Not the TV show, but the marathon Friday Five last night. The evening started just as the sun went down, and ended just before the sun came up. It was truly a grinding experience. Ten people descended upon this week’s Friday Five, it was a who's who of Weston Pokers elite corp. We had two 4 time champions present, one 3 time champion, several 2 and one time winners, plus a few others who generally cash in this event. There was even a sponsors exemption giving for an 11th seat, but atlas only 10 made it to the table when the cards hit the felt.
The evening started off well, I put Tom on tilt right away with my two Big Ace hands hitting against his pocket pairs. The first was AK vs. KK and I hit the ace and check called him down to the river. The second was AT vs. 99 and again I did the same thing. Normally I would have come out betting but the mission was to get into his head early, a set up for a later hand. With my new found fortune I just quietly sat there listening to my IPOD. The last hand before the break, I was on the button with 8h6h and Action Greg raised to 450, one other called and I decided to call figuring Brandon and Tommy would both come along since they were getting good odds. The flop came 996 and everyone checked to me, I bet the pot and everyone folded but Tom. The turn was a 6 giving me a boat, a small one at that, but I didn’t figure Tom had a 9 most likely Ace high. He checked I put out a 4 or 5k bet. Tom says “That’s bullshit.” He then thinks for a while and moves all in. I call and take him out.
I am now off and running, both Jim and Chad had big stacks early and now I could compete with them. I finally picked up AK and raised 3x and everyone folded. The very next hand I picked up JJ and made the same bet. Jim called, the flop came Jack high with two clubs. I bet Jim called. The turn was a blank I bet the pot and Jim thought about it for awhile then he moved all in. I instant called and turned over my set before he did anything. The Jim says, as he is flipping his hand over “Its good to be drawing dead.” He had AJ. So now I am way up, its my tourney to loose, but lady luck would have it different. An hour or so later, after several suck outs I was the short stack.
With my short stack skills honed, I proceeded to double up against Brandon with A2 vs. QT when the flop came Q22. With my new found wealth, I was dangerous again. Down to 5 players I picked up AT in the BB. Jim’s brother raised to 5k preflop. I put him on a medium pocket pair and decided I would try and win the pot right there, I really don’t like AT but if I play it I want to win without a showdown. Well Jim’s brother called and turned over AQ. How many times has that happened to me, well according to my stats AT loses lots of money. Well I was lucky and flopped and OESD. The turn gave me a flush draw so I had 18 outs to the river. I spiked a Ten and was back up to 30k. I took another big pot and was sitting at about 70k out of 120k in chips with 4 people. Heather then woke up and took out the last 2 players. We went heads up about even in chips.
Heads up would take was seemed like an eternity. We played I think close to 3 hours heads up. I think 3rd went out around and the tourney ended at . I decided my best chance of wining was to stretch the tourney out. I knew she was tired, and wanted to end it, but I also know she’s not really the gambling type. I felt I could out play her on the flop and it was to my advantage to keep the tourney going. My plan was to see every flop, build the pot with a flop bet and take it away on the turn. For the most part my plan was working perfectly. I built up a 2 to 1 lead rather quickly. Heather then hit a couple of hands and before you knew it I was short stacked sitting with about 30k in chips. I played some bad poker in there, got away from my game plan. We took a break; I gathered my thoughts and started to play. There were two key pots that I won that helped me win the tourney. I had KJ raised preflop, something I was not normally doing, but because of my short stack I was now interesting in stealing some blinds preflop, because moving her out of the pot would be hard to do with my short stack. The hand came Q high and I check Heather bet. I thought about folding but decided I would call the river and try and push her off there. Well I called all the way down to the river and an Ace hit. Heather says “I didn’t want to see that card.” She checked. I pushed all in and she folded. A few hands later 4 hearts fell on the board and I did the same thing, those two pots put us about even again and off to the raises. I went back to my original strategy, see every flop built the pot and take it away on the turn. Finally at a little past 4 I picked up 9Td raised preflop, hit a 9 on the flop. All the money went in and I ended up hitting a bigger straight and won my 4th Friday Five.
Thanks to Brandon, Jim and Jim’s brother for dealing all those hands. Special thanks to Heather for enduring me for that long, it was fun.
