My good friend Guran64 was back this week for the Holdem Affair and I almost wish he wasn’t. He took me in the heads up match to add yet another Holdem Affair victory to his total. The Swede played well the whole tournament, just as we have come to expect from him and took me down just when I thought I had him. Good game Guran and what a treat to play with you again. I took second place and rounding out the money table was Beeeee, Msrinny02, and Mellow Yellow.
Thirty-four sharks sat down this week and it was a hard fought Holdem Affair. The first hour was marked by the good play that has become a trademark of this affair. There just aren’t any fish in the Holdem Affair anymore. By the first hour break we still had 24 at the tables. Your first hour leaders were:
- Beeeee = 4310
- msrinny02 = 4115
- Jennifear = 4010
- AirMJ91 = 3490
- Papoorboy = 3415
- bugman22j = 3355
- guran64 = 3115
- gjones = 2555
- coachstove = 2245
- Plug Nickel = 2175
I went into the first hour break in 15th place – just about my normal placing for the event. I was doing fine and waiting for my chance to move up. Just a few hands into the second hour I thought I saw that chance when I was dealt KK. I raised preflop and Violentjugga went all in next to me. I made the call of course and was feeling good when jugga showed pocket sevens. But the flop brought a 7c and the turn the 7h. Quad sevens were just too much for my royalty and I was hurting now. Jugga – you bum – nice hand. I managed to battle back and 1 hour 50 minutes into the event we seated our final table.
- Beeeee = 11820
- msrinny02 = 8445
- Txmom22 = 8310
- Sunbob = 6410
- guran64 = 5235
- Papoorboy = 4610
- spideytwo = 2735
- Mellow Yellow = 1355
- winforlife = 1165
- Jennifear = 915
Spidey was the first to fall and it happened on just the second hand. Spidey had big slick and it looked good for him when he got all-in before the flop against Guran’s As Qs. Butit was the Qh that made her appearance on the flop and that was all it took to send Spideytwo to the rail in 10th place.
Hand 6 saw winforlife push all his 1165 to the middle and I made the call with Kc Kd. My kings held up and winforlife was gone in 9th place.
Hand 13 and Papoorboy raised UTG to 100 and Guran was the only one to look him up. The flop came Qd 8d Td, Papoorboy checked and Guran bet 2650. Papoorboy check raised all-in and Guran took the bait. Papoorboy turned over As Ks but Guran held Jd Js. Now just who is trapping who on this hand? The turn was the 6d giving Guran the flush. The Kh showed up on the river but it wasn’t enough to save Papoorboy. The big guy was out in 8th place.
We battled for seven more hands now with the antes 25 and the blinds 150/30. Hand 20 and Jennifear pushed all 1605 to the middle. Beeeee made the call holding Jh Jd. Jennifear held Ad 6c and caught a six on the flop. But nothing else came along to help Jennifear – she was gone in 7th place. Two of the most feared final table regulars were gone.
By hand 24 I looked up and realized that Guran64 had quietly climbed into the chip lead. Hmmmmm. We have a match now and we are on the bubble. We were paying five this night.
Hand 39 was an interesting hand and turned out to be a deciding hand this evening. Beeeee, Sunbob and Guran were the top three with only 650 chips separating first to third. Txmom was doing ok and so was msrinny. Mellow Yellow was desperate with only 1085 chips and posting the 200 small blind. Beeeee called pre-flop, Mellow Yellow pushed in his last 835 and Guran called along with Beeeee. Since we were on the bubble and the next one out set the money table, conventional wisdom says for the callers to check it down to optimize the chance that the short stack will be eliminated and all the others will get paid. Especially in this case where there was no side pot. The flop and turn went check/check and it looked like this was going to be a conventional check down. But Beeeee bet 1600 on the river and Guran folded after expressing his bewilderment. That emotion turned to out right anger when Beeeee turned over Kc 9d. Beeeee had bluffed Guran off the pot and thereby allowed Mellow Yellow to double up. I haven’t seen this strategy used very often but I am familiar with it. The idea, in a nut shell, is to extend the bubble play when players tend to tighten up, in the hopes that you can attack the middle stacks and build your lead. This can be a very dangerous tactic though, and in this case it came back to haunt Beeeee, for not only had he given a very dangerous player new life, but he had also pissed off the Swede. Any Holdem Affair regular could have told Beeeee that neither is a good thing to do. By hand 55, Guran had taken the chip lead and by hand 62 Mellow Yellow had climbed into fourth place and was a serious force to contend with.
Beeeee had one last shot at the lead but came up short when he knocked out Txmom22 on hand 64. Beeeee had pocket tens that held up.
Hand 69 and the antes are 75, the blinds 300/600. Mellow Yellow has climbed into a solid 4th place and raised pre-flop with his 7s 7c. I re-raised him all-in holding As Ks. Two aces on the flop were more than enough but the second four on the turn gave me the boat and Mellow Yellow was out in 5th place. That put me solidly in second place behind Guran.
Two hands later I held Ac Js and when msrinny pushed pre-flop I made the call. Rinny had As 5s. The table ended up 5c Tc 2h 3d Jc and msrinny02 had to settle for 4th place.
We were down to three. I took over the chip lead on hand 74 when I caught two pair and hit Guran pretty hard. On hand 78 Beeeee hit Guran hard and Guran looked to be on his way out. But don’t count out the Swede – Guran doubled up through Beeeee just two hands later. Then hit him again on the very next hand. Finally on hand 89, Guran took out Beeeee when he caught a queen on the turn to pair.
The heads up match lasted just 13 hands. Guran pulled even with me on hand 102 and on hand 103 we were evenly stacked and all-in before the flop. I held JJ and Guran showed QJ. My daughter was watching me play and I turned to her and said “I’ve got him”, when the flop came low. The turn was a blank and my daughter gave out a cheer. The river brought a QUEEN and we both groaned. Apparently we were pretty loud because my wife, who was trying to sleep across the hall, came in and told us both to hold it down. Wel, it was all over and Guran64 had posted his second win for 2006.
It was another great Saturday night of poker and good fellowship. I look forward to playing with all of you next week.
Peace.
Sunbob
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