Played My Third Home Tourney Last Night

The first home game I played in was back in December. I was a complete newbie then, and was the first one knocked out. The second time, I hosted a tourney in April. By then I had been playing limit hold'em for a while online, so I was more comfortable with the game, but my no-limit experience was completely lacking. That one I finished eighth out of a field of eleven. Fast-forward three months, and now I'm at the point where I feel I'm a solid no-limit player in full-table cash games, but my tournament play still needs work. So last night, I went in thinking that I could probably squeak into the money playing my tight-aggressive game, but probably won't come close to winning it. Well, surprise, surprise! I ended up placing first out of sixteen players for my first ever tournament win!

The night started off with a bit of $0.25/$0.25 limit hold'em, with about six of us at the table. I played tight, and managed to win a big pot when my pocket 7's made a set on the flop. Won maybe a couple other small pots, and finished ahead about $4.

Then the two-table tourney started. It was a $10 buy-in for 1000 chips, unlimited rebuys in the first hour if you bust, and a $10 add-on for 1000 more chips at the end of the first hour. I didn't get any good cards for a while, and limped in with maybe a couple drawing hands which completely missed on the flop. Nearing the end of the first hour, I was down to about 850 chips, and with a few limpers ahead of me, I limped in with KJo in late position. I hit a K on the flop, and took down a decent sized pot.

After the add-on, I continued to get trashy hands. Luckily, I got to see a few flops for free from the big blind, and I think I took down a couple pots with top pair or two pair. I can't really remember as I didn't take any notes. Eventually, it got down to eight of us, and we all drew for spots at a single table. I had about 3600 in chips, with blinds at 300/600, and the very first hand at the final table I got AKo in middle position. With a couple limpers ahead of me, I pushed all-in. The chip leader behind me thought for a while, as he didn't have a read on me since we were on different tables. He decided to call, and a small stack whom I had covered also called. Chip leader turned up J8o and small stack 22. I didn't hit an ace or king, but luckily rivered a straight and tripled up. I won another decent pot when I raised pre-flop with AQs, got one or two callers, and won with a Q-high flop. I was the chip leader by then, with one other guy close behind. I knocked someone out when, in the big blind, I checked with 97o and the flop came up 89T, giving me middle pair and an open-ended straight draw. I check-called my opponent's weak bets which gave me good odds, and rivered another 9, went all-in, and was called. Can't remember what he flipped over, but he lost.

It eventually got to heads-up, where I had about a 2:1 chip lead. My lead dwindled to about 1.5:1 when I got KJo and raised to 5000 with blinds at around 800/1600. My opponent called, and flop came up something like 426, basically all low cards. He thought for a long time, while staring me down. By then, I could pretty much tell he had just two overcards, since he usually bet without hesitating much if he had anything on the flop. He pushed all-in, I thought for a while, and decided to call based on my read, and also because it was getting late (about 1:30 am), and I had to work in the morning. He turned up Q9o, and admitted he was trying to bluff me out of the pot, and my king-high held to the river.

All in all, it was a fun night, and I was pretty surprised to win it since I didn't get many good starting hands at all, my best ones being AKo and AQs. I didn't get any premium pocket pairs at all. Most of the players there were loose-passive, and a couple were loose-aggressive, which pretty much fit well against my tight-aggressive style. I also got to meet Doug, one of the guys behind Cake Poker. He was really nice, and brought along a Cake t-shirt which was the bounty prize for knocking him out. For a guy who's running a poker room, though, his poker skills need a bit of work, as he was second to get knocked out. He told me that he was pretty happy so far with the number of players at Cake, considering that they haven't even started marketing yet, and are basically still tweaking their software. I think I'll sign up and check it out, maybe play in a few of the freerolls.

I made about $170 last night, but I'm not going to bother including home game results in my poker earnings. I play these games more for entertainment than for profit. Besides, I gave it all to my wife and kids so that they can treat themselves to something nice, since I stayed out all night. I think I'll do that from now on, kinda like how Barry Greenstein gives all his tournament profits to charity :)