Tulalip Tournament Today!

Well, I just finished a nap in the RV this afternoon. I am going in to play for the evening in just a few minutes, but I thought I would tell you about my tournament this afternoon.

The tournament was a $50 buy-in and started at Noon. They paid bounties of $10, if you knocked someone else out. Everybody got a green token and you put that in with your all-in money. The person who knocked you out would receive the green token. You were paid $10 for every green token you possessed, when you reached the final table, or were knocked out yourself. (Assuming you had more then one green token at that time.)

There were 170 beginning players. I was steadily accumulating a chip stack. I was the big blind for $200 when a player two seats to my right threw in $800. I thought he was all in, because he had just gone all in for 400 and had won just the blinds the previous hand. It turns out he still had $200 hidden under his hand.

In a tournament you turn over your hand faceup, when you are in against one other person and all their money is in. It is considered bad form to slow roll, especially when you think you have the best hand. So, I promptly turned over my Ace, Queen hearts which I believed was the best hand at that point based on his previous play.

The dealer immediately said my hand was “dead” and pushed the pot to the other player.

I said “what are you doing? It is only him and me in the pot. He said that’s the rules. I appealed to the floor man who said “your hand is dead” and walked away. I couldn’t believe they had such a stupid rule. If you show your hand, even if one other person is in the pot with you before the dealer says turn over your hand, your hand is declared dead.

I am not convinced the regular hid two chips under his hand deliberately. It was a very unusual bet to bet $800 to try to steal the blind when you have $1,000 in chips.

I asked for the reason a rule like that was in place here? I have never heard of it anywhere else when you are heads up with someone. I was told in response that’s the rule.
I had to go take a walk to calm down. I was playing very well and I was upset and I knew I couldn’t play well this upset.

I came back a few minutes later, listened to music on the Ipod and decided the best thing to do was to get back on my game and play as well as I could. I have always had difficulty with rules, that make no sense, and especially with people, who simply say that’s the rules without being able to offer a explanation for why the rule is in place.

Later during the break the dealer admitted he hated the rule and had almost told me to turn my cards over, because he thought the other fellow was all-in also. He said if I had waited for him to tell me to turn them over things might have been different.

Later, when I got hold of the tournament director, he said the reason they have the rule is when a person goes all in and the other person who is thinking about calling shows his cards to him he may try to get a read off him. I said you mean like they do in all the WSOP and WPT tournaments? That is a regular part of poker. He sheepishly admitted well that’s how we do it here.

Then I said “in that kind of situation then can I just tell him what I have to try to get a read off him”? He said I won’t allow it. I said what if I lie and tell him something I don’t have? He said “I won’t allow it”. I thanked him and walked away thinking glad he wasn’t around a little earlier when I did just that.

I had pocket kings in the small blind. The blinds were $50-100 The first to act said I raise and he put in $200 Three people called. I said that’s not a raise. This is a raise...$1200. He thought about it for a moment or two and called. The flop came AA7. It couldn’t be worse for me. I checked and he bet out $1000. I thought about it for a long time. He didn’t go all in. Does he want a call? No, he could have checked or bet small if he did. He doesn’t totally look relaxed to me. I said time, and thought about it for a long time.

Finally I said “I haven’t gotten to a point where I can lay down pocket kings yet” as I slowly reached for chips. I thought I saw a slight flinch and I knew I had him. “I am all in”, I declared. He dejectedly said, “good call” and threw in his hand. The table was appreciative, and I heard one person say “now that’s good poker”. I felt good about my improvement in slowing down and reasoning out hands along with picking up information from others.

When I reached the final table I had 7 tokens to turn in. Whereas, I bought in for $50 and just cashed $70 and would make no less then $200 for at least 10th position I felt pretty good about the tournament, but still thought that odd rule was quite stupid.

I placed 2nd and took away $800 for this 4 hour tournament. It has been a while since I placed high in a tournament. It felt really good.