Winning a Bar Poker Tourney

Yesterday was another great day of bar poker for me at the Thursday Night Mason's Sports Grill NL Holdem poker tournament held by FreeSpades Poker. (Link : http://spadesgamesllc.com/poker/). <--- Free plug worth some extra chips?

There were 45 runners and at my first table, there was a young girl that had never played before. Needless to say, she was calling with any face card and hitting them on the flop. She kept on calling any bet and 80% of the time was the eventual winner....LOL. When we got new players on the table, they looked at her chip stack and thought that she was an experienced player. When she showed the hands that she was calling raises with, they would go ballistic. BTW, she did make final table, but busted out 10th!

Memorable hand from that first table:

I was the big blind with appx. 15K. The blinds are at 100-200. Two limpers and the cutoff with 13K makes it 400 to go. The small blind with 6K calls. I looked down and see a J8, so I call hoping that with the other limpers, it would give me good pot odds. The other two also call, so now the pot is 2000. The flop comes 9TQ rainbow giving me the second nuts. Small Blind checks and I check behind hoping that one of the rest of the group has a Q and I could trap. Check...Check... and sure enough, the Cutoff bets out 1500. I'm getting ready to hollywood, but to my surprise, the small blind (a very strong player) goes all-in. I went into a zone, not only wondering whether he had the KJ, but also wondering what I should do to get the Cutoff to call and try to get his chips on the turn and river. I finally say "I got a good hand that I can't fold" and announce a call. The other two folded and the cutoff basically instacalled....hmmm! The turn is a 7 and I check, trying to see if the Cutoff will bet into a dry side pot with the KJ. He checks also. OK...no KJ there. The river is a 2, and at that point, I decide that I'm going to play act and go all in making him think that I'm trying to bluff him out of the hand. Note that this guy looked like a leisure player that knew how to play ABC poker, but did not understand the finer strategy of dry side pots and that the flop reaked of a potential straight. After about 1 whole minute of thought (LOL) I looked at him and said..."I think I have a better hand than you, so I'm all in." I was surprised that he took less than 5 seconds to call my all in, and was momentarily worried about him playing me with the KJ, but when I showed my straight, he mucked his cards. He later said that he had pocket 10's. The small blind showed his QJ, so now, I was the tourney chip leader.

The middle part of the tourney was uneventful and I played basic poker maintaining a healthy chip stack. It is noteworthy that during this time, JT (a very aggressive loose kid) was building a tremendous chip lead, by taking out one guy when his pocket A's beat out the guy's pocket K's, and when he called a preflop raise with his 6 9 and the board came out 23454. The other lady in the hand bet out the pot and he raised all-in. She thought for a while and could not put him on a 6, so she called with her AQ.

By the time we got to the final table, JT had amassed a stack of close to 80K. I had 50K which was the average, considering that there were 2-3 others that were in their 10's and 20's.

The final table had some interesting hands.

With blinds at 2000-4000, UTG goes all in for 45K. I look down at AJ and considering that there are 6 players behind me, I fold. JT in the cutoff goes all in with his big stack. The blinds fold and on the flip, UTG shows AT and JT shows 33 (LOL). A 3 on the river nailed the coffin shut on UTG and we are now down to 8 players. JT now has appx. 120K.

I was able to steal some blinds and then, from the small blind and 4 limpers in front of me I look down and see AJ suited. I decide that this is my moment, so I push all-in with 70K. JT is the first limper that the raise gets to and he instantly goes all in...(he has me covered)...the rest fold and on the flip, I show my AJ and JT shows J10 (LOL). The board gives me an A and JT is completely crippled. Hello new chip leader!!

The rest of the tourney was a complete big stack bullying by me, and then the heads up took appx. 8 hands to conclude and give me the victory. 1st place got me a $30 bar cash certificate, but more than anything, gave me a boost in confidence that I could play against all kinds of poker, even loose aggressive donkey players like JT.