Tuesday at Startime

As I've said before, I've had no luck at Startime in the Tuesday tournament since the new round started about 8 weeks ago. With no points and no wins, the only way I can earn a spot in the Championship Round on May 10 would be to win one of the final two weekly tournaments or maybe place high in both and limp in on the edge with points.

It didn't look promising tonight. I almost didn't go because I'm on the third day of my low carb diet and spent the day in a sugar crash. I showed up on time though, and sat down at table 2. For the first hour I pretty much stayed even, though I did dip down to only about 2k in chips from my starting allotment of 5000.

Tonight ended up being one of those nights where things started to finally come together. I played in my first live Texas Hold'em tournment in Atlanta exactly 11 weeks ago. I've done a lot of studying since that first awful night. I've also played a lot of hands on PokerStars and the really crappy ESPN tournament.

I patiently threw away starting crap cards, even things like K9o or A6o that I usually really like to play. When I did hit something I sold the hand as best I could. I threw in some acting, with lots of misdirection. I kept up with how people were playing. I only paid to see the river on a straight draw once, but it was cheap and I had enormous pot odds.

One of my best hands I sold near the end of the tournament, just before the final table. I flopped a K high spade flush. In the past I probably would have raised large at that point to get the hand over with. This time I just called a small bet twice. On the final bet I check raised and pushed all in. I was worried about the Ace of Spades being out there, especially with 4 spades showing after the river, but I had the only other player pretty well covered in chips. He called showing two pair. One more victim bounced out.

Once the final table started, I was sitting in about the middle position in chips. I tightened down a lot, but was still agressive when I needed to be. By the time it got down to 3 people, I had knocked a couple of people out and had an enormous chip lead. I went in to bully mode at that point, but I also was getting some good cards. I knocked the 3rd place person out and finally it was down to me and a girl named Heather who is a school teacher who graduated from Auburn.

During the 6 hands before the final one, I pushed in 5 times, forcing Heather to fold. At this point I could tell she was getting really tired of me taking the blinds with brute force. On the final hand I would have folded if she had raised at all, which she probably should have done since she was on the button. She just called and I checked out of the big blind.

The flop was 72K. I went in to full acting mode at this point. She checked and I sighed, looked at my cards, sighed again then checked. Fourth Street brought a J. She checked. I looked at my hole cards again, made a face, then checked. Fifth street was some type of low card.

Heather checked and then started staring at me. I did a little more acting then said "All In" in a disgusted tone. She glanced down at her chips, looked back at me and said "I call, what've you got?"

I turned over my 7 and my 2 and exclaimed "The Hammer Baybee!"

I have no idea what she had since she mucked and accused my parents of not being married.

My first live tournament win, and against an Auburn grad to boot. How much sweeter could my poker life get?