12 hours and still feeling the pain

Yesterday I played in the monthly APL Pot-limit Omaha tournament. We started at noon with 290 players after a 45 minute drive up to some town called Ft. Lupton in the boonies. The first hand, the dealer dealt quad queens. The next hand, my flopped straight was cracked on the river by a chasing flusher. A few hands later another quads was dealt, this time kings. I slowly built my chip stack back up to where I started ($4000) when I got moved to a different table. At this new table, I had a long streak of dead cards, followed by a few bad beats. I got all the way down to $1400 with the blinds at $100-$200. I picked my moment, and I doubled up. The on the next hand, I doubled up again. Two hands later I win a nice pot. I go to the lunch break with over $10,000.

After lunch, I continue the run, busting out players and winning nice pots. Next thing I know, they announce that there are 29 players left. Since this is a free tournament (you had to qualify), they only paid the top three spots. The top ten spots won entry into next month's tournament. I kept up the smart playing when we were down to 19 players and I was being moved again. I went to my new table with $72,000 in chips, bu the blinds were up to $2000-$4000. There was a lady at this table with $380,000. She played every hand, and only folded pre-flop if their was a raise. She started knocking players out left and right, and before long, we were down to 10 players and up to $5000-$10000 blinds.

I was at $70,000 when we went to the final table. Two players at the table only had $10,000 in chips, just enough to post the big blind. I was 6th in chips. Everyone started off very tight. Few saw the flop, and most folded when there was a post-flop bet. I worked my way up to $110,000 in chips when the first player was knocked out. She was one of the players who started the final table with $10,000. Then another player got knocked out. The other player who started the final table with $10,000, Matt, was up to $50,000. Soon afterwards, Matt was well over $100,000 in chips. Then the painful hand happened.

I was dealt 9TJQ rainbow in the big blind. There were three limpers and the small blind. I checked and the flop came TT5 with two spades. The limper bet the pot, $50,000. This was almost half of my chips. I went through the possible hands he could have. 55 beat me, but I had ten outs. T5 beat me, but I had nine outs. TA and TK also beat me, but I had nine outs, minus his outs. Just a 5 and I was way ahead, and any other T besides TQ and I was way ahead. I knew I needed to make the final three to cash, and the blinds were getting close to moving up to $10,000 - $20,000, so I decided to chance it and play. The only decision was, call or go all-in. Calling would leave me with too little chips to play with, and I felt that this was the hand to gamble them on. I reraise allin, and he slowly called. He showed 789T rainbow. I was way ahead. He needed a 7 or 8 to suck out, and the 9 to tie. Anything else and I win the pot and move up to around second in chips. The turn was a 3, and the river was his 8. I busted out in 8th place. I hate losing with the better hand. I hate played seven and a half hours of perfect play only to get a bad beat to knock me out of the money.

I stayed around to watch some of the action and to cool off from my beat. My friend Cheyenne was still in it, so I was rooting for her to win. The big stack was donking off chips and was now down to a little over $200k. Then this hand happened. Chip leader limped, small stack limped, Matt called from the small blind, and Cheyenne checked from the big blind. After the flop (all I remember was two spades, no pairs), Matt checked, Cheyenne checked, chip leader checked, small stack moved allin. Matt called, Cheyenne folded, big stack called. The turn brought a blank and Matt and the chip leader checked the dry pot. The turn brought a third spade to the board. Matt checked, the chip leader bet into the dry pot, and Matt reraised her allin. She called and Matt showed the nuts with the ace high flush. The chip leader was no longer the chip leader and was severely crippled. Matt had a huge stack. Amazing since he started the final table with only enough to post the big blind.

I decided to leave and did not ge to see how thing finished, but am looking forward to Thursday when I see some people that can tell me what happened. At least I qualified for next month's tournament, and can get a chance at revenge.

Later, I will post about my Saturday night PLO8 $1-$2 game I played which included a hand that had a $1400 pot.