NAPT Mohegan Sun Part 2: The Main Event

My starting table was in the p0ker room. LJ and Shawn's are both in the tournament\convention room. Turns out almost all of the on-line qualifiers and pokerstars pros are in the tournament room. Everyone who bought in and satellited in late were in the p0ker room. Since pokerstars ran a ton of cheap satellites to this, it made it a huge disadvantage to be in the p0ker room. It definitely wasn't random. My starting table was full of the $5k-$10k live regulars that bought in direct. They pretty much all know each other and are talking about playing the $25k bounty tournament and shit like that. It was brutal. The worst starting table I've ever had.

I raise Aces under the gun and a guy calls and check folds a King high flop and says he folded Jacks. FML! Table change please. Alan "Chainsaw" Kessler is at my table and he is bitching like mad about our table.

I end up paying off a dude with AK that flatted me pre and flopped trip Kings vs my Jacks. I should have given him more respect. I really wasn't getting much going despite having pretty good starting cards.

Interesting hand\angle spot comes up. Raise to 550 at 100/200, 2 callers and I call on the button with Q9s. Flop comes T98. Guy cbets 10,200. With 2 5k chips and a 2 100 chips. It clearly looks like it was a mistake. It definitely could have been an angle to make it look like a mistake. We all fold and the table debates the hand for like the next 30 minutes. One guy says he folds J7 to it because its 100% the nuts. Its QJ and nothing else. And this was a very strong player saying this, not some donk. Another high stakes MTT'er says he snap shoves with JT and feels great about it. Saying it was just a mistake and it definitely could be and underpair or overs. The dude says it was a mistake and that he just had overs which just fuels the debate more.

Then, about 5 hours in, UTG+1 raises, call, call, I call on the button with 54s and the small blind calls.

Flop comes Q44dd. UTG+1 cbets small, like 1600-1800 into a pot of over 5k. Folds to me and I pop him. I'm representing like nothing, so I think there's a good chance I get action. I can't have AA, KK or QQ really. I'm really repping 44, A4s, 54s and AQ. A4s isn't in my range there and 54s is definitely not something I call with 100% there, so me having a real hand is pretty unlikely. I really think I'll look like I have a draw or some mid pair that I think is good (altho I never have either because I know raising makes me look like I'm FOS).

So he asks for my stack size and just ships it. His small cbet and ship actually made me think I might be running into QQ, but there's not much I can do if I did, I have to pay off. I double check my hole cards (since it is a $5k) and call. We flip and he has AQ. The dealer immediately burns and turns a 5 and then a Q.

It happened so fast I was a bit dazed. I muttered a few curses and just walked away. Sent out texts about losing to a 3 outer, got a beer and wandered over to the other room to see how Shawn and LJ were doing (both well at this point). Then I realize that there aren't 5 queens in a deck of cards, get a little more pissed. By the time their break is over, I've downed 3 beers. It probably took me like 15 minutes (which violates some CT law I think (Hate CT)).

I go sit at a 25 cent video p0ker bar to get a beer. About 5 minutes playing, I hit this...



...feel better about busting, but still pretty shitty actually. Hate busting out of big tournaments.

I got really drunk and the rest of the day is a bit foggy. Shawn and LJ both make day two. Shawn lost a huge flip with QQ vs AK on the river, then checked shoved Vanessa Russo on a 9 high flop with AQ. She called with Tens and celebrated her great call. LJ lost a bunch on a bluff and then lost a flip with AK vs JJ to get back into it. Shitty tournament for all of us.