July Poker begins with a Bang!

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Pretty good day at the poker machine today. 🙂

Started at noon. I entered a qualifier for $21.50 to win a seat for today’s $200k tourney. But, you ask, didn’t you already win a seat for that? Yes. If you already have a free seat, and earn another one, they simply give you the $215 in cash. Why is this good? In fact, it’s a great deal. As I’ve mentioned before, in these qualifiers, first place is as good as whatever number of places they pay the free seats for. In this case, there were 69 players, and the first 6 all got the free seat. That means that you can come in 6th, which is way easier than 1st, and still get the full $215 in cash for the $21.50.

Anyway, I bombed out quickly, so $21.50 down the toilet to start the month.

Then I entered the normal $1.10 qualifier for my normal $22 nightly Omaha Hi-Lo. I spent a total of $4.10, and came reasonably close, but bombed out with no return.

At 2:45pm, I entered an $11 Omaha Hi-Lo tourney. 89 players, paying top 10. I had some serious ups and downs in this one. At one point, the overwhelming chip leader was moved to our table. He had 13k in chips, the second place person had something like 7k, and I had 4050 (to put it into perspective). I was in the big blind, and the chip leader limped in, everyone else folded.

Flop came 5c 4c 5d. I had 3s 5h Jh Kd. So, I flopped 3 of a kind, which is OK, but not awesome. Of course, there were only two of us, so it was a little better than just OK. He bet the pot, 750 chips. I raised the pot, which was 3000 (leaving me with 750). He thought for a second, and called. He had AA6T, three of them spades. This was bad call. Even if he didn’t think I had the 5, he had no clubs, and a bad low draw as well. He was likely to be facing the nut low (making a split the best he could get), and possibly a straight and flush draw as well.

Anyway, on the river, he luckily caught a low, and we split. He made many such horrible plays, but remained the chip leader for a very long time!

Cutting to the chase, we finally got down to 11 players (the infamous bubble). He had 2750 chips left (oh, what a surprise that he frittered away his chips!). I was in the big blind, with 800 chips in the pot. He went all-in, the small blind folded, and I called the remaining 1950 chips. He had a slightly better hand. The flop came 662. I had A448, double-suited, which is why I called in the first place. He had A23K. He was looking good on the low, at least. A J came on the turn (no low so far). Then the river brought the lovely 6. Not only no low, but I had a full house with my measly pair of 4’s. It was very satisfying to knock out such a knucklehead…

Now I was in the money, and he bubbled out. Truly cutting to the chase now, it was a fast and furious final table, and the cards really rolled my way. I was the chip leader from like 8 left down to 3 left, then I flipped into 3rd. But, quickly got some good cards again, and I won the tourney!

Got back $156 for my $11 entry. Woo hoo!

The tourney ended at about 5:20-5:30, which was 20-30 minutes after the big one started at 5pm. I played slowly and carefully in the big one, since I was already at the final table of this one, and I was feeling bird-in-the-hand phenomenon. 🙂 I’m glad I concentrated here first, because the $156 was a very satisfying win.

Once it was over, I turned my full attention to the big one. 901 entrants. They paid the top 100.

Lots of interesting hands, but I basically played most of them overly cautiously. A few notable exceptions, where people folded to my aggression. Here is a verbatim copy/paste of an emacs buffer where I was keeping statistics on where I was as the tournament progressed.

620 left, I am in 235th.
535 left, I am in 320th.
475 left, I am in 192nd.
395 left, I am in 246th.
280 left, I am in 257th.
251 left, I am in 178th.
197 left, I am in 183rd.
180 left, I am in 109th.
160 left, I am in 128th.
146 left, I am in 135th.
138 left, I am in 91st.
137 left, I am in 65th.
130 left, I am in 70th.
121 left, I am in 67th.
117 left, I am in 60th.
110 left, I am in 70th.
106 left, I am in 80th.
103 left, I am in 78th.
102 left, I am in 77th.
101 left, I am in 75th.

ONE MORE TO GO TO THE MONEY!

Finally made it, with 99 left, I am in 77th, now the “real”
play begins!!!

90 left, I am in 75th.
84 left, I am in 75th.
80 left, I am in 74th.

This was the next step up in money! 🙂

76 left, I am in 41st.
73 left, I am in 71st.
72 left, I am in 69th.
69 left, I am in 64th.

This was the next step up in money! 🙂

64 left, I am in 41st.
59 left, I am in 46th.

This was the next step up in money! 🙂

56 left, I am in 43rd.
53 left, I am in 45th.
49 left, I am in 43rd.

This was the next step up in money! 🙂

44 left, I am in 41st.
41 left, I am in 39th.
40 left, I am in 38th.

This was the next step up in money! 🙂

Finished 39th!

81-100 paid $300.

71-80 paid $400.

61-70 paid $500.

51-60 paid $600.

41-50 paid $700.

31-40 paid $900, which is what I got, for finishing 39th. Notice the nice extra jump of an additional $100 for this next level from the previous levels. Sweet! 🙂

So, like I said in the title, July starts off with a bang. Total profit for July, all earned today: +$1,017.90! It will be hard to give it all back in July, but I’ll do my best. 😉