Hollywood Park 2011 - Trip Report - Cactus Kev

Hey Poker Peeps,

I recently returned from an extended weekend visit to California. I was supposed to hang with my friend Jeff from Friday through Monday, but it turns out that unbeknownst to him, his company scheduled him for a Friday afternoon meeting that could not be canceled. "No problem", I said. "Just drop me off at the nearby Hollywood Park Casino and pick me up when your meeting is done." So we ate a late breakfast and then he dropped me off at the casino around 11. I was planning to play some low level cash games, so I signed up for 3-6 hold'em, 4-8 hold'em, 4-8 omaha hi/lo, etc. However, about five minutes later I heard the poker director announce that a $40 poker tourney was starting at 11:30. I hadn't planned on playing a tourney, but I figured that a poker tourney would certainly eat up a lot of time, so I signed up.

After I paid my $40, I looked at my registration ticket and realized two crappy things. One, the juice on the tourney was insane. They took out $10 in juice, and another $2 for a "service charge". Geeesh. This was highway robbery. Only $28 of my $40 was going into the prize pool. The casino was taking 30%. Ugh. The second crappy thing was the ticket said this was a rebuy tourney. Double ugh. I hate rebuy tourneys. It's a lame way to inflate the prize pool by rewarding shoddy poker play. Since I refuse to rebuy on principle, I had to play super tight for at least an hour (at which point the rebuy/add-on phase ended). Oh well.

The tourney begins, and I look down to see both red Aces of my first hand. Great. I'm probably going to lose right now when some joker with J8 offsuit forces me all in and catches miracle cards. I raise T300 and get one caller. The board looks innocent enough so I bet another T300 and the other guy folds. I show my Aces and everybody chuckles.

On the very next hand, I look down to see both black Aces! Wow. Poker is easy! LOL. I raise T300 again, and the table chuckles that I must have Aces again. Little do they know. I get one caller (again). The board shows three scary diamonds. My opponent checks and so do I. The turn pairs the board and he bets a hunk. I fold my hand face up and the table laughs again. If I get Aces again on the next hand, I'm worried about the lightning bolt that is sure to strike my head.

Well, I don't get Aces again (although my first card was indeed an Ace, practically giving me a heart attack). I am playing pretty tight, and eventually I go all-in with AQ suited, but get TWO callers. Ugh. Luckily, an Ace flops and my hand holds up.

Later on, I look down to see A5 spades in late position, and a lady at the other end of the table bets a decent amount of her chips. I call, and the board flops two spades. She bets again, I eye how many chips she has left and decide to re-raise her all-in. That's when I find out that her "small" stack of chips was actually quite large, because she had four T500 chips that were very close in color to the T100 chips. Arrrrrgh. Not good. She calls and flips over top pair. I catch a miracle Deuce of Spades on the river to send her packing, much to her anger. Oh well, at least now I know that T500 chips look a lot like T100 chips, so I have to remember to ask for accurate chip counts before committing my stack.

We started with T1000 (not very much), but by the start of Round 4, the rebuy phase is over, and I have T4425. A whopping 464 people did a rebuy during that first hour of play, and there were only 107 players. What a bunch of shoddy players. The only good news is that now the prize pool is fairly respectable. They pay the top 18, with first getting $3386 and 18th getting $120.

I am playing decent poker, only committing my stack when I feel I am top dog. I triple up with I go all-in with pocket Eights, and get two callers (showing pocket Fives and AQ offsuit). That wins me a nice pot.

My tourney life is on the line when I go all-in with AKo and get one caller, who shows pocket Tens. Ouch. The flop is QJx, the turn is a blank, but the river is a sweet Ten, giving her trip Tens, but Broadway for me. She leaves the table in disgust. Hey, luck is part of the game as well, lady!

An interesting hand occurs later. I don't know the exact chip amounts involved, so I will make up some numbers. A player in early position goes all-in with T2000. When it gets to me, I see pocket Eights (again), and slowly decide to go all-in with my T10000. Now, a player two to my left had clearly said the word "call" before I said "all-in". He also turned over his cards. He has about T10000 in chips also, practically equal with me. He must have been impatient or thought I had folded or something. In any case, his cards are pocket Deuces. When he sees that I went all-in, he complains to the dealer that he wouldn't have called if he had known I went all-in, and wants to fold his hand and get his chips back. Well, much discussion ensues, and the tourney director is eventually brought over. He rules that since the guy did indeed verbally say "call" and turned up his hand, that his bet is binding. Well, the early player turns over AJ offsuit, I turn up my Eights, and we already know that lefty has Deuces. The board flops a Jack (which holds up), so the early dude wins the main pot (taking T2000 from me). However, I beat the Deuces, get T8000 from him, and knock him out. So even though I lost the main pot, I still wound up netting a T6000 profit on the hand. Nice!

At the second break, I have T10600. When they start Round 9, there is a T100 ante and the blinds are 400-800. I continue my solid poker play, make some decent laydowns, and steal blinds and antes when necessary. We eventually get down to two tables, and suddenly we are all in the money. Woo hoo! Guaranteed $120 for me!

Play continues and with all the water I've been drinking, I need to hit the bathroom ASAP. I ask when the next break is, and they say they will break when they get down to a single table (i.e. ten players). However, nobody seems to attempting to take other players out. Looks like it's up to me! I switch to Terminator mode, and knock out two players, increasing my stack by leaps and bounds. When the 11th player falls (courtesy of Yours Truly, again!), I sprint to the bathroom. I also take this opportunity to call Jeff on my cell to inform him that I made the final table and for him not to rush over here to pick me up, because the final table play could take some time to complete. It's currently 4:30pm.

I head back to the table and see that the cards are already in the air! Looks like break was only five minutes long! They are waving at me to hurry over and sit down so I don't miss the first hand. Great. I rush over and sit down, only to find that the player on my right immediately goes all-in. He's a player from the second table, so I don't know his playing style. I look down at my hole cards and see AK suited. Geeesh, here I went and told Jeff to take his time, and now I'm probably going to call and lose. Oh well, no guts, no glory. My opponent has about two-thirds my chip stack, so even if I lose, I'll still at least have some chips left. I call and he flips over KJ offsuit. Yes!!! I am liking my odds!! I'm liking them even more when an Ace hits on the flop. My Aces hold up, knock him out, and I win a boatload of chips! Woot!

At this point, the entire table decides they want to make a deal. The tourney director asks for an accurate chip count of everybody's stack. Here's what we come up with:

Player 1: 49K
Player 2: 17K
Player 3: 30K
Player 4: 129K
Player 5: 38K
Player 6: 61K
me: 105K
Player 8: 9K
Player 9: 37K

Looks like I am in second place in chips, thanks to my near double-up on that last hand. Sweet!!

9th place would have paid $190, so the director decides that everybody will at least get $190. Once 9 x $190 is removed from the prize pool, the remaining prize pool ($6,316) is divided according to the percentages of chips everybody has. Since there are 475 1K chips in play, and I have 105 of them, I get 22.1% of the remaining prize pool, which is $1396. Add that to my guaranteed $190, and if I accept the deal, I would receive $1586. Well, actually $1585 due to some fractional rounding.

The top three payouts if we DON'T make a deal are:

1st place: $3386
2nd place: $1785
3rd place: $880

I really don't feel like playing for another three hours, trying to win first place. And the regular 2nd place payout is really not that much more than my deal payout (only an extra $200). So I cast my vote of "yes" for the deal. Everybody else agrees, and the tourney is over! In addition to my cash payout, I also get two $20 vouchers for future tournaments. Of course, I don't live in California, so I give them away to two of the other players, who gratefully accept them.

I cash out and head outside to wait for Jeff to pick me up. Dinner was definitely on me that night :)

--Cactus Kev