Thursday night MMC Tournament

What a great tournament and a lot of fun! I went down and played last night. They had an excellent turn-out and once it got started, the pace moved along very well. I don't know what it is about poker tournaments and starting times, but as a general rule, there has to be a way to get to start "at least" close to their advertised starting time. I don't remember exactly when we finally got started but it was at least 30 minutes late.

I played at a fun table anyway. A friend of mine from the Bogey Cup Tour, Steve was there and catching cards like a maniac at least in the first and second blind levels. The format again is a $40 no re-buy tournament and with the excellent turn-out, 1st place was about $600. Not bad. The blind structure starts at 25/50 with 20 minute blinds. Everyone starts with $5,000 in chips. At the end of the 3rd level, 100/200, they took a short break and colored out the 25 chips. The last hand before that break I played and could have easily lost all my chips. I made a small raise and was called from an early position player. The flop was 3 hearts and I made a pot sized bet and he called. I immediately put him on a big heart and of course, another heart hits the turn. He checks and I check. The river, yet another heart, and he makes a big bet which probably was a mistake unless he really had me with no heart at all since there was a gut shot straight flush on the board. I fold and he shows a King of hearts as if there was some magical unforeseen power that had provided him with his 3rd nut flush.... yes, well it's called a suck-out.... no matter where you are, it's still a suck-out. LOL. After that hand, I had about $4600 chips remaining.

Shortly after the break, as we are consolidating tables, I get moved to the table where George S is immediately on my left. I'm in middle position and raise the $200/$400 blinds to $1200 with an AQos. George calls and the flop is Jx, 5x, 5x. I check and George leads out with a pot sized bet and I show him my cards and fold expecting that he probably had an A, J or maybe even a middle pocket pair. He didn't show. After that hand, I'm getting really short-stacked and just a couple of hands later in the un-raised big blind with 10c, 5s, there was one limper with a decent chip stack and small blind limps. The flop is sweet.... 10x, 6x, 5x. The small blind checks and I move all in for another $2700 or so. The limper calls saying that he is probably behind and the small blind struggles with the decision and eventually folds. I turn over my two pair and the limper turns over 10x, 8x. He is actually not in a horrible situation since his kicker is bigger than my second pair. After the flop, headed for the turn, he has 6 outs... any 8 or any 6 would make him a better two pair with a better kicker. I'm probably about 70% and he's probably about 24% with the difference being a chop. The turn is a J which makes me about an 80% favorite, but of course he hits his 8 on the river and I'm out the door..... Flopping two pair has been my downfall a couple of times this past month, but I don't think that I'll play them any differently going forward as I was a huge favorite on the flop and the turn and actually had my opponents exactly where I wanted them to be.... a huge underdog. But as is sometimes the case, their outs hit!

No big deal.... Again, it was an excellent tournament. I didn't hang around to see who won as I thought that I could still make the Juice's game only to find out that there wasn't one. Nice!

But again, I would recommend this tournament. Nice guys and other than the starting time delay, well run.