My First Live Tourney - Part 2: The Final Table

They seat me in the BB with the short-stack. 1st hand I have to put in all my chips. I say loudly allin and get a few chuckles from the sympathetic viewers. I get dealt 96 of hearts. I figure at least they are suited. 2 people play the hand and I more than triple-up when 3 preordained hearts hit the flop. That is why 96h is now and forever will be my favorite hand.

I finally started getting some nice hole cards and took down a few nice pots. I also hit TP on the flop twice from the BB. I doubled and redoubled my chip count. I just kept playing tight and watched the table as the styles started to become evident. Some were blind stealing. A few players were bullying the table.

One in particular, Rahilly, was buying pots left and right. He was chipleader, drunk, and being loud and totally obnoxious. He was running his mouth as he bullied the table, often nonchalantly showing the bluff or semi-bluff. Twice he took out a short-stack by pushing and thus isolating with junk. Both times he sucked out on the river with the cards up. He would then shrug his shoulders and talk junk. I got sick of his mouth at started making loud comments about his attitude.

There were 6 of us left. Hero, then to my left respectively: The Blond Chick, Rahilly, Bro, Brian, and The Fat Old Guy.

Bro raised 4xBB twice with nice starting hands, but when it folded all the way back around to Rahilly, he would push. Both times this happened, Rahilly and his father would run their mouths at my Bro and say smartass shit. I got pissed and told the dude running the tournament, that if he wanted to let Rahilly be disrespectful, so be it, but that it was totally unprofessional to allow a bystander interfere in the game. Rahilly’s dad was told to quiet down. Bro folded to the pressure both times. Both times they both showed their holdings. The first time Rahilly was really running his mouth. Bro folded and Rahilly turned over 53s and said that my bro should’ve had some balls. 2nd hand my Bro had AT and folded to the aggression. I would have called this because of the prior bluff and the past shit-talking. He didn’t really talk that much on this hand. Bro folded and turned his cards up; Rahilly showed AJ. Nice fold on his part.

My Bro’s stack was pretty bad due to the folds. Brian’s wasn’t all that good either.

The table folded around to the SB, who raised. I figured that he was stealing. From the BB I called his raise. I hit trips on the flop. He min-raised and I smooth-called. The turn brought something that he liked and he raised hard. I pushed. I think he realized that I had him beat but he pot-committed so he called with TP. He sees his fate and no help comes. He says, “nice hand, one hell-of-a comeback,” gets up and steps into the crowd.

Chip stacks: Rahilly, Blond, Hero, Brain, and Bro.

Bro pushes his short-stack. Table folds around to Rahilly, who calls and turns over total junk like 73s or something of the sort. The crowd chuckles as Rahilly pompously shrugs his shoulders. Bro turns over 2 paint-cards. Nothing hits, Bro doubles, and Rahilly looks foolish.

Then like 2 hands later I take a small pot from him. He calls my PF raise with crap I’m sure. I bets on the flop. I got a nice piece of the flop, middle-pr or the like. I stare at him and start thinking what to do here. I figure I have him. He starts to act all cocky and starts with the lip. I’m not going to act like I have great reading skill or anything, but his strong/weak-weak/strong act was obvious, as I have found is usually typical of Agro players. I raise pretty hard over the top of him. He shuts up and stares me down. I don’t even look at him; I just stare ahead. I had played the whole tourney this way. Actually I still play this way. I believe often the stare back will usually get you a call or raise. Ok, enough about my tells. He takes forever as I sweat inside. He folds and I muck facedown. I would have dropped, had he pushed.

Within the next few hands Rahilly gets mixed up in a hand with the Blond and she doubles off the tilting drunk.

Very next hand he pushes for what little he has left, Brian calls, and bye-bye dumbass. People were clapping as each final-tabler dropped. So soon as the river dropped I stood up and started sardonically clapping my hands really fast and loud. Some people gave me dirty looks for being an ass, but others smiled their sly smiles, liking to see the bully topple and go down. He gave me a dirty look and walked away from the table. When It quieted down I said loudy and meanly, “now maybe it will finally quiet down a little bit in here,” and took my seat again. I know it was a little dramatic but I wasn’t medicated back then. LOL. He went from chipleader and running the tables pace to benchwarmer within 10 min.

I this point the stacks are: Blond, Hero, Brian, Bro. Bro’s stack is small even with the resent double-up. The Blond’s stack is quite impressive. Brain and I are neck and neck.

Up to this point at the final table if I stayed in a hand after the flop I won it. I played very tight even at this point in the tourney. This is another testament to my inexperience. I just watched and waited. If I could see the flop from the BB for free, that is about far as I ventured at that point.

Very soon after it was down to 4 of us left my Bro had to make a move with a half-ass hand. I don’t remember who it was who knocked him out, other than I know it wasn’t me. I didn’t get mixed up in any hands with him at the final table. Once I folded AQs to him early on when him and Rahilly were slugging it out. Not collusion per se, just not wanting to fight with him. If he was in a hand I wasn’t that’s all.

And it was down to 3. I have more than Brian but not by a lot. The Blond has as much as us 2 put together or close.

We start playing the blind game. The only difference at this point is that both of them would call in the small blind. If I had nothing, I folded to SB. So basically I was only seeing a flop in the Big. If I was raised in the BB I dropped if I had nothing. I wasn’t defending on purpose sort of. I wanted to keep my tight image even at this stage. Amateurish I know.

They both start playing getting aggressive. There wasn’t a lot of unraised pots PF. The Blond Chick was honestly the least skilled at the table at the moment and likely the whole final table. She raised a lot during the final table and when called she hit a lot of hands. She was allin a few times and doubled up on the river. But I will give her one thing, she stayed aggressive. Brian took over the second place spot in chips. I was hoping for one of them to win a big fight but they just kept passing money back and forth while I dropped blinds. I know it sounds like this went on for a while but it wasn’t real long. And I did pick up some hands here and there and took them down with a raise. Basically I had the image that if I didn’t hit the flop I was dropping to any bet.

Then when the blinds go up to 5000/10,000 I changed gears. I was in the SB. Brian dropped. I raise to 20,000 from the SB. She folds her blind to me. I have nothing.

They fight next hand. I fold to Brian’s SB raise to 20,000.

I call the SB this time. She checks the option. I bet out with nothing. She folds.

They fight. I drop to his push.

I get QQ in SB. I limp. She makes 20,000. I raise it to 40,000. She stares at me for a min. She said, “I don’t know,” as she keeps looking in my eyes. “I believe you. I fold.” I show everyone my Q’s. I say to her, I don’t bluff.

I retake 2nd and am real close to 1st.

She wins a hand from Brian. He checks from the SB and I raise it to 20,00 with 1 paint card. He folds.

I am in the lead now.

I limp from the SB with 72o. She makes it 20,000. I push 30,000 more chips in real fast and stare straight ahead like the time before. She didn’t make me sweat long before she said that she would drop. She is waiting and expecting to see me turn over my cards. I start to muck when my Bro, from the other side of the table, yells, “what you have?” I pull my hand up about to show the bluff, and then think better of it. “72 off-suit,” I say with a broad smile. I get a round of laughter. I show it to some acquaintances and friends that have moved in behind me since the final table started, so that way I could talk about it later. She says that if I did, it was a good bet. This is back before I knew about or called 72o “The Hammer.”

I am now well in the lead.

She folds the SB for the first time to Brian. I double the big bet from the big with a decent hand. He folds. I raise from the SB and she folds. She pushes from the SB and Brian calls. His hand is slightly better than her holdings and she is out in 3rd. I think she gets $160 for her effort.

Heads-up. Last 2 places: 1st - $360 for sure, and 2nd is $220, if I recall is worth much. I am still in chip lead. From short stack at the start to big stack HU. 6000/12,000.

We started going back and forth. He always called the SB. I did most of the time. He started raising from the Small and the Big, often pushing. I fought back often when he didn’t push. I stole a few blinds. But mostly I stayed tight. He was definitely the aggressor. He started to catch-up in chips. He was buying a lot of pots. We both began calling the SB and not folding it anymore except to a push. The chips were almost even. He would usually drop to my aggression because of my image. But any weakness he would push at this point.

I am in the SB. I just call. He pushes and says, “Allin.” I quickly say, “ I call.” He stands up and turns over 66 on the table. The group of at least 75 people surrounding the table went into a frenzy. Thinking that it was time to go to the races with him in the lead and me right behind with overs. I was a dramatic dumbass. I shook my head all distraught as I stood up and then turned over my 99. The people behind me started pushing me and patting on my shoulders, seeing that I had trapped him and that he was a 4 to 1 dog. We shake hands.

The dealer turns over Blank, Blank, Q.

Then another Q.

Then as I held my breath a 9 drops on the river and I fill up.

Cheers and hand shacks for minutes after. Then they present me with a check and a trophy and take my picture for the wall or a scrap book.

Boy I love that trophy.

If I could go back and change one thing about this tournament, it would be to show that awesome bluff. I’ve actually dreamed about showing that hand.