Bubbling Over at Foxwoods

Bubbling Over at Foxwoods
By Michael James

Last weekend I played my first live multi-table poker tournament down at Foxwoods. I’ve played several thousand tourneys on Party Poker in the last few years so I’ve certainly got plenty of experience. But until I sat down at the Thursday morning $60 event at Foxwoods none of that experience was live. I wasn’t expecting much from my first serious attempt at a live event but I was excited to give it a go and see what I could learn.

Arriving a half hour before the event I paid my registration fee and was assigned to table 12, seat 7. Table 12, as it turned out, was very representative of the field as a whole. We had the fat guy, the very fat guy, the elderly woman, the Yankees fan, the Red Sox fan, the Chinese guy named Bert, the underage-looking kid, and the poor bastard in seat 2 who would visibly shake every time he was involved in a hand. Nearly every other person I encountered in the field was no more than one tick off from one of these prototypes. All told, there were 190 entrants. Only the top 25 players would finish in the money.

Each of us started with $1500 in chips and, with the blinds at $25/$25 to start, had time to feel out the table. It didn’t take long for things to fall into place. The young gun took a big early lead and then gave it all back. The Chinese guy named Bert, an obvious regular, quickly took command of the table in his place, largely at the expense of the poor bastard in seat 2. And me? I sat virtually still for the first hour, partly the result of dead cards and partly out of fear of not wanting to bust early.

By the time we made it to the first break I had barely played a hand. Outside of an insignificant pot that I won when it was folded to me in the small blind with AJ, my stack had simply been whittled down to about $1200 by the blinds. And with the blinds going up and antes being introduced I knew I couldn’t stand pat for much longer. I vowed to stay patient but not to be afraid to mix it up when the time came. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long.

On the second or third hand after the break I looked down to find two lovely black queens staring back at me from early position. I was still trying to decide how much to raise it when the kid to my right shoved his entire stack to the middle. Man. I finally pick up a hand and I can’t even act on it before someone’s pushing all-in from under the gun? I had just moved tables so I had no read on the guy what so ever either. But I decide I just can’t lay it down. Without a read on him I can’t give him credit for aces or kings. Most players want action on those hands and his all-in bet is not designed to entice action. So, staking my life to the queens, I move my hands behind my little stack of chips and slide them to the middle.

Ace-Ten. That’s what I’m up against when we turn them over. That’s all. And it’s not even suited. Just a raggedy old ace-ten. The scary thing is that, with the ace in his hand, I’m not that big a favorite; at least not enough for my liking. But the queens hold up easily and suddenly I’m in the game. The other guy had me out-chipped by a couple hundred bucks when we moved all-in so he’s not quite out yet. He’s hanging by a thread.

Suddenly, things start falling my way. Everyone lets me see a free flop from the big blind with KJ and the flop comes K-K-4 to help me win a nice pot. I knock out a short stack with another KJ when his K9 fails to improve. With the blinds going up fast there are knock-outs happening left and right all over the room. We’re down to 5 tables and then 4. I’m not sure exactly how many players are left but it’s obvious we’re getting pretty close to the money. For the first time in the tourney, with just over $6,000, I’m one of the healthier stacks at my table when the tournament director announces that the next hand will be the last one before our 2nd break. That hand would turn out to be the most important one of my morning.

Almost hoping to look down at rags so I can slide safely into the break, I squeeze out a pair of tens instead from the small blind. Ugh. It’s a nice hand but it’s also a hand that can get you in trouble. Especially from out of position in the small blind. Everyone folds it around to the button who compounds my problem by, after staring at me forever, decides to go all-in. Neat. Now I’ve got a decision.

The guy who put me all-in had been one of the chip leaders at the table when I sat down originally after the first break. He was very aggressive when he had the lead but a series of calls against short-stack all-ins with mediocre hands had put a severe dent in his stack. Part of me was screaming to dump my tens, go to the bathroom, and move on. But another part of me just couldn’t shake the fact that his all-in was probably nothing more than a simple attempt to buy the blinds from an obvious steal position and take down a small pot before the break to compensate for his dwindling stack.

There was nothing about the all-in that indicated any particular strength. In my mind he could be on anything from a low pocket pair to a weak ace or even just a suited connector. The range of hands he could be pushing was just too big for me to throw away my tens. So, after giving it some thought, I decided to make the call for all my chips. One problem. Before I could even touch my chips the big blind behind me calmly called and beat me into the pot. Uh oh. I was so wrapped in reading the original raiser I hadn’t even considered the big blind. He had about $4000 to our $6000 so the majority of the money went into a main pot that was suddenly worth about $12,000. The remaining $4000 went into a side pot. Time to turn ‘em up and get the news. Pocket 9s for the button. Pocket 10s for me. Aces for the big blind.

Now the fact that I had gotten my money in good against the button meant nothing. I had to suck out or the biggest pot of the day was going to go one seat to the left. The flop brought no help but the turn put a third diamond on the board to give me some hope. I had the only diamond in the pocket. One more on the river and I could lay a huge bad beat on the rockets and take a commanding lead. No such luck. The river bricked out and the aces took it down. I won the side pot to stay alive but it was a huge blow to my stack at a critical moment.

What made the whole thing even more painful was that the blinds, which had been $300/$600 with a $75 ante before the break jumped immediately to $600/$1200 with a $100 ante when we returned. In an instant I was sitting on a short-stack. Every trip around the table was costing us $2800 in forced action. Without picking up a hand I was quickly down to $2000. Looking around the room I could see we were down to three tables. Only 30 or so left. Top 25 would finish in the money. The next five people to go would get the same prize that the fish that were knocked out two hours ago would get...nothing. We were officially on the bubble.

Praying for one last monster hand to double me up and get me back in the game the best I could come up with was AJ off-suit. I wanted to chuck it but with the big blind coming through me next hand I decided I had to make my stand. All-in. A series of immediate folds buoyed my spirits until the big blind, the same guy I had won a big pot from earlier, quickly called. I had this guy all but dead after my queens had straightened out his ace-ten but he had battled back from the brink to make himself a threat again. “I don’t have much,” he said, turning over AQ. But it was more than enough to dominate my AJ. Needing a miracle to stay alive, it never came. Adios.

I knocked the table, shook the guy’s hand and wished everyone good luck. Inside I felt sick. I had played for almost three hours and outlasted over 160 players but none of that mattered now. I’m not sure if I finished 29th or 28th but either way I had missed the money by a pinch. I ran into the guy who knocked me out later and found out he ended up finishing 3rd. It didn’t make me feel any better.

I’ve finished on the bubble many times online. Playing a lot of single table tourneys, especially, gets you used to finishing one or two spots out of the money. But to have it happen in a live game, when you’ve been sitting there for three hours? That was pure torture. I guess my only question now is when can I try it again?

Questions? Comments? Send feedback to Michael James at feedback@barstoolsports.com