Carpetbagging the British Columbia Poker Championship, Day 4

I once final tabled a small-field, small buy-in PLO8 tournament at the PCA, but otherwise the final two tables was the closest I’d ever made it to a live final table. It was exciting to keep seeing (some of) the same people day after day, and to feel the envy of those who did not make it through.

Norm was the first to go. I heard him walking behind my seat on the way to the payout station, muttering about “Ace-Queen against Ace-King”, and that was the last I saw of him. We actually lost three more players in the first half hour, one of whom I eliminated with A4s > KQo.

There were more players than I realized still in the tournament with whom I had no experience. To my left was “Scott”, a hometown hero from Chilliwack with an Irish accent and an inexplicably large cheering section, all of whom were wearing matching “It Could Happen” jackets and shouting loudly whenever he won a pot. Scott eliminated one of the other early departures and was pretty obnoxious about it, getting nervous and calling for cards even as an overwhelming favorite and then celebrating vigorously when his hand held up.

He was also a human tellbox. I don’t see a lot of them, but guys like Scott make me glad that I read Caro’s Book of Tells. His bet sizing gave away a lot, and on top of that he liked to sigh and act frustrated with good hands but play with chips and act strong when he planned to fold.

I’d been hearing about this guy throughout the tournament, though this was my first time sitting with him. Apparently he’d been among the chipleaders throughout the tournament thanks to making an abnormally large number of full houses, often against opponents holding lower full houses. When I’d hit the milliion chip mark the previous day, he was the one guy in the room who still made my stack seem large. Everything about him, from his behavior to his bet sizing to the way he handled his chips, suggested a rank amateur on a heater. This was confirmed when I watched him call an UTG raise from a tight player, then raise a continuation bet and call a shove on an A96 flop. Naturally he was behind Ace-King, a mistake that cost him about a third of his stack. He looked pretty despondent after that.

For my own part, things were going well. In addition to the hand where I eliminated a player, I won a small one by calling a small raise from a young player in the HJ with AJo. I checked and called a bet on a Q82 flop, we both checked a J turn, and then I checked and called a K river. He announced Ace-high and I showed, but in retrospect I think it would have been good to see what he’d raised me with, since I didn’t have much of a feel for how he played.

The next time I tangled post-flop, a guy named Adam who I’d played with previously and knew to be good opened for a small raise from MP. The same kid from last hand called in the CO, and I took a flop with 96s.

It came Kh 9d 6d. Bink. I checked, Adam 40K, the kid folded, and I made it 100K, wanting to give him room to shove his remaining 400K on me with a straight or flush draw. He did shove, and it turned out he had both a straight and a flush draw with 8d 7d. To make matter worse, another player told me, when I turned my cards over, that he folded a 9 and a 6. That left me drawing pretty slim when the Qd came on the turn, and suddenly I was short stacked.

That hand left me with about 350K at 8K/16K/1500. Twentyish BBs is an awkward stack size for stealing, so while I picked up a pot or two, I was mostly card dead and got ground down to about 290K. I hadn’t yet shoved, not on a steal or a resteal, but I was thinking it was about time to start. Then finally, for the first time all tournament, I picked up a pair of Aces. I shoved. Everyone folded.

This was a mistake. I’m not generally a fan of doing shady stuff with AA that you wouldn’t do with any other hand, but in this case my stack wasn’t so small that a min-raise would be suspicious. In fact I’d made a few with only a slightly larger stack before, whereas I’d never open shoved. Moreover, only two of the four players behind me had any chance of picking up on a sizing tell like that and doing anything about it.

Based on how quickly everyone folded, I doubt I would have gotten any action anyway. No one was even curious how much I’d shoved. However, the shove may have influenced what happened next.

I folded for another orbit, grinding my stack back down to where it had been before the Aces. With five minutes left in the level, this was a critical moment for me. Once I paid my blinds and the stakes jumped to 10K/20K/2K, I stood to lose my ability to resteal. After open raising to 40-50K, my opponents would be hard pressed to fold for just 200K more. There was a lot incentive for me to make a move now.

I posted my big blind. I watched Scott look at his cards. No reaction, but he raised to just 35K, which meant he didn’t have a premium hand. Those were worth 3BBs or so to him. I resolved to shove him with anything decent. The action folded to me. I looked down at KTo and announced “All in.”

Without a count or a second thought, Scott said, “Call” and turned over KQo. It was exactly the sort of hand I expected him to have, and while it wasn’t a bad call, it wasn’t one I expected him to make for half his stack, especially not so quickly. He clapped his hands in excitement when he saw that he had me dominated, and again when his Queen came on the flop. Aside from that he was a good sport, though. He offered no further celebration and shook my hand.

A floorman arrived to escort me to the payout station. As we walked, he said to me with a knowing smile, “Wow, he just snap-called you with that King-Queen, huh?

I just checked the results of the tournament. I don’t think I ever played with Rajdeep Pooni, the eventual winner. Adam took 2nd, and Lee, another of the best players I encountered, finished 3rd. Scott final tabled but busted in 9th. My own 13th place finish was good for $15,000. This was a convenient time for a CAD score, because my Canadian bank account was getting low and transferring money from the US usually costs about 3%, so it was nice to get an infusion of local currency. All in all it was a fun tournament and a nice window into the Canadian poker scene.