girl had just mentioned that she wasn't getting anything to play with, and that was even after I saw her laydown AQ herself to a PF raise a couple hands prior. Anyways, the math probably said I should call but risking 30% of my stack with two all-ins in front of me told me to wait, and it worked out.

I ended up going out in 6th (4 paid) to the TT douchebag with A5 vs AT. Unfortunately for me, the flop came A24 and I wasn't going anywhere on my board, but I couldn't find the help I needed and left empty-handed again.

I definitely enjoyed the DS tournament since I had a little more time to make some moves, I just had bad timing in most cases. I think I need to loosen up a bit post-flop as I noticed a couple of opportunities where I could have taken some pots with river bets had I still been in the hand.

I'll have a FF post up later: right now, I have to go pray for a huge game from Santonio Holmes to help me escape MHG's onslaught via Favre AND Coles. Lucky fucker.