Stuck in first gear

Above: This car was parked in front of the Horseshoe Casino. Do you know what kind it is?

The 4 p.m. tournament at the Horseshoe today had a $10,000 prize pool guarantee. A total of 104 runners, including me, paid their $160 entry fee to enter. Blinds started at 25/50 and the levels were 30 minutes long.

My tournament never really got out of first gear. Holding ♥A ♠K, I raised to 2.5 times the big blind and got three callers. The flop was A-10-8 rainbow. I bet two-thirds the size of the pot and got two callers. The turn was the ♣Q. The big blind checked to me, I checked and the guy behind me checked. The river was the ♥Q, making the board A-Q-Q-10-8 with no flushes possible. Now the big blind bet 3500 into an 8500 pot. What would you do? There are so many hands that can beat me, but sometimes players mistake a pot-control check on fourth street as weakness. I finally called and the villain showed J-9 for the turned straight. Are you surprised he called a raise with this weak a hand? Don't be -- that's how they play and it's how you want them to.

I had one other mishap. A short-stack moved all in and I called with J-J. He turned over 9-9 which was great until another 9 came.

My chips dribbled down until I had six big blinds. Under the gun, I shoved with ♥K ♥10 and was called in two places, not exactly what I was hoping for. The flop came with A-9-8 rainbow, again not good for me. One of the villains had an ace, and it rail time for moi.

There were around 30 players left. The fact that I outlasted 74 of them shows how good the structure was. You can wait for either good cards or the right spot, but, of course, eventually you have to accumulate chip$.


Above: If you look at this close-up, you wll see what the fancy red car is.

Images captured with my P&S.