Rivers Deepstack Saturdays

Ah, Pittsburgh.  I cannot believe I spent years hating you....

I play poker tournaments.  I'm not much of a cash game player.  I'm of the mentality that a cash game is more like Bingo.  I don't know, maybe it is because I don't have the deep pockets of my would be counterparts.  Not sure.  It doesn't seem competitive to me and that's what I need, competition.  So, I stick to tournaments. 

We recently had a casino with a beautiful poker room open up here in Cleveland.  Yeah, whatever.  The tournaments are of poor stuctures, so much that I travel to Pittsburgh and other places to play.  Rivers Casino manages to have a pretty darned full poker room WHILE they are also running tournaments.  As players bust, they open the table as a cash game, if necessary.  Why can't Cleveland have a Saturday or Sunday deepstack game?  Seriously... I don't get it.  Oh, the cash players bring in so much money, etc. etc. etc.  Whatever. The comps are crap too.  I played cash four times there, and came out ahead, so yippee. I can see playing cash games casually, but not for a living.

This year I've played the Rivers Deepstack only 3 times.  (Might be four).  The buy in is $230 total if you take the dealer appreciation bonus 5k chip, which everyone seems to do.  The structure gives you 30 minute blind levels and a starting stack of 25k.  Blinds start at 25/50. It is the type of tournament where you can really get into a groove and play for hours, learning so much about your opponents.  At some point, the blinds seem to skyrocket, but by then, you are getting close to the money, so it's no big deal, unless you are a short stack - which I always seem to be.

I was cruising along this past weekend, playing well, making good lay downs, guessing what people had and was right most of the time, etc. etc. etc.  I have about 90k in chips with two tables left to go.  7 places get paid.  I am dealt 1010 in the big blind.  UTG goes all in for 37K.  Fold all the way around to me.  This woman is a pretty tight player but not very good.  I've been sitting next to her watching her clean the poker chips in between hands.  Seriously, she was scraping them with something...GROSS.  Anyways, I take about a minute, counting my chips, trying to decide if I'm up against AK, AQ, AJ or another pair.  I decide that I will still have enough chips to come back if I lose this hand, so I call.  I think the blinds are 1k/2k at this point.  She turns over 99.  Yay, good call!  Even before the turn hits, I can feel a 9 coming though.  She is up, her purse is on her shoulder, she's saying goodbye to the table and the damned 9 hits the river.  Sit down girl, you are still alive.  Me, eh, not so much.  I'm now just over 20 big blinds.  I don't really know if it was a good call, but in the end, I figured I had the better hand and I did.  So, o.k. call with a bad result I guess. Someone commented at how gracious I was about it.  Why get upset? It doesn't change anything.  I now just have more work to do. 

And work I did....

I manage to double at some point and knock some guy out who leaves the poker room before his chips are even counted and verified that I had him covered.  I didn't.  His stack of 2k sits there and we blind him off.  His hand was QQ.  Good hand.  Mine was better, KK. 

I make it to the final table with the shortest stack.  Some bonehead decides to bring up a bubble save, except its not just for the bubble, it's for 10th, 9th and 8th.  UGH.  Really? His thinks everyone who hits the final table should be rewarded.  That's bullshit.  We started with 7 tables.  I'm the only one who wasn't in complete agreement, but went along since I was really short and a chance to get most of my money back. Next time, NO.  I'll do a bubble save FOR THE BUBBLE only. Everyone had to give up $75 of their prize money to pay these places.  Most people didn't have the cash on them, which led to others lending money to others and it actually stopped the action in the game for 5 minutes, while the clock was still running. 

The woman who gained my chips with her pocket 9s is our 10th place finisher.  See ya! 

Some older guy finished in 9th - nice gentleman.

Then this hand happens...

I have 2.5 big blinds and should have shoved awhile ago.  However, I cannot and will not shove with J3, or 10-2, or anything like that.  I am UTG and get Ac 3c.  Best I've seen in a few orbits.  I shove it in, fully expecting a few people to call me and fully expecting a better hand to show up.  Chip leader and another guy who is about 3rd in chips calls me.  Flop is:

Kc, 8c, Ad

Nice looking flop for my hand.  Turn brings 7h.  No help, but I'm still feeling o.k. about my hand since neither of the other two raised to isolate when I went all in.  I'm thinking nobody else has an ace.  River brings a blank, no club, so I have a pair of aces.  Horrible kicker.

The kid who is third in chips tables his hand, he has a K.  Other guy turns over AJ.  GRRRRR.  He has me totally out-kicked and I'm sent to the rail in 8th place (which would have been the real bubble by the way).

Last month, I finished in 6th.  Pretty cool. Cindy, a woman I play in the CPMG with, finished 4th and Cheryl, another CPMG'er and one of my closer buddies, finished in 3rd.  We may have not taken home the top three spots, but we sure gave them a hard time. It was SO FUN having the three of us at the final table.  I wish someone had a picture of all of us.  I took a few of Cheryl and Cindy.  I have one of me and my lucky dealer Tan.  Funny dude. I like him.

I love Rivers!  I want to go every Saturday.  If only I had a damned car eh?  I should get one.  Maybe with some poker winnings..HA!