Back over to Harrah’s and we buy-in to the $80 Saturday night NLHE tournament. We have about an hour to kill before the tourney starts, so I ask the floor for the biggest LHE table he’s got. It’s 4-8 with mini-blinds. Let me just pause for a moment to say how awesome this is. It’s a regular 4-8 game but the blinds are 1-2. A great game to see cheap flops and encourage the fish to stick around when they flop bottom pair. Blaz and I make our way to the back of the poker room where there are two open seats and are delighted to find Mrs. Right sitting there. Ka-ching!

We say hello and get right down to business. Same characters at this table, just in different seats. Mrs. Right is in seat 1 this time and within thirty minutes, she’s felted and takes off. The game breaks when Blaz and I head off to the tournament, picking up a quick $78 in less than an hour.

The $80 tourney at Harrah’s has the same great blinds structure we saw Friday night, but only $10,000 in starting chips. Blaz and I chip away playing ABC poker and make it to the first break. There’s only 55 runners tonight, a few of the same players from the night before, and the field slowly whittles down. Blaz busts out about midway through and heads off to join the midnight $75 Turbo Knockout tournament. Meanwhile I grind on with about an average stack most of the night and eventually make the final table in about 7th of 10 left.

The final table is an eclectic mix. The big stack is three to my left. The good players are 3-4 to my right. I’m comfortable in seat 6 with chips to steal on my right and left. My recollection of the final table is blurred a little as I got a call from my wife as she was in a minor fender bender in Florida, but I honestly think that event forced me to play even more focused than ever. I was patient, reading my opponents well, and picking the right spots.

The most significant hand came when we were down to 7 players. I had the second or third largest chip stack at that time. The chip leader had me out-chipped by about 3-1 at this point and just had a monster pile in front of him. Lucky for me, he didn’t know how to play big stack poker. Chip leader open raise to 3x UTG+1. It folds around to the small blind who completes and I smooth call with pocket kings. I joke with the chip leader, as I’ve been doing my best Jamie Gold, and announce to him that he shouldn’t pick on my big blind and that I have a monster. He chuckles and tells the dealer to give him some low cards. Flop comes out T, 5, 4 with two diamonds. Small blind checks. I don’t have the King of diamonds, but think I’m good here almost always. I put in a half pot feeler bet and the chip leader insta-raises 3x. The small blind folds and now the decision is mine. Calling the raise was not an option… I’d be pot committed to any turn card at that point, so it was shove or fold for me. I’d seen the chip leader play just about any two cards and two pair, a set, or straight draw were all in his range. I thought for a good minute before folding my kings face up, leaving me with an average stack. The chip leader showed me one of his cards was a 5, so I think I made the right decision here.

The bubble breaks and we are in the money with 5 players left (we all through $5 to the bubble boy as a consolation). The guy to my left still has a massive chip lead and arrogantly declares there will be no chopping tonight. What a great feeling it was to bust him out in third place! The head’s up match was finished in less than 40 hands. I had knocked out most of the final 7 players and had more than a 2-1 chip lead when we got head’s up. I offered my opponent $50 to chop so I didn’t have to play head’s up, but he refused and I swiftly took him out at the knees. Woot! $1,598 first place and my first live tournament score!

Pointledge wins in Atlantic Shitty

Total for the afternoon:

Harrah’s 4-8 LHE w/ mini-blinds    + $       78
Harrah’s $80 NLHE Tournament    + $ 1,598
Total                                                          +$1,638

Author: pointledge

pointledge is a regular contributor to PokerSoup and our own GetAStake.com success story. You can find him playing games online and live.