Poker Diagram Listener Tourney extravaganza

One of my favorite podcasts comes from a couple of fellas from London who fancy a game of online poker and a drink or two. Henry and Zog from thePoker Diagram Live Poker Podcast do a show every week or so where one of them (usually Zog) will play a short online poker tournament while the other (usually Henry) chats it up and fills us in on the table happenings. For those of us with Poker on the brain, it's a good source for a poker fix on the go. Every once in a while they put together a tournament where all the listeners are invited to come together and have a go at one another. Today was such a day.

36 players plopped down $10 for a chance at poker immortality and instant podcasting fame. I was at a table with a few listeners I had seen before. Tiltaholic, LucienJ, and LenBuddha all were familiar to me from past listener tournies but I only had notes on Mr. Tilt. I had remarked that he was a solid player and I should have a hand if he was raising me and I chose to play back. From the get go, Tilty was telling everyone he was card dead so I was happy to steal from him until he fought back. Early on I got the Hilton Sisters and made a standard raise and I got just one caller. Of course and ace flops out there and I am in the classic quandry. Im last to act but the caller decides to bet out at the pot and forces me to a decision. He makes a smallish bet of about 1/3 the pot and I have to think. The ace is scary, but wouldn't they have reraised with a big ace preflop? I decide to make a stand with my ladies and I put in a sizeable raise of 3/4 of the now juicy pot. The caller takes only a few seconds to fold and I lurk back into the shadows with my booty.

A few players have now been ousted from the tourney and some new blood comes to our table. I have the big stack now, but not by much. I get dealt AQ offsuit in the small blind and everyone folds to me. I don't like playing pots out of position in NL Holdem so I decide to take the pot right now and I make a 3 1/2 BB bet into the Big Blind and wait for him to fold. No such luck. The BB raises back into me and I don't even hesitate to put him all in. His name was TableImage so maybe I should have taken that into account beforehand but too late now. He calls without much delay and I am sickened to see that he has me dominated with AK suited in clubs. My horror turns to elation when a lovely queen comes to town on the flop with all spades. No juctice for TableImage on the turn or river and I boost my stack up to over 4x the starting stack making me chip leader in the tourney for now.

With the blinds now at $25 and $50 WVU_Mtneers and profProfet fill the empty seats at our table and soon thereafter I am dealt ACES in the small blind. Everyone folds to me and I decide to make a silly move and I just limp with the most powerful starting hand hoping for a reraise. The BB wisely checks and we take a flop. 6 5 2 with two clubs. No a great flop for me but not horrible. I bet $50 into the $100 pot and the BB, profprofet, makes the call. When the turn comes a 4d I am really kicking myself for limping out of position with this beautiful hand. I suck it up and make a $100 1/2 pot sized bet. Profprofet comes over the top f me for $300 more and I seriously consider cutting my losses and chalking this hand up to experience. I have the big stack and I want to protect it. Nobody knows what a jackass I am with my pocket aces and I could just fold them and move on. The timer counts down... tick tock, tick tock. I let Pokerroom fold the hand for me and I take another drink and sit back. Wiser.

Starbelly78, nmonkey and profprofet are now goners and we are 7 handed at my table for the time being. I get dealt ACES again in the Big Blind and make a standard raise. One limper folds and one person calls. I win the hand with a probing bet on the flop and don't get to show down my bullets. WVU_Mtneers now has the chip lead on my direct left but I am a close 2nd. The tables swirl around and I am at a table with Tiltaholic again along with godard_7, matthawaii and LucienJ who has had his AWAY sign up since the tourney started. Blinds are now at 75-150 and I have over $5500 in the small blind with the midlife crisis hand, 4 4. Matthawaii limps into the pot in middle position and I make a slightly larger than average raise since I'm out of position. Matthawaii goes all in for his last $650 or so and I call. He shows me a pair of ducks(22) and I'm a 4-1 favorite going into the flop. And then............. he hits his 2 outer and flops a set of deuces. Great. I am chanting four.,,,,,four.......four in my head and then it hits, on the river. I make a set of fours to trump his set of deuces. I think it's only fair that a 4-1 fav wins now and then don't you ? Aloha Matt.

The blinds move up to $100 - $200 and I am dealt ACES for the third time in early position. LucienJ who has returned from his self imposed exile has $200 of his remaining $225 in the big blind and I decide to go fishing with my ACES. I push all in for $7300 and pray for a caller with AK or a pair of jacks. Anything. Nobody calls but LucienJ with his Q2 offsuit. Oh, the poker gods are cruel. The final board reads 4 5 6 7 8 and we split the pot as we both have the same straight. Boooooooo !!! The very next hand LucienJ pushes all in with crap and ScottG takes him down, in effect, stealing my $225 :).

Blinds still $100 - $200. We're now six handed at my table and I am dealt pocket nines in the small blind. Godard_7, who diagnosed me with Poker Rage in my Feb 12th post comments, is in the cutoff and he makes a bigger than average raise. I like my nines but not enough to make a big over the top move right here. My wife comes in the room and sees my cards and I tell her I am going to play it cool and just call and hope to flop trips. Then Lenbuddha makes it even more interesting when he decides to call as well out of the Big Blind. FLOP !!! 4 9 A with two hearts. The perfect flop for me because one of the other two has to have an ace in my mind. Hopefuly they both have aces and want to go to war I'm thinking. I make the minimum bet into the pot and wait for the fireworks to start. Lenbuddha likes the Ace I suppose because he raises it up by 3/4 of the pot. Godard_7 folds (obviosly he was on the steal). So I have my man where I want him, no time to worry about those two hearts on the board and I cut off a stack of raising chips. The pot is already over $2000 and I settle on a $2000 raise. Lenbuddha wastes no time and pushes all in for his last $4000 or so and I call. The poor chap was unlucky enough to flop two pair, Aces and Fours. He did not improve his hand and I took the down the biggest pot of the tournament to that point, over $11,000.

FINAL TABLE action !!! We're down to 10 players and the blinds have jumped to $150 - $300. I have the big stack with $11,755. 2nd is WVU_Mtneers with $6,600 and then Webthing with $6.400.

The rest....
GMC325 - $5185
HoldThePhone - $4905
godard_7 - $4310
Scott-G - $3950
bonak_shed - $3793
kasilof - $2823
DJQuad - $2510

The action heats up and I kinda lose track of what happened but I broke two people in one hand with a pair of sixes. We were all in preflop and I had the only pair. I think the other hands were something like KJ and AJ. The board had two queens and a bunch of low cards and I doubled my stack to a whopping $25,000. We are now down to six handed and the blinds are $300 - $600. Godard_7 is in 2nd with $7700 and DJQuad, kasilof and Scott-G both have about $4600. Webthing is the shorty with $3600. But Webthing doubles up at the expense of Scott-G when his A8d takes down the I'll timed assault of Scotts Q5 offsuit. Just like Henry always says, when you have A8 the 8 always comes and it did. The ace high would have won it, but the 8 made a nice insurance policy.

Blinds $500 - $1000. The final three came down to godard_7, kasilof and myself. The hands come so fast at this point that the details get a bit fuzzy. One hand lead to another and godards river finally ran dry leaving only kasilof between me and the title. It wasn't long after that hand when I got dealt AQh out of position. I made a small raise and kasilof saw his chance to push me back. Well, with AQ suited heads up I had to feel pretty good. I had over a 2-1 chip lead and felt it was time to end the tournament. I made a huge overbet and put kasilof all in. He called me with K5 offsuit. The first card off the deck was the 5c giving him the best hand with a pair of fives. His lead was quickly erased however when the third card off the deck was the sultry Qc. The turn was a 7 and then the river gave me an unnecessary ace for two pair and the win.

Zog will say that I only survived because I never had to sit at the same table as him and for that I am thankful. It's really not fair having to play against him ad Henry at the same time anyhow. Besides, I was the one that knocked Zoggy out of the last listener tournament before exiting myself, stage left. It was a fun time and I was thrilled to win out over such a tough field. I had it all. Some good cards. Some good luck. And for a change, some real poker dexterity. Thanks for putting on a great tourney fellas. See you next time for sure.

Card Clubs.net Forums discuss the tourney with other PokerDiagram listeners.