A FUNNY THING HAPPEN WHILE IN VEGAS

by David Clark

The old chip in a chair worked to perfection at the Bellagio's weekly $1000 buy in. My day started out in a one table satellite. I love to play at least one satellite before the big tourney, it's a good warm up.

We were down to 4 players in the satellite and I decided make a move in late position. I held A 8 off suit and I raised the $600 dollar blind to $1800. The button and the little blind threw there hands away and I was facing the big blind.

He looked at his cards and hesitated. I knew the hesitation could mean trouble; he looked at his cards again and then looked over at my stack. I had $1800 in the pot and about $1800 left. I realized that maybe I played my hand to strong but what was I going to do, it was too late.

He then asked the dealer to count down my chips. At this point I knew he did not have A K or a big pocket pair, my only hope was that he had a small pair like 66,77,55. After the chips were counted he said all in.

The action was now to me and I had no choice I was now stuck, I had to call. I turn over my A 8 and he turned over A Q, I was dominated. The flop came with no help for me and the turn gave him a Queen, leaving me drawing dead. I got up from the table and began to walk out of the tournament section. As I exited the Tournament section I heard a loud commotion. I turned around and they said you're not done yet you have two chips left. Wow to chips ($200) what the hell am I going to do with this. This is one of the worst feelings in the world, two chips oh well hear goes.

The next hand was dealt and I was now under the gun, I push my two chips in the pot blind. I then looked at my cards a 10 3 off suit, I should have kept walking, I told myself. The hand was played 3 way (me, the little blind, and the big blind). The flop came 2 2 8 the turn was a 3 and the river was a J. I won with my pair of 3's, wow. The next hand was dealt and I was in the big blind, since I won the last pot I had exactly $600 to enter in the blind. This time I had Q 8 two other players called and I was all in for $600. I won that pot with a Q high, wow somebody likes me. I went on to win the satellite and the entry into the main event.

I entered in the main tournament and after 6 hours of play we were down to 5 players.

We ended up making a deal and we all made out pretty good for six hours of work. I was down to two chips and I parlayed that to several thousand in the main event, not bad for a chip and a chair story.

Ok, I should start out by saying this was the first time Ive ever played a no limit holdem shootout tournament. I was impressed with how I played through the field and in the end I think I made the right decision even though I failed to reap the right benefits.

A shootout tournament is played much like a satellite, in that every table plays independently and the winner of each table then plays a second round to see who gets first place. For instance if you have 100 players in a shootout no limit hold'em tournament, you will have 10 players playing on ten tables. The winner of each table will go to the final table and money will be paid out starting with 10 th place.

The stage was set again at the Los Angeles Poker Classic. I bought into the tournament at around 2:45pm . I grabbed my seat card and went over to my seat. I looked around and noticed that this tournament would be small compared to the 1100 players I played with in the opening event on January 19 th . Even though it was considered small, I later found out 330 players laid down $540 dollars to have a chance at a piece of the $160,000 prize poll.

All around the tournament area I saw familiar poker pro's. At my table I noticed a few tournament circuit players and poker pro Huck Seed was seated two seats to my right. Other notable players in the tournament were Scott Fishman, Minh Nguyen, Raymond Davis, Hung La, James Woods, Chris Karagulleyan, Hon Le, Young Phan and Sirous Baghchehsaraie to name a few.

I started out making a few mistakes early on. My goal for this tournament was to play very solid early on and then, once I've gotten a feel for the players, increase my aggression and take over the game. However, I started out playing too many hands and wasting too many chips. My turning point happen about 2 hours into the tournament, I picked up AJ off suit in the small blind. Everyone folded around to me and the big blind, I raised the $100 big blind to $450 to go. He thought for about 5 seconds and then pushed all his chips in the pot. He covered me but by watching his overly aggressive play, earlier in the tournament, it was an easy call to make. I then proceeded to turn over my hand and he hesitated to show his hand, I strong sign of a weak hand, he turned over a K 10 off suit. The flop showed me an A and he did not improve on the turn or river. I finally won a big pot and I was on my way. Our table was reduced to 7 players before the first break and then after the break 2 more players were eliminated. This left five of us and I was one of the short stacks. I was very impressed with Huck Seed's patience. He started out very good and continued to wait for premium hands to play. We were now down to 4 players and I continued to play on a short stack. Huck Seed then got involved with the chip leader and was eliminated when his A 10 suited was dominated by A Q off suit. We were now down to 3 players and I made a very good play to get back into the game. I had about $3800 in chips and the player directly to my right had about $2400 in chips, the rest of the chips were held by the chip leader who had about $15,000 in chips. The chip leader raised the $200 big blind to $900. The player directly to my right thought about it for about 10 seconds and declared all in, ($2400) the action was on me and I thought about it for a few minutes. I had A J off suit and knew that my hand would fair good against a number of hands. I then decided to call the $2400 dollar raise instead of going all in. This would allow me and the chip leader an opportunity to knock out the player who was all in. The chip leader just called and the flop came A, K, 6 I proceeded to push all in, $1400 more, the chip leader called. I turn over my AJ and the chip leader turned over KQ, the player who was already all in held 88 and was way behind. The turn and the river did not help anyone and I took down a huge pot. We were now heads up and I had about $10,000 in chips and my opponent had about 12,000 in chips. On the second hand I picked up A Q off suit, I raised the $200 blind to $700, my opponent re-raised to about $4,000 I push all in and he called. I turned over my A Q and he turned over K 10. The stage was set, I played my cards perfectly and got all my money in with the best hand, nothing could go wrong right. Wrong, the flop came Q,K,J putting him out front, way out front. The turn and the river did not improve my hand and I went out on the bubble, one player away from a good payday. I went away feeling very good about my finish even thought I did not cash, I think I stuck to my game plan and got my money in at the right times. Sometimes poker rewards the lucky play not the better play.