Cheap Sunglasses

This morning I woke up and decided to go play in Tulalip’s $50 tournament. I arrived about 90 minutes early and decided I’d look at the outlet malls for a pair of sunglasses. I thought it might improve my tournament game. I first stopped in the Oakley store. The staff there were busy talking amongst themselves and hardly had any time for me. None of the shades had any prices on them. That combined with the lack of any attention of the staff got me to walk. Found another place (PacSun) that sold cheap ($15) sunglasses. But they didn’t have any cords to keep the shades hanging off my neck. So I had to go to yet another place. Finally geared up properly now, I headed over to the casino.

I bought into the tournament right away and sat down to a cash game while I waited. I played for roughly 40 minutes or so, and was down by $6. Yes, a whopping $6.

The tournament was interesting. I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the same table throughout my tournament run – table #16. There were 187 entrants in this tournament, about the same number as yesterday. Yet today’s outcome was far different than yesterday.

I focused primarily on keeping my emotions in check. The blinds in these tournaments move fast, so frequent coasting isn’t going to be a long-term winning strategy. Yet a large chip stack compared to your peers allows you to choose from a couple of things, coast for a few hands and pick the right spot to attack or maybe try to bully others off their hands. I noted that many who had shades didn’t wear them. I kept mine on whenever the cards were in the air.

After the first hour of play, I got farther than I had on Saturday. Monitoring the size of my chip stack, I realized that I had to pull the trigger on a few hands just to keep my average up. Getting behind on chips causes me to be in the mindset of “now you have to find a good ride before you get blinded out”. With each hand you get you ask yourself “Is this the best hand I’ll get before those blinds come around again?” and more importantly, “Is this one winnable?”

Of course I took several of those chances. Make a mistake here and you’ll head home early. I took four (maybe five) of those chances in this tournament. One of the most memorable hands of this tournament was an all-in I did with Kevin, a very dominant personality and intimidating body frame. If he’s not the chip leader he’s close to it. I have position on him and we both limp in to see the flop. What he doesn’t know is that I have pocket 3’s and the flop completes a set. He makes a big raise, about 1900 chips. I have maybe 1700 in my stack. I push my stack across the line, sit back and freeze for a moment. I then stand up to watch the turn and the river. My set holds up and I draw back a lot of chips, which takes me well above 5000 in chips. This allows me to go much farther in the tournament. I think I established enough dominance that anytime I pushed in chips, look out. I know I kept Kevin off some marginal hands.

About two and half hours in, I started paying attention to how many tables were still filled with tournament players. Six tables soon turned into five, then four. Blinds kept increasing every 15 minutes and then soon we were down to two. That’s when I started thinking I might make the final table. I had to put that aside though. I needed to win another good hand to get to that table. Almost as soon as I that thought registered, I found myself sending two to the rail with one hand. This was a bounty tournament and that earned me two chips (and a large stack) at once. I ended the tournament with three bounty chips.

Well, soon enough found myself at the final table. Thankfully, the final table was located right at the first table I sat down to in this tournament – table #16. Never moved the whole time. Kevin, my all-in nemesis, was right there along with me. Soon the final table of 11 became 4. The chip leader knocked out two more including Kevin, and soon it was just me and the chip leader.

First place pays $1600 and second place pays $1300 in this tournament. Gary the chip leader offers me $100 to simply volunteer to go out in second place, he really wanted the special encased button that says ‘tournament winner’ and was willing to pay for it. I wasn’t going to give that chance up. I already had second place locked and I wanted my chance to play for the button. After all, I think heads-up is one of my best games. We battle back and forth on a few all-ins, and I manage the chip lead with a well-timed spade flush. I have him covered by at least 2:1. The blinds are 20000 and 40000. I’m in the small blind, I limp in and Gary goes all-in. I call with A-8. Gary turns over A-Q and he prevails. This turns the chip counts around and I’m now at the disadvantage. A few more hands go by and I’m out in second place with $1300. No button.

But I think I did get my tournament game back that I thought I had lost Saturday. My wife reminded me that in just two weeks, I’ve entered my first seven tournaments, and found the final table in four of them, cashed three, and won one. The month’s tournament winnings, $1,832. So far.

I love my cheap sunglasses.