We played our belated Santa game last night. We only had 9 players, but it was a good, crazy game. The potluck was a little skimpy, but sufficient. We grabbed a quick plate and got down to the game.
I can't remember more bad beats at a tournament. Remember that any hand shown down with a red king pulls a "gift" chip. The first gift chip was Secret Santa (you must go all-in when next to act), where the all-in 74o on the button (vs AJ in the SB) caught a four card flush on the river to win. AJ sure thought he was good there.
We also had a Bah-humbug chip player (you get only one hole card until you win or bust) go all-in, get called, and then catch four spades for a flush with K
.
I played wildly during the rebuy period, because buy-ins were only $5, so why not have fun with it? In one hand I overplayed K
6
hoping to get lucky or save myself with a gift chip. I lost, went busto, pulled a Gift Exchange chip (trade stacks with the person to my left). He had a better than average stack. Thanks, man! Enjoy the rebuy!
I was four or five buy-ins into the game when the rebuy period ended (which ran a long time, like from 25/50 to 400/800). There were two monster stacks (who avoided the gift chip drama for the most part) and I had an average stack among the remaining players. I locked down the shenanigans and ended up third.
When we got down to three, my stack was about the same as the former 2nd biggest stack, and we were both down to about 12 BBs. The monster stack was with the same player who had it for most of the game. There were a lot of all-ins and folds, passing the blinds around. I gained a little against the smaller stack.
Then the big stack on my right went all in and I looked at A4. I couldn't fold that, and was glad to first see he had K9, then more glad to see an A on the flop. But less glad to see him find running cards on the turn and river to make an inside straight. Oh well.
We chose presents when we busted, so there were only three. I got two pounds of good coffee beans, which I was happy enough to get.
The monster stack prevailed to take first place, though it took an extra hand. The short stack had a red king when he busted, exchanged that for 2k chips, which was a SB by that point, and played one more fruitless hand.
I profited $10-$15, so it was a major payday for me. I made about the same amount during our fairly short cash game afterwards.
Last edited by eneely; 01-06-2016 at 04:12 PM.