The Poker Pub is an organization that hosts Texas Hold 'Em games throughout various cities across the nation. At certain establishments throughout Tucson, nightly free tournaments are held and are open for anyone to play. When I play, it's usually at the Frog & Firkin on Tuesday nights. I go because my friend Lucky has a lot of friends who play there, so I just come along to throw some cards and have a few drinks.
If you're fortunate to win one of these free tournaments that usually range anywhere from 10-20 people, you get an invitation to play in monthly qualifiers for the semi-annual finals tournament. The more open tournaments you win, the more chances you have to play in these qualifiers. Then at the qualifiers, the top-25 players out of about 80 are given an invitation to the semi-annual finals. What's good about the semi-annual finals? Well there is $8,500 worth in prizes and a chance to win some WSOP seats! Also the pure bragging rights of being able to beat several good poker players from your town.
So back in July, I won a tournament at the Frog & Firkin. You can view my player card here: http://tucson.thepokerpub.com/user/87575
They gave me a ticket to play in one of the monthly qualifiers at Clicks Billiards and I made the top-25 cut. So now the Semi Annual Finals Tournament is finally here. Opening day will be at 2pm on Saturday, December 3rd at the Cactus Moon and the top 80-120 players will advance to day two on Sunday. You can view more about the tournament at the Tucson Poker Pub's home page and you'll find my name in the Excel spreadsheet regarding chip counts. Yeah, you can earn more starting chips by entering more monthly qualifiers and making the top 25 or placing in the top 10. I did the bare minimum, which is 1 qualifier and then 1 top-25 cut. Lol.
So anyway, I'm looking forward to playing some poker tomorrow. I'm not really intimidated or anything; at my last experience at the 80-person qualifier I didn't really think anyone was outplaying me. In any case, feel free to wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes!
After Day 1, 112 players out of 190 remain. I started the day with 13,000 chips (they had an additional 3,000 you could buy for $3 and it came with 2 jello shots, so that was kind of a no brainer). 6 hours later and after about 70 players were eliminated, I hold 117,100 chips going into Day 2. At the beginning of the day, about 7,000,000 chips were in circulation, so I am well above the 62,500 average chip count. Onward to Day 2!
Day 2 was held at R Place Bar and Grill. About 14 tables remained and a lot of poker was left to be played. I bought 3 jello shots and 10,000 chips for $3 and started playing poker. The day was an up and down rollercoaster for me. The first hour I struggled to make any money, but I eventually found myself involved in a very big hand. I had KQ and raised pre-flop to 10,000 with 2 callers. The flop came out 7, 10, K. The first player bet 10,000 and everyone called. A King came on the turn. Check, check, and so I bet 10,000. One player raised it to 50,000. The other player folds and I sat there for a while thinking what could beat me...did he have AK? Maybe pocket 10s. Such a big pot at this point in time, if he has AK or 10-10 I'm beat. I make the gutsy call. The last King comes on the turn. The other player goes all-in and I insta-call. He had 10s, which gave him a boat on the turn, but I had caught quad Kings on the river. It was an enormous hand and I'm so glad I called his 50K raise. My opponent was a good sport and praised me on making such a gutsy call to see one more card. I quickly found myself among the chip leaders after that point, holding around 300,000 in chips when the average is around 115,000.
A couple hours and tables later, I find myself in another memorable hand. Holding A5, I'm raised preflop to 25,000. Some back story on why I called with this hand. The hand just before me I held AQ and was going straight up with a guy who had A5. Neither of us hit anything on the flop or turn and I had been pushing him hard to try and get him to fold. He made a good read, caught his 5 on the river and I was beat that hand. So I decided to give A5 a try for myself heads up with the person who raised me...anytime you have an Ace heads up you're in good shape. Flop comes out A, A, 9. I check, he bets 50,000. I stop to ponder a bit. I've got to be out-kicked at this point. I make the call to see another card, hoping to pair up my 5's. An Ace comes out on the turn and I know I've got the nuts. I slow-play my hand Emmy Award style and he pushes me all-in with his pocket 8s. I insta-call again and he gives me props for the play. I'm now sitting with over 600,000 in chips and people are definitely starting to talk with and about me, realizing my strength as a player. It's a good feeling. I also get labeled as the Boat-Killer since I crushed two boats with quad Kings and quad Aces.
At 10pm, about 7 hours later, I find myself at the final 2 tables with 20 players to go. It's getting late and even the coordinators realize that they need to start wrapping this up. The blinds start to increase more quickly, forcing players to play tighter. I struggle to catch any good hold cards and the hands I played were failing to hit. I soon find myself getting blinded out slowly and am now one of the short stacks now, but there are also only 11 players left. The top 10 will make up the final table and also be in the running for prize money. Another short stack pushes all-in and I'm holding pocket 8s. I said aloud to everyone, "Would suck to be 11th huh? Nobody wants to be that guy hehe." At this point, everyone really respects me as a player and how I go about my business: very respectful, friendly, and professional. I had gotten questions earlier in the day about what I do for a living since people recognize my polite demeanor. Sure, I had gotten some bad beats or people had called me when I felt they shouldn't have, but I never insulted them, never raged, and never found myself on tilt. I was honestly just having a great time playing poker and meeting people in a tournament where on Day 1 I honestly knew one person and it was Nick, who organizes the events. So I said, "You know, I'm not in it for the money. It's just been a lot of fun playing these past couple days. I'll call." I'm up against A9 with my pocket 8s and he eventually hits his Ace and I'm knocked out as the 11th place out of 190. Had I made the final table and gotten at least 10th place, I could've made $25 or even more. But at that point, my luck at the final 2 tables had run out and I knew even if I tried to wait for someone else to get knocked out, I wouldn't last long. It's also true that I'm not in it for the money. I could honestly take out $1,500 for a WSOP seat tomorrow and not even notice. 11th place got me a free drink offer, lol.
I had a lot of fun playing in my first ever multi-day poker tournament. Some people think I'm crazy to have played 14 hours of poker for nothing, but to be honest, I never got tired or made bad plays from exhaustion. My game was always strong the entire time. I just had fun playing cards and in the end it was great entertainment. If anything, I'm just sad it ended so late at 11:30 pm because I couldn't go to the gym to work out anymore. :(
