WPBT Event #5... Stud.

During my token run to get into Miami Don’s Blogger Big Game, I was able to score a tier one token 75% of the time. For this months WPBT event, the story was a little different. I tried three times to get a token and at best I was the bubble boy. My hopes of getting into the WPBT for cheaper than the buyin were gone.

I searched for the tournament and saw that there were a total of 4 players registered a little over an hour before the game. I thought, “Wow, what a small turnout..” then I remembered it was a holiday weekend. I mean, I know we are a bunch of degenerates, but degenerates take vacations too. In the end though, I’m glad that the turn out was low, you see, I placed first in the Stud event. I’m still not quite sure how it happened.

Early on in the tournament, there were a lot of hands where within the first 5 cards I had two pair and played them hard. Usually the hands never quite made it past 5th street. I haven’t played much stud, but I’m pretty sure that two pair, might do pretty well at showdown, even more so when the top pair is Queens or above. I think I lost a bit of potential profit because of that. Near the halfway point in the tourney, my starting hand was awesome. I’ve had this hand and similar hands in razz, but the hand in razz is an insta-fold. I had 999. This was a hand that I was going to slowplay. If the board started to get a bit scary, I’d just see if I could plow trough, building a big pot that hopefully I’d miss a few flushes and take the pot. There were three people in the hand, columbo, bayne_s and myself. Sixth and Seventh street were a bit scary, bayne_s is showing a possible straight and I have one of his outs. I’m fairly confident that bayne_s is chasing, this is a very large pot and he does have a scary board. If bayne_s wins, he will be in first and I will be in last, but if my set holds for the win, or if I fill up, I’m sure to win. In the end, my set does hold up against bayne_s two pair, sixes and threes, and columbo shows a higher two pair, aces and threes.

With 5 players left, I had just about 50% of the chips in play and this was my tournament to lose. With my stack and cards I was able to take out 2 of my 4 opponents. Now I was heads up against DDionysus with a 9 to 1 chip lead. This was my tournament to lose. DDionysus made a nice comeback, completing a flush when I had a straight, flushed again vs my two pair and eventually took the chip lead. I came back later with a higher two pair to take a 4.5 to 1 chip lead but DDionysus started to make another comeback, until I put a stop on the comeback with this hand:

At sixth street our boards looked like this:
DDionysus 8♠ A♥ 9♦ 9♣
StatikKling K♦ K♠ T♦ T♥

I had a feeling that DDionysus did have a hidden Ace, but my hole cards had a hidden suprise of it’s own..

*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to DDionysus [8♠]
Dealt to StatikKling [3♦ T♠] [K♦]