The Dragon was slain in Oklahoma, Team Tunica claims the kill

Me and Donald actually drew the same table for the $1070 NL and not only that, he drew seat 8 I drew seat 9 so we're sitting next to each other. We signed up several hours apart too which was pretty funny. It was a well structured event, 6000 starting chips, 25/25 blinds and 40 minute rounds. We had David "The Dragon" Pham at our table and he's a well known tournament circuit pro. Very aggressive, and very tricky is the general consensus. I've never played with him but I was happy to see him at my table as I enjoy watching pros play. What I noticed was a few people making some total bonehead plays trying to outplay him and basically donating chips to him instead, and he chipped up from 6000 to 8000 in the first level without any showdowns.

I'm still at 6000 when I play my first major hand, I pick up QQ in the 25/50 round, I limp in UTG+1. A guy in middle position pops it to $325 a big raise which means a pretty big hand from this guy, David calls on the button, I elect to just call. Flop is Q97 with two spades. I check. Original raiser bets $600, "The Dragon" makes it $1200. I'm out of position on a very drawy board so I chose to make it $3500. Original raiser tanks and folds, "The Dragon" pushes all-in, I call obviously. He has middle set of 9's for a total cooler flop. I fade the 9 and double up to 12k leaving him with 2k.

He runs his chips back up to about 3200-3400 and then he calls another raise in late position, Donald calls out of the blind. Flop is AK5. Donald checks, orig. raiser bets, the Dragon raises, Donald reraises, the Dragon shoves... Donald calls. A5 top and bottom pair for the Dragon, 55 and a set of 5's for Donald. Another cooler flop. Donald puts the finishing touch into slaying the Dragon and Team Tunica emerges victorious from the fierce battle with the pros. Don't mess with us down in Tunica, aight? We'll fuck you up.

Disclaimer: We may need to flop a totally superior hand to your great hand (aka: a cooler) and have you commit your chips with three outs or less, but if these terms are met, we will fuck you up.

Donald finds a way to spew his chips and I get AA somewhere in the 100/200 round, I open for a standard 600 raise, super uber tight guy makes it 1500 out of the blind, I make it 4000, he moves in, I call. He has KK. Easy game. I fade the K and I'm up around 20k. Donald busts shortly after on a coinflip when he actually ends up having 18 outs on the turn flushdraw, overcards and a gutshot against the guys pocket fives but he misses and goes out. I win some smaller hands and get up to about 28k when a lady gets moved to my table with a mound of chips. The average in the tournament is somewhere around $14000 and I'm twice average so I have a good stack and she has me well covered. She wins her first two hands then doesn't play another hand for the remainder of the 100/200 level.

On the 200/400 level we're about to go to break, the very last hand before the break when she opens for $1200. I call with 99. Flop is 9-6-6. Hey, I'm running ok, whaddayasay? She bets $2000, I just call. Turn is a 2. She says "I'm all-in.". Wow, I call. She says "Damn!" and tables JT. No pair, no draw... I win a 56k chip pot very last hand before the break and spend about 8 of the 10 minutes on break stacking my chips.

I cruise along and we're down to 4 tables or so, I get up to about 80k chips. With three tables left, I get AA again, someone else has KK AGAIN. I AM THE COOLER KING, HEAR ME ROAR! I bust him too and I'm at 130k. I pick up some blinds and antes and I peak at 168k with two tables left. Top 18 pays and we're about to get to the final table bubble when I raise KJ of hearts to 10000 playing 1500/3000. A lady in the BB is shortstacked and pushes allin for 15k more. I call, she has AA and she holds. I lose another couple small pots and we are down to the final table. I come into the final table about 6th out of 10 in chips with 114k.

Payouts are something along the lines of
1st: 58k
2nd: 34k
3rd: 23k

You have to finish 5th or better to make more than 10k

Brant, who is a friend of mine I've met about a year ago at this very tournament was at the final table also and me and him play the first pot I'm involved in. I'm at right over 100k when he raises to 15000 playing 2000/4000 in the hijack (two off the button). I know he's a loose player, very aggressive and he's playing for first. He's definitely going to raise a very wide range of hands there. I look down at KQ on the button and I just call deciding I'm taking a flop instead of reraising and having him move in some marginal hand, or moving in myself. I don't like moving in 100k so early in the FT even if I think he's raising a wide range, with KQ, so I elect to take a flop. Small blind who has a big stack also calls. Flop is Q-T-6 and small blind checks, Brant immediately announces he's all-in. Damn, this is a predicament.

I sit and think about what to do, asking for a count. He has about 85000 more if memory serves, I had something like 97k left and would've been screwed if I call and lose. I doubt he'd be tricky enough to move in with a set here, I was thinking he might actually be tricky enough to move in with KK or AA cause there's like 60k in the pot and he has 85k or so. He'd get looked up light. I was trying to figure out what to do and I was taking my time when he asks me "Do you have a pair yet?" I said, "Do you?" and he just grins. I started thinking man, does he have KJ or maybe AK? I definitely thought I was ahead after he said that, and I said call. He tables KJ, turn another Q and river a blank and I get up to around 215k or so and I'm the chipleader again of the tournament. I'm feeling great and I plan to play a good, solid game.

Only a few hands later, I raise up 44 in the cutoff to 12k, big blind defends. Flop 9-7-4 with two diamonds and I'm loving it. He checks, I bet 10000, he immediately says all-in. I insta-call, he tables AQ of diamonds for the nutflushdraw. Diamond on the turn, and he jumps up screaming "Yeah! Yeah!" and I'm thinking to myself you fucking ass, there's another card left, if there's any karma in poker the board needs to pair on the turn and send your pre-celebrating ass home. But alas, another diamond comes on the river that doesn't pair the board and I lose about a 230k pot. I'm still left with 100k after the hand, but if I win that one I have a gigantic chiplead on everybody and I think something major would have to happen to fuck it up and go out anythign but top 3. I'm very very disappointed but I'm not feeling tilty, I'm very focused and I think I still have a shot to win it back.

A few orbits later, I blind down some, then open A4 of clubs to 15k, guy on my left immediately reraises to 50k and I fold. I'm now down to 75k. I blind off two more orbits down to 60k. Blinds are up to 2500/5000 with a 500 ante. It folds to me on the button, I look down at T-6 of spades. I'm way last in chips, there's 7 left and the guy in 6th has twice my stack, although all of them are hovering around 140k. I shove in to pick up the blinds, big blind tanks but finally calls with AJ. I have live cards but I brick everything and bust 7th for a very disappointing $7141. Oh well, there's always next time. $58k sure would've been nice. I truthfully would've been happy with anything over $15k but $7k felt pretty bad under the circumstances.

Cash game hands from Tulsa, Oklahoma

We came home from New Orleans and I intended on just relaxing a week or so before it was time to get ready to go to Las Vegas for the World Series. Donald suggested we should go up to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the third incarnation of the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge. I was there last year and I had a good time, so we just made a spur of the moment decision and packed out bags and left for Oklahoma.

The trip started out quite bad for me, I sat down in a $2/5 NL game with $1000, I can't even remember the specific hand but I know I lost to something goofy and I was down a thousand. I rebought another thousand and I flopped a flush vs the nutflush and we get it in on the flop and I lose, drawing dead. I put in another $1000, I run it up to about $1400 when I run into the next big hand. Men "The Master" Nguyen of World Series and TV fame sat down at the $2/5 table as part of the little promotion they got going where you get to play with the pros. He sat down on my right, in seat 7 and I was in seat 8. He was really talkative, drinking his trademark Coronas and pulling out all the quotes "All you can eat, baby!" and all that. He made the whole table just go nuts, everybody wanted to make these big bluffs and big plays and show him the hand, in some strange sense trying to get his approval. Anyway, this one young guy about my age was doing it a lot, he'd raise to like $80 preflop and show 65 off and things like that and talk to Men the whole time. Everybody folds, and he's in the cutoff and he brings it in for $55. He was losing big in the game and he was visibly on tilt too, I decide to just smoothcall with KK. Flop is 842 with two clubs, I have the K of clubs.

I check, he bets $80, I make it $195, he moves all-in immediately no hesitation. I'm like wow, that is strange, I doubt he's doing that with a set. I thought he either had a flushdraw or something like TT-QQ. I call, he flops over 4-2 for bottom two pair. Brick turn and river and I'm stuck right around $2700 in the game. I only have $300 left, not sure whether I'm about to rebuy or call it a night. I double up once, then I make a big hand and somebody doubles me again and I'm right above $1200 now and I'm feeling like maybe I can make a comeback.

I play a few hands with Men Nguyen, three that I can remember in specific. He was playing a lot of hands but he was playing them well, he was winner in the game and definitely not just giving away money. It made it more fun to play with him. One hand, I raised it with 99, he calls the $30. Flop Q-8-3 two diamonds, he checks, I bet $40, he makes it $140, I call. Turn is another diamond, he bets $325 and I fold.

The next hand I play with him, I call his raise with 87. Flop K85 two clubs. He bets $120 into the $120 pot. I call. Turn an offsuit 3, he bets $325. He bet so big and so fast, I just somehow thought my 8 might be good and he was trying to run me over. I called, river is low club. He checks. I decide incase I'm wrong and he has a king or something like 99 or TT I better make a bet, because I don't think he can call and I'm sure he doesn't have clubs. I bet $600, he folds.

I'm still stuck a decent bit in the game and then I play a big pot with an aggressive, young asian fellow that played pretty good. I called his $40 preflop with T9 of hearts. Flop QJ3 two diamonds, check to him he bets $80, I call. Turn is an offsuit K, I check, he bets $145, I make it $450 and he instantly calls. I put him on a big hand here, like KJ, KQ type hand. River blanks a non diamond and I immediately move all-in. He tanks it forever. I think it was like six or seven minutes although it felt like a lot longer than that. He was asking a couple things here and there, trying to get something out of me. The bet to him was $1300. He thinks and thinks and thinks and eventually he pushes his stack in the middle, I win. I end up cashing out $3700 for $700 winner and I make a decision to play the $1070 no limit that was being played noon the following day and go to bed to play the tournament.

Some cash games hands from New Orleans

I've seen quite a few interesting hands from the $5/10 NL that me and Donald have been playing down here and I'll go through a few of them at random, since I know a couple people (out of the 6 people all in all!) that read the blog likes the poker hands.

An interesting hand from yesterday that I may have misplayed:

I start the hand with about $3700 and my opponent covers me, he's sitting at a little above $5000.
The game is playing quite loose and wild and there's plenty of straddling and pre-flop raises. A loose, asian gambler guy straddles under the gun, one person limps, I raise to $100 with KT of clubs. I get four callers. (Told you this was a wild game)

Flop is Qc 9c 5 and I flop a gutshot with a flushdraw, a pretty big draw. They check to me, I bet $300. The guy who covers me, whom I've played a few hands with raises to $600. I've seen him previously minimum raise once and it was with an open-ended straightdraw and then he checked behind for a freecard on the turn. I have won a few medium sized pots off of him just through aggression and I have yet to show him a hand. The field folds to me and I'm now faced with the decision of raising again and potentially playing the hand all-in if he flopped a set or some such or play it slow. The problem is I am out of position for the hand.

I chose to just call the $300 and see a turn card and re-evaluate. The turn is an 8 for a Q985 board. If he raised flop with JT this is obviously not a good card. I check to him, he bets $600 again. I'm thinking about raising at this point but I'd hate for him to have JT or a set and I have only one card left to go, but I still have a big hand and there's 2300 in the pot and it costs me $600 to call, I chose to call again. River is a T for final board of QT985 and I missed everything but made a pair of tens. I decide there's no point in trying to bluff this and I give up and check, he checks behind with AQ. In retrospect, if I raise the flop big and shove all-in on the turn I probably win the hand, and if I raise the turn to $1500-1800 I might get a fold also. Donald said he thinks the guy might still have called, but we'll never know, I kept having a feeling of that I misplayed the hand for the rest of the night.

Another hand against the same person:

I raise with QJ of diamonds to $60 and two people call. Flop is AJ4 with one diamond, the ace. I continuation bet $125 and he calls again. Turn is a the K of diamonds, giving me the nutflushdraw and a gutshot (gutshot royal, woot!). I keep the aggression of the hand and bet $300, he calls again. River is a Q. AKQJ4 board, I check, he bets $1000. I cannot beat a single hand, even if he is "bluffing" with KJ, KQ or AJ I can't beat it, I have to fold. He shows me a lone queen, and I have a feeling he peeled the flop with a gutshot and hit it on the turn. He did make a comment earlier in the session way before this about loving to play for gutshots because they don't see it coming.

How Donald wins a big pot through some serious skill, it impressed me as I would not have been able to pull it off personally:

Donald raises it in late position to $50 and the same guy who beat me in both previous hands raises to $150 out of the blind, Donald calls. Flop is AQ4 rainbow, the guy bets $200 and D calls. The turn pairs the four putting two clubs on the board which reads AQ44. The original raiser checks, Donald bets $450 leaving only about $220 or so behind. The original raiser puts D all-in and D calls. River blanks and the dealer ships the $2000 pot to Donald who wins it with King high.

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And how did this happen exactly? Because when the guy gets really excited about turning his cards up, he picks them up and fumbles them and one card bounces on the rail and lands in his lap. He immediately goes, "Oh shit!" and the dealer says "It's not on the ground, let me call the floor for a ruling" and he calls the floor over. In the 30 seconds or so it takes to call the floor, the guy is sitting as still as he can trying to make the card not fall out of his lap onto the floor (if the card hits the floor, his hand is ruled dead). The floor comes over and the dealer explains what happened, and the floor immediately says "His hand is dead." The guy goes "But it is not on the floor! It's in my lap!" and the floor once again repeats himself, "Your hand is dead."

The dealer ships the pot to Donald and the guy flips up the other card and puts them both face-up on the table, he had AA. He flopped three aces and turned aces full, Donald had KJ of clubs and he called the flop on a gutshot and turned the nutflushdraw, of course he was drawing dead on the turn but he didn't know that. It was totally sick.

Another fun hand from today:

They do play pretty wild on occasion down here and I had just sat down in a game where this one gentleman was moving all-in a LOT, he was making huge bets left and right and showing down shit hands. Like for instance, one guy would raise to $50, another would call, he would make it $1200 to go and show 9-7. Then another time he checkraised all-in on the turn for a huge bet and showed a gutshot without a pair when the guy folded, everybody were trying to catch this guy.

He raised to $75 in the cutoff, the button called and I called with QT of spades out of the small blind. The flop is QJ5 with two clubs. I check, he bets $250, the guy inbetween folds and I call the $250, not totally ecstatic about my hand realizing I'm about to play a really big pot but I wanted to see what happened on the turn. The turn is a 7 and I check again, he bets $600. I go in the tank thinking if I'm really ready to stack off with QT. I had $1575 starting the hand and I $1250 left after calling the $250 on the flop and the $75 preflop. I sit and think and think about what to do and what he possibly could have when he goes, "Kid, just let it go. I have two pair, if you can't beat two pair then don't call."

So I call.

River is a K for final board of KQJ75. I saw no point in betting even though the K scared me, I was just hoping he was still out on a limb and based on his comment on the turn I thought I was ahead. The K was a really bad card though, but I only had $650 left. I check again. He says "How much you got left kid?" I said "$650.", he said I'm all-in then and pushes all his chips in the middle sloppily. I said "I call." immediately, he says "You win, I can't beat you" and he won't show his hand, I turn up QT and he says that is good and mucks.

He rebuys for $600 and the very next hand he opens for $75 preflop and I call on the button with AK. Flop is A42 and he moves allin for $525. I call... turn 9 river K I make top two (probably didn't need it) and he says "You win again" before I even turn my hand over. I show AK, he mucks and leaves the table.

The table starts telling me what a lucksack I am, except one older guy who said "Give him a break, he earned it with the first hand", haha. I guess being a nutty calling station works in my favor sometimes!

A long overdue update

I just quit updating this blog for no apparent reason, a lot of things have happened since last I updated the blog. I moved out of the apartment with Chris and moved into a 3 bedroom house with Donald and Austin. It is a great house and it is working out really well so far, we converted the garage into a ping-pong battleground and have been playing many hours of ping-pong lately. If anybody around the Tunica area is half-ass decent at ping-pong so I can get some competition and not have to play these scrubs, give us a call.

I've been playing a lot of live poker lately, with some success. The end of April turned around the poor start of the month and I'm hoping to keep on the momentum all through the WSOP in the summer. I'm currently down in New Orleans with Donald for the WSOP Circuit Event, I've only played one event so far, he's played two and we haven't done any good yet. I've been doing pretty well in the cash games though so it's all good so far.

The plan is to stay here until Friday and then go home for a couple of weeks and then go to Las Vegas early June.

I'll put some pictures up on the blog later of the new house and some of New Orleans.

New Orleans WSOPC Event #1 $550

I haven't updated the blog in a while and I'll do some general updating soon, I just need to write down this tournament report while it is fresh in my memory.

$550 buyin, 2k start chips, 25/25 starting blinds and 50 minute levels.

I start at a great table, I identified one other player that even seemed like he had played a tournament before rest were totally clueless. I decided to play really tight early on as with these levels there was really no need to gamble up too much. I raise AK after a few limpers up to 175 early and take it down with a c-bet on the flop against a single opponent, that was the first pot I won.

I chip up to about 2900 just raising and c-betting flops with AK and then AQ when I look down at AK of clubs. A player opens to 125 in second position, I reraise to 375, guy behind me shoves for 1450 total. He previously shoved allin with JT and showed it, and shoved with 77 and showed it so I made my mind up that I'm calling him unless someone else decides to get frisky. The original raiser folds, I call. To my surprise, the all-in guy tables QQ. Doorcard is a king, with two clubs. He's down to one out, queen of clubs gives me a flush. River gave me nutflush anyways and I win that pot and I'm up to around 3600. The next pot I play was 6-10 of diamonds out of the big blind. Small blind completes and UTG had limped. Flop is 457 with two diamonds, huge flop for me and I'm trying to figure out how to get the money in there. Small blind checks, UTG is reaching for his chips to bet so I decide to check, he bets 100. Small blind raises to 250 after saying "I think you are full of shit." to the UTG player. I decide to flat-call here and the UTG calls also. Turn is a T. Small blind checks, I bet 350, UTG and small blind both instantly fold.

I raised AJ of diamonds to 200 when blinds are up to 50/100 and get a caller. Flop is A-2-2 one diamond. He checks, I check. Turn is an 8. He bets 400, I call. River is a 7 he bets 900, I call on the river also. He mucks without showing his hand.

I'm sitting at around 7600 and we're still in the third level and I lose a pot AQ allin AK preflop to drop me to 6650 on the break.

I come back at the 50/100 level and my table gets moved into the main tournament room. This was an insanely difficult task for the floor people, and it was so frustrating. It took them 25 minutes to give us bags to put our chips in, a little seat card that corresponds with the seat in the main tournament room and to call security to escort us to the room (what the fuck?) and we basically missed out on half the level. Insanity.

At the new table, I don't get involved in any major pots, I win a small one when I flop two pair out of the blind and I double another guy up with AJ against his AQ. We both flop an ace, and I flop nutflushdraw also but brick brick. Then we play through the 50/100 level when the entire table breaks and I get seated at a new table. I now have about 7000 coming into the 100/200 level. The first hand I play, I raise to 600 in the cutoff with KTo.

The big blind was a very jittery guy and he was visibly frustrated about just losing a pot the hand before this, he was about to muck his hand, looks over and sees that I raised and that it was in the cutoff and decides to call. I basically give him no credit on his hand at all. Flop is 7-6-6 he leads for 900 with 2500 behind, I make it 3500 straight to put him all-in he mucks immediately.

I get up to about 9600 when a guy opens for 600 early, I flat call with 77, shortstack pushes allin for 950 and we both call. Flop comes A-4-3 check check, turn 8, we both check, river 9 we both check. The original raiser shows 55, shortstack shows A6 and he triples up in a pretty nice pot.

The next hand I play is when I raise it up UTG with KK, button calls. Flop AQ6 I bet 700 he shows JJ and folds. Where's a 6 high flop when you need it?

Blinds are now 100/200/25 ante and I call on the button after a couple callers with 78o. Flop is T-9-6 with two spades. A young guy from Florida, presumably internet player was playing super fast, insanely aggressive opening four out of seven of his first pots and keeping up the same tempo. He came to the table with a ton of chips. They check to him, he bets 800, I just flatcall, small blind calls also. Turn pairs the ten. T-T-9-6. Small blind checks, other guy checks, I bet 1200, small blind folds, the Florida online player raises to 3200. I tank for about a minute before I shove, he immediately mucks.

We near the end of the level with about 14-15 minutes left and I'm sitting very comfortably at 16,000 with average at 4800. I raise QQ to 600 early position, chipleader at our table a very wild and aggressive player calls. I previously saw him call a reraise preflop, and put in a third raise on the flop of T97 putting in a total of 8000 chips against another guy who folded and showing A-4o no pair no draw.

Flop is 5-4-2 all hearts I have the queen of hearts. I lead 1500 he calls. Turn is a black 8. I check, he bets 2500, I thought about flat-calling here to play a small pot but I decided that I had the best hand and I was trying to figure out the right amount. I had roughly 13500 chips left and I decided to raise it to 9000 leaving me 4500. He thinks for quite a while and calls. River is the ace of hearts, putting a four flush up there and I have the queen for the flush. I figured if I bet I'm not getting called unless I'm beat, and I really couldn't put him on the King of hearts the way the hand was played. I decide to "disgustedly" check it hoping he stabs at it, he immediately says all-in. I say "I call." he tables 3-3 with the 3 of hearts for the straight flush. Yuk. It was a gigantic pot and he had me covered and I take the walk back to the hotel wondering why I couldn't drag that pot and get a shitload of chips.

About to go play some cash games, just got done ordering room service. They will bust me on room service alone, I paid $40,00 even for a pasta plate, a gumbo soup and two cokes. WHAT THE FUCK?! It is a nice hotel though, Hilton Riverside right next to the casino. We're staying here for 8 days and I hope it'll be a profitable and enjoyable eight days.