on thursday morning ronNasty, hounddog (chris lindh), and ol muggins here dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of ass and cruised from foxwoods to mohegan sun in the nastymobile for a $550 satellite. one in five players would win seats to the main event and they got about 70 players for 14 seats. i chipped up a little bit right out of the gate and was able to maintain a reasonable satellite stack the entire way to locking up a seat. ronnie also secured a seat, although he had to stress a short stack for much of the tourney and won a 30%-70% and a 20%-80% for all his chips. hounddog unsuprisingly gunned in his biscuits and was out in the early levels.
after the satellite we went to this mexican joint at mohegan, soltoro. we chowed some tacos and sipped some delicious margaritas. we all had a nice tequila buzz on the way back to the 'woods. my plan was to have perhaps one more drink and then drift off to sleep early. i was still a little under the weather, was overtired and had to play a full day of tournament poker the next day. however, the boys dragged my ass down to the treehouse, which is the kiddie arcade at foxwoods. we played some big buck hunter, but the real highlight of the arcade was the incredible teamwork on display that evening. nasty, hounddog, and i generated enough tickets playing carnival-style games at the arcade to purchase the priceless monkey light seen above.
after the arcade we went with frankie flowers and a few other heads to the local townie bar where we had some jagerbombs and watched some lesbians and other assorted riff raff ride the bar's mechanical bull. the dude running the mechanical bull kept telling us how easy it to conquer the might beast. he claimed to be a real life rodeo cowboy and sported a ten gallon hat and a fresh new eyepatch. i couldn't make shit up like that if i tried. anyway, bars close at 1am in the CT so we were back at the 'woods at a reasonable hour and i was in bed sleeping by 2.
friday morning i cabbed it over to mohegan sun. we would be staying at the sun the next few nights but since ronnie wasn't playing the main until saturday and had played cash till the wee hours of the morning, he was not terribly gungho about driving muggo here to mohegan at 10am.
i arrived toward the end of the 1st level. the tournament started you with 40k stacks and 45 minute levels. the structure was nice and slow and didn't skip any of the early levels. we were scheduled to play 10 levels on day 1. 60 players started the day, and the recognizable faces were few and far between. this definitely looked like the softest field you could find in a $2500 event anywhere. i got off to a bit of a rough start and was down to 30k after a few levels. initially i played similarly to the way i had in the borgata main event: i was involved in too many pots and i was playing passively. however, i got my head together and started chipping up with some selective aggression. my stack never dipped below 35k or above 45k for much of the day.
i finally won a big pot in level 9. at 500-1k blinds i opened in early position to 2800. ross santos, a solid local cash game player, called me from the small blind and we saw a flop heads-up. the flop was ak10 rainbow, and ross led out with a 6k bet into a pot of about 7k. i started the hand with about 44k. there was no way i was folding my hand at this point, but if i raised here i would basically commit the rest of my stack with what very likely might be the worst hand. so i elected to call in position and see how ross would proceed. well the turn was beautiful jack, completing the rainbow board. ross led out 15k, and i quickly shoved my remaining 35k assuming that we were likely chopping the pot. ross looked disgusted and folded after about 30 seconds of deliberation. i assume he had 2 pair, and was upset with himself for betting the turn. so that was my only real pot of the day, and i basically folded my way to the end of the day and bagged 63k. 60 players started day 1a and 23 remained for an average stack of around 95k. i was well below average but would be coming into day 2 with a very comfortable 40bb stack.
there were two day 1s for the tournament so i had a day off to rest up before getting back to work. my girl luciana came up to mohegan on saturday. we had a nice relaxing day. we got drinks and lobster at the bar at the summer shack and then lounged in the hottub that evening. the whole gang went to ultra 88 (mohegan's nightclub) that night. not a huge fan of that club but i overall it was fun night and i was pretty focused and eager to get back to the felt the next day.
i dragged myself down to the tournament room once again on saturday for the 10am start time. the tournament levels for day 2 had increased from 45 minutes to 1 hour. joeytheb was at my starting table, as was jeff king, who i played with for several hours on day 1 and was very impressed by his play. i increased my stack to about 77k over the first 2 levels by winning a few small pots and stealing the blinds and antes.
my first crucial hand of the tournament unfolded as follows: at 1200-2400 blinds it was folded to me in the small blind and i completed with J9o. the big blind, an older guy with lots of chips and a penchant for overplaying the shit out of mediocre hand checked his bb. the flop rolled out K99 rainbow. i checked, he checked. the turn was the Qh, putting two hearts on the board. i bet 4200, and the old guy made it 15k. i had about 65-70k behind. i considered my options. folding was clearly not one of them. i was willing to go broke on this hand. my hand crushed his raising range here. based on other hands i had witnessed, this guy was not a big fan of folding, but shoving might kill any further action. i decided to reraise to 42k total and go with the hand regardless of the river card. the old guy called, and the river paired the k, which was definitely one of the worst cards in the deck. however, i didn't reraise most of my stack on the turn to fold now, so i bit my tongue and shoved it in. the old guy shook his head for about 30 seconds, much to my delight, and then called my all in. i proudly showed 9s full and his cards sailed into the muck as he muttered something about having a queen. thank you sir. thank you for stinking at poker.
my stack was now around 160k, which put me above average for the first time in the event. 15 places were being paid and there were about 30 players remaining of the 104 entrants. at this point i decided to unleash some relentless aggression. i began opening about 30-40% of pots and reraising in spots where i sensed weakness. there were many amateur players left in the field and nobody wanted to play back at me. the pace of play stagnated when there were 22 left, which worked out well for me as i continued to grow my stack while others were worried about bubbling. we finally got into the money with the blinds at 3-6k. at this point i had about a 400k stack. most of the good players remaining in the field were at my table with 13 players remaining. matt castarella was to my direct right and a good young player named bobby was two to my right. it was folded to bobby on the button when the following hand occured.
bobby limped the button. he had a very similar stack to mine. he had been playing pretty aggressively, but had played a little bit trappy at times and had limped in late position a few times before. i had reraised his open from the blinds at least twice before, so i think he was a little gunshy about opening light. so he limped, matt completed from the small blind (sitting on about a 275k stack), and i looked down at 99 in the big blind. i raised, making it 41k straight. bobby called after some deliberation and matt folded. the flop came 772 with two of a suit. i bet 65k and bobby went into the tank. he seemed a little torn about how to proceed but i sensed strength and he never really looked like he wanted to fold. he called after about a minute. i thought there was a strong possibility he had limped a big pair on the button or had flopped trip 7s. this kid was good enough to be floating me here with air as well, but regardless i was not loving the spot i was in when he called. the spot improved dramatically when a nice crisp 9-ball rolled off on the turn. ollll muggins! i considered leading for a minute, but didn't want to shake him just in case he had been floating the flop. also, with our stacks, i thought it would be very tough for him to bet the turn and and not go all the way with the hand. so i checked, and he bet out 85k, leaving himself about 200k behind. i check raised, putting 100k on top. he quickly shoved, and i snapped. he showed me the 78ss and i faded the one out and was now top two in chips with 12 left. we were down to the final 10-handed table by the end of the next level, which also happened to be the dinner break.
i was 2nd in chips at the beginning of the final table. as previously mentioned, the field was very soft overall, and the final table was pretty reflective of that. several of the better players in the field were still alive with two tables left but failed to make the final 10. JoeytheB was the only top player in the final 10 and he was one of the shortest stacks. the chip leader was this guy tim griffin who said that this was only his second live tournament and it showed in the way he handled his chips and some of the ridiculous lines he took in hands. i really liked my chances to take this thing down.
with that said... the wheels came flying off as soon as we got back from dinner. twice i raised the cutoff or button pretty light and got shoved on and folded. then at 6k 12k blinds i opened 77 in early position and the woman lynn shoved on me. i was getting slightly better than 1.5 to 1 and if i called and lost i would still have over 500k and be top 3 in chips. i could also tell she wasn't in love with her hand. unfortunately, she was only in love with kings or better and when i called she showed me 1010. a few hands later, bob lauria opened for 32k utg. i reraised utg+2 with jj and the chip leader tim instashoved. bob folded and i clearly folded, throwing the jj face up in disgust. i raised my next button with a suited kk and got shoved on again. all of a sudden my 800k stack was about 350k. i was one of the shorter stacks and was in danger of going out in tenth place. joeytheb unfortunately beat me to the punch. he busted tenth when his ak couldn't outrace lynn's qq.
the blinds went up to 8-16 and i lost another frustrating pot blind vs blind vs al cammorata. i was all the way down to around 200k when i was able to win two pots in a row. the first pot i took the blinds uncontested and the 2nd i opened kq and got called by lynn from the blind. the flop came qjx and she checked i bet about half my stack, clearly committed to going all the way with the hand. lynn tanked folded aj. my stack was back to around 350k. just a couple hands later al opened utg. i looked down at jj and realized i was going to have to tie my tournament life to the johnnies. i reraised his 40k open to 130k. it folded back to al. he looked torn. he asked me if we were racing, if i had aq. he continued to look stressed. then he shoved. it crossed my mind that he was hollywooding with a monster. he had me covered by about 100k or so. but i didn't reraise with jj to fold now. i called and he showed me 99. jj held up. al busted the next hand.
i remained really active the next level or so. i traded some pots and maintained my stack by busting 2 of the 3 shortstacks. when we got down to five players, i made an ill-fated attempt to squeeze the kid tim's utg raise and passive patty's call with a10. i elected to fold after putting over 30% of my stack in the middle. nothing was coming easy. i played my ass off the whole day leading up to the ft but was having a pretty tough time holding on to my hard earned barrell of biscuits.
then this pretty interesting pot came up. with a 450k stack i raised to 55k with at 10-20 k10h in the cutoff, tim called from the sb. i visualized a beautiful flop and whaddayaknow the cards rolled off qh10d9h. this kid had minraised several flops when he had a marginal holding as a tester of sorts, and he was wearing his cards on his face everytime. after he checked this flop i decided to lead weak with 69k, hoping he would minraise and i could stuff the biscotti in his eyeball. well that plan became an impossibility when he just called.
the turn came an offsuit k and he now shoved. i had top two and a straight flush draw on a 4-liner board and didn't love it but never considered folding. i called and he was generous enough to show me 109. i faded the two-outer and was back in bidness.
the kid aaron who was sitting to my left busted a few hands later. i thougt he played very well and battled with a short-ish stack the whole final table. the other player who's play impressed me at the final table was ross santos. ross came into the ft as one of the middle stacks and quickly took control of the table. he made some power moves when he sensed weakness and was top 2 in chips for several levels. four handed the stacks looked like this:
Timothy Griffin - 1,500,000
Ross Santos - 1,440,000
Theodore Ely - 800,000
Lynne Mitchnick - 483,000
ross and i are friends and respect each others' play so weren't going to going out of our way to butt heads. i envisioned grinding out the tight old woman Lynn on the shortstack, and then starting to talk with the other two about some sort of deal. unfortunately for ross, he didn't get that chance to take part in any dealmaking. just minutes later he was suddenly out in fourth place courteousy of one of the dirtiest live tournament poker beats i've ever seen. it was folded to tim in the sb, he raised, ross called. the flop came j22 while tim clumsily pondered his next move, ross winked at me. tim decided his best course of action was to announce an all-in shove of 1.4 million into a pot of about 150k. ross instacalled and popped out of his chair, tabling the k2c. tim dejectedly exposed 99. i had a sick feeling that turned out to be well-justified when the 9 crept out of the deck on the turn, no waiting. ross's stack was decimated and he busted the next hand. i was geninunely said for the kid... he played very well and deserved better than 19k for 4th.
tim had all the biscuits in the room, but i was still solid in 2nd position. now all i needed was for lynn to bust and i felt like i could weasel my way into locking up 50K+. she was stubborn though and decided to win a race against tim with a10 vs 88. we had a break in play, and the stacks looked like this.
Timothy Griffin - 2,545,000
Theodore Ely - 805,000
Lynne Mitchnick - 785,000
it seemed like the right time to make a deal. i thought a prize-pool redistribution and a continuation in play was in my best interest. the payouts were scheduled to be:
1st - $77,752
2nd - $39,818
3rd - $28,273
lynn and my stacks were nearly identical and i don't think she was going to be that receptive to giving me a significantly bigger share of the loot. i proposed that we each lock up 40k and play for the rest. lynn quickly accepted (obv). tim accepted the deal after making a dumb face and scratching his head for a minute or two. as i mentioned he was pretty wet behind ears and didn't really know that he should be guaranteeing himself more money and/or putting a stop to play at this point. i had a godzilla sized skill advantage on the two of them and figured i could a)remain afloat in hopes of getting headsup and making a further deal, or b)double up and try to win the 25+k we were still playing for.
well, tim played aces like some sort of idiot savant soon after we got back from break. i raised pre from the button, i flatted from the bb with k7hh . the flop came q108 with two diamonds and it went check check. i led 115k on the offusit 7 turn and he flat-called. the river came an offsuit 9. i checked, he made an awful constipated face for a few minutes and then bet 200k. i could tell his discomfort was genuine and he did not have the straight. for some reason i decided that was reason enough to call with bottom pair on q10879 board. he showed me aces. oh. aces. yeah... those are good. i'm pretty sure he thought he was bluffing on the end-- as it turned out he was taking me on a tour of every street in value town. now i had about 12 bbs and was somewhat resigned to finishing in 3rd place.
then, within the next few hands, tim busted lynn. he raised from the small blind with k6 and she called from the big blind with kj. the flop was k76. he check called her flop bet, and after the turn bricked he check called her shove. the river was clean and i was now heads-up. unfortunately for team muggins i was at about a 12-1 chip disadvantage. i had a shoving stack and he had well over a hundred bbs. skill meant very little at this stage as he could safely double me up multiple times without jeapordizing the chip lead. this is where the real skill came into play. i immediately offered to lock up 7k for 2nd and give him the other 18+ of the 25 we we were playing for. a familiar look came across his face as thoughtfully stroked his chin. again he accepted the deal. obviously i wanted to take down my first live tourney and make more than 47k, but considering how rough things went for me at the final table, i feel like i negotiated masterfully. i certainly negotiated a lot better than i played.
so i've taken a little time off from live poker (not to mention taken my sweet-ass time getting this blog posted). i feel like i've gotten the monkey off my back with this score and am confident that this is just the beginning of a successful year. caesars AC is next. i'll be there by the middle of next week. i'm pretty much going to be living in hotels the rest of the winter/spring. i'm moving my shit out of my apartment in brooklyn this weekend and truckin it back to my parents' crib in jersey. the plan is to buy a car in the next few days. i'll be in ac for most of march and then its back to foxwoods for their spring series.
hopefully i'll have enough of a roll built up to afford my laserbeam eyes by the time i move to vegas in may.
