The Bat Cave

So I won the morning poker tournament at Chips Casino yesterday. Well, sort of won it. The guy I was playing heads up wanted to chop, but when I hesitated for a few seconds he offered me $175 to his $125, which I immediately accepted. Today, I went to defend my crown and succeeded. Amazingly, no deals were discussed. No money back for third place, no chopping heads up… it was beautiful. Finally, I’m having some luck go my way at this tournament. I usually take brutal beats or get involved in unlucky situations when the money bubble approaches, but the last couple of days, I’ve been running extremely hot. For instance, yesterday on the money bubble, I opened 2.5x the big blind with KsTs and got one caller in the blinds. The flop came KdTd5d… which is an okay flop for my hand. I feel pretty safe with it, but lots of things could go wrong fast. Since the blinds were somewhat large at this point and any reasonable continuation bet might have married me to the pot, I decided to check behind my opponent and take a card off… and it was a beauty.. the Tc, giving me a full house and nothing to worry about. My opponent bet $200 into me and I decided just to call since I didn’t think he was all that strong. The river was a blank and he bet a weakish $200 again and I shoved on him. He called me instantly and showed AdJd for a flopped nut flush. Definitely wasn’t expecting that. Sorry for ya!

Hands of note from today:

I limp in LP with 6d4d and the flop comes T64. One of the limpers bets $50 and I decide to make it $225 to go. He immediately shoves on me for about $600ish. Not much to worry about here. I’d be pretty unlucky to run into 66 or 44 since half of those cards are already accounted for. Although I see some people limp in with TT, I didn’t think that was an option either… and T6 and T4 are pretty absurd holdings, so I insta-call and he tables JT and I hold.

I have K7os in the big blind with blinds at 50-100 and check it with 4 people in the pot. Checks to me on a flop of 743, with two clubs. I fire out $300 and get one caller. He’s not the type of person that plays small cards when the blinds get large, so I put him on a flush draw and shove it all in when a 6 hits on the turn. He instantly calls off about $1300 and I’m already heading towards the exit door before he flips over his hand. Then I see that he’s tabling an AJ with no draw and I’m like “what the fuck?” Then he proceeds to berate me for my play and acts like I’m the one that was making the mistake and he CAUGHT me. “I knew you didn’t have it.” Yeah, I don’t have the straight, but I got a 7, you fucking dummy. Then I get comments like “yeah, I started with the AJ and he sucked out on me with the K7.” Yeah, man, should’ve just chucked my cards in the muck from the big blind instead of seeing a free flop. My bad yo. Then I had to watch in horror as a 5 peeled off on the river and put a straight on the board, making it a split pot. Pretty frustrating, but funny nonetheless.

I open with KQ to 250 with blinds at 50-100… someone shoves on me for 600 and I make the easy call. He shows QQ and heads for the exit when the board comes AJxxT. Goodbye!

Blinds at 200-400… a loose, passive player limps UTG and I have A7 on the button and hesitate for a while before deciding that I need to ship it with my stack size. The small blind only has 300 left and calls, but the big blind and limper fold. The SB shows JJ, but the flop comes 77x and I hold.

5 people left, blinds @ 200-400, I open with KJ UTG to 1000 with 2500 in my stack. Folds to my buddy in the SB, who ships it for 2600. I don’t want to make the call cause I know I’m beat, maybe even dominated, but I got 40% of my stack in the pot already, the blinds are going to eat up another $600 in the next two hands, and I’m getting 2.5 pot odds, all of which make folding a pretty stupid option. I call, he shows TT and the flop comes Kxx, all diamonds, giving me the lead, but him a flush draw. I hold and now I got a nice size stack.

My buddy gets his $100 leftover up to $900 when he shoves it all in in front of me, I look down at my first card and it’s an ace, so I know I’m calling already, but then I look at the 2nd card and see another ace and make it 2000 to go. The BB goes all-in and my aces hold against Q2 and Ts9s.

Now we are three handed and usually someone will ask for money back in this spot.. but I probably would’ve disagreed since he only had about 1500 and the blinds were at 200-400… it just wouldn’t make much sense. I shove on him and he calls me dominated and I hold.

HU now. We have roughly even chip stacks and I have him slightly covered. I’m shocked that he doesn’t ask for a chop, but I’m glad that he doesn’t… cause I’d always rather play it out and take my chances. First hand HU, I pick up AT and make it 1500 to go. He hesitates for a bit and finally says “alright, let’s do this” and ships it in the middle. I instacall and cry a little inside when he shows AK. The flop comes 933, the turn is a 5, and I’m calling for a 9 or a 5 for a split, but instead a beautiful ten rolls off on the river and I take down my second straight first place.

+$130 yesterday, +$145 today = +$275 last two days

Looking to make it three in a row at 6pm tonight.