Awww. I lost.

I came in exactly 100^th place out of 1450 entrants and cashed for exactly $4000.00 Canadian dollars.

As usual, good result, but not as good as it could have been. Did I mention that this was a 2.2 million dollar prize pool and first place was worth 350K? That’s the prize I was after. But alas, with a relatively short stack my 99 ran into AA. I feel like I’ve typed that exact sentence at least five times in these Virgil blog pages. Y’think maybe I should stop shoving with 99? Anyway, the flop ran out 3-3-5 7 4 so regardless of how I played the hand we were going to get it all-in anyway.

And listen, life could be way worse. My car works (so far), I’m writing this from the awesome rooftop pool of the gorgeous Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal, and I’m coming home with profit no matter what.

I decided to eschew the $3300 “high roller” tournament that started just as I was getting bumped from the main event. I know, I know, I coulda taken that profit and reinvested in the high roller tournament. I just didn’t have the kishkas. It’s a beautiful day and I knew I had this spectacular rooftop oasis waiting for me. Also, I’m tired AF. So, I’m gonna relax by this pool. Maybe I’ll treat myself to a Niçoise salad and maybe even a fruity drink with a pineapple garnish and a tiny little umbrella in it.  

Wanna quickly hear my favorite poker hand of the weekend so far? It happened yesterday evening. If the poker stuff bores you, you can just skip this part.

Blinds are 800/1600 and I’ve got QQ in the hi-jack. I put in a standard raise to 4100 and the BB three-bets to 11,500. He’s pulled this move before from the BB and I feel like my holding is strong enough to just smooth call. If I four-bet, I’m going to lose him, I just know it. Maybe this way I’ll ultimately get his whole stack. We both have big ones. Stacks, I mean.

So, I just call. Flop comes TTQ. I flopped a big boat. How delightful. I’ve got position so he acts first and bets 12K. I call, natch. Turn come meaningless 8. He bets 16K. I call again. River comes an equally useless 5. He bets 22K. This couldn’t be going more to plan. I think for a sec and I go all-in. For about 110K more. Now he goes into the tank. He’s thinking and thinking.

And then he pulls an amateur move. While he’s still ruminating, he purposely turns over one of his cards to reveal to the table that he has an Ace, letting everyone know that he’s probably got AQ and has a really tough decision to make. There’s no purpose or strategy to this, he’s just showing off a little to be theatrical.

The only problem is… that’s illegal in a tournament! You can pull those shenanigans in a cash game, but not in a tourney. You can’t reveal one of your cards. That should be a dead hand, but I don’t say anything to the dealer because I’m dying for him to call. Then the nice lady to his left rats him out to the dealer (who shoulda known this anyway). They call over the pit boss and the pit boss adjudicates the situation and confirms that indeed doing that is prohibited in a tournament.

So, I – me, who hardly ever says a word to anyone – pretty quietly and undramatically say to the pit boss “Then that’s a dead hand. He has to fold, right”?

Trust me, I know what I’m doing.

The pit boss says “I’m going to call it a warning, the gentleman obviously didn’t know the rule. He can play out the hand”.

But “the gentleman” obviously heard me campaigning to the pit boss for it to be a dead hand. He now thinks I want him to fold. So, naturally he decides to call.

He shows AQ and I turn over QQ and I get his whole stack. He leaves the table dejected. And the guy two to my right smiles at me and says “Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there”. I smiled back and shrugged my shoulders as if to say “Hey, all’s fair in poker.”

Was that a nice move that I made? No, but it was pretty effing brilliant, if I can toot my own horn for a sec. Lookit, poker is a game of deception. I decepted this guy right out of boxer shorts. And I did it fair and square.

Anyway, that’s enough poker talk for one blog.

It’s starting to rain and there is a nice $600 turbo tournament starting at 4:00 PM so…

Back to the grindstone for me. I’ll let you know how it goes.