Poker tourney cash

I finally managed to win a little money in a poker tournament.

I was disappointed with my results at Friday's tournament with our weekly group. I would be remiss to not mention my first bustout (it was a rebuy tourney) to Marc with my KK vs his 99 where, of course, he rivered a 9. Anyway, I finished 7th out of 10.

On Saturday night, I found some cool tournaments on PokerStars. There are $12 sit-n-gos for 180 players. The only ones that ever fill are turbos, which I'm not crazy about. It's amazing how fast these go - 2/3 of the players are eliminated in under an hour. It pays 18 places, but you don't get much unless you are top 5. I won a 9 player $16 sit-n-go for $67.50 but didn't cash in the 180-player.

On Sunday night, I played in 6 simultaneous 180-player sit-n-gos. They fill up every 10 minutes or so. I at least doubled my stack in four of them. And finally, in one of them, I made it to the final 3. The overwhelming chip leader surprisingly offered to make a deal. He suggested a very good deal and we agreed. I was third in chips with about 26,000, and the other players had about 54,000 and 190,000. My cut was $350, which was almost second place money.

It was nice to get a decent cash and I'm going to start playing these regularly. The level of the players is awful. When it gets down to about 30 players, the skill level is pretty good. But there isn't much room to maneuver because the antes kick in and the stacks aren't very big, so you pretty much need to push all-in or fold. And then you need to get lucky.

I also played in an insane 0.50/$1 cash game on Saturday night. A guy kept making and calling raises with crap and making huge hands. Here's the first hand he showed down, and lost:

UTG limps, UTG+1 raises to $16 all-in (huge overbet), Maniac calls on BB, UTG calls all-in.

UTG: JJ
UTG+1: AQo
Maniac: 8d3s ???

The board came 6s As 6c 8h 2s and AQo wins with two pair. But the Maniac called a huge $14 to win a $18.50 pot with 83 offsuit! Shortly after, the Maniac triples up.

UTG limps for $1, UTG+2 limps, SB raises to $6, BB (Maniac) raises to $22 all-in, UTG folds, UTG+2 calls all-in, SB calls all-in. The hands?

UTG+2: AcAs
SB: QdQc
Maniac: 43cc

Flop: 3h 2c Tc
Turn: 9c !
River: 2s

And Maniac triples up with his flush. The following hand occurred immediately after that one:

HJ-1 limps, HJ raises to $4, SB (Maniac) calls, BB calls, HJ-1 calls.

Flop: 6c 2d 2h

HJ bets $10, Maniac calls, everyone else folds.

Turn: 9c

HJ bets $21, Maniac raises to $49 all-in, HJ calls.

River: Qc

The HJ had TT. Maniac flopped a boat with 6h2s!

In two hands, the Maniac now has 6x his starting stack.

Now everyone is gunning for the Maniac, calling raises with very little, and hoping to double up. I finally get a decent hand and get into a pot with him.

me: AKo
Maniac: ?

Maniac raises to $5 UTG, CO calls, I call on SB. I wanted to reraise, but I didn't want the CO to think I was trying to isolate the maniac and reraise me.

Flop: 8d Qd Ac

I check to give the Maniac some rope, Maniac bets $10, CO goes all-in for $13, I raise to $25, Maniac calls.

Turn: 9d

I hate that card. I check, Maniac bets $20, I call.

River: 6c

I check, Maniac bets $25, I call.

Maniac shows down 5d3d for a flush! I lost $70 in that pot. I started playing badly, calling raises with bad hands to try to snap off the maniac, but it never happened. Fortunately, I managed to get all-in with someone else with QQ vs TT on a 922 flop to recover my loss and actually finish the table with a slight gain. The Maniac started with $39 and worked it up over $200.

-schneid