Jesus and Pals in Compton

I wish I had a better story for this post. A few of us got the idea to hit the Crystal Park Casino in Compton for their $15 (+$20 double rebuy, +$20 double addon) tournament. I carpooled with Derek, and we met Jesus, Albert, and Ray S. inside. Just before the start, somebody asked me if I hosted a poker game in Tustin. It turned out to be Shaunna, who had forgotten my name, but remembered that she played in my homegame once. Ray and I were the only ones at the same table.

I watched Ray bust out first in our group. The table agreed that he was tilted at the time. Somebody put a beat on him, and he raised the next hand preflop with AQ offsuit. Somebody reraised him. He played for all of his chips, and couldn't beat the pocket queens he was up against. He left, instead of rebuying.

I played two hands in the hour-long rebuy phase of the tournament. Nothing remotely playable otherwise, which was a shame. Preflop raisers did not lack for callers. I threw away T9 offsuit when the flop missed me. And I wouldn't let go of pocket kings on an Ah, 8h, 2d flop. Eh, it ended up costing me a double rebuy to see it (and draw to my two outs!).

Derek's chipstack was in the same shape as mine as the rebuy phase ended. Jesus, however, had a loaves and fishes moment on his table. Kings and a triple-up, followed by a double up with Big Slick.

I noticed that I had the strongest player directly on my left, and the fishiest on my right. Mister Fish would draw to anything. One particular hand had me scratching my head about what was going through his.

Six or seven players saw the flop, no raises. T, 9, 4 rainbow. Mister Fish bet out from early position, into at least 4 players. Somebody in late position raised 3x his bet, and he called. The turn was an 8. All the money went in. I expected to see Mister Fish flip over QJ. Nope. 76 offsuit. He led out into the field with an undercard gutshot, then called a raise. And somebody told him 'nice hand'. I loved it.

After the rebuy phase, I still didn't have much to play. I was pleased to see Mister Fish's huge stack take hit after hit, but I was a little jealous that it wasn't me stacking any of Fish's chips. I also noticed that players weren't very picky about what they went all-in with, or called all-ins with. A3-suited? KJ-suited? pocket 7's? Good enough!!

I figured I had been tight enough that I might get some respect on a preflop raise. I found pocket threes on the button, and the only limper was Mister Fish. With the blinds at 100/200, I made it 700, and only Mister Fish called. The flop was J, T, 3 rainbow. Normally, I might be tempted to give Fish a free card, but with a player that loose, I couldn't bear the thought of him hitting a gutshot or a runner-runner flush on me. I pushed for my last 700 or something, and he folded.

In the next rotation, Fish and I had a battle of the blinds. I was in the big blind with QT offsuit. He called, I checked to see a flop of KT3 with two spades. He checked to me, and I knew he would've bet top pair at me. So I bet 400, and he called. Another king on the turn caused Fish to abandon his draw.

That's it. Those were the two hands I won.

A little while after the second hour break, I had 2600 in front of me with 200/400 blinds and 50 antes. I had two black jacks on the button, and a player new to our table limped in early position. It was folded to me, and I pushed. The big blind called, as did the limper. Ok, this could be a triple-up for me. 8K in chips would rock.

That ace on the flop dashed my hopes. I knew at least one of my opponents had an ace. Big blind guy checked, limper bet 1K, and isolated me. He showed A9 offsuit. I wasn't upset - I want A9 to call my jacks every single time.

The poker gods decided to rub it in. Turn: ace. River: nine.

Poor Derek hung around, got shortstacked, and make his stand into somebody's pocket aces. When we left, Shaunna and Jesus were both shortstacked, but not desperate yet. (Albert had busted out about an hour before me, with no mention of the circumstances that led to his demise.)

In summary, some better cards early would've been nice. I was dealt pocket 2's, 3's, J's, and K's. The best kicker I had to any ace was a ten, it was unsuited, and I was under the gun. Plenty of iffy plays, and a few good players. I'm not disappointed.