With only 5 players, (Me [button], Shawn, Manish, Sentil, Venkat) I started the evening with some aggresive semi-bluffs and took the first 2 pots. Then, after sensing weakness, pushed all-in on two pair (K3AA on the board) against Venkat. With a rags kicker, he wisely laid down his hand. I had pocket QQs against Shawn’s Ax one hand and the Queens stood up. Then, in the big blind, I checked with 5h6h. Flop came out AhAc6d and Manish bet 400 which I thought was a bit low if he had the A and called. Unfortunately for me, Manish did indeed have an Ace. Fortunately for me, he checked to me on the turn Qh, probably hoping for a check-raise, but I checked to see a river 8h. Manish bet 1k and I wordlessly pushed my sizable stack up on the felt. After asking me if it was an all-in and getting a confirmation, he thought hard and made the right call and called me. He knew the only and that could beat him was the flush, but a set of Aces against a known bluffer was an easy call. What would you have done differently in this situation? Manish quickly rebought back in and we continued play.

Shawn got knocked out and was content to watch the action. With pocket A’s or a pair of face cards, I called Sentil’s all-in with a 625T on the board. He thought about rebuying but decided that it was time to go home. Venkat also rebought. Manish had the unfortunate luck of getting knocked out by me for a second time tonight. He called with top pair with a great kicker, only to have me hit open-ended straight with a flush draw. (Think I hit the straight)

Once again I find myself the chip leader at the final 2, but quickly give up the lead with some poor calls (34suited?!? What was I thinking?). Luckily, Manish dealt me some decent cards and I fought back with 2 quick hands to retake the lead. After being the gentleman and turning down my offer of splitting the pot, Venkat went all in on a K9 (we saw a bunch of these during the last 10 minutes) and I removed him with A8 (T5T38 board?). I’ll have to take him out to lunch Monday.

I still owe last week’s winner $5, so if you guys let me know who it was, I’ll gladly repay his loan.

What a win it was, after starting the game with a bad chase, I gave up almost half my chips to Vivek. After licking my wounds and playing a few choice hands here and there, I had a fighting chance at staying in the game. One hand, I got a big blind special with a T3 , after some hard calls, I was made a set of 3s on the river and took down a sizeable pot. Manish unfortunately was the hand leader with KKs until the river. Some mediocre hands later, with the button on Mike, Sentil was forced all in for 550 at the SB and Manish put in about a quarter of his stack for the 1600 BB. Vivek folded and Fred (thanks for coming Fred, it meant a lot to me) called. Glancing down at my hand, I spotted AA peeking back at me and my heart skipped a few beats. Fighting down my usual urge to jump the gun and push all-in, I put on my best performance and glanced at my cards some more before raising to 3200. Mike was in a tough position and asked if I had an A, I couldn’t look directly at him for fear of giving away my hand strength (Although I did want to tell him not to call). After pushing all-in for ~ 2200, Manish thought a bit and called my raise while Fred folded (can’t blame him with so many people in the pot). The flop came J4K rainbows and Manish checked to me. At this point, I was hoping he had made a pair and pushed all in. Thinking quickly, he called and turned over QT with the open-ended straight draw.

We turned over our cards and both Mike (AT) and Manish (QT) were devastated after seeing my AAs. Sentil had (J4) giving him Jacks up and the chance at continuing. The turn was an uneventful 7, and the river came another K. … Wow. I could hardly believe that the board was so good for me. I win all three pots with my Aces and Kings to take about 90% of the available chips. Let’s take a look real quick at the hand. Manish had an open ended straight, but with Mike’s earlier question of if I had an Ace, he might have concluded that Mike would have one himself or perhaps a K at the least (which my Ace would have beaten). With my two Aces and Mikes, Manish had only 5 outs. We also learned later that Fred folded the other Ace. Mike had only 4 outs after the flop (3 if you count Manish’s hand) but he was in preflop.

After this monster hand, I threw away an 89 offsuit (which after the rabbit hunt, turned out was a great decision). The very next hand, with Vivek in the SB and Fred in the BB, I called with JT on the button. The flop was Q49, Vivek checked to Fred and I raised. Vivek called all-in and Fred folded his pair. I called with the open-ended straight and Vivek turned over J7 (it was either a 7 or 9). The turn was a 4 and the river completed my straight with a K. At this point, I had 95%-97% of the chips and Fred graciously surrendered to take second place.

What a game to remember huh? See you all next time!

-Huey

Stay tuned for next week’s update, we’ll try to track the winners here.

The action started fast as pot contentions got heated. Manish and Shawn built up quick leads as their stacks grew. My hands were all rags and grew steadily worse until a moment when an AK off suit landed in my hands. That being the best hand I’d seen all night, I pushed all in to be called by Gaurav’s pocket TT. The board came rags and I was forced to concentrate on dealing. After a few hands of dealing, I was able to convince the others to allow me to rebuy since I was dealer.

First bust outs came from Mike, followed by me. After my rebuy, my hands improved and I was able to participate in a few hands. I won a few small pots and started getting mediocre hands like A8 quite a lot. On one such hand, the flop came 7A7, Gaurav bet and I called (Anyone else still in at this point?). After the turn of K, Gaurav bet again and after thinking it thru, I figured he didn’t have the 7 and pushed all in. We turned over our cards, and Gaurav showed KJ (I think it was a J), so my A8 was in solid command. After a river of 4, I took the pot. Another tense hand was Manish’s early all-in followed by folds around the table to Senthil. He thought for quite a while and finally decided to call. (Ok, I actually forgot what happend here. I think they both had AQs but that was Manish and Shawn. Manish had a flush possibility but it didn’t pan out. I think Senthil’s hand held up and he lightened up Manish’s monster stack a bit). On another hand, the flop came xxA and everyone checked. On the turn, a Q came and I was holding QJ off suit. Not thinking too much of my kicker (well it was ok here since the only other one possible was the K [else whoever had the A's would be betting]), I checked and everyone else followed suit. The river showed a 7. I made a bet and Vivek called with 78 having made his pair on the river (or he bet and I pushed all in with him calling). I think at this point, we were down to 5 players, Senthil, Manish, Shawn, Vivek, and myself. Senthil pushed all-in on a KQ?? (my memory is really foggy on this hand, so if you remember what cards we had, please leave it in a comment and I will update this piece), Shawn and I both called with chips to spare. After the flop, Shawn checked and I pushed my remaining chips in. There was an A on the board, but by now Shawn was pretty much pot commited and he made the crying call. I turned over my Ax and knocked out Senthil and Shawn simultaneously. After Vivek got knocked out, Manish and I decided to split the 1st and 2nd spots because I was late for a date with my wife. Although I had a huge chip lead (19k to 5k?), I have never done well in heads up matches so it saved me the embarrassment of seeing Manish come back and take 1st.

Thanks to Manish, Vivek and a spectator? for helping to clean up the table and chips.

If anyone remembers it differently or know parts I left out, please add a comment so we can look back on it in the future.

There are some good books on poker on my Hold’em poker page. I will put up some more helpful hints for poker soon.

Play Online Poker for FREE

Upsets were many as lucky flops and rivers helped the gamblers turn their fortunes. A noteable hand was Nam’s all in (A6) called by Huey with (QQ). The flop showed xAA giving Huey a bleak outlook for victory and allowed Nam to double up. Dav had a great luck with hole cards, receiving 3 pocket KKs during the evening. Unfortunately he was beat by flops and lucky rivers two of the three times. Yajie built up a quick chip lead with pocket TT and pocket JJs, flopping a set both times to lighten up a few players stack. Her luck ran out however at the final 3, losing with an AQ to Selvin’s JT. Selvin made a set of Js, crippling Yajie’s chances at the number 1 spot. For the first time in recent memory, Mike M. held out against great odds, making a few great lay downs against Selvin’s aggressive raising and survived to take number 2 for his efforts.

Notably missing from the action was Manish B. A regular and one-time 1st place finisher was MIA and was sorely missed. Shawn S. was also missing but did make an appearance during mid-game and teased us with a few slices of pizza. Bring a whole box next time. You can probably scalp the chip leaders.

We’ll see you all at the next game scheduled Apr. 26th for the 5th MCSOP game. For those of you craving more action and intrigue, a Friday evening sit and go has been known to form on MC1-5. [ $5 buy-in 1 rebuy/addon at the end of the third round ]

One last note, anyone wishing to play online and improve their skill can try at FullTiltPoker.com. They have daily free roll tournaments for seats at this years WSOP. You’ll have to win against a very large field but it’s free!

During the sign up process, if you need to enter a promo code, use “15FREEBUCKS”. I’ll give you $15 for real money tournament play.

Play Online Poker for FREE