Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Satellite

Golden West Casino
Buy-In: $175
Chips: 10k
Blinds: 30 Minutes

Now this is my kind of tournament! Deep stack, long blinds, and a hefty prize. There were 90 entrants, half of the field won their way into it, as did myself. Right before we hear "shuffle up and deal" they announce Humberto Brenes will be playing in todays tournament, and you get a free seat at the Venetian deep-stack tournament in February for eliminating him.

As far as my table appeared it was a lot of the local sharks, a couple decent players, two fairly bad players, and myself. Within the first hour I had some excellent reads on two players. One player in particular, seated at seat 4, had a tell that was a dead giveaway. He always held one hand over his cards with his fingers surrounding each corner, and the closer they were to the bet line, the weaker his hand was, the closer it was to his body, the stronger. I figured he did this unknowingly, kept his hand close to the bet line in order to quickly muck his garbage if one were to raise. By the third blind (hour and a half of playing) I was chip leader, especially after scooping a stack with quad aces.

I kept playing small ball poker from there, I did a good job of not risking too much of my stack in unnecessary hands. At about the 10th level, they break a table and sit a new player at seat 10. From the get go I had a bad feeling about him, he sat down with about as many chips as I had, and I noticed he was calling almost every hand to see a flop, "I have to take advantage of this" I thought. In the BB I am dealt AK, I raise he calls, flop misses me, he bets 10 BB, I fold. Next hand I get dealt AK once again, I make it 4 BB, and once again he calls, flop misses me, I take a stab at it and he re-raises I muck my hand face up (on accident).

At this point I am feeling annoyed, is he playing position on me? Am I playing too tight around him? So I figure next time I have okay hand, and position on him I planned to expose his constant bluffing. I get dealt A9 on the button. I raise 8 BB (knowing he was going to be the only one who called) which he did. Flop misses me 2 - 6 - 8 rainbow. He opens for 3 BB, I smell something funny here, I then re-raise him 10 BB. He takes about a minute to call, I know what to do now, I taste blood in the water. As the turn comes I don't even look at the card, I just stare at him, he looks worried as he checks it to me, I notice the turn is a 9, I'm in better shape now,  I open for 5 BB just to confuse him even further, he calls, now I get nervous. "What in the world can he be holding?" I ponder. His betting pattern makes no sense, I come to the conclusion it must be a draw. River is a King and I shove , he then says "Aww crap!" and seems worried about the K on the river. He then says , "Well if you got me, you got me but I have to call" and turns over K2o. That's right, K2 off-suit. He risked his entire tournament life not only on a terrible hand, but bottom pair.

Of course I get heated and leave not wanting to make eye contact. I still can't believe I am getting eliminated from almost every tournament by amateurs with good luck.

Today is the day!

Today Golden West Casino is hosting their Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure satellite at 2:15pm. The buy-in would of been $175, but I won my seat back in Oct. Win or lose I will blog my outcome.

Friday 2/17

Golden West Casino - Friday morning NL tournament

Buy-in: $25
Rebuys: $0

At the beginning of this particular tournament, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I recognized at least 3 players at my table I would consider top-tier. As hard as I tried to stay out of their pots, I couldn't help myself. One particular hand panned out quite interestingly: I'm on the button, the cutoff raises two BB, everybody folds and I call with Q-Js. Flop comes 3-9-Q. Cut-off opens for 2 BB, I re-raise him to 5 BB, he then says "I'm sick you re-raising me, how about this!" and re-raises to 10 BB. I quickly fold my hand face up in hopes he would show me what I then put him on. Sure enough he shows me his pocket 3's. What gave this away was his outburst, I had not been involved in a hand with this player yet, so his comment made no sense to me other than try to provoke a call from me.

I build a fairly decent stack well into the 7th level. Just a lot of small ball pot scooping. I wasn't sure when my table image went from tight to loose, but players began calling me down like madmen. Which I didn't mind at first, I wasn't in a lot of pots without the strongest hand. Unfortunately this opened the floodgates for me to receive a ton of bad beats. Three in fact, all within the same level, from three different players, and all bad calls on their parts. To sum it up, here's how my last hand went down: I look down at Q's UTG. Raises to 5 BB, which is called by two other players. The board is all blanks 4-9-8. I open for about 10 BB, a giant raise, only one calls. Turn is a 6. I shove all-in and the only player left calls. He turns over J7o. Yes you heard me correctly, Jack-Seven off-suit. The river is a 10 of hearts and I am eliminated by a borderline retard.

Alan Jackson wants me dead

Golden West Casino - Friday morning NL tournament

Buy-In: $25
Rebuys: $0

During the second level, a player at seat 1 just figured it was time to go home and began pushing all-in every hand without looking. The maniac takes out two players and quickly becomes chip lead. I look down at A2o on the button and shove, of course he calls with 64s. I hit two pair on the flop and quickly gain tourney chip lead.

I maintain this chip lead well into the 8th level, from there things begin to go wrong. Our table breaks, I arrive at the new table, at the cut-off with AJs. I raise, BB shoves and it's only 2k more to call (my stack was at 27k). She shows AK and doubles up through me. Next hand I get AJo, make the same raise, the same player shoves again. I really shouldn't of called but we were getting very close to final table at this point (20 players left). I call, she has AQ this time. All blanks and cripples my stack. The very next hand I get pockets nines with not much left and shove, everybody folds but her who snap calls me and turns aces over. Thus, it took her three hands to bust me.

Just a quick note...

For future reference, when I describe action in tournaments I will be using these labels for "types of opponents".

Rock – Very tight

Loose – Calls frequently

Fish – Inexperienced

Maniac – Loose and wild

Rooster – Cocky, usually aggressive

Average – Normal player

Donkey – Idiot player

That way it's easier to understand.

Golden West Announces the PCA Satellite Date!

Saturday December 18th 2:15 PM

Buy-In: $175

First place gets a seat in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure with buy-in, hotel and airfare.


I already won my seat into this satellite by taking down a Friday morning tournament. Thank god, that $175 buy-in is a little steep.