Benson tourney....

Rick and I decided to take a ride down to Benson on Sunday to check out the "bigger" game that they play there. Buy-in's are $150 for $2000 chips, but you can buy double for another $100 and get another $1500 in chips. Both Rick and I decided to try the conservative route since it would be our first tourney there. You can also re-buy for $100 anytime your chip counts falls below $2000 within the first five levels. At the end of the fifth level, you may purchase an Add-On for another $150 of $5000 in chips. We both made it through the first five levels without any re-buys and both did the add-on. There are a few good players there and several donkeys. It was nice to see someone we recognized in Stone and his wife (she dealt my table).

There were no real amazing hands for me but unfortunately Rick and I were at the same table and I got to witness him getting busted out of the tournament by, what I believe to be, the worst player that I've ever seen. Rick is late in the rotation and "Big Guy" which is what they all called him, raises the $400 blind to $2,000 and Rick pushes all in for another $9,000 or so. Big Guy calls and everyone else folds. Rick turns over pocket Kings and Big Guy has Kh, 7h. The flop is Qh, 6x, 2x. The turn is heart and the river is a heart giving big guy the second nut flush and knocking out Rick. It was fun to watch as Big Guy's huge stack disappeared over about a 10 minute period with him calling huge bets with 7, 2 and 3,4. What an idiot! But I like it!

At any rate, I played very hands and earned a very tight aggressive table image which let me steal a few blinds with big bets and I ended up finishing 3rd which paid $1600! Not bad! Stone was the chip leader when I left and I believe they were going to do some sort of chop, but we didn't hang around. All in all, nice people, nice place. The only downsides were the distance (its about 50 miles from drive way to the poker house in Benson) and they permit smoking in the poker room which I don't particularly care for .... But for $1600 for a $300 buy-in, I'll just have to deal with it!