Shootout Recap

Saturday was the big year-end poker matchup called the PPT Shootout. Some good poker was played all around, even by me, though it wasn't good enough to bring home any money. The highlights, at least from my point of view:

My call of the night happened fairly early. Bobby and I were the only two in the hand, and we had bet back and forth on the flop and turn. The river comes out an ace. I think I checked, whereas Bobby bet fairly big. I pondered this a while. I had two pair, jacks and nines. I didn't figure that Bobby had pocket aces, because while he had raised pre-flop, it wasn't a big one. However, I had just about talked myself out of calling when I took a look over at him.

He wasn't looking at me, but for some reason I felt he was saying, "Please don't call." So I called. Turned out my two pair beat his two pair of jacks and sevens and I raked a decent pot.

That was the highlight of taking pots, though. I was able to win my share and stay pretty competitive, then I took a rough beat. I look down at pocket aces and raise. My wife picks that time to call and check on me, so I play the whole hand a little distracted, though I'm not sure that would have made much difference in how I played it. The flop comes up three hearts, which matches one of my aces. I bet, Jason calls. The turn is an ace. So now I have trip aces with a possible nut flush. I bet. Jason raises. If I'd been thinking, I might have gone ahead and folded there, but I doubt I could have gotten away from the hand. I called. The river was nothing, Jason bets and, even though I'm fairly sure I'm in trouble here, I call. Jason had gotten the flush on the flop. That took me from up about 10K on my starting stack of 21,400 to down around 19K.

It really wasn't the best nice for pocket aces. Charles had them once and went all in. Jason called with pocket jacks. During the dealing, one jack had been exposed, so there was only potentially one left in the deck. A possibility nixed when Joe mentioned he had folded the other jack. So basically, Jason is drawing dead it seems, especially when the first card on the turn is an ace. However, the next cards are 2-5, straightening the board and forcing a split pot.

Right after my pivotal hand that I'll discuss below, Bobby and Ken faced off as Ken bet with aces and Bobby went all in. I can't remember what Bobby started with, but he wound up with a straight after the board was done, propelling him from almost out to back on the path to victory. (After finishing last the first two years, Bobby took home the title and the big money this year.)

My basically final hand (I was left with just enough for a big blind) came again at the hands of Jason. Pre-flop, he goes all in. It gets around to me and I look down at A-K. I count it out and see that I'm pretty much riding everything on this hand. However, it is one good hand to ride it on. My gut said fold, my head said bet. With a gut like mine, you'd think I never ignored it, but I did this time.

Jason had a pocket pair of threes. If I could have caught one of my cards, I'd probably been chip leader going into the final stretch of the tournament. Instead, nothing higher than a 7 came out on the board and, after a few folds, I went home after betting 6-9 suited and having nothing come of it.

A good time was had by all, though, and there weren't too many crazy calls, even by Ben. And, hey, I got to play cards for 6 hours and still get home before the kids (well, Benjamin at least) were asleep!