An Early Night.

Sunday, April 24
Poker Stars
7pm EST
$30 +$3
No Limit
WPBT WSOP Satellite

In a flash of Guinness-fueled inspiration, Iggy conceived the idea of sending at least one poker blogger to the World Series of Poker this June through a Poker Stars satellite. The WSOP $1500 buy-in meant that a minimum of 50 bloggers needed to sign up to our tourney at $30 a head (the extra $3 per is the rake for Poker Stars). 78 players eventually joined, meaning one winner of the $1500 ticket (the second place finisher would take home the cash overage).

That winner was not me. Not even close. Bob Respert, a nice guy who I've played against at a few WPBT virtual tables -- but not last night -- took #1, the $1,500, and will be playing in the WSOP come June. It should be fun to read his reports. Go do the poker blogger community proud, Bob! There was a chopped pot (money split between the players) for 2nd and 3rd, the players taking home a not unrespectable $420 each. [UPDATE: A deal was cut at the final table to chop the pot among 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, a still not unrespectable $280 each]

Okay, enough about you. How about me? As the title implies, I was knocked out early, in fact within the first half-hour, and finished 67th out of 78. The game seemed to be played at hyperkinetic speed, with players dropping by the wayside every minute (I think there were less than 50 left at the 1st hourly break). Maudie and the winner of the last WPBT tournament, GameC, were both at my first (and only) table, and both were knocked out before me.

And me?

The hand breakdown that took me out is below for poker players. For others, here's the brief. After 27 minutes of conservative play, either folding, calling or checking, I raised three times the BB to $100 with a suited QJ in my hand. I was called by one player, EasyCure, who was on the button. The flop showed a Kd Kh 4h, giving me a flush draw at this point.

Although I didn't know it (obviously), I was, in the parlance, near "drawing dead" as EasyCure with a pair of pocket 4s had flopped a full house. I threw another conservative $100 at the pot. EasyCure raised to $290, and I called. At this point I figured EC for a K in his hand, and that he had bet the set.

The worst possible card in the world for me fell at the turn, a 10 of hearts. I now have a flush, with a possible straight flush draw and an even more improbable royal flush draw.

I still haven't made up my mind -- and probably never will -- whether I made a mistake at this point. I had T1015 left in my stack, not that short after a half-hour of play. I could have checked, or made another conservative bet, and let EasyCure's next move decide me. But with a flush in hand, and two-way nuts hand draw (and there was no way I believed he was slow-playing the other two Kings, anyway) the only thing I really feared was the Ace of hearts. If EC was holding that, I didn't want him to get to the river and a possible heart. So I got aggressive, and went all-in.

EC waited, and I thought he was going to back down. In retrospect, I think he was deciding whether he believed I had pulled a better boat than he had, possibly holding a pocket K 10. Eventually, he either guessed right that I had the flush or decided to gamble. In either case, it was the right decision.

A river 9 of hearts would have given me a straight flush, and an Ace of hearts a royal flush, which would have been the baddest of bad beats for EasyCure, and I probably would have become legendary in the poker blogger community for 3 or 4 minutes, but his full house held, and I was gone.

Bad play? Maybe, but I think I would have played out that hand to the river no matter what. I don't think I could have backed away from it.

The ever-supportive Peg had made finger food, including meatballs and bruschetta, that I could nibble on during play, which we ended up eating together at 7:30.

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #1579711850: Tournament #7037849, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2005/04/24 - 19:27:36 (ET)

Table '7037849 2' Seat #9 is the button

Seat 1: drmullets (4305 in chips)
Seat 2: ScottMcMilla (1045 in chips)
Seat 3: ricoM (1505 in chips)
Seat 4: skitchorama (1850 in chips)
Seat 5: dnasty13 (1285 in chips)
Seat 6: heL1xx (1455 in chips)
Seat 8: good43 (1065 in chips)
Seat 9: Easycure (2295 in chips)
drmullets: posts small blind 15
ScottMcMilla: posts big blind 30

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ricoM [Qh Jh]
heL1xx said, "at least for me they are"
ricoM: raises 70 to 100
skitchorama: folds
dnasty13: folds
heL1xx: folds
good43: folds
Easycure: calls 100
drmullets: folds
ScottMcMilla: folds

*** FLOP *** [Kd Kh 4h]
ricoM: bets 100
Easycure: raises 290 to 390
ricoM: calls 290

*** TURN *** [Kd Kh 4h] [Th]
ricoM: bets 1015 and is all-in
Easycure: calls 1015

*** RIVER *** [Kd Kh 4h Th] [8d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
ricoM: shows [Qh Jh] (a flush, King high)
Easycure: shows [4s 4c] (a full house, Fours full of Kings)
Easycure collected 3055 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3055 | Rake 0
Board [Kd Kh 4h Th 8d]
Seat 1: drmullets (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: ScottMcMilla (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: ricoM showed [Qh Jh] and lost with a flush, King high
Seat 4: skitchorama folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: dnasty13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: heL1xx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: good43 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Easycure (button) showed [4s 4c] and won (3055) with a full house, Fours full of Kings