Quick Tourney Update

G-Rob and I were CheckNRaise whoring it last night and I convinced him to play in the 10pm $20MTT. Since this is CheckNRaise and not Party, there were only 24 players. Still, it hoped to be fun.

At CheckNRaise, you start with T2500 and the blinds begin at T25/50. Decent structure, right? Well, maybe not. The blinds double every 15 minutes, so after two levels, you're at T100/200. Take a bad beat or two and you're pretty shortstacked. That's pretty much what happened to G-Rob.

I managed to stay alive with some early steals and get near T4000 as we broke to two tables. I really don't think I limped much, most bets were raises and I followed them up with post-flop bets regardless of the flop. The players there weren't so strong as to re-raise me up until that time.

As I made the final table, G-Rob incessantly pointed out to me that they only pay the top 4 as my position fluctuated from 5 to 6 to 7. He's good like that. It reminded me of the time he was going to the Bahamas and kept IM'ing me about it after I told him I couldn't go. Bastage!

I was into the stealing blinds mode from the small blind with basically any two cards. Felicia would be proud. With the blinds at T600/1200, I raised it to T2400 with Q,3 offsuit from the small blind. I kind of crapped my pants when the big blind called. I min-bet after the flop and the BB folded. Rather weak on my part, but even weaker on the other players part.

Before I knew it, I was in the money.

I IM'd G-Rob "WTF???" How did this happen? Me? Bubble boy?

I kept my cool and watched as everyone battled it out. One player eliminated the other two and had a vast 2-1 chip lead on me as we got down to the last two. With T,J in the SB, I checked to see a flop. It was 9,Q,x - two hearts. When the K of hearts came, my opponent pushed. I quickly called.

Unlike the other sites, CheckNRaise doesn't flip the hole cards in an all-in. I'm not sure I like that.

Regardless the river was a 4th heart and my spirits sank. As my cards were flipped showing my straight, I saw K,5 suited in the other players hand. Poker Nazi says: "No flush for you!"

Now I've got a 2-1 lead and I'm thinking about 1st place. Holding K,Q suited on the button, my opponent pushes. I call. The flop is Q high with two spades, not my suit. The turn is another spade, as is the river. Great. My top pair is shown and my opponent shows pocket T's.

Including the T of spades. Poker Nazi says: "No win for you!"

Back down at a 2-1 disadvantage, I call an all-in with pocket T's. The flop shows all beatiful undercards. The river pairs the board, most likely meaningless. The river? It's paint. A King. My pocket pair is shown.

My opponent shows K,J. Rivered twice in two hands from chip lead to 2nd place. I turn and punch the Poker Nazi square in the jaw before he can say anything. As he's spitting up chicklets, I'm a bit disappointed with 2nd place, but still happy to win the $144 it paid. This tournament was a refreshing experience based on the previous craptacular tourneys I've been playing of late.

Hopefully I can leverage this performance into the weekend as there is another local $75 buy-in taking place. I promise a good tourney report for that as there will be fellow bloggers there, Otis and G-Rob.