Bad Beats: Road Trip

So a few of the boys decided to spend some time indoors this weekend playing in the 69ers semi-annual poker tournament. Representing our league were MoeCephus, McDaddy, Hirp, Porqchop and the 69ers.

If memory serves, the New Years Day game earlier this year featured somewhere around 50 players. When all the 4x4s had finally stopped streaming in, the count for the mid-year tournament rounded out closer to 20 players. Even with a $50 buy-in, this wasn’t creating the size pot that most people made the trek out to Southern Johnson County for, so the host decided to make some on-the-fly modifications to the tournament.

The format ended up being something along the lines of:

$50 buy-in for $2,500 in chips

$20 re-buy for $1,000 chips if you dropped below $1,000 in chips in the first hour (unlimited)

$20 add-on available to all players at the first color-up after an hour

Blinds moved in 25 minute increments

Blinds started at $10/$25 & topped out at $2,000/$4,000 for heads-up play

While the low starting chip total and smaller player count may create the perception that this was a tight, slow-moving game… it was anything but that (at least at my table). The way the re-buy and add-ons were structured enticed loose, exciting play. We had two virtual all-ins on the first hand (each player ended-up with 75% of their chips in the pot), with MoeCephus coming out on top. Same thing happened on the second had with Porqchop ending up getting raked over the coals.

I started the hand with Q-Q pre-flop, raising the hand on the button with only one caller coming in outside of a blind. The blinds were only $10/$25, so I was hoping for some action at this point. Flop comes 5-7-9 rainbow, so while there’s a low straight on the board, there’s no flush. The pre-flop caller bets into me for a moderate amount, so I call. Turn comes Jack, giving me a pretty good feeling about my Queens. Pre-flop caller bets into me again. I re-raise, he calls. Intriguing. Did he call my pre-flop raise with 6-8 suited? No. Did he call with 8-10? Not likely. Was he slow playing an over-pair with $10/$25 blinds? Not at this game. I think the river was a 2 or a 3, nothing that impacted either or our hands. Player bets $1,000, I call but I’m not feeling as good about my hand at this point. Turns out he flopped three 5s, and it was already time for my first re-buy.

As I struggled to get any additional starting cards and didn’t’ hit a single flop, I had one additional re-buy and was forced to also pony-up for an add-on so as not to come in short stacked after the first break. It was Binion’s all over again.

Things changed a bit after the first color-up. I started making some moves and pulling back some decent pots. Aside from MoeCephus and the Niners, I hadn’t played with the majority of these guys before. When I wasn’t called, I didn’t show my cards. The table talk began and everyone started prognosticating as to how I was coming to be the chip leader at the table. I remained silent and pulled down pot after pot for a satisfying 45-minute period. When it came time to combine tables, Hirp and Porqchop were the chip leaders (Hirp had taken McDaddy out slightly shy of making the final seating).

Things started out all right at the final table, with none of the Beats really gaining or losing any ground. As we ground down from ten to six players however, play tightened up, and a few of us started falling victim to the larger blinds in play. The payout for the afternoon included the top five players, and no one wanted to be “Bubble Boy.”

Turns out myself and the player on my left hip ended up getting ground down to the point that one of us was likely going to be pushed out by blinds if we didn’t’ get a decent hand soon. And unfortunately, the player on my left also had me chipped by about $1,000.

The next big blind was going to put me all-in, and I was looking at Q-6 off suit. My gut was telling me that a better hand was coming up, so I dumped my cards and was putting all my tournament/comeback hopes on the fact that the next hand would be a bit brighter (that and the fact that two other players had made a big pre-flop raise). Turns out I would have lost that hand, and finished just out of the money.

So my fate lies on the hand to come, with the chip leader on my right hip and another bubble player on my left. I had advertised that I folded Q-6 on the last hand in hopes that some of the players would think I might be pulling a lil’ something here. Turns out everyone folds to the chip leader who only has to call $500 on top of his $1,000 hand to put me all-in in the blind. Chip leader folds. I flip over my cards and rake the pot as the table talk ensues asking why the hell he didn’t call and knock me out (everyone wants to be in the guaranteed money you know). Turns out the chip leader thought that the short stack on my left had pushed all-in and was covering me, but that wasn’t the case.

Thus begins Porqchop’s journey back from a lone big blind, to finishing second in the money. Let the “he really knows how to work a short stack” jokes fly!

Turns out short-stack to my left ended up going out sixth and chip leader to my right ended up finishing fifth (a run of bad cards a dose of tilt contributed greatly to this). MoeCephus and Hirp had made nice comebacks at this point as well, relegating another player to fourth, and pushing three Bad Beats players to the top three spots.

Hirp was chip leader at this point with more than double my chips. MoeCephus was short stacked at about $7,000. Hirp and I both put MoeCephus all-in on a hand, Hirp pulled back the chips.

So the night’s looking to end with Hirp and Chop heads-up (once again), with Hirp having me triple-chipped and looking good to pull down some serious coin. I don’t believe there are two other players in the league that have played as much heads-up as the two of us. Even at a triple disadvantage, I felt pretty good about my chances. I mean, who am I kidding, by all rights… I should have been out sixth!

Hirp and I dig our heels in and play our typical grind/push/pull-style. At one point, I think I took the chip lead, but for the most part we seesawed back and forth with a lot of chips in play at any given point.

The night came to an end on a 7-9-10 flop (similar to the one that almost ended my night earlier). I was playing Q-9 suited and bet out on the flop, Hirp raises, I re-raise we both end up all-in. Turns out Hirp was playing 9-10 off-suit, and I was looking to a suck-out to bring me back. It didn’t come.

So the night ends (amounts approximate):

Hirp - $660
Porqchop - $340
MoeCephus - $180
Random Guy – $80
69ers - $50 (I could have fourth and fifth places reversed)

When the dust settled, the Bad Beats showed quite well on their first road trip for 2006. Or as Hirp has said, “We kept or rep bros. “

For more on this from Hirp’s perspective, visit Hirp.com.