Tao of Poker

Tony Holden's Tuesday Night Game

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

Talk about good timing. A couple of weeks ago, I checked my bloglines folder just at the same time as Tony Holden published a pot on Bigger Deal about the return of the infamous Tuesday Night Game on PokerStars, which featured some of my favorite British literary giants. Even though at the time the tournament was about two weeks away, I signed up anyway so I wouldn't forget. I happened to be the first person to sign up. I'm such a sycophant sometimes.

The recent installment of the Tuesday Night Game was in honor of Vicky Coren's birthday. Tony Holden described her pulchritudinous. I had to look that word up since my Latin is a little rusty these days much to the chagrin of the Jesuits who educated me. In case you were wondering, pulchritudinous means "physically beautiful" which would be a fitting adjective to describe the lovely Ms. Coren.

The game was set up for 8pm in London or noon for me in LA. I woke up late, wrote, ate breakfast, then settled into the game.

Over 100 players were registered at the start time. A total of 104 runners were in the field. The majority of them were from the UK. The top 12 paid out and Tony got an extra $1,000 added to the prize pool.

My starting table included...

Seat 1: Reskil_RvBst
Seat 2: JoeSaumarez
Seat 3: Your Hero
Seat 4: mgmarshall
Seat 6: MORF1982
Seat 7: PLA1CE
Seat 8: leet222
Seat 9: smithsj1

I drew the same table as Joe Saumarez Smith, who happens to be a contributing author to Bigger Deal.

Early on, I flopped a straight with Qs-10s but didn't get paid off. Change100 signed up at the last minute and she had to deal with a couple of guys arguing about a bad beat which busted a player during the first orbit. Most of the banter was static, but one line stood out that gave me a hearty chuckle. You have to say it with a British accent...

"Go play bingo with your mum."

Man, that was gold. I filed that nugget away and shall unleash it on an unsuspecting soul in the chatbox during a verbal spat.

I limped a lot to see flops and missed as I slowly bled away chips. The first hand of note that I won occurred during a battle of the blinds against Joe Saumarez. I flopped two pair with K-4 and won a small pot. which finally thrust me above the starting stack for first time in tournament.

I jumped up to 16th place when I busted two players on the same hand with suited Big Slick. I opened for 300. Kartajana raised all-in for 880. MORF1982 called all-in for his last 545. Action came back around to me. I figured I had one beat and was racing the other, so I called for 580 more.

Pauly: As-Ks
Kartajana: Kc-Qc
MORF1982: 10h-10c

In the side pot, I had my opponent dominated and I was a coinflip with the short-stack. I turned an Ace and the rest was history. I busted both players and increased my stack to over 3K. I was 15th out of 73.

Our host Tony Holden couldn't get much going early on. He was down to 465 in chips when he made his last stand. Cute Scandi girl limped for 100. Tony raised all-in for 465. The big blind called along with cute Scandi girl.

Big Blind: 6s-2s
Cute Scandi Girl: 3s-3c
TonyHolden: As-Ts

The board bricked out for Tony and he was eliminated in 73rd place.

Just before the first break, Change100 busted a player with A-A as she joined the Top 15 with me. I had 3.3K at the break sitting in 14th place with 62 players remaining. The cipleader was SaiKungBoy with 8.1K.

Right after the break, I took a hit with Aces. Blinds were 100/200. I held Ah-Ad. UTG raised to 500. The very next player shoved all-in for 1,120. I called from the button and UTG called. The flop was Qs-Js-2d. UTG and I both checked. The turn was the 10d. UTG moved all in for 2.4K. I knew he had A-K because only someone with a Broadway would shove there. I muttered a few nasty comments out loud and folded. Sure enough he had A-K. The all-in player had K-K. Talk about a cooler... A-A, K-K, and A-K. If I re-raised pre-flop instead of calling, the guy with A-K would have called so the result would have been the same.

I made up for that loss and increased my stack to 4.3K when Ad-Qd held up against Q-J. I was 14th place with 40 to go. Change100 continued her good run and moved into the top 5 in chips.

I got some decent cards, but couldn't get paid off. I flopped a set, but zero action. Kings? No action. Meanwhile, Change100 snapped off Jacks with 9-9 and took over the chiplead with 33 to go. Her stack topped 14K.

I got moved to Shamanalix's table with 27 to go. Change100 was still the chipleader. I found A-A again, but that time it didn't get paid off.

With 24 to go, I got moved to Change100's table. She was still the big stack with 15.6K. I was 19/24 with a shade under 4K. I needed help. I stole a lot of blinds to keep my head above water and chipped up to around 5K with blinds approaching 200/400 with 25 antes.

Then I finally woke up to a hand in the small blind. Action folded to the button. He raised to 975. I shoved for 5.5K with Ad-Qc. He called with Kh-Qd. I'm surprised he called with that. Lucky for me, my hand held up. I increased my stack to over 11.5K and jumped into third place. I wouldn't stay there very long.

I busted out in 21st on a bad call. I had 2-2 in the small blind and called a standard raise from a very aggressive player. We were heads up and the flop was 5h-4c-3h. I bet the pot (or roughly 2,800) and he came over the top all in. for 11K. I put him on Big Slick or some other Big Ace or even a flush draw. If by chance he had a big pair, I still had some outs and wasn't drawing dead.

If I won that pot, I would have been the chipleader by a significant margin while crippling one of the aggressive big stacks in the process. I really felt that I had the best hand there and called.

"Show me Big Slick!" I yelled at my laptop.

Nope. He had 10-10. Bad move. Bad call. His tens held up and I missed my outs. Eliminated in 21st place. I misplayed that hand horribly. I went busto with a big stack making a horrendous call against one of the only two other big stacks left in the tournament. Rookie move. A couple of hours later while watching a Woody Allen movie, I had a moment of clarity when I realized that I played that hand like a cash game hand and not like a tournament.

At the break, Change100 was the chipleader with 24K and 16 to go. I left the apartment to work out, and when I returned Change100 advanced to the final table and Shamanalix had just busted out in 9th.

Change100 coughed up the lead shortly before the final table was set. She got outdrawn a couple of times and eventually busted out in 6th place in a valiant effort. Pokerman2345 won it call. Congrats to him and all the money winners.

And thanks to Tony Holden for hosting and setting up the Tuesday Night Game. Had a blast. I hope to be able to play in the next one and I definitely look forward to seeing some of my favorite scribes such as Joe Saumarez Smith and Tony Holden in London next month during the WSOP-Europe and EPT London.


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