The Beau Part 1

I went play at the Beau Rivage Tuesday and Wednesday. My original plans were to make it over there by 4pm Tuesday to play the $550 Mega Satellite. I did make it by 4pm, but due to the TOTAL lack of sleep, I decided to try to take a nap and play the $200 second chance tournament at 7pm. Joe had a room there so I decided to sleep from about 4:45 to 6:00. I wanted to sleep till about 7 but Joe called me at 6 and told me that He, Andy, Ken, and Jay were planning to eat the buffet at 6:30. I said "what the hell" and joined them. I went register for the tournament and didn't start eating until about 6:45. So I figured to be a little late for the tourney, but that's fine.



184 people registered. I showed up to the tourney at 7:15 and I had 3925 of my 4000 starting stack. Sweet. And by 7:30 I'd have about 15k. Very early on I caught A-A. Raised preflop. Got a couple of callers. The flop came down K-5-4. I bet, everyone folded to one guy who min-raised me. I just called. The turn was garbage. I check and he bet. I just called again. I'm figuring at this point he has K-Q or something similar.. Maybe a set of 5's or 4's. The river paired the board 4's. I decided to bet here. If he's got a king he's likely to just call. And if he boated up he'll raise and I know where I stand. I'm gonna call a reasonable bet here anyway, I may as well bet and win another bet if he does have a king. He called and I realized I got lucky on the river. He called my raise preflop with K-5 and flopped 2 pair. Sick game isn't it?



Not long after, I'm dealt Ac7c in late position. A bunch of limpers to me and I join the crowd. We see a flop 6 or 7 handed. Flop comes down Qc6c4c. Nnnooottt too shabby. But here's where my brilliant play comes in(yeah right). The guy in the SB is relatively short shoves all-in. He actually has a descent little stack and I'm happy I'll get some action at least. That is until a couple of people fold to another guy who shoves in a bigger stack. Wow.. Now to me.... umm, I'm all-in too. The best part about this hand is the hands they show. All three of us flopped a flush. So barring a backdoor straight flush, they're drawing dead. The SB just happened to flop a flush and they're isn't much he can do about it. But the other guy limped from EP/MP with Jc3c. He deserved to go broke.



Well in 15 minutes I tripled my stack. Due completely to being slapped in the face by the deck. I've had this happen to me before. In the first hour I build a big stack, and then reality hits. the poker gods say, "OK son, I've given you a few monsters.. Now you're completely on your own!" Because for the longest time, I caught nothing. I mean nothing. Everyone is now chipping up and I'm getting closer and closer to average. I don't remember too many hands during this stretch. I raised once with Qs-4s. Got one caller. Flop came Ks-Kd-Js. Check, check. Turn is a 9. He checks, I bet, I win. Another hand a guy raises preflop 3x's the blind and it folds to me in the BB with 10h-8h. I call. Flop came 8-high. I check call. Check the rest of the way and my 8 is good.



Nothing exciting happened for a while. I raised with Ac5c. And got reraised all-in by the button. I was getting about 3-1. Plus I still had a big stack relative to his. I thought for a while then called. And he gives me a slowroll type of comment. He says, "If you called, you're good." I shake my head and say, "I just have a little ace." And show my hand. He says, "Me too." I'm thinking, PLEASE have A-4 lol. And a second later he flips over A-K. I mean WTF? I took a while to call a somewhat small bet. Finally when I do, he says if you call you're good? I took that damn long and finally called with a hand better than A-K? Lol well he got what he deserved when I spiked a 5 on the turn and sent him packing.. get it in bad baby!



Some kinda way we got down to 3 tables. Our table was pretty tight. I didn't play much either. Occasionally taking down blinds. Then we got down to 2 tables. And we're in the money. They "paid" the top 18. I wrote paid in quotations because 18th-9th got less than 1k. So needless to say, I'm trying to come out top 4 minimum. Our table was tight again. I'm still not catching shit. I caught Ah-Qh in the BB but folded to a raise and reraise. I caught 10-10 from UTG+1. But the UTG player limped?! This guy knew what he was doing. I didn't know what to do. So I just limped too. It when limped around. The flop came out Ace high. The blinds checked and the UTG bets. I fold. If I wasn't behind preflop, I'm surely beat now. He won the pot and told me he limped with a monster. He didn't have an ace. So my guess in KK or QQ.



3 of the 4 players behind me(including Monkey) were playing pretty tight. I have only played with Monkey once before. Mainly due to the fact that I played 7 tourney's all of last year (3 second chance tournaments in Tunica, 2 Venetian tournaments in Vegas, and 2 tournaments at the IP). I played with him in a second chance tournament in Tunica. At that table we did a 5 way $4500 chop and played for a little more for 1st. That was my first Monkey experience. He's definitely a character. I can see how he could get under some people's skin. But if you know how to take him, he's great to have at the table(for entertainment value).

If I caught anything OK in late position, I could probably get away with a steal. That would prove to be more difficult than I thought. I did steal a few blinds/antes with 3 and 2 tables left. Mostly with weak aces. Well I'm starting to become average in chips and I'm ready to get some chips. 18th through 10th pays crap. Well everyone folds to me in late position and finally I catch 9s7s. That's right, finally LoL. Well I raise it up. Monkey folds, button folds. And the tight SB raises. SOB! The BB folds and it's back to me. This guy was one the the tightest players left. I actually contemplated shoving in. I know he's gonna call. But If he has A-K or A-Q I'm not in horrible shape. If I happen to hit the board, I'm one the the chip leaders. Oh well, I'm a pussy. I fold. He purposely but discretely shows me 2 black aces. Unbelievable. Good timing Matt.

I made a bad call later. This young black guy was drunk as shit. You can read more about him on Monkey's blog. Long story short, it folded to him on the button and he shoved. I called from the BB with A-9 and he actually shows A-Q. I lost a nice chunk there. Not much too much else to talk about. I got short and doubled up when Monkey raised and I found AK suited in the BB. But I was still kinda short and just failed to pick up anything. Eventually I went bust in 11th place, which paid a tremendous $431. I played 8 hours, outlasted 174 people and made $231. Yuck. I tipped the dealers $30 and got the hell downstairs.

Oh well, I had a good time. Played a tournament(something I should probably do a little more of in 2009). Got to drink 4 of Monkey's Red Snappers. And showed a small profit. My next post will be able my 2-5NLHE session the next day.