Let's Make A Deal

I was torn. It was tax day. I was a little tired after work. Tourney #9 of the PCS in San Gabriel, a night at the $100 NL Commerce tables, or a nap?

I picked the PCS. I was so sure of doing well that I called up thebabykicker in Long Beach to suggest some Guinness and pool after I busted out of the tournament. Only 12 others in attendance - I'd be deep into a pitcher before I knew it.

Eddie, John, Rick, Tim, and Derek at my table. All regulars. Who's the weak link here? Eddie's aggressive and tricky. John and Tim are experienced and solid.

Derek checkraised me on the first hand I played. Nice. Time to fold.

Pocket jacks won me the blinds, then a decent pot. And I took a nice pot off of Eddie with my A8 in the cutoff. I was stealing, and he called me on the button with AK. I flopped top pair on the eight-high flop and stayed away from a king. I ended the rebuy period, added on, and had $65.75. Average. Meh.

Eddie busted out with the blinds still at $1/$2, and Dave Armen sat in his place, directly to my left. I decided to welcome him to the table by button-stealing to $5 with 96 offsuit. He called me from the small blind.

Flop was Q-J-2, with two spades. Dave checked, then called my $8 flop bet. The turn was a red king. Dave checked and I bet strong again, $12. At this point, he was a little flustered at my play. He did not feel comfortable about his hand. But he called anyway. The river was a six. I fired again, $15. I think I saw some foam on Dave's mouth as he called. He was rattled. But he showed K6-spades for two pair.

Oops. Down to $24 in my stack. It seemed way early to be short stacked. Where are my car keys again?

With the blinds at $2/$4, John limped in, I pushed all-in with KT in late position and wasn't called. Good.

Hello Hiltons! In my small blind with QQ, John raised to $12, I pushed, and he called with AT. The flop was a crummy A-J-J. The turn and river were stellar: K, T. A river six-outer. That'll do. Doubled me up to $64.

Right after this, #11 busted out, and the final table formed. Dave drew the button:

Seat 1: Dave Armen
Seat 2: Jesus
Seat 3: John Wong
Seat 4: Rick
Seat 5: Tim
Seat 6: Ray S
Seat 7: Geoff Klein
Seat 8: Derek
Seat 9: Mike (that's me!)
Seat 10: Justin Wong

I bumped it up to $10 in early position with two black aces. Pleeeeease reraise me. Nope. Geoff called from the big blind. I wasn't pleased with the flop of 9-8-7, two spades. And less so when Geoff pushed all-in. I reluctantly called Geoff's semi-bluff. K3-spades. No spades for Geoff on the turn or river, and I just barely had him covered. $105 in chips for me. Cool, back in business. Hey, how about I don't bluff these chips off too?

AJ in the cutoff and A6-hearts on the button were good for blind-steals with the blinds at $3/$6. I limped on the button with T9-suited, and folded after the flop missed me.

Dave had a few interesting hands with John. Mostly Dave raising and checkraising his godson. It came to a head when John pushed all-in from his big blind in response to Dave's button-raise. At least, that's what it looked like.

John had pocket jacks, and Dave called, saying something about how John couldn't get lucky all the time. I think Dave was just trying to heckle him... John is in with the better cards more often than not. Dave showed AJ offsuit, and hit an ace on the flop. John's stack was crippled. He'd get bounced a little while later when his pocket kings were called by AK-suited, with another ace-high flop.

I played no hands with the blinds at $4/$8. My first $5/$10/$1 hand didn't go my way, either. I bumped it up with pocket jacks, and Rick pushed all-in for $49 total with AK offsuit. He spiked his ace on the flop, and doubled up through me. A little more than $60 in my stack afterwards put me back in Short-Stack Land.

A little bit of luck in my next double-up.. 77 limped in early position, I pushed all-in in the cutoff with AK. AQ suited called from the blinds, and 77 folded. Good thing, too, when the board ended up nine-high.

The blind level of $6/$12/$1 antes saw no action from me. I watched a couple of players get bounced. We were down to four players with the top three getting paid. Bubble time! Rick and I were the short-stacks, across from each other. Dave was on my left, with Ray on my right.

Rick asked me if I wanted to make a deal and split third place money. I declined. I'm not usually a fan of deal-making, and thought I could double up, or Ray and Dave would cripple each other. They were not bashful about throwing chips at each other with the bubble in sight.

The blinds bumped to $8/$16/$2, but my cards were still ice cold. In my big blind, I found KJ-spades. Ray bumped it to $50, and I called, thinking I was all-in. I actually had $8 left, or something like that. The flop was A-8-2 with two spades. Good enough. I hit my flush on the river to stay alive.

I made what was probably a good play (considering it was bubble time), when I held pocket eights in my big blind. Dave raised, and Ray reraised, all-in. What to do, what to do? I folded, then was dismayed to see Dave's K9-suited and Ray's A5-suited. The rivered straight would've beaten me, though. We're still four-handed.

I overbet, all-in from my small blind, trying to take Dave's big blind with Presto. He was having none of it, and called with his A8-suited. I saw the ace on the flop first. Stupid bubble. Oh, what's this? The flop had a five too? Sweet!

$240 in my stack and my decision not to make a deal with Rick looked smart. Rick was priced into calling all-in in his big blind with 87 offsuit, and Ray's KQ-spades ended up best when Rick's openended straight draw didn't hit. Down to three players.

I picked up some pots by betting aggressively. I pushed Dave around a little bit with A8 offsuit preflop, and middle pair post-flop. It may have set up how Dave went out...

I was a little concerned about Dave's large all-in raise of my K8 offsuit on a K97 rainbow board, but my call showed I was in great shape. Dave's J9 did not improve, and we were down to two.

Down to heads-up, I had a rather healthy chip lead on Ray. He asked if I'd consider a split. Due to my lead, I declined. He proceeded to cripple me with a few small wins, followed by a preflop all-in, my tens versus his AQ-suited. The flop was horrible for me, A-Q-J. The turn gave me a little bit of hope with a 9, but a river ace squelched that.

In retrospect, I misplayed this hand. I should've backed off preflop, called his (re?)raise, and seen a flop. I wouldn't have liked it, and probably would've saved myself a chunk of chips.

I was looking at $130 in chips, with $10/20 blinds, and roughly $825 in play. Ouch. I battled back. Be aggressive but not dumb, and use position when you can. Even though Ray had the chips, I was winning pots and slowly inching back.

During my comeback, I think Ray misplayed a hand that could've finished me off. Heck, I probably misplayed it too. In my unraised big blind, I held the killer hand of 6c, 3s. We checked the Kd-Jh-4c flop. I checked when the turn was the 3c. Ray bet, and I had a hunch he was on a flush draw. Ray had shown a tendency to fold when I pushed all-in and he didn't have much of a hand. I raised, all-in. Even though it was only $40 more to see the river, Ray folded. "I only had a flush draw. It's yours."

I checkraised a guy with a pair of threes and a six kicker, with my tourney life on the line. And it worked!!

With the last hand of $15/30, I doubled up with two black eights against Ray's AQ-diamonds, when a 9d-9h-2d flop failed to show Ray any love on the turn or river. That hand crippled him.

It was super-cheap to put him all-in the next hand, but my unsuited Brunson couldn't take out his AJ. My K3 offsuit the very next hand was good enough for first place against his suited Brunson.

$35 in, $227 out, and my PCS ranking bumped up to #2 overall. And I've won the most money this season, too. With the championship looming, I've locked up a nice starting stack.

Maybe next week I can drink Guinness in Long Beach...