I went up to Chumash Saturady night with a friend from the bowling alley. The plan was to stay there all night, and play in the Sunday morning tournament. It’s a $60 buyin, and you get a coupon for $20 in chips. The field is capped at 154 (we play 11 handed until a table or two breaks, as it’s a 14 table room), and it’s a $10k guarantee. So, since it’s essentially a $40 buyin, there’s an almost $4000 overlay. Plus, they pay 40 places out of the 154, and also have cash for the top 5 hands of the tournament. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s a good tournament to play in. Consequently, though it starts at 10, registration usually fills up before 8. That led to the decision to stay all night. It’s the only way I ever get to play in this tourney. Assuming my money lasted (is this post’s title a giveaway?).

In stark contrast to my last session at Chumash, which I conveniently didn’t blog about, this time I played well. This had a nice side effect that I actually made money, too. Whenever I go up there, I play the 2/5 NL, $200 max buyin game. I sometimes play a few hands of something else while waiting for a seat there, and this time it was $4/$8 limit HE. My first hand of that, before my chips had come, I raised with AQo, had a straight by the river, and was raking in chips before I actually had any of my own. After an orbit or two of missed flops and posted blinds, I was down $10, and UTG. I came SO close to straddling but decided against it. I looked down at the hammer, and as I wasn’t playing with bloggers, mucked it. The flop: 77x. The turn: 7. The river: does it matter? I woulda been up against pocket queens and given someone a nice bad beat story to tell had I followed through with the damn straddle. I think it would have even topped CJ’s hammer quads. He was UTG, but failed to straddle it. That was the last hand I’d play at 4/8, as my name got called for the no limit game.

My very first hand, I look at KK and an early position raiser to $15. I’ve only played with one player at the table before, so I really have no information on anything. I made it $40 to go, from my $200 buyin. There’s one caller behind, and the original raiser folds. At this point, I figure the other guy has to have at least an ace or a pair. I hated the A88 flop, and checked. He checked behind. The turn was a 9, and it went check-check, again. I probably should have put in a bet there. The river is a 10, and I check again. He comes out firing for $50. I’m pretty sure I’m beat, and I’m also sure that the river made his hand, and he doesn’t have an ace or an eight. The problem is I couldn’t figure out how the ten beat me, so I called. He flips up QJs, for a runner-runner straight, and I’m down $90 to start. I settled in for a long night.

The rebuy rules are a little strange at Chumash. You can only rebuy once you drop to $100 or below, and then only for exactly $100. At this point, I’m sitting with $110, and want to top off. A few hands go by, and I fold my big blind to action. $105. I have a hand worth seeing a flop with from the small blind, which would have let me rebuy had I missed, but someone raised preflop and I had to fold. $103. Still can’t rebuy. Then I got aces. A preflop raise, and a nice bet on the ragged flop, and I’m back up to $150 or so. Then I limped UTG with 66, called a raise to $20 from the big blind, and saw a flop of 776. He checked, I checked, and the other caller bet out $35. The big blind called. I decided to end it right there, and pushed in for almost $100 more, and they both went away. $260. No need to rebuy, and thankfully, no money lost because I wasn’t a full stack.

I can’t write any more tonight, but don’t want to wait to get this posted, so…
…to be continued…

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