Labor Day Musings

My brother, Cameron,  came up to visit over the Labor Day weekend holiday.  During that time we watched the coverage of his televised table of the WSOP.  There were much rewinding and reviewing of shots.  Not to see Cameron, but instead to say, "I think I see my elbow."  Or "There's Dad's hand."  There were a couple of shots where you could actually see both of our faces on the ESPN coverage.  Unfortunately they didn't show a single hand Cameron played, so he just folded for the two hours.

Also while he was up here we played a couple of poker tournaments.  We started with the $150 Thursday night tournament at Running Aces.  Neither of us cashed, but I did last about an hour longer than he did.

Next we played the $180 Saturday morning Big-Stax at Canterbury Park.  Cameron busted in 12th before the money.  I chopped 4 handed for a little over $2500.  I had the most chips, so I got the credit for the win.  The money was nice, but beating my brother was priceless!

Qualified for Tournament of Champions.

Saturday, August 4th I played in the $275 qualifier for the $2,500 Tournament of Champions being held at Running Aces Harness Park on August 10th.  There were 48 people in the event and 5 seats were given away.  I managed to get one of those seats.  This will be the largest buy-in tournament I have played to date.

The tournament has a great structure but it will probably be a tough field.

Here's hoping I take down the guaranteed $75,000 first place price!

AIPS Player of the Year

Warning:  The following post is a bit of a brag.  Please move on if you don't want to put up with it :)

I've played in the Ante Up Intercontinental Poker Series (AIPS) since its inception (see Ante Up Magazine for more information). AIPS is the only tournament series I make an "extra effort" to try to play.  Despite that my overall record hasn't been very impressive. I've cashed (2 of 55) playing PLO8 in AIPS I.  I didn't cash at all in AIPS II.  I cashed (4 of 110) playing 7 card Stud in AIPS III.  So as you can see 2 cashes over AIPS I, II and III  was pretty unremarkable.

When AIPS IV started I was disappointed when I missed event #1.  I managed to cash (10 of 111) in the event #2 Pot Limit Omaha.  I then failed to cash in event #3  Stud and #4 Limit Hold'em.  I then missed the next 3 events.  I figured any hopes a decent showing in the points race were dashed.

Then I played event #8 Limit Omaha 8 or better. I chipped up early and got heads up with GapBand85.  I somehow managed to win that event. Next I was gearing up for event #9 Razz. The night of the event I wasn't feeling very well, so I decided not to play. But at the last minute I changed my mind and played anyway. I started to chip up again and I began to have visions of repeating. I ended up heads up against x_TheLaw_x.  And after a hard battle I won that one too.  Two back to back first places.  There was a lot of luck involved but it still felt pretty good.

Now I had a vision of winning a 3rd banana in that season.  No one has won 3 bananas in a season since heffmike did it in the very first AIPS series.  So along came event #10 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em.  I was determined to play well.  I ended up finishing tied for 9th (it's a heads up event so not as impressive as it may sound).  But at least that was three cashes in a row.

On to event #11 Badugi.  I had never played Badugi before, but I had played a lot of low-ball games.  It took the first couple of levels before I thought I was sort of getting a feel for the game.  I ended up with the chip lead heads up with StephsHubby.  This is where my inexperience showed through.  I was trying to adjust to short handed play, but I think I over-adjusted.  I played too aggressive and did too much snowing.  StephsHubby recognized this and just kept calling and taking my chips.  I finished second and my third banana eluded me.  At least I had 4 cashes in a row, and had crept up into leading the points race for AIPS Player of the Year.

I figured my run of luck was over,  but of course I would do my best in the Main Event,  event #12 H.O.R.S.E.  This was a deep stacked event with a very slow blind structure.  I started with 3,000 chips and worked my way up to 6,000.  But then through a combination of bad beats and bad play I worked my way down to 532 chips.  Then I noticed GapBand85 was in the top 6.  The tournament paid 6 places and GapBand85 only need to cash to beat me.  So I figured the only way to clinch player of the year was to get myself back in shape to make the final table.  I went all in twice in Stud Eight or Better, but I only won half the pot so it didn't change my position much. Then it switch to Hold'em and I doubled up.  Soon I was at 1500 in chips and I was feeling very comfortable.  (This was about 4 or 5 hours into the tournament.  It had a ridiculously slow structure.)

After not too much longer I was back up to 3000 then 6000 chips.  Before too much longer I was back in the top 4 in chips.  When PottyTrainMe exited in 14th place, I clinched player of the year.  So I had only one thing left to concentrate on.  Winning my third banana.  My stack kept going up and down, and I moved between 4th than 2nd place all night.  I finally ended up heads up against StephsHubby after over 9 hours of play.  I was bleary eyed and it was 5 AM central time, but I was determined to win the banana.  I battled and briefly took the lead in the O8 round, but then I got brutalized in Razz and just couldn't overcome StephsHubby.  Then at 7:20 AM on the Poker stars clock StephsHubby pounded the final stake through my heart and my dreams of the elusive 3rd banana were shattered.

However, I was still pretty happy.  I finished AIPS with 4 straight cashes, two firsts and two second places.   I cashed in 6 of the 8 AIPS IV events I played.  Overall a very good year.  Looking back I have to believe I was running way above expectation.  That gives me 8 cashes over 4 seasons, averaging two per year.  That seems pretty reasonable to me.  So for now I'll close out the AIPS 4 chapter in my life quite happy.  But I'll still be looking to see if I can ever have the elusive 3 banana year.

Scott and Chris of Ante Up Magazine interviewed me for the February 12th podcast.  You can hear more incoherent babbling there.

Here's a picture of the two Pokerstars monkeys fighting with the Bananas I won.