Final Table

So I made the final table of the Oklahoma State Championships of Poker. Nine of us resume tomorrow at 1:00 pm Central. Unfortunately, I only have 41,000 chips. Blinds will be 2,500/5,000/500. The good news is that the field is absolutely awful. I mean... I feel bad saying that... 'cause what if some of them somehow find this blog and I come off like a huge jackass for saying they suck at poker... but the truth is the truth.

To give you an illustration. I played with Scotty Nguyen for probably four hours at the end of the day. He was short-stacked all day. During 2k/4k, he raised to 11k on the button and folded, leaving himself just 14k, when the big blind shoved.

In another instance during the same level, a short-stack shoved for 13k. The small blind called. I, with a stack of 40k to start the hand, looked down at Ace-Queen in the big blind, so I shoved all-in. The small blind folded. I knocked out the shorty, but not without being berated by the table, Scotty included!!, for not "smooth calling and checking it down to knock out the short stack". Scotty himself flat out told me that the way I played it was a mistake.

It was a truly shocking day of poker. I had no idea that players are so bad.

I mean... one of these two things is true: a.) Scotty Nguyen is flat-out bad at poker or b.) he was chip dumping to his friends for four hours under my nose without me having the slightest clue.

And it's not personal. He was a nice guy who was very friendly with everyone. So if he ever reads this (which I hope he doesn't)... I want to reiterate that he was a pleasure to play with... I was just surprised at all the bonehead plays he made.

Anyway... I'm not done yet.

More illustration about how bad everyone is: We combined to one ten-handed table on the bubble (just nine pay). During 2.5k/5k, Scotty posted his big blind which left him with just 3k behind. I was under the gun, so was pretty helpless in the situation. The rest of the table though? They walked him!!

Thankfully he busted an orbit later.

Ninth pays like $9,500, so even if I bust out first thing tomorrow, I can't be too upset, but hopefully I can get lucky and accumulate a real stack. I like my chances of winning the whole thing if that happens. First is something like $113k. That would be sweeeet.

****

Results: 5th for $22k

I came into the day tied for the shortest stack in the tournament. We went from 9 players to 5 players in only 30 hands. I managed to keep my head above water during that time by making a couple shoves that were never called. An old guy named Fred busted out the 7th place finisher on one hand, and the 6th place finisher on the very next hand. He had over half the chips in play when I shoved 8 bbs with A6o from the cutoff. When he looked at his hand in the big blind and didn't immediately call, I knew I was ahead, so I started trying to persuade him to call. "Think about it, if you make this call and knock me out, you'll be a legend: 'Three-in-a-Row Fred!'"

He smiled a little and eventually got around to calling.

I lost to K9.

To be fair, I was expecting him to turn over something much worse.