Choctaw $550 One Month Later...

Well, Merlot and I went up for the bi-weekly $550 Deep Stack tournament at Choctaw yesterday. There were only 16 players, but still a good tournament. As usual Merlot and I get seated at the same table. It doesn’t matter if we sign up right after each other, or hours apart. Based on this trend I’m sure we’ll be at the same table for the WSOP this year too.

10,000 Starting stack + 500 for an additional $5 dealer toke.
Blinds 25 / 50 with 30 minute levels.

I start out fairly card dead. And when I have a hand to raise with Pre-flop like 88 or AQ, I miss the flop and a player (usually the girl in seat 1) donk bets out into me. And I have to fold. Merlot on the other hand is doing quite well building a decent stack. She is either the chip leader or second in chips at our table.

As we get to break we’ve lost one player from our table, and a couple from the other. And I’m one of the shorter stacks at our table with about 4,800. As the fifth blind level starts, things start to go my way. I decide to see a flop in my BB with Q-10 when the girl in Seat 1 had preflop raised (she was raising about a third of the hands pre flop). The flop came 10 high, and I checked, she bet 1,000 and I pushed in for 3,800. She thought a bit, and then called me with AQ. We hit a Q on the river giving me 2 pair, and the double up. After that I went on quite a bit of a heater. AA, AK, AQ, QQ all in the space of about 10 hands. I raised each hand preflop and won either without seeing a flop, or c-betting the flop and getting a fold.

The next big hand I had, was ironically Q 10 again. Seat 1 PF raised again. I called with Q-10. Flop came 8 9 J. Yahtzee!!!!!! She bet 1,500. I raised to 4,000. She called. Turn brings a K. I still have the nuts. I bet out 6,500….she goes in the tank for a bit…and calls. A 3 on the river. I push the remaining 2,000 I have in the pot, and she calls. Her K 10 two pair is no good to the nut str8. Thanks for the second double up.

Merlot got mixed up with the seat 1 girl several times and got the best of her most times. She made some dubious calls, especially, when Merlot bet the Turn on a J Q x x board with 3 spades. Merlot had the As and Jd. Seat 1 had the Js and an A of hearts. They chopped, but not sure why she called Merlot's substantial bet on the Turn, with 2nd pair, and a J high flush draw. Merlot was about 3 minutes away from the blinds going up and putting her at 10 Big Blinds, so she pushed with A 10 (for a substantial amount of chips). Seat 1 called her with 33. Not sure how, or why she made that call either. At best she’s coin flipping, at worst she’s drawing dead to a 3. No A or 10 though, and Merlot goes out on the Final Table bubble.

We get to the final table and someone had busted from the other table as well, so we were 8 handed. Paying 3. 1st = $4,000 2nd = $2,400 and 3rd $1,600. I sit in the 5 seat, and have the second biggest stack with about 36,000. The player to my right is the big stack in the tournament with over 60,000. We lose a couple players fairly quickly. I take a pretty significant ding when the big stack min raises my BB and I have AQ. I reraise another 3,000. He pushes all in and I think about it. My biggest consideration was that if I folded I would still be the second biggest stack, or close to it, and there were 2 or 3 short stacks still. So I lay down my AQ face up and the big stack shows AA. Dodged a bullet there.

Then a short stack pushes all in for 6,800. The big stack folds. I look down at JJ and consider my options. I could just call, and give the 2 players to act behind me the opportunity to call as well. But I decide to push my 28,000 stack in the middle and isolate. The other players fold. The all in turns over J 10. I flop a boat when the board comes up KKJ.

The big stack was sucking out constantly. He knocked 2 players out when his 22, beat 10 10 when a 2 was the door card on the flop (all the chips were in PF). Then his AQ outflopped another players AK, when a Q hit the board, and all the chips were in PF. We get down to 4 players and it’s the big stack, me and another guy in seat 8 with about the same stacks, and the short stack is the girl from Seat 1 at the other table. The guy in seat 8 and the big stack suggest a save for 4th place, where that person gets $600. $300 from 1st place money, $200 from 2nd place, and $100 from 3rd. The short stack declines the offer. Not sure why. It didn’t seem to make any sense.

Big stack raises, to 4,000. I call with 99. Short stack (seat 1 girl) pushes all in for an additional 9,500. Big stack calls. I call. Flop comes Diamond, Diamond, Diamond. A couple of those diamonds higher than a 9. I had the 9 of diamonds. Big stack makes a large bet on the flop. To which I mumble, you had better take her out…as I fold. He had the KJ of diamonds and flopped a flush. The girl had the two 9’s that I did not have. We’re in the money.

That was a sizable dent to my stack and left me short stacked with about 13,000. I pushed several times and didn’t get called. I folded to raises when I had nothing. After about 20 hands of me treading water, I pushed with Ad 5d, and big stack called me with KJ offsuit. He hit the K on a 2 Diamond flop. I didn’t hit an A or another Diamond, so I went out third and collected my $1,600.

During this time Merlot had put $20 in a slot machine and got that up to $700, before getting her 1 / 2 no limit seat. Then she won $85 at the 1 /2 table. All in all a very successful day at Choctaw for the One Outers!!!

Ship It!!!!