Mister Second Place

Another second place finish at Buena Park. Normally I'd be pleased by this. And I'm not displeased, but I was foolish not to ask to pay out the top 2 (7 players, pot slightly over $100) instead of just winner take all. At the time, I was half-joking about winner take all, and I had probably 40% of the chips in play with 6 players left. I had 17K, and the nearest stack was 8K I believe. Oh well. It's generally known that I'm a tight player, and rarely get am the table chipleader. I had such a lead after the first hour that it bordered on embarassing. I could do no wrong with my 65 suited's, and J9off's.

The blinds ramped up, and the quality of my cards free-fell. Flops were avoiding me like ex-girlfriends. So I tightened up a little bit (though I did double bluff with 52 offsuit for a nice pot), and ended up calling two or three all-ins, winding up with second best hands. All of a sudden, my chip lead had evaporated. I had 10K, and the other stacks were about 5K, 8K, 9K, and 12K. Oh well, you can't force things all the time.

"One Time" Juan busted Kida out in third, and he had me outchipped about 5 to 1 (60K to 12K sounds about right). No sweat. Blinds were uncomfortable (1K/2K), but I could still be reasonably patient. Juan, however, had other ideas. He raised on almost every hand when he had the button, and was therefore the small blind. I didn't mind. I know you have to alter your starting hand requirements, but he was raising (and calling my all-ins) with very suspect hands. Anything suited, any face card.

Juan played like he had a bus to catch. I played smart, and Juan priced himself into a lot of bad calls for all of my chips. In 20 minutes, I was had pulled even, and was feelin' it. At my best, I had him outchipped by a few thou. I had AKo, and he raised me out of the SB again. I went over the top for all my chips... and he folded. In retrospect, it was an overbet on my part. It was the best fold he made all tourney. He won the next few hands, giving him the chip lead again.

He continued with his reckless and relentless agression. If I recall correctly, I got all my money in the middle with A5 suited, and he called me preflop with Q4 suited. I got two of my suit, but he hit two pair, and my flush never came.

I don't regret how I played against Juan. In fact, I think I played like a badass just to get from 5-to-1 down back to even. Had I won that A5 vs Q4 hand, I'd have him down 2-to-1, instead of the other way around, like we entered the hand.

The fun part was Kida confiding that he should've busted Juan out when he had the chance. On the hand in question, Juan was all-in with AJ suited, and Kida held 44. The flop had a 4, and no flush for Juan, but Kida wasn't in the hand.

Almost as a corollary, Kida smirked and said to me, "No offense, but I don't fear you heads-up." Being a smart, polite poker player, I kept quiet. Kida's record in the BP tourney speaks for itself. He's got 6 wins. I have 2. And more than half a dozen second places. On paper, I would appear to suck when heads-up. Paper, however, doesn't mention that I've had the chip lead just one time in all of those heads-up matchups. Most of the time, I was least a 2.5-to-1 dog.

I want him to keep thinking that I'm a chump heads-up. Because I'm not. Not anymore. I've gotten plenty of practice, and I'm light-years better than I was the first time we went heads-up. He thoroughly outplayed me then. Nothing I tried worked, and everything he did turned up roses.

Next time... it's on.

UB update: Two bad-to-rotten sessions at limit and no-limit ring games, a finish 4 out of the money at a $5+.50 tourney, and two second places in 100pt SNG's (no really, I'm getting better at heads-up play) ... $309.60 real, $319.65 bonus, 2438.10 pts

PCS update: I have 4th, 4th, 10th, 19th, and 7th place finishes so far, putting my qualifying (woo hoo!) rank at #7 overall, with 16 or so on pace to qualify. I'll have Eddie and Dallion starting the PCS Championship with more chips than me, but let's see how they deal with the lack of a rebuy safety net.

For anybody who cares, the PCS website is http://www.angelfire.com/games5/homepokergame/ - my first visit there, I thought there were way too many "Mikes" around, so I asked them to refer to me by a nickname. Halloween was approaching (or in the rearview, beats me), so I asked to be called "Mr Clean". I'm bald, I'm buff, and I can wear a solid white t-shirt with the best of 'em. Lemony fresh, bitches.