The Cat’s Meow-10K Championship: A Home Game Trip Report

[Befolder]

Cliff Notes of Part I: Deep stack long tournament, player bios and playing styles, blind structure, history and table draw.

My fiancé and I host a home game about every six weeks, which is usually a $10 rebuy game for our casually playing friends. My friend and I had an idea a few months ago that we wanted to play a bigger game once or twice a year, kind of like a WSOP championship tournament.

After much waiting and planning, this game finally happened last Saturday.

Start time: 2:30pm
Estimated end time: 10:30pm (this was just based on the blind schedule and not a hard stop)
Buy in: $45 + $5 bounty
Attendees: 12

Blind Schedule & Starting Chips:


If you’re following close, you’ll notice that we start out very deep stacked. Since the buy in was much larger than most of our guests were used to, we wanted to give everyone a chance to make it to the dinner break still alive.

Our game includes a mix of both aggressive and passive players, so there are land mines to avoid and the more experienced players are too tight w/ a small stack. They get waiting for a good hand, but they don’t understand what their M is or how they should alter their game based on it. Most players don't calculate pot odds very well or even try, and thus call too much. Overall, the game is more passive than aggressive.

Overall, I played very well for the whole tournament, but also made one key poor decision when my discipline didn’t stop me from doing it. Not following my reads is one of my greatest weaknesses.

Since we had the awkward number of 12, we had to start w/ two tables of six.

Player bios:

Sabin: My best friend. He’s been working hard on his game lately, playing a lot of Daniel Negraneau’s Stacked on Play Station. He only plays when we all get together, but is slowly becoming more advanced. He’s been much more a student of the game in the past three months. Solid TAG player, can be timid post flop though. He is aware of him M, but not the best at making it work for him.

Nick: My brother. Lots of experience online and a decent amount live. Solid TAG game, not very creative, easy to read for me. If he raises, he has cards.

Tom: Very loose player, somewhat aggressive, sometimes recklessly. Will make crazy plays just to have a story to tell. He is “Blind Nuts” from this last game: Back Story

Sue: Tom's gf. She almost never plays with us and is your standard 80/.1/.8 player.

Dale: Sabin's Dad. He's about 45/1//1.2. Very loose and over values his hand.

Tim: Dale's friend. This is his first time at our game and from what I saw, might be his first ever tournament. Very loose/passive. He also stunk from under use of deodorant much like too many B&M players. It was unpleasant.

Jeff: This guy has won two of the three events he's come to. He has very little experience, but is pretty smart in general. He plays a very unconventional style, limping any hand. I've seen him limp AA and other big pairs at least four times and he doesn't do so w/ the intention of reraising it. His kind of play catches me off guard and I have to be careful that I don't over value my own hand when in a pot w/ him. Overall, he's not a good player though, just very difficult to read. He knockek me out of the last event if you read the "back story" above.

Katheryn: My fiance. She has found an interest in poker over the last four months. She plays a very conservative style, but is pretty adept and has cashed in many of the events we've hosted. She's your standard player who has learned that TAG play is good, but she plays that way all through the tourney and is not experienced enough to mix it up, which is probably a good thing for her at her stage of learning. She'd just get herself in trouble.

Sonia: TAG. Does not make adjustments though. Just took second in a $150 tourney for a $700 payday so her confidence is likely high.

Barb: Sonia's friend and her first game w/ us. I know nothing about her game, but assume it is standard TAG minus creativity. She was the first place winner in that $150 tourney that Sonia took 2nd in.

Dave: He is a coarse, boorish, pompous ass. He is the husband of one of Kat's friends and has started to be invited to our games, which I'm regretting because his presence could rub some of our other gamers the wrong way. He's your typical LAG player who has perhaps had started winning consistently and thinks he's the best player there is. I remember when I was in his stage. He has a long way to go and I aim to give him some lessons. Very much a table captain and will tap the fish tank often. Sabin and I want his head.

Befolder: I have the most experience of anyone at the game. I understand a lot of tournament strategy and make adjustments to players in hands, who is in the blinds, my M, other players reactions to their Ms. I know a little bit about small pot poker and that's what I plan on playing in this event. I want to stay out of trouble in marginal spots, but get maximum value out of the people I know will pay off when I have a good hand.

My opening table:

1. Befolder
2. Nick
3. Tom
4. Jeff
5. Sue
6. Tim

This is a good table draw for me. I don't like my brother to my left, but he plays pretty tight so he'll likely fold to most of my pf raises. Jeff isn't very tricky and I have the best position on the loosest and most passive players in Sue and Tim. Tom is a bit of a concern, but that's only because he is unpredictable sometimes. I will just have to not hurt myself. Tim right next to me is bad because he smells like B.O.

Actual play in the next post.

[Befolder]

I'm glad I'm not at the same table as Dave, because other than me, he's the most aggressive player in the tournament. I can run the table easier if I'm the main person pushing the action.

Oh, one more important thing to mention is that everyone who enters the tournament, gets one "Show em" chip.

Any time that you are in a hand, you may pass this chip to another player to see their hand privately at the end of the hand. You usually do this as you fold your hand. Once someone has acted after you fold, you can no longer use the chip that hand.

These are a fun addition and a way to get information. If you passed one, then you may also use that one, so you could hoard them, but that does you no good since you only get something when you use them yourself.

I usually never get any, even though I win a lot of hands w/o a showdown so you'd think people would be curious.

Okay, to the action:

Sue wins the first five hands we play for small sums. She couldn't lose no matter what she had and her starting cards were never remarkable. At least the chips were going to someone they were easy to get from.

I played a few hands and got down to about 9000 pretty early. I don't like it when I'm below average and part of me what to get those chips back, a very dangerous feeling to have. I just kept telling myself that this will be a long day and there is plenty of time. Your M is still in the hundreds right now, so there is no need to panic. I was able to stay calm and patient.

Online, I use a program that hides my table stakes, so I don't react to being up or down, I can't really do that in a tourney because how much you have is important.

Near the end of round two (50/100), this critical hand came up. I was at about 11K at that point.

Tom raises in the HJ to 300, Tim calls in the sb and I decide to speculate in the BB w/ T9o. Not a great hand, but the implied odds at these early levels are pretty big when you know your opponents have a hard time getting away from hands.

Tom doesn't raise much pf, so his range of hands are pretty narrow. I'm putting him on AA-99, AK-AQ.

The flop comes TT8 and I breathe a little, both excited and scared because I don't want to be out of this big event early. That was my biggest fear. I wanted to make it deep. That fear isn't going to stop me from getting chips though.

I think for a bit trying to decide the best way to play this. I decide to lead into Tom because w/ my aggressive image, he won't give me credit for doing that w/ a T, but rather an 8 or a bluff. I bet 500 into the 900 pot. I'm hoping to get raised to build a pot for larger bets on later streets.

I get what I want and Tom raises an additional 1000. I'm thinking this could be the first one out. I pause for a while trying to sell that I'm worried about that and just call.

The turn brings a 6, the board is now two suited. I check to Tom and he bets 1000 into the 3900 pot. I forgot to mention that most don't know about bet sizing either. I think for a bit and decide to raise 2000 more. Tom pauses for a bit and just calls.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I've got him, but the lingering feeling of an AT or some kind of cooler hand like 88 or 66 is still scary. From my experience w/ him, he would play those very differently than he has. I'm pretty sure he's got AA-QQ.

The river is a beautiful 9 giving me a full house and the absolute nuts. The pot is 10,900 at this point and he's got about 3K left. I say "all in" because it's as good as a value bet at this point and I know he's not folding having come this far. He calls. I flip my boat and he rolls over the KK he just couldn't get away from.

Tom is the first to leave the tourney just a bit over an hour in. I'm sad about that because I wanted everyone to enjoy themselves, but I'm there to win first.

I get involved in many more pots after this w/ a huge stack at this point. I don't go crazy playing trash, but limp in a lot because there isn't much pf raising.

Then we have a multiway hand where I had K8s in the BB and the board on the river is 96649, with nobody betting the flop or turn. Three other people in the pot at the river and I fire a bet of some sort at it and only Tim calls. I'm pretty certain I'm beat and turn over my hand. He flips 22 and I double take the board and realize I've won because he is playing the board.

So I said, I guess I 'value bluffed' then. LOL!

Another friend leaves early in the next installment.

[Befolder]

"Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Just...err table one." Superfriends SFX

Dave was making life difficult for the entire table and also seemed to be building a stack.

I kept checking in on Sabin since I was hoping he'd have some success in this event as well, but every time I came over, his stack shrank. One hand I watched, my fiance took a decent pot from him w/ a set of Ks.

It seemed like he kept running into big hands or made costly second besters.

Shortly after Tom was eliminated, Sabin was all in w/ his A9s in the blinds vs Dave's preflop raise w/ QQ from late position. Sabin's M was about 4 at that point, so I don't fault the move too much as I'm sure Dave was attempting steals a fair amount of time.

The turn brought Sabin flush and straight draw outs as well as his aces, but he hit none of them on the river and bam, we'd already lost two people and had to pause the tournament to combine tables.

All this before the dinner break. Sabin and I had discussed that we'd probably have a couple people bust before dinner because they let it happen, but we didn't expect it to be two or our regulars who are among the better players. Go figure.

So I got to the table w/ about 25K or so in chips. Both Dave and I had big stacks and we had a bit of space in between the rest of the field.

The single table drew as follows.

1. Sonia
2. Tim (stinky)
3. Dave
4. Jeff
5. Dale
6. Katheryn
7. Nick
8. Barb
9. Befolder
10. Sue

Dave is clear across the table which actually allows us to torment our own blinds people w/o getting in each others way.

I think we lose one more before dinner break, but everybody hangs around to enjoy the grilled sausages, numerous salads, chips, snacks and desserts that were brought.

Sabin brought this white/black bean, chicken and green chile chili that was just awesome, even on though it was a muggy 80 degree day.

We started back up early since it took less than an hour to cook and eat the grub.

We were back and rolling at 300/600 blinds. It was really nice to have the long levels and made it feel much less hectic than our other rebuy tournaments. There was a lot of play for those that managed their chips.

I remember my stack growing up to about 30K, back down to 25K and settling there until we lost everyone but Katheryn, Dave, Nick and myself. Four were paid so we were in the money.

Dave had a good 45K or so and blinds were 600/1200 at that point. He had played pretty tight after we made one table. I thought he would try and bully more so I was watching him pretty close.

My observations told me that his stealing range was not as large as I thought it would be. He was in a great spot against Nick and Katheryn who were both very short stacked and were not likely to fight back much, which pissed me off.

I had to do all the work myself. This part of the game was very volatile for me. I tried stealing when Nick and Katheryn were in the blinds, but Dave was cold calling me on the button quite a bit, something I didn't expect. I missed every flop I had against him but one in about eight hands. Very frustrating. Whenever I cbet, he raised nearly every time and I had to let it go.

I tightened up a bit because I was in a bad place and at one point my M was 7 and because he was to my left, my only move was all in or fold since he was calling too many of my standard raises. I needed him to decide preflop.

It was pissing me off that the other two weren't doing anything. Dave was running over the table and there's no way he had something everytime he raise. Apparently I was the only one who knew that.

At one point when I was healthy around 25K or so, Dave raised pf, I called in the BB w/ A8, the flop came KQx. I checked and he checked. After watching him play, I was pretty sure he hit that flop. He is the type to slow play his TP. He's a bit too tricky for his own good.

Remember what I said earlier about how my weakness is that I don't follow my reads...that came up in this hand.

The turn came another Q, I checked, he bet and I thought for a bit and went all in, which is just an idiot thing to do. I know he has a piece. I don't know why I don't just fold like I know I have to, but I didn't think long enough to get back to what was obvious.

He calls and I'm in jeopardy as he has KJ for top pair. Well I guess good players get ridiculously lucky sometimes too because I was gifted an ace on the river and doubled through in very sick fashion.

I had an equitable stack to Dave at that point w/ us having about 45-60K each or so.

It was a horrible, horrible inexcusable play on my part and I know it. It couldn't have happened to a better guy (Dave) though.

Other than that horrible hand, I had been playing very focused and could not let Dave win because he's a dick.

However I again got hacked up when my pf raise w/ QQ was raised all in by Kat w/ AT. She flopped an ace and I was knocked back down again.

I was back to all in or nothing status pretty much and slapped Dave around a bunch preflop w/ naked aces. I was battling and wasn't going to be blinded off. Nick and Kat might as well not have been there because it was a two person game.

I had five bounties on the day which included Nick and Katheryn eventually. When it was heads up I had a 80k-40k lead and had been waiting for HU play all day. I felt I had a good read on Dave by that point and was just waiting for him to make a mistake.

The show em chips were very useful and I used three of them on him. Twice he had raised my donk bet when he actually paired and the other time he did so w/ AT that missed. Hmmm.

I mixed things up by limping AKs on the button, he raised and I put him all in. He called and had 88. I did not catch up and we were even again.

Blinds were 1500/3000 at this point and I managed to get back up to a 90k, 30k advantage. I did this by raising his BB more than normal since I noticed that he was playing abnormally tight for HU.

I was on the button again w/ AK and raised it this time, he moved all in and I called. He had QJ. Neither of us paired I won the inaugural 10K Championship for our game.

This isn't a brag. I pointed out that horrible hand I played. I've been reporting on these games for the last few months when they happen and went out early the last one.

Kat and I live in a duplex (owned by bro and me) where my brother Nick lives in the other unit. The duplex household took 1st, 3rd and 4th for $388 of the $540 purse. RIGGED!

Hope you enjoyed. I'm sure it was boring in parts.

Comments, questions?

[NIX]

Nice read Befolder. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[tyler_cracker]

nice push with A8, princess donktacula. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] congrats on shipping the cheddar.

what i'm really interested in, though, is this:

[ QUOTE ]
Sabin brought this white/black bean, chicken and green chile chili that was just awesome

[/ QUOTE ]

[Befolder]

[ QUOTE ]
nice push with A8, princess donktacula. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] congrats on shipping the cheddar.

what i'm really interested in, though, is this:

[ QUOTE ]
Sabin brought this white/black bean, chicken and green chile chili that was just awesome

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

That's Princess Donktacula damn it.

Yeah, that chili was awesome. I was expecting the red bean standard chili which I'm not a huge fan of, but this was very different and delicious.

It's basically white and black beans (canned including the juice), diced chicken (maybe slightly larger chunks and green chiles (sort of jalapeno flavored, but not the same). He couldn't remember the exact name of them, but he stumbled around the name Guerrito chilis or something like that.

Cook it in a crock pot for a couple to few hours or something like that. It's spicy goodness.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
This isn't a brag. I pointed out that horrible hand I played. I've been reporting on these games for the last few months when they happen and went out early the last one.


[/ QUOTE ]

Weak attempt at disguise! BBV for you!

:P