Poker this week

This has been a good poker week. I played well at the Thursday Motive game with Wes, John, Rico, and Jerry. I took it down. That's two in a row for that one.

I (Stacey has been in AZ for the last week (btw - she was tearing it up on the 3-6 limit tables at the AZ Casino)) hosted a NL hold-em tournament at our house. We had 16 players sign up and we started pretty close to on-time.

The list of players were as follows (no bloggers): Ann (Cristine's Mom), Brad, Cristine, Diane, Michael, Godfrey, Hoa, Joe, Julian, Kitty, Henry, Carol, Audi, Sara, Stuart, and me.

Stacks to start were 15,000, with rebuys for the first hour (for stacks <= 5,000) and either a 5,000 or 10,000 add-on after the first hour. There were three rebuys and the tables played pretty tight. Brad and Audie were more aggressive on table 1. I started off on table 2 with (in order from my left) Michael, Godfrey, Kitty, Henry, Hoa, Cristine, and Sara. Our table started off with action right away.

I got some good hands early AK, KK, AA, QQ, TT within the first hour. My QQ led up to a Kitty rebuy when her A4s found a 44T flop, but my QQ found a Q on the turn.

Before the first hour was up, we lost Carol. After receiving 4 brutal beats from Brad and going through one rebuy, she wasn't in the mood to continue the madness. It happens and sometimes its better just to chill. I think she had a good time railing us all.

After the first hour we had a lot of add-ons. We played for about an hour and a half before we went to the final table of 10. The total prize pool climbed to $300 (for all the crime stoppers out there - I DIDN"T TAKE A RAKE).

Carol was not alone - Michael took one in the junk when his AA were brutally cracked by Sara's QQ. Michael played well all night, but that was it for him. The chip stacks at the final were as follows:

Player	Count
Brad	60.1K
Audie	59.2K
Godfrey	50K
Me	48K
Kitty	38.1K
Joe	35K
Henry	32.8K
Diane	32.6K
Cristine	14.2K
Hoa	9.9K

The aggressive play from Brad and Audie paid off as they were the chip leaders. They bullied the table quite a bit. Joe made a stand with AQ but ran into Brad's AK and Joe was gone. Brad had what seemed to be an insurmountable chip lead at this point.

Next we lost Henry to Cristine. Down to 8.

Next, we had a three way all-in. Preflop I had QQ and raised to 3K - Kitty went all-in for about 13K more - I called (mistake*), it came around to Diane and she called. I had about 7K left and Diane had about 10K. The flop came Ah7hx. I figured my queens were no good. I checked, Diane put me all in. With a 42K main pot, plus the 7K I was getting 7 to 1 pot odds and had to call. Diane had ATh, Kitty had 88. Diane got the flucs (she didn't need it) and took it down. Kitty and I were out. Down to 6.

* had I went all-in instead of calling, maybe Diane would have laid her hand down pre-flop, I don't know. Nevertheless it would have been the better move to protect my hand and getting your money in with the best pre-flop hand is never the wrong thing to do.

I don't know the details but Brad was out next (and not very happy). I know Hoa, Audie and Cristine had nice stacks after he was gone so I think they chopped him up. If anyone remembers let me know.

Diane became the bubble girl. She had 42 on the BB. Cristine's A8 ran her over with a boat over boat situation. Flop = 777, turn 4, then river 8. WOW.

Godfrey avoided the bubble this time and took fourth when his straight draw didn't pan out against a made straight. Down to 3.

Cristine, Hoa, and Audie battle as the titanic three (in order of smallest to biggest stack, but it's anyone's game). Remember Hoa had 9.9K and Cristine 14.2k for the 9 and 10 spots at the start of the final table. Great play from all three took them this far.

Audie played aggressive and Cristine bled. She took third and played very well. Hoa and Audie went heads up. The chip lead flip flopped a few times. Hoa took it down with an impressive win.

The cash flowed as follows:

Place	$$$
1st - Hoa	$135
2nd - Audie	$82
3rd - Cristine	$52
4th - Godfrey	$31

Thank you to all those that broguht food and stuff. I really appreciated it. Also special thanks to Cristine and Diane for helping through the set up and clean-up!

Well thats all for now, Stacey gets back tonight... better start cleaning.

Stay tuned - we are planning one for next Saturday the 22nd!