Surfergeeks

Yesterday was a pretty decent day for poker for me. It started off in the morning when I played a $5 SNG on UltimateBet. I won that one so that was $25 for me. Yay me! Then, starting at 4:30pm, four of my boys from the poker forum that I frequent, http://www.talkingpoker.com, played in the $215 tournament on PokerStars. The head honcho placed in the money and won a few hundred dollars but the real highlight was my man Mayhem. He went DEEP into the tourney, at one point, with only about 90 of the 5500 players remaining, holding down first place briefly. Once the tourney hit the final 18 people though he ran into some hot hands and finished in 13th. Thirteenth!!! Out of over 5500 people!!!! That was good for $5K. Oh yeah, the best part about it: he won his way into the tourney playing in a $3 rebuy tourney the day before. So even after you factor in his rebuys he still saw more than a 100x increase on his investment! Way to go Mayhem!

But, by and far, the absolute BEST part of the day was last night’s final league event. Many of you know that I’ve been playing in a league that the forum organized. Well, last night was the last of the ten games. Going into it, I was in second place in the points standing. Before going into the details of last night, here’s a run-down of the top four spots:

1. Zybomb – 149.4 points. < -- This guy pretty much DOMINATED the early events in the league building his points quick. Unfortunately, he couldn't make the final two events.
2. Robbie Robb – 117.3 points. < -- Your hero.
3. JDPoker$tar7 – 115.5 points. < -- You are GOING to see this guy at MANY televised final tables....once he turns 21. :-)
4. PShabi – 112.1 points. < -- Absolutely terrific limit player. Obviously a pretty decent no-limit player since he's in the top four.

Fifth place was down around 58 points. Okay, that was the standings prior to last night’s game. We ended up with 11 people playing last night. That meant that the winner would get 44 points. It also meant that the four of us were a lock for the money spots. Now, as I mentioned, Zybomb didn’t play last night. Alas, neither did JDPoker$tar7 as he had a snowboarding trip planned. So it was all up to PShabi and I.

And the cards are in the air. I got off to a little bit of a rocky start and managed to donk off about 1/3 of my stack. I managed to get those back and as the field whittled down I was still sitting around the average. When we hit four players, the money bubble, there was me, PShabi, kkirk, and TonyCheval. PShabi had about 7000 in chips while the 3 of us had about 2500 each. Things were not looking up for our hero. If PShabi finished ahead of me in points, he would take over 2nd and bump me to 3rd. If he WON the game, he would jump to first and I’d fall to 3rd.

So, needless to say, NOBODY wanted to go out on the bubble so play tightened up. Finally Tony made a move and Shabi called him. Shabi caught the flush and knocked Tony to the rail. And then there were three. kkirk wasn’t actually part of the league (ie. he didn’t pay the league fees so he wasn’t in the running for the league money – just the money from the buy-in last night) but he’s still a very strong player. In Thursday’s game, he finished in second. So, it was around this time that everyone got to talking that it was only right that it be Shabi & I heads-up to battle it out for first. Well, kkirk had other plans and wanted to spoil that. So the cards are dealt and I look down to see a king and a six (K6o), kirk moves all in with the remainder of his stack, which by this point had dwindled to a measly 275 chips. PShabi folded and, wanting my damndest to knock him out, I called. At this point I was chip leader with just over 9K in points and Pshabi had just under 7K. So, now that I’ve called kirk, we turn over our cards and he shows a K9o. Oh oh. The flop comes Js-4c-7d, a rainbow flop that doesn’t help either of us. The turn comes 8d. Still not much help. It’s opened up a few more outs for me now. Obviously a 6 will give me a pair and the win, but with that 8 coming up, it gives me an inside straight draw if a 5 rivers. The rivers shows….a 6! I’ve knocked kirk out and the world is right: PShabi & I are heads-up.

Now this is for ALL the marbles at this point. The winner of this heads-up match will not only win $55 from the buy-ins for the night, but will also take over first place in the league and win it, and the $80 prize that goes with it. Going into heads-up I had 9533 in chips and Shabi had 6967. Without going into the detail of all 49 hands we played heads-up, the chips were back in forth. At point, Shabi had a 2:1 chip lead over me. I then flipped that around and took a 2:1 chip lead over him. Let’s take a look at this hand though: I’m sitting at 12116 in chips and Shabi has 4384. I look at my cards and see QcAs. EXCELLENT hand heads up. The blinds at this point are 200/400 with 25 antes. So right off the bat the pots worth 650. Shabi’s in the small blind and calls the 200 to complete the blind. Not really wanting to scare him out of the pot, I check. The flop comes Jd-8c-9h. That’s right boys & girls, you’re hero just flopped an gutshot straight draw, needing to see a ten come up. I was first to act and I checked it to Shabi. He bet 850 and I called him. The turn shows a Th! Sweet! I just made my Q-high straight! I bet out 1600, about 2/3 the pot. PShabi quickly raises me all-in and I just as quickly call him. Had this been a live table, there’s a good chance my chips would have beat his to the middle. He turns over a Js-7h, giving him a J-high straight. Not quite good enough to beat my Q-high straight. As you have probably surmised from the chip counts, that was the last hand of the tourney. I took down the final league game, winning $55 AND giving me the league win which is good for $80! All in all, a VERY good day for poker for Rob.

The surprising part of this story is that it all took place on a Sunday. Believe me when I say, Sundays are usually VERY bad for me for poker.

A new league is starting soon over at the forum. We’re looking at expanding it from 10 games and introducing alternate games into it. Most likely it will be Omaha Hi/Lo we play as well as Hold ‘Em. So, if you’d like to play in a league with a chance to win some good money, drop by the forum and sign-up. The cost will most likely be $10 in league fees and each game will be a $10+1 buyin. I *think* it’s going to be a 20-event league over a month or 6 weeks. Oh yeah, the forum’s also a great place to hang out if you want to improve your game. It’s frequented by professional and semi-professional players, some of who have final tabled events at the WSOP!