Play a Tournament With Me

I recently played in the American Poker Player Championship media event. Due to confusion about the starting time, only 15 journalists showed up to participate. Seated at my starting table were David Stratton (Gaming Today), Ray Poirier (Gaming Today), Susie Isaacs (American Poker Player), Donna Blevins (American Poker Player), Howard Schwartz (Gambler's Book Club), Fred Myers (PokerSharks), and Roxanne Davis (Omni Media).

Cary Davis hosted the event and announced "shuffle up and deal" shortly after noon. Everyone started with $1,000 in chips, playing $25-$50 blinds with 20-minute rounds. In this column, I will relate the hands I was dealt and how I played them.

I started in the cutoff seat and folded my 10-7 offsuit. Someone busted out at the other table on the first hand. On the next hand, I raised to $150 with A-5 suited from late position and folded to Susie Isaacs' $400 reraise. I had hoped to get away with a steal from late position but couldn't call a big reraise for half of my stack. On the third hand of the tournament, I raised to $150 with A-3 offsuit and then folded to Donna Blevins' $400 reraise. Donna was one of my students at WPT Boot Camp and plays a strong, aggressive game. I was down to $700, but just couldn't bring myself to play this weak hand against such a large reraise. I hated folding to two reraises in a row, but my hands were too weak to call.

My early-position hands in the next orbit were 7-4 and 6-3, both easy folds. In the big blind, I folded J-8 suited to an early-position raiser. I took my first pot with K-8 in the small blind by raising to $200 when everyone else folded (the big blind also folded). I folded the entire next round as I looked at Q-5, 10-4, 8-7, 7-2, 9-5, and J-7.

The blinds increased to $50-$100. My chip count was just $625, so I had plenty of work to do. In the big blind, I moved all in with 10-9 suited after two people had limped in, and they folded to my $525 raise. I now had $875, but still felt desperate. In the small blind, I looked down to see two beautiful aces. There was only one limper and I raised to $300; the big blind folded, and the limper called my $200 raise. The flop was J-10-9, and I moved all in for $575. This was a scary flop, but I was so short-stacked that I had only one move: all in. My opponent called and turned up Q-J, not exactly the hand I wanted to see, since he had 13 outs to beat my aces. My hand held up, and I had $1,850.

On the button and in the cutoff, I folded 9-2 and 7-4, respectively. Next, I was dealt K-J suited and it was raised and reraised before it got to me, which made for an easy fold. We were now playing sixhanded. In my next big blind, I raised to $400 with Q-10 offsuit and everyone folded. No other hands were playable in this round, and I had $1,600 in chips when the limits were raised to $75-$150.

My friend Dennis Oehring was moved to our table. With J-9 suited in late position, I raised to $500 and everyone folded. On the button, I raised to $500 with K-Q and picked up the blinds. Eleven players remained, six at my table and five at the other. I decided to pour on the aggression, since no one was challenging my raises. I raised three hands during the next orbit and won all three uncontested.

Someone busted out at the other table and we were down to the final table. I was about third in chips and was ready to play. Jill Ann Spaulding, one of the chip leaders, suggested a 10-way chop, and most of the others were in favor of it. There was only $1,000 in prize money, so I suggested that if we chopped it up, we could each donate $100 to our favorite charity. Everyone quickly agreed and the tournament was over about 75 minutes after it started. I'm sorry if you are disappointed that I don't have any exciting stories to tell you from this tournament, but this is how it came down. I had a good time in the event, played with some nice media folks, and raised a little money for charity - which is not bad for a freeroll tournament!

Now, let's play poker.

Linda is available to host poker tournaments, seminars, and corporate events. She can be contacted through her websites at http://www.lindapoker.com/ and http://www.cardplayercruises.com/.