Greektown Casino is having their 2nd Heartland Poker tour event of the year starting on October 24th. It is a $1650 buy-in, with their last event drawing nearly 500 players. I went downtown to play a $340 qualifier, with the top 20% of the field receiving spots in the HPT Main Event.
The structure was reasonably good, with 10K chips, blinds starting at 100/100 and 30 minute levels. I started off very good, picking up a few hands early (44 flopped a set, got value from flop and turn), AK hit TPTK, flopped bottom two pair, as well as picking up some small pots. I felt I had good control over the table and knew what most of the players were doing. During that time there were a few eliminations, and they were replaced by better players. I also was starting to get the feeling that people weren’t respecting my pre-flop raises as much, since I was opening up a lot of pots, so for the next 30 minutes or so, I went somewhat card dead, and tightened up considerably over this time.
We reached level 4, the 300/600 blind level, with me at about 12.5K in chips (down from a high water mark of a little over 14K). UTG, an older man who I had played at the cash table for about an hour before the tournament jammed for 6K. In our time at the cash table, he had gone through about 2 buy-ins, most notably way overplaying hands like A4 and A5 pre-flop. He had also been very active in the tournament, as he had gotten down to around 2500 at one point. Back to the hand…I was pretty sure he didn’t need a big hand to jam at this point. I put his range at most aces that are AT or better, and all pairs up to about QQ. I had JJ and decided that it was a trivial call from the cut-off position, and the rest folded. He disappointingly had AK and I was racing for a pot of 13K. The board ran out XXXXA, with him drilling the ace on the river to double up and badly hurt me. I was down to about 6K now….which was not quite desperation, but nowhere near the 19K I would have had had I won the flip.
About an orbit later, I was down to 5K, and blinds were still 300/600. Two players limped to me for 600. I was 2 to the right of the button with A9o. I decided to shove, as the pot had 2100 in it already, and both limpers seemed weak. If I were to pickup this pot it would increase my stack by over 40%. One player folded, and then the button went into the tank. The button (with a stack of around 18K) is apparently a regular player, named Yoshi. In the time he was at the table, he did nothing that made me believe he was a nutjob. Obviously I knew that if I got called I was in very bad shape (or should have been…hint…foreshadowing). Finally he called, which surprised and scared the crap out of me. The other players folded (as expected) and we turned over our cards. As I turned them over, I said, “I need help.” Much to my shock and dismay, he turned over 55!!!! I was actually in a coin flip to increase my stack from 5K to 12K. Of course the board bricked out, and I lost my 2nd coin-flip in 15 minutes, from both sides of the proverbial coin-flip fence.
This is the 3rd time I have been knocked out in a row from a Greektown tournament in a coin-flip where that my opponent made a horrible call with a small pair. My range of shoving hands in that situation is probably 70% of the time a coin-flip, and 25% of the time I am WAY ahead. The other 5% of the time I might have 22-44, or a hand like A2. And then of course, there is the chance (seemingly remote) that I actually win the coin flip and not have their bad call be rewarded.
Following my elimination, I played more cash. I made about 200 at the easy 1-2 game, despite donking off about 200 in the last hour or two. But the game is nowhere near as fun as the 2-5 game (where a little bit more poker is being played). Called Victory up to go to an expensive dinner at the Alley Grille, then won another 75 playing Pai Gow while enjoying a few beers.
But I guess I have to wait until the next HPT event to try another qualifier. In the meantime, this tourney served as another reminder of how excruciating tournament poker can be, especially when you are losing coin-flips.
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