The gods have spoken

The gods have spoken. No more poker tournaments at Fallsview this week for me. I decided to parlay my table winnings back into the dreaded satellites for the $5,000 Main Event.

I made it to Stage 3 whereby the top two places (from ten) win an entry. We got down to four good players – Matt, in seat 8, Vince in seat 2, me in seat 4, and Steve in seat 6.

This one went quite a bit longer than my earlier experiences, we got through blinds as high as $300/$600/$100 with only $20,000 chips in play.

I was able to double up off Vince at a key point when he shoved me all in with an aggressive suited 107 in the small blind, after the other two had folded. I was looking at A5 suited.

I figured Vince thought I was pretty tight, having laid down an AK pre flop earlier when the action got too hot. (That was a good laydown insomuch as I was up against 99 and KK, but bad insomuch as the flop contained an Ace and I could have taken out two players at that time – including Matt – who ended up being one of the two winners)

I was pretty sure he would steal from me with a wide range of hands. Feeling fatalistic, I called, and was gratified to see I had a reasonable shot against 107. We were both suited in diamonds.

The flop included a 98, so now Vince was looking to hit an open ended straight, but nothing came, and I survived.

I needed that double up and I began to play some real poker with more chips at my disposal, and accumulated some more. I may even have been chip leader when I picked up JJ on the dealer button with the blinds $200/$400/$75.

I raised to $1,400 and Matt shoved all in from the big blind. He had about $2,000 chips fewer than I did. Seemed like an automatic call from me, so I did. He turned over A2 offsuit, so my pair looked good.

Until the flop was Ace 2 Ace !! That’s right, Matt flopped a full house from nowhere. And to make the story even more spectacular, an Ace came on the river, and his quad Aces beat my full house of Aces and Jacks.

What a spectacular hand – but not for me. Had I won the hand, for sure I win my entry into tomorrow's main event.

I hung in for several more orbits, but had to make a move soon with the blinds so big. I went out fourth when Steve’s pocket 4’s bested my Q8 offsuit when I was in the big blind.

That left three roughly even stacks till Steve and Vince mixed things up with an open-ended straight draw for Vince against bottom pair for Steve. When the board ran dry, Vince joined me on the rail. He’s going back in for one more crack at it, but not me - there will be plenty of tourneys in my future.

I have been railbirding a bit at the $2,500 tournament - which is down to only two tables now. Continuing where he left off last night, Gavin Smith (now from Las Vegas but originally a Guelph lad) is steam rolling over his table and has a huge stack.