This is Dominic reporting. Before I get to the results of the Tourney, I want to let people know that we will no longer be using Evite. We have had too many problems with folks not getting the emails and with individuals who think they have signed up but really haven’t.
Instead, we will be doing invitations directly through our website. You can RSVP to Tournament 2 here. You will need to login and create a password. We hope this will fix all of the problems we’ve had with our invitations. Thanks to Webmaster Rodney Resella for making this happen.
One of our new features this year will be that Tournament results will be reported out by the Tournament Director (or their designee). We hope this will provide a direct feel of what happened at each tournament. We’re going to post this on our blog and hopefully start some conversations about the hands.
Congrats to the winner of Tournament 1, Vikki Dea who outlasted 44 other players to take down first place. The final hand had several raises and re-raises before Vlad was all in with KQ vs Vikki’s pocket Kings. The flop gave Vlad some hope with a gutshot possibility but it was not to be as Vikki took down bragging rights for Tournament 1. The standings can be found here.
Folded to Mike E. in the small blind who opens for 250. Ryan P in the Big Blind 3bets to 750 and has another 2200 behind. Mike calls. Flop is 
. Mike leads with 700 and Ryan jams for his last 2200. Mike tanks and then calls and shows 
. Ryan shows pocket 
. Turn is the 
knocking out Ryan out of the tourney.
Blinds 100/200, 25 antes. Ed from early position raises and everyone folds to Jan who calls with 
in the Big Blind. The flop is 
. Jan leads out and Ed calls. Turn is a 
. Jan leads out again and called by Ed. River is a heart and Jan jams all in and is snap called by Ed who shows pocket Aces for the full boat.
A fascinating hand on the bubble- Juergen raises from the button and Tek in the small blind and Vikki in the big blind call. All three have healthy stacks. Flop is A Q rag rainbow. Juergen C-bets and both Tek and Vikki call. Turn is another Queen. Checked all the way around. River is a King. Tek and Vikki both check and Juergen value bets about 40% of the pot. Tek thinks about it and folds and Vikki goes into the tank and eventually calls showing 
. Juergen flips over 
and Vikki takes down a huge pot with her hero call.
It was a great start to our 10th Season. It’s going to be an exciting year! And please remember to join us for our 10th Anniversary fundraiser event on October 24th. Tickets will be sold at each tournament till October 17th. Send me an email at [email protected] if you want to buy tickets or if you have a prize to donate.
See you at Tourney 2 on September 12th.
Here’s what I think of some of the hands reported-
The hand between Ryan and Mike- With about 30 BBs preflop, I think Ryan can’t really 3bet all in preflop with pocket Kings. The ironic thing is that if he has about 20 BBs then a 3bet jam would be the right move.
The Vikki/Tek/Juergen hand was probably the most interesting hand of the day. It was hand for hand as we were down to 2 tables. The other table quickly finished and seemed to wait forever for this hand to finish. I still don’t know how Vikki can call on the river but afterwards, she told me that there was a good chance Juergen was bluffing and the value bet wasn’t big enough to get her to fold there.
Up to this point, Juergen had been the chip leader and this hand helped catapult Vikki to her first place finish
El Rafai four flushed twice on the day. Guess he new the puppy feet were coming (first time on river, the second time on the turn).
The Drake/ El Rifai hand is a classic case of having to put the results aside. The losing player in the hand did everything right and the winning player made countless mistakes and won.
Mistake 1: From the SB with a complete trash holding, a raise into a player with 30BB. There are no antes so this is a very easy fold.
Mistake 2: Folding is by far the best option based on stacks but if you are going to play, its a raise. However, a 2.5BB raise when you are going to be out of position is too light.
Mistake 3: After raising, a reasonably tight player puts in a three bet with 25% of his stack. There is nothing to do now but fold. There is never a justifiable reason to call a three bet out of position with a hand that flops as poorly as the CB. This is pure spew. There are very few good flops for this hand and when Drake raises pre flop he is almost certainly trying to get all the chips in the middle. Most of the time El Rifai has to check / fold this holding which makes the pre flop fold the right play.
After that, I’d rather see a check / jam with the four flush and backdoor straight rather than a lead. This at least puts Drake to some kind of decision. Instead, the lead allows Drake to play his over pair with a natural all in and now El Rifai has to call off with a draw.
From the other side, the bet sizing from Drake pre flop is 3X. I like the sizing and I agree with Dom he is a little too deep for the pre jam with 30BB.
Although the flop is monotone, its much more likely El Rifai has a draw at best on this board. Jamming over the lead is the only real play to make here. KK is ahead way too often and the weak lead screams draw or maybe a T.
Its the ultimate frustration of tournament poker to make the right moves and end up on the rail but you have to learn to divorce yourself of the result and look at the decision making instead. This decision making was correct and the majority of the time leads to a double up.
The other hand is a little harder to diagnose without stack sizes. Its sounds like they were all reasonably deep.
I’m okay with Juergen opening this light on the button, especially since it sounds like this is the bubble. He’s unlikely to be dominated and he plays pretty well post flop and will be in position.
If Tek had a hand that he can call on a AQx flop then he most likely had a hand that should three bet pre flop. His call opens that option up to Vicki and he now plays out of position the whole way.
when he calls Vicki has a very clear 3 bet with JJ. It’s almost certainly the best hand in this spot. Assuming that Juergen made it 2.5 then the post is about 7 BB when it gets to the BB after the bet, call, antes, and BB. I’m going to make it at least 10 BB here and probably something like 11.5.
Once the call is made and it checks to Juergen he makes a standard C bet. When Tek calls, I am tossing JJ here. Juergen may certainly have not hit this board but Tek probably has a weak ace or Q here. I do not like an overcall with third pair.
I think that Juergen either has to barrel again on turn or decide to give up against two opponents. Checking through does nothing because either one of them is now calling Ax hands. One of them could very well be slow playing a Q now and you really can’t rep it now. I think this is a spot to give up. I might try it heads up but three ways at least one player beats me. I think Juergen fell into the “the only way I can win is to bet” mindset here without thinking if he could in fact actually win.
I agree now at the river that Juergen has more bluffs in his range than value hands and calling with JJ seems pretty standard once Tek folds.
It was Ryan Park not Ryan Drake. My mistake in the email.
In the Vikki/Tek/Juergen hand, it was on the bubble as we were hand for hand. It’s how I was able to see the whole action. And yes all three had very deep stacks.
I agree that Vikki needs to 3bet her Jacks once Tek calls. If Tek folds then a call is much more justifiable against Juergen heads up. Tek later told me he had a small pocket pair.
Yea, I could have sworn I wasn’t there on Saturday. You guys all know that play was far better than I’m capable of!