Jon and I played an event at the Pittsburgh Poker Open last week, Event #13. There looked to be 8 tables setaside for the tournament in a 3X3 set up. Jon was sitting at seat 5 in the exact middle table when I walkedin. My only hope was to not have to sit at his table and/or tangle with him at least until late in the tournament if I could help it. I got my table and seat, table 5, seat 2. I looked at the designated tables and I really hoped table 5 wasn’t in the middle and after walking to 2 other tables I was hoping were table 5 and weren’t, I moseyed myself over to Jon, said “Yo” and realized that, in fact, he was at table 5… at least I was going to be in position most of the time... We started off with about 4-5 players at the table and we filled in about 8 or 9 near the end of the first level(20 minutes). In the end, there were about 65 players, 50+ total with about 10+ re-entries, 6-7 tables of players.
I guess I have no issue sitting at his table except that we both know each other way too well. We have history... It's a rich history, one of me winning large sums of money and KO-ing large amounts of players and him just KO-ing one player and winning trophies like nobody's business... He also has a string of KOs with my name on them, usually sucking out or just having the slightliest(not a word?) better hand than mine. Lately, I think I've turned the tables on my luck against him, even though he's won the coveted "Luckiest Bastard" trophy, I've been the beneficiary of most of our recent hands. I think we'll probably not go out of our way to pick on the each other, mostly because the variance would be too high, however, I have little doubt that we'll probably play a significant hand eventually, and probably for a lot of chips... It's just kind of our thing... We mostly ignored each other at first, I was getting pretty nice cards and hitting them insanely and he was mostly folding...which is usually what he does anyway at the start...
We started with 15K in chips, 20 minute blinds, fairly tight table-mates and my image appeared to be tight-super-aggressive. A few of my first hands were crazy good(Jon will attest to that!),
Example: 25-50 blinds, 7 players, 2 callers on an AdJd preflop raise to 175 and hit a J-high board. I bet 250 and get a caller. A on the turn, I bet again 525, and villain obliges again. A on the river is a nice one, I overbet to 2200 and villain called...maybe I could've gotten more, Villain didn't show but he must have had some weaker J(KJ?) and I'd hoped the river Ace told him that I couldn't possibly have one. Next hand he lost to AK with a K high board and A-A for the boat, too. Needless to say, this guy was on suicide watch after like 3 hands and was KO'd pretty quickly. Unfortunately for me I didn't get anymore chips from him as a parting gift of his uber-tilt.
My nice string of hands continued. Later, continuing my streak of good luck, I decided to raise UTG with Ad-2d, got 2 callers and an amazing flop of Kd-Qd-8d. I decided to bet out and made it a slight overbet of the pot, to which both players folded...bummer, I think I wasted that one I should've bet small or check-called to see who was interested or wasn't. Jon actually played more hands than I thought he would this early and at one point after a few levels, I think we were running the table. Either he was raising and winning a nice pot or I was. I think I might have broken my streak of nice hands because I folded one to Jon. Blinds are 75-150, Jon is in the blind, BB maybe, 1 or 2 callers and I look down at black 5s. I raise it up to 350 and get 2 callers, Jon and "Thinker" guy. I'm calling him that because if he was bluffing or weak he'd hold his hand under his chin like "The Thinker" and try not to move. When he was more comfortable you could easily tell, hands to his side, relaxed, leaning back, etc... Anyway, he called with Jon, flop was 6-7-8rainbow. I like this board except Jon, who was the BB could've hit that decently as well, Thinker, probably not so much. I check, Jon checks, Thinker bets out, I call, Jon raises. This was strange to me, Thinker calls and I don't like chasing the low straight in a pot that looks like it could get larger in later streets. Jon doesn't raise as a bluff, or even with a decent hand, nothing is situational here, he's got what is most likely the best hand and he's just check-raised, and checked with only 1 player to go, unheard of... I fold and even after the turn is a 4, Jon bets, Thinker folds and Jon wins the pot. I hated that 4 for a few more hands, even though I know my fold was right, it still stings that I could've won that pot and continued my juggernaught-ing of the table... It's actually more probable that Jon flopped the nuts on that hand and I got lucky folding... Jon had about 25K, I had about 30K and others were really moving up and down a lot.
Not very much later, however, Jon found himself down to about
9100 on a few too many calls(it appeared) and a couple second best hands at
showdown, then...
Jon raised under the gun(200-400 blinds) to 1200 and got 2 callers. I looked down at A-Qoffsuit and decided to
3-bet it to 3300, Jon 4-bet all-in for 5800 more, 2 others folded. I think if I could do this again I probably
just call with AQ and being in position figure out Jon post-flop.
At the time I figured Jon plays so tight that he’ll probably fold most
hands to 2 callers and my 3-bet and only be able to shove really strong
hands where at that point I still have decent odds to call. After he shoved and I owed 5800
more I wondered if I really gave Jon no other option than to fold or shove
given his stack. Also, prior to this hand
I folded against his raise a few times and he played one particular hand
against me and another player a little strangely(I thought) and I wondered if
he was playing slightly differently against me given our history(I probably
fabricated that, mostly though…) I’m
also not sure if I can fold 5800 to win 1200+12000+3300+3300+5800=14800, 2.5 to
1 I have to be 28% or better to make this call.
A-Q vs Jon’s perceived range of 10s or better seems to fit that bill…Even
against Ks I’m 28%... I figured he could
do this with 10s or Js or better, I’m 25%-ish to win in those cases. And if I lose, I’m only down to about
17K. The only bad part of winning this
hand is that I knock Jon out of the tournament and feel a little bit bad about it. I'll feel pretty good about it when I get to tell the story at Poker League, though, conversely pretty horrible if he gets to tell the story of how I doubled him up, though...
If he had more chips I could find a fold, but in this case, even though
Jon’s range is fairly tight I think it’s a decent call…
So I call, making a grimacing face and calling him a douche (all in love) as he flips
over AKoffsuit, K on the flop, Q on the turn for a not-really-a-sweat sweat and
doubling up Jon and nearly cutting my stack in half, though I wasn’t in any
kind of tilt or worry as I was crushing the table prior to this hand and figured I should be able to continue this.
The next bunch of hands I got a lot of mid/small pocket pairs and I tried
to switch up my style playing them. A few
Calling/set mining, I raised a few and nothing hit, I was 3-bet a few times pre and post-flop and nothing was hitting/working at this
point… I kind of think my AQ hand showed
the rest of the table I was human and maybe I looked like a blaster to them... They were either hitting a lot or
knocking me off of my hand a lot. I also
folded Ks in a hand where I think I lost the absolute minimum amount possible. I 3-bet preflop and got 1 caller, flop was
A-8-5, guy checked and I bet out knowing he’s gotta fold even a mid-ace to my
image and betting at least on the turn. He thought for a
moment and called, turn was a 10 and he bets out appearing really strong. I felt like the 10 really helped him (10s…or
A-10?) and so after mulling it over I folded.
A few more speculative pairs/suited connectors(10Jsuited, etc..) and next
thing I know I get to break(re-entry period over)45/ out of 65 players left and
I’m sitting on 5900, blinds will be 400-800, 75 ante(I don’t think they were
500-1000 yet, but maybe they were…?) first hand from break Jon makes a comment
that we should go play BlackJack after we’re done, so I say ok, I look down at As-5c
under the gun so I shove all-in. It
actually folds all the way to the BB who looks at his cards and calls, unfortunately
quickly, flipping over 9s. Jon says, “I
didn’t mean we should go right now!?”
I think I had a gut-shot on the flop(2-4-8), turn was another 2 and
river was a 9 filling up his boat, not that he needed it. I’m out around 40th place. People were falling like flies from this
point of the tournament, it’s really when the game starts up in a lot of
ways. The guys who are too aggressive
either get mega stacks or go home, the guys who just held on for dear life
begin disappearing/blinding down and those who adapt are generally the ones
that survive. Soon after I was
eliminated, our table was broken up, Jon went to table 1 or 2 and played for
about another half hour when this happened.
Jon had A-10 on a K-10-A flop, not sure who started, but both went
all-in and called, Villain shows K-10 for both having 2-pair, Jon having
top-bottom, villain having middle-bottom, the turn is a K, brutal…. river is another
K(not that it was needed, just that it sucks royally…)
Jon was ousted around 30th.
I think we both played pretty well, I got unlucky for a bunch of hands
in a row and Jon got unlucky once, and that’s all it takes sometimes…
I wish I just stayed away from Jon, though, sorry/or you’re welcome
buddy!
I didn't get to play another event of this PPO, but I'm planning on playing a few satellites or Sunday Cheap Bastard tournaments again in the near future to try to get into the weekly 200 or the monthly 500 again
