Charity Tournament

[Kurn]

My step-daughter got me involved in a charity tourney tonight. "Rock the Cure" to fight cancer.

$55 entry fee. 90 entered, 3 places paid 1st - $1,000, 2nd - $500, 3rd - $250

Fun time. Held in a neighborhood Portuguese social club in New Bedford, MA. Very old country place. How old country, you ask? Despite the Red Sox playing the Yankess, both TVs were tuned to the Portuguese soccer league.

A good time was had by all. Oh, yeah, I finished 2nd.

Great quote overheard at the final table while we're HU. I'm wearing one of my 'Stars Moneymaker Millionaire shirts and a TP cap. I hear one guy say "look, this guy has sponsors."

[HEwong]

lol nice. congrats

[Talking Poker]

The second place finish is nice, but this is great.

[Kurn]

That was great. The 2nd place was great, too, considering I was seriously short stacked through the entire middle stage of the tourney.

While we're on the 3rd break, 15 left, I have 6,000 left and the blinds will be 1000/2000 when we start up. I tell my step-daughetr and friends that I have one, maybe 2 hands left, since I'm UTG when the break ends. I sit down and see I'm actually 2 to the left of the BB and say "wow, I have one extra hand before I have to go kamikaze." Then I'm dealt 77 and say "but why wait?" and double through the BB.

Three hands later, I'm on the button with AJo and 10,000. 2 limpers to the CO who raises to 7,000. I go into the tank. I realize that 1. I'm still desperate, 2. Late in a tourney, everybody's range gets wider, and 3. There's 2 extra BB's of dead money in the pot. I shove, the blinds and limpers fold, and CO (of course) calls, with ATo and I more than double through again.

Next time on the BB, I have 5 3 , its 4 limpers to me and a free play. Flop comes 4 6 7 I shove immediately and get called by 88.

I bust a couple of short stacks in the next orbit, and before the end of the level I've gone from 6,000 to 54,000.

We get to the final table and I bleed off a few chips until it gets 5-handed when with 48,000 and the blinds 3000/6000, UTG goes all-in for 11,000 and I call in the dark getting 4:1. He has A5o, I have 93o and sure enough both the flop and turn bring a 9. Now its bubble time and I start picking on the smaller stac to my right (and the chip leader across from me picks on the medium stack to my left). Eventually we're HU with me having a bit less than 40% of the chips. We trade blinds for a while, then he seems to get timid and soon, I have him outchipped by about 4 or 5 BBs and the following hand comes up.

With stacks about 8-10 BBs, he calls from SBB, I've been pushing him around for a bit, but he's raised often enough to make me think he wants to see a cheap flop, so I push with KTo. As soon as I say "all-in" I look at his eyes and realize I've been trapped. he calls with AT. I turn the K-high straight and my supporters barely have time to yell when the river brings a K to give him Broadway and I'm crippled.

I go all-in blind the next hand, he calls with Q9s and what do I turn up? Yup, AA. I win that one, but I'm out in few hands anyway, but very happy since 2 hours earlier I thought I was going to make $0.

[bunny]