I went into the 10k tournament at Bay 101 feeling really good, I feel like my live game has been solid lately and I felt really focussed, also I had the added bonus of getting to sleep in my own bed at a poker tournament (I live about 15 minutes from Bay 101)! A very nice change-up from living out of a suitcase in a hotel room. Also the structure was awesome and the added bonus of 5k bounties on 50 "shooting stars" and 10k bonus for the chip leader of day 1A and day 1b. Unfortunately for me I showed up to the tournament 15 minutes late and got put at a table full of people who had also showed up late, for anyone who hasn't played many live tournaments this is generally always professionals, and this time was no different. My table was probably the toughest in the room with me, Yefgeniy Timoshenko (Jovial Gent online), Marco Johnson (Crazy Marco), Bryn Kenney, Michael Mizrachi, JJ Liu, Farzad Bonyadi, and two younger kids who I didn't know but were in all likelihood online pros. Nevertheless the day went really smooth for me, I pulled off a few big bluffs all of which worked, and made a big all in call down against Bryn Kenney. Later in the day many of the tough players busted and were replaced by weaker players and I was able to chip up without much showdown until the last hand of the day:

Matt Savage was walking around announcing big chip stacks because of the 10k bounty for chip leader, he said Vivek Rajkumar had 180k and a few others had about 160. I was sitting at 130k so the chip lead wasn't really in my sights (or so I thought). Anyways the last hand, I raised in middle position to 2200, Chris Ferguson who was recently moved to the table shoved for 16k and it came to me... Normally I think this is a somewhat close spot as Chris is not shoving as wide as most online players would be in this spot but I felt with the added 5k bounty on his head and the fact that he was short-stacked and may want to double up or bust rather than come back on day 2 with a short stack. So I called and he had A10 and was drawing dead on the turn, so I picked up the 5k bounty on Chris, but little did I know Matt had misannounced many people's stacks and with that pot off Chris I had actually taken the chip lead, so it turned out to be a 15k pot for me. Needless to say I was feeling pretty good, freeroling plus a little profit on the tournament, but with my 155k stack I had my sights set on the million dollar first prize.

On day 2 it seemed that my good luck would continue as I came to my table and didn't recognize one face besides Howard Lederer, who is a good player, but a tight one so not someone I hate having at my table. All of the guys at the table were older gentlemen who more than likely sattelited into the tournament, so I was loving my chances. Unfortunately, I could not win a pot at the table, no matter what. I would raise get called by some tight player, c-bet the flop when I airballed and get check-raised, fake tank a little bit fold and then they would show me the nuts. It felt like this happened every pot I played. The table broke and rather than chipping up as I expected to I had chipped down to about 115k.

The next table I was moved to was nothing like my first table, two very tough live cash players were to my immediate left and three to my left was the insane Brandon Cantu. Also a couple players who I had played with on day 1 who were both very aggressive but not that strong of players were also at the table, so my plan was to play a lot tighter at this table than I had been at my previous one. After folding for the first round and a half I was at the table I got dealt Q10 of hearts UTG, 8 handed. I decided to open to 3300 and was called by the player one to my left and one of the players I mentioned that I played with on day 1 on the button. The flop was Qs10c8s and I bet 6600, the player to my left folded and the button called quickly, immediately I put him on a weakish draw because he is a very deliberate player and I felt that with a pair or combo draw type hand he would take some time on the flop to make his decision. The turn was a blank deuce and I bet 15k, once again he called quickly. The river came the 3 of spades, obviously not my favorite card, I decided that my best course of action was to check and evaluate if/when he bet. He bet 27.5k and I took a little time before making the call and was shown the A5 of spades. I still think that the river play is optimal against this opponent, I am very sure that he is betting his missed straight draws (KJ/AJ) and I felt that he was the type of player to bet much bigger on the river if he was value betting and more likely to "value-bet bluff" his missed draws. Also, I was getting about 3 to 1 on the call so he doesn't even have to be bluffing that often for my call to be right. Both of the good cash players at the table told me that they would have called also, which made me feel a little better about my play.

Anyways, after that I lost a flip for 40k (my AQ suited vs JJ) a few hands later and was quickly down to 40k. After folding for a couple rounds and the blinds going up I shoved 32k on an agressive players open with AQo only to have the small blind wake up with KK, the flop was K77 and I was out, just like that. I was pretty disapointed after, but looking back I really don't think much could have been done to prevent the meltdown, just the way it goes in tournaments some times.


Since then I have just been chilling, watching March Madness, I have to say that there is not a better weekend to veg out on the couch than the first weekend of March Madness, there is just constantly awesome games to watch and you always have a rooting interest beacuse of your bracket. Over the years I have become less and less a fan of college Bball, but I still LOVE March Madness, who doesn't!? My final four is:Louisville, UConn, Duke, and my champions: Oklahoma. Not exactly the most adventerous final four but so far it is still in tact so we'll see how it goes...

Also I did an interview on pokerroad radio, usually I don't really like interviews and I don't think I'm very good at them, but I think this one went well and I had a good time doing it, so check it out. That's all I got for now, more March Madness to sweat...

Isaac