Sometimes the Bear Eats You

I played in the Oaks Club's hold'em tournament this evening. I got off to a reasonable start at an easy table, but I got burned shortly before the end of the rebuy period, and went down in flames not long after the start of the next round.

Here's the hand that crippled me. I was in the cutoff seat (one out from the button) in seat six; I had a stack of 1000 "dollars" (tournament chips have no real value except insofar as they represent equity in the prize pool; but they have printed denominations). Alex Alaskar was under the gun in seat 10 with somewhat more than enough chips to cover me. The blinds were 40 and 60. Alex opened for a raise, and the action was folded around to me. I've got the ace and queen of spades. Maybe I should have reraised, but I'm weak-tight when UTG opens for a raise. (But then, it was Alex Alaskar, a notorious loose cannon.) I cold-called the two bets, and the big blind came along for the ride.

The flop came down as the ace of hearts, six of diamonds and three of hearts. I had flopped top pair with a pretty good kicker, and heaven only knew what Alex had. He bet into me. I raised. The big blind dropped out. Alex reraised, and I just called him.

The turn card was the ten of diamonds. This was a trouble card: "in the playing zone" as Jim Brier and Bob Ciaffone would put it, and it put a second flush draw on the board. Alex said something indistinct, and reached for his chips. I thought he had said "I bet," and I was waiting for him to put a bet out before I acted. After a moment or two he said, "It's on you." I bet my top pair, and he called me.

The river card was the four of clubs. Alex bet into me immediately. Yes, he's completely capable of playing 7-5 like that and rivering a straight, but he's also completely capable of a bluff in that spot. I called him down. He showed me his two pair: the three and four of diamonds. I told you he's a loose cannon.

After that it was only a matter of time before the blinds got me, unless I got lucky. I didn't get lucky; I caught an offsuit A-9 when I had slightly more than enough chips to come in for a raise. I raised, got called in two spots, and threw my last two chips on the ragged flop. The caller dropped out, but the big blind stayed with me. Naturally, he had a pocket pair and had flopped a set. IGHN.

I didn't go home; I went into the main cardroom and got into the $20-limit lowball game. If I'd caught any cards, I'd have killed that table, it was so soft. But to beat duffers you have to show them the best hand; and I got dealt a bunch of beautiful draws that didn't get there. I sat between Chinese Jennifer and a player I didn't know, an elderly black man who played and moved quite slowly and gave off amazingly clear tells when he had good hands. He also gave off an unmistakable odor of stale urine. I put up with the smell, though, because he made plays like: opening under the gun, and then drawing two cards; calling two bets in his big blind and drawing four cards (!); and drawing three and betting into a crowd when he paired up.

It would have been hog heaven for me, except that I couldn't catch any cards until late in the evening. I wound up buying in for $600 (three buys of $200 each), and walked away with $405, for a net loss of $195.

Debbie had played in the tournament also, and had busted out not long after I did. She played live games also -- she was able to win her tournament buyin back. She came to me at 11:00 PM to check in with me about sticking around or going home. I figured that there was plenty to do tomorrow, so I decided to book a loss and go home.

Patti Beadles won the tournament, by the way, for the second week in a row.