Bubbled final table of WSOP Circuit Event last night
I don't play many (or any) tournaments outside of the WSOP.
Anyway, there was a $330+$50+$20 O8 WSOP Circuit event at The Bike last night, and I decided to do it. Hard to find O8 tournaments nowadays.
Got seated next to Kessler, who was to my left. Kessler ended up arguing with several people at the table at various points.
I immediately started off well, and ran my 15k starting stack to 53k (keep in mind this was a LIMIT event), and was probably the chip leader.
90 people entered, meaning 9 spots paid. Oddly, had there been 91 entrants, 12 would have paid.
Obviously with 90 people in a $400 event, we weren't playing for big money. 9th place was just $945, and first was $9505. Still, I've never had a Circuit cash before, and I kinda wanted a ring. I think I've only played 2 Circuit events lifetime, and none in the 2010s.
The levels only last 30 minutes, and O8 can be a slow game because of all the split pots, so as you can imagine, the variance is high.
At one point, I seemed to be headed the wrong direction, as I stopped winning hands and fell to 24k, with about half the field left, putting me below average in chips. However, I recovered, and hung around average for awhile.
I did get short again later on, but doubled up.
I had Jc3c6dAh, and the flop was Qs5c4d. I check-raised the flop, and the turn was 9c. What I didn't realize was that my opponent had 9967, giving him middle set, even though I picked up a flush draw as well. Of course, I still had the 2nd low draw. Well, the turn was 2c, giving me both the flush and the nut low, and the guy (who had already angled Kessler and generally had a bad attitude) was furious and kept bitching about it for the rest of the tournament, as this brought him to a shortstack. LOL at playing 9967 from middle position though.
I went into the final 10 with 112k, where we combined to one table. There was one shortstack there. Average was 135k, so I wasn't too far off.
Unfortunately, I then ran into Q high flush over T high flush (I check/called the turn when it hit), and then a little bit later flopped a flush against the same guy while holding THREE clubs, only to find that, again, he also had a flush better than mine. On the second one, I did take the low, but I was really needing chips at that point and didn't get them.
Final hand I had 40k coming in. Six minutes left in the day, and I was on the BB (4k/8k). Nobody else was short anymore. If I survived, I would have to drive over 50 miles in LA traffic just to come back to play a shortstack on the bubble of a small event. Ugh. I started thinking if it was even worth doing, especially if I dropped another 12k or more from the blinds.
Dealt 8x9dTdJx. Limped multiple ways. I checked.
Flop J98 rainbow.
Well, this was it!
I bet, a guy who is usually on the passive side raised, and then a tight woman (Gina Hecht, who played Seinfeld's psychologist) 3-bet. Ugh. Super obvious she had QT, and a decent chance the other guy had QT, though it was possible he had a set or T7. Should I put the final 32k in, knowing I'm behind, and knowing I'm really drawing thin (or virtually dead) the guy has has a set?
After a brief moment of consideration, the decision was YES, I had to. Even thought I knew the woman had QT, I still had to, and that decision was weighted even more by my lack of desire to return the next day with a tiny stack. If the guy didn't have a set, then I was drawing live to any J, 9, or 8 (6 outs), plus chopping with any Q (3 outs).
So we went 5 bets on the flop, and I was all in.
Turn 6. river A. Turned out both had QT and neither had a low. And that was all, folks. The stone bubble boy.
Took 11 fucking hours to get there. This is why I hate tournaments, and this is also why I don't play small buyin events. Even when you do cash, you really need to finish at the top to make it worth the time and trouble.
I walked outside the Bike and it was raining, which was fitting. It wasn't even supposed to be raining anymore. LA was hit with a strange storm which was incorrectly forecasted to bring just 0.5 inches, but instead hung around for days and caused mudslides. It was supposed to be long gone by 2am last night, but there was just enough left to rain on me on the way out.
I promptly filled up my tank at a ghetto gas station, drove the 3 miles to Commerce, and sat in $100/$200 limit holdem, which was running shorthanded.
Promptly won $3075 from there, and then it broke. Moved to $40/$80 and won a few more hundred before quitting.
So I won like $3300 in a short time playing cash, which was better than 4th place money.
Fuck tournaments.
