So in my last post I said that I had just finished playing my last tournament at Canterbury Park on this trip. If you noticed though, I did not say that I was done playing limit cash 
I played some 6-12 limit this evening. One set of stakes lower than what I have been playing up to this point for the week. I have to say that I am glad the 8-16 list was long. 6-12 was the perfect pace for me. It was amazing to me how much less aggressive players were at this level. The play was pretty straight forward with one exception to the game, ME. I was playing my usual wide range of hands and winning with funky 2 pair and disguised straights. It also helps to have A-A every once in a while and flop quads. I did run a little good tonight 9-6 off suit turned into my biggest pot of the evening. I raised with it on the button. Got quite a few callers. Flop comes 9-3-10. Checked around to me and I bet. I get 2 callers. Turn comes the money card, another 9! Checks to me and I check this time. River comes another 3. First guy bets, other guy folds, and I raise. He re-raises, I re-raise. If he raises again, I had decided to just call. He thinks better of it, shakes his head, and just calls. 9-6 is a big winner! He folds not showing what he had. I played a few more hands, but was happy to get up and leave after exactly doubling my buy-in in just less than 2 hours. Now I am done with poker at Canterbury Park, at least for tonight
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Andrew and I finished up our week of tournament poker with the 45 dollar buy in at Canterbury Park. The structure was exactly like the morning tournament on Monday. I decided to play the more aggressive role. It was working for me early. There was one hand that I regret not getting into when I should have after deciding to play a more aggressive style. I had A-10 of clubs. Blinds were 100-200. A guy raises to 400, I called, another guy raises to 1400. Original raiser calls, and after some thought I fold. Flop comes A-10-X, all spades. The raiser goes all in putting the other caller to the test. He eventually folds J-J face up, no spade. The raiser shows Q-Q, no spade, and says that he misread his hand thinking he had a spade. That would have been a very nice triple up for me in that spot. I later lost a flip when I was holding 7-7 and an older gentleman had K-J. I had called his all in preflop raise. King on the flop won the hand for him. The very next hand, and my last, I was on the button with 9-8 of clubs. I shipped my remaining stack in the middle for 1500 and was called by A-10. I flopped an 8, but my opponent flopped an Ace. That ended my tournament run for the day somewhere in the 60’s out of 85ish players. Andrew also busted shortly after that. Canterbury Park was a nice place to play this week, both tournament and cash games. The dealers were very good and kept the games moving. I look forward to a future visit back to Shakopee, MN for some poker at Canterbury Park. Played in an interesting home game this evening. There ended up being 4 of us. The games were 5 dollar buy ins with 5K in starting chips, blinds starting at 25-50, and 15 minute blind levels. The range of experience at the game of poker went from quite a bit of experience, all the way down to never playing before. This made the game interesting. The game was completely different from what I am used to. Don’t get me wrong, it was still fun, but it was a challenge to know what was going on with my opponents most of the time. I pretty much played my hands the first game, just trying to get a feel for what the other guys were doing at the table. I was able to get heads up with Andrew for the first game. I had a pretty decent chip lead going into heads up courtesy of a cold deck set over set. Pre flop I held 8-8 and he had 5-5. He raised and I called pre flop. Flop came 8-5-X. We obviously got it all in and I had a sizeable chip advantage. After a few minutes of exchanging chips heads up, I limped with J-3 off suit. Flop came J-3-X. I checked, Andrew shipped his remaining stack and I snap called. The look on his face told me that he got caught trying to make a move. He showed Q-10 off suit. The turn was the dagger, and he was drawing dead. Game 2 of the evening saw me take a much more aggressive approach. I was trying to keep the game moving, and it helped that I was getting smacked in the face with the deck early on. I was showing my hands so the table did not think I was bullying them. I was able to build up a pretty decent stack, but was put to the test against the other big stack at the time. I had an over pair to the board on the river with 9-9. There was however 4 to a straight, 3 to a flush, and the board was paired. I was put all in. I absolutely tanked for a couple of minutes and just before I was planning on calling, I decided to fold. I was shown 10-10. I was almost for sure going to call, but thought I could still come back and outplay my opponents. A couple of hands later I won a big hand with K-K vs. Q-Q to bounce right back up to the chip lead. I ended up heads up and won a huge pot with 7-4 by turning the nuts for a straight. My opponent put me on a bluff and called with a pair of 5’s. A couple of hands later I won when my A-3 was up against 9-10. The Ace on the turn got me my second win for the night. I really enjoyed playing this evening. It was a different kind of challenge for me that made the game fun. Not sure if Andrew and I are playing at the Canterbury Park no limit tournament tomorrow morning, but if we do I will be sure to post about it. I decided to enter the tournament at Canterbury Park this evening. It was a 100 dollar buy-in and there were 58 entrants. I ended up finishing 15th, 5 short of the money. A first place prize of $1345.00 was at stake. I really enjoyed playing this bigger buy-in, deeper stacked tournament. I felt the play was better because of the format. More chips meant less gamble early. I was able to bluff a little more and get guys off of hands. One bluff that did not work so well for me was when I was holding 4-4. The guy I was trying to bluff off a pretty draw heavy board only ended up having the just the nuts for broadway. I was crippled, but not out. I was able to hang around a little longer until I shoved pre-flop with A-8, only to get called by A-10. There was no sweat at all on the way to the river, and I was out. On my way toward the door I noticed an open seat at one of the juicy 8-16 limit cash games. Since I had such a fun time earlier in that game, I decided to sit. The stacks were quite a bit deeper this time around, but I was able to double my money after playing for about an hour. After having some success with the limit game, I have a decision to make about Wednesday. Do I try play in the Wednesday morning no limit tournament again like yesterday morning with a smaller buy-in and a smaller starting stack, or do I go straight to the limit cash game? I will have a horse playing again Wednesday morning in the tournament. I am learning quickly how different limit is from no limit and I am starting to like it My brother in law Andrew and I just finished our first tournament at Canterbury Park located in Shakopee, MN. It was a 45 dollar buy in that drew 96 players. I ended up busting in the upper 60’s while Andrew lasted until 45th place. The structure was pretty similar to the Wednesday nights at the SSC, with a starting stack of 4K, blinds at 25-50 going up every 20 minutes. I found it a little difficult to really do much than ABC poker. Along with that, I was not really getting any hands that I could play too aggressively. I won a couple of pots here and there, but nothing that got me above my starting chip stack. I ended up busting with 7-5 suited. I had around 2500 to start the hand. Blinds were 200-400. I was in the big blind. 3 of us saw the flop for 400. Flop comes A-A-10. Checked around. Turn comes 7 with a flush draw on board (not my suit). I bet 800, one guy calls, raise from the big stack at the table that was really pushing chips around, especially with his draws. I call after thinking shortly and putting him on exactly that. The guy to my left now tanks. I really felt initially that he was either hollywooding with an Ace or had a 10. I obviously needed him to fold. He finally talked himself through it, and he ends up calling. The raiser snap folds, and the caller shows K-10. I am drawing to a 7 and do not get there. So, I was out. While Andrew was still in, I found my way over to the 8-16 limit game. What a fun game that was to play in. I rarely play limit, but when I do, it is always a nice change of pace from no limit. After watching a couple of hands to remember the betting I started playing. After it was all said and done, I was able to turn a profit that covered the buy ins for this morning’s tournament, and for this evening if I end up playing. So, we’ll see what happens, but looking forward to some more poker at least some time this week. The Black Widow and I depart early tomorrow morning to Minnesota for some much anticipated family time with my sister in law Jill, my brother in law Andrew, my nephew Cyborg, and my niece Lana Sinsky. We are really looking forward to seeing them. I am also looking forward to some poker while we are there. There is a gaming facility there called Canterbury Park. They just happen to have daily poker tournaments. I plan on playing in at least one of them with a maximum of 4. My brother in law will also be participating as one of my horses Well, after about an almost 2 year lay off, TreyBoys poker hit the felt. The first game had six of us registered to play. Myself, Jason, T-Kow, Spudz, K-Fresh, and a new player to our game, Mike. Mike was a welcomed addition to our game. The hand of note the first game turned out to also be the cooler of the evening. Jason’s King high flush was trumped by Spudz’s Ace high flush. I eventually was able to beat Spudz heads up for the first game win. The second game was a single rebuy game and saw 5 of us take to the felt. Needless to say, I was the first one knocked out, TWICE. This game got down to Mike and T-Kow heads up. Mike had a pretty significant chip lead that T-Kow was able to chip away at. Unfortunately, T-Kow’s Aces got cracked against Mike’s flopped two pair, K-4. Mike was able to hold the chip lead from that point on to take down first. The final game of the evening was a heads up match between myself and Mike. I was able to slowly build up a chip lead early and continued to build on it. The last hand of the night was raised by Mike, and I called with the King of hearts, Queen of clubs. Flop came 8-9-10, all hearts. Mike bet, I just called. Turn came a King. Mike insta shipped and I quickly called. Mike shows top 2 with K-10. I was able to hit one of my 15 outs on the river with the Jack of diamonds. Mike and I shook hands and called it a night. It was fun playing again and look forward to the upcoming weeks of play. Hoping to have a table of 9 in 2 weeks. See you guys then! Shuffle up and deal! We are planning on playing Wednesday, March 21 for those of you that are interested. We are going to start at 6:30. Please contact Matt at matt@treyboys.com if you are planning on attending and/or have any questions. Thanks and hope to see you there. I was able to log 4 separate sessions this week at the poker table. My time was both profitable and FUN! After playing off and on the past year or so, it felt great to play on a regular basis…..again. I look forward to playing more on a consistent basis with a focus on cash games and deep stack tournaments. I am going to try to do a better job of sharing some of the experiences that I have while playing. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences as well. Here is to you running good and me running better! For those of you that were unaware (I’m sure ALL the treyboys were aware) but for those of you that weren’t the WSOP Main Event is going on. Currently the tournament is down to 29 players with a few big name pro’s left. If you want to check out more info go to: |
