L.A. Poker Classic 2010 - Part I

I always look forward to the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. This year, Matt Savage got his hands on it and proved why he is called a savage. He made the tournament six freakin’ weeks long! Now, I love this tournament, but six weeks away from home is a little rough.

I decided that this might be my chance to break my bad streak by putting in a ton of hours in some good cash games. It was a good plan, but I just can’t control the cards, and the pain continues. Luckily, I was in a lot of good games, and because of that, it softened the stings of many bad beats. Just one more good day (I had a grand total of one for the tournament) would have gotten me even, but I knew what I was getting into when I didn’t go back to Texas Tech 20 years ago, so I have no one to blame but myself.

I went into the main event not exactly scared, but very cautious. Let’s just say that I wasn’t looking to flip any coins. I mean, if I couldn’t win some of the hands that I had lost in the preceding few weeks when I was a 20-1 favorite, how was I gonna win a 50-50 race? That’s why I played this first hand the way that I did.

I had just played a 30-hour session the day before, so I slept late and showed up at 5 p.m. instead of noon. I wish now that I hadn’t done that, as there was a lot of loose play in the first low levels; live and learn. A very active player raised from up front, and I looked down at pocket nines. Now, as I said, I didn’t want to get into any kind of race situation by putting a lot of chips into the pot preflop, even though I was fairly certain that I currently held the best hand.

I called his raise, and the flop came A-K-9 with two spades. He bet just under the pot size, and this looked perfect. I knew that since I just flat-called preflop, he would never put me on A-K, much less a set of nines. If he had a bigger pocket pair, I wanted him out anyway, as I wasn’t gonna make any more money from him, and he might hit his pocket pair and put a bad beat on me. He would most likely put me on a flush draw if I made a big raise on the flop, so that’s what I did.

He quickly called, so when a blank came on the turn, I figured I had hooked my fish, and just had to reel him in. I bet the full amount of the pot, which was half of my stack. He pondered a few seconds and raised the rest of my chips. I obviously called, and he showed me A-Q. I had my opponent right where I wanted him — all in and drawing dead.

I basically didn’t play another hand past the flop for the rest of the day (remember, I showed up at 5 p.m. and we quit for the day at 8:30), but this one interesting hand did come up that could have really put me in good position. As I said, I was playing very tight. There were two Internet kids to my immediate right who were playing very loose-aggressive poker (imagine that).

I had decided that now that I had some chips (and a very tight table image), I might possibly three-bet either of these guys as soon as I had some kind of hand. That situation presented itself toward the end of the day. One of them raised, and I had pocket fives.

Normally, I’ll just trail in behind the raiser with a call while holding a small pair when both of us are deep. My hope is that I can flop a set and bust a big pair or top pair. However, inasmuch as this kid is playing so many hands, I don’t really give him credit for holding a big hand for me to beat, so I reraise. (He had made it 1,200, and I raised it to 3,600.)

Everything is looking good until the action gets around to the big blind, who announces a raise and throws out 12,000! The Internet kid studies a moment, then announces that he’s all in, raising another 40,000. I mean, I was done when the 12,000 hit the felt, but the all-in bet sent my cards into the muck faster than a girl trying to get away from Allen Kessler.

The big blind quickly calls and turns over two aces (duh), and the Internet kid shows pocket queens. The reason I told this story is that as the dealer burns and turns, the doorcard is a 5, followed by two sixes, and then two rags on the turn and river. If the big blind hadn’t woken up with pocket aces, or had slow-played the aces, and the Internet kid hadn’t reraised, I would have doubled or tripled up on this hand.

After the Internet kid had left the table, he came back and asked the other Internet kid if he had played the hand right. His friend assured him that he had, and that there was nothing he could have done differently. After the kid left again, I started to ask his friend if he was serious or just trying to make him feel better, but I decided there was no need to give a lesson, and I’m sure that he thinks he didn’t need one, but just between us, that was about as bad as you can play poker in that situation.

I mean, you raise and the tightest player at the table reraises you? That’s one big problem. I did happen to have a pretty weak hand that time, but 19 out of 20 times, I won’t. On top of that, another player sees the tightest player in the game reraise someone, and he still makes a big reraise.

What did the kid think that guy had? He basically called all in praying the other guy had A-K. And yes, I do mean that he called all in, even though he got the last bet in, as it would have been obvious to Helen Keller that the big blind wasn’t going anywhere.

Anyway, day one ended with me holding 35,000 in chips — not a bad start. It was time for me to head to my favorite steakhouse in South Central L.A. (the Dal Rae) with redneck Ed and Hoot Cookins.

Todd Brunson has been a professional poker player for more than 20 years. While primarily a cash-game player, he still has managed to win 18 major tournaments, for more than $3.5 million. He has won one bracelet and cashed 25 times at the World Series of Poker. You can play with Todd online at DoylesRoom.com or live at his tournament, The Todd Brunson Montana Poker Challenge, in Bigfork, Montana. Check his website, ToddBrunson.com, for details.