Bayou Poker Classic Day 2 Recap

I got to the Casino at about 1030 am and of course, nothing is going on in the Poker Room, Nothing is going on in the Tournament room, and I don't feel like playing table games, so I go in my truck and take a nap until about 1130. I'm no bum but drove from Destrehan so I wasn't about to go back for just a little while. When I walked back into the Casino I noticed there were about 5 people waiting to start a Satellite so I go run to see what's going on in the Poker room with cash games....pretty much nothing still so I go buy into the Satellite and pick the 9 seat (10 to a table) the buy in was $125 and top 2 got $500 in tourney chips and 50 in cash. It still took a while before the satellite got started, so I went goof off on a Roullette machine and won half the buy in back when I put $25 in and cashed out $85 (Small victory already!)

Noticed some Free advertisement on the way into the Casino.

Initially the Table seemed to be very easy to pick spots and take down pots as it was mostly older gentlemen that are casual players with some pretty solid players mixed in as well. A guy that looked Like Jesus Ferguson's skinny twin brother was pretty much shoving in everyone's blind, and pretty much sucking out when they called.I managed to Knock Out a couple people and double through Jesus twin and then watched him knock two out at the end to get me the chips and cash and tipped the dealer $15 to pretty much free roll tournaments for the day!

I registered for the 1PM $350 buyin tournament and hated my seat draw. First I get my ticket and was placed in the 1 seat and a Super Aggressive player had position on me. As the late registration continued and the players came in late, I had Will "Poker Monkey" Souther (who basically hated the table draw as well and practically busted on purpose -so it seemed that way- to get on another table) Bill Phillips and Danny Dorcey were all to my Right.

I got down to 7000 after losing a few pots then made a really good call against the Super Aggressive player who is friends with Wunstel and Barousse but not sure of his name. He was a Super LAG player but reminded me alot of Bertrand Grospellier. I got in a raising war against him early when I had 22 preflop and didn't want to get it in with such a low pair, so I surrendered when I missed the flop. Then later he minraised preflop (as he did every single hand practically) and since he had position on me and it was folded to me, I flatted. Flop fell 383 and since he has such a wide range I really didnt feel that he hit any of the board so I checked with Q10s and he cbet as I expected. I decided to float to see if I either connect on the turn or if I could out play him on the turn. Turn is the Q and I have a feeling I take the lead and know he is going to continue to be aggressive. I put out a small bet and he raises me again. I'm not sure exactly how strong my queen is here and don't want to shove into a monster so I decide to just flat again. River is a blank and I am liking where I am at, but still unsure of my kicker. With the amount of hands he was raising, it was just highly improbable that he also paired the King with a higher kicker so I was willing to call whatever he bet. I believe he knew what I was thinking and truely put me to the test when he committed himself...and myself with a tournament life decision. I call and have a worse hand and be crippled. shove and lose, or flat, win the pot and get a good portion of chips. Well I make the call and he has A high and My queen is good.

I continue to pick some pots up but not much when I get involved in a huge hand and come out on the wrong end. I raised 2.5 with 8h 6h and got 2 callers (Extremely tight old guy and old guy that has a big cash in a circuit event.) Flop came out As 8d 6d and both players checked to me. I bet 675 into 1250 pot and get shoved on by super tight old guy and I know he has pair aces big kicker. Then the other old man goes into the tank, then with about 9.7k he goes allin over the top and I am thinking I have the best hand for sure as he is probably shoving a strong flush draw here or maybe a pair with nut flush draw. I am now wondering if I should just fold out of fear of being drawn out since its so early in the tournament, or make the call and hope I hold up to basically triple up again in this $340 buyin tourney. Well I make the call after some thought and I see AhJh from the first shover and 7d 5d from the other...and I hate how many outs he has and of course right there on the turn is the 4c giving the old man the straight. I dont fill up and my stack goes from 14.3k to 4.5k. A part of me wishes I would have just folded and waited for a better spot in the tournament but I know to win tournaments you have to win those kind of situations. It is still meddling in my head though.

After the 1st break I didnt last much longer as I get into another raising war with the Super Aggro and open with QcJc and super aggro min 3bets AGAIN and guy who turned straight on me just flats. I shove all in for 4.4k and then Super Aggro SHOVES for 6.7k. I am kind of annoyed but kind of happy because he gets the other guy to fold and what does he show.....Kd10d. I knew he didn't have much, but surprised he didn't give me much respect for a hand as well. It was a virtual Coin flip and I got completely out flopped as board ran out 10 10 9 Q J improving his trips to a straight and sending me to the exit. I didn't feel like investing another 350 into the tournament that ended up with 88 players so I decided to go sit down at the 1 2 NL game instead.

I buy into the game for $200 and get some decent small pots but my first big pot I hit a set with QQ and a guy decided to chase the flush and paid me about Half his stack for $150. I had to have seen AcKs or vice versa about 3 times and all 3 times I won the hand. I couldnt believe it. The session turned out really well and I cashed out $822 for a nice $622 profit. So having a nice profitable session in cash and still having $200 in tourney chips, I let a buddy borrow $125 to play a satellite and then bought into the 5pm $230 Omaha Tournament...which was basically a mistake. I literally played 3 hands in 2 orbits before I was out. First pot I check Called Flop and Turn with 2 flush draws and an inside straight draw and made the 2nd nut flush on the river, Checked it and of course the guy had Nut flush. Next hand I lost a small pot and on the Final hand I had Ad 9s 8s 7d and with blinds at 100 200 I raise to 500 and get 2 callers. I only have 4500 left and we started with 8000. flop falls 7 4 3 and I bet 1k into a 1500 pot.this leaves me with 3500. 1 guy calls and the turn is the 6 giving me open ender for the nuts and still top pair. I shove all in and he calls and shows two pair 8 7 6 2......on a Straight Board....I laugh in disbelief and need an A 10 9 8 or 5 to win the pot, but for some reason I have ran like shit so far when playing Omaha tournaments and completely whiffed as the river paired the 4.

So feeling a little tired, I decide to go back to cash game instead of just calling it a night and finishing with a good profit for the 2nd night in a row. I sit at 1 2 one more time. The first hand I played I get trip nines Ace kicker on the river and get check trapped when a guy played his runner runner boat sneaky and lost over half my first buy in right off the bat.
The last hand I played, I flopped top two with AQ on a Ah Qh 3h board and run into Two Flushes and some dude that reminded me of The Soloist with Jamie Foxx cause he kind of looked and dressed like him in that movie and was saying all kind of crazy shit at the table that gave me some good laughs the whole time. Well I dont Fill up agian. figured out that I actually managed a miniscule profit (Like $50 or 60 bucks) for the Day when I decide to get up from that horrid table. It all went down hill after the Omaha Game though. Well after I get some rest, I have one more full day to grind the tables before one of the Greatest Ragin Cajun's Football games I have ever witnessed to cap off such an awesome week.

To be Continued...

Matt Stroud

Bayou Poker Classic Trip Day 1 Recap

It finally came time for my Trip to Harrah's Casino for the Winter Bayou Poker Classic and after seeing a bunch of my fellow Acadiana Poker Player friends make some decent cash in tournaments previously in the week I was feeling confident I would have some success of my own. I am glad to say that I only had one day of this whole trip that I ended up in the Negatives and the only reason why is because I stayed up until 7am pretty much just staying even throughout the whole game after watching my Cajuns win a dramatic game at the very end setting the SuperDome into a frenzy. But I will get to that later.

Day 1, 5 pm $230 Buy-in.

I Arrived in New Orleans just in time for the 5 PM tournament. I looked around in the Tournament area and it seemed sparse. After talking with some of the players, I find out that the casino didn't advertise the events much at all. There was a small amount of players in almost every event and the structures of the tournaments really weren't that bad (other than the satellites and nightly's which is normal since they are meant to be quick.) I had bought into this tournament twice as the initial buy in I played horrible, over valuing top pair, having 2nd best in flush vs. flush, not listening to myself when making reads, and just spewing chips. I lost within an hour but it was a Re Entry tournament, so I got up and registered again and refocused and sat at a Table with an Aggro Reg from Shorty's Casino and Wild Bill of GCP. I also find out that there is an idiotic rule of a 1 round penalty if a player exposes their hand, even by accident. Yes so if it happens to get a gust of wind underneath, felt sticks the corner of the card, hits the dealer's hand when going into the muck, poker gods don't care, poker gods make you sit on the rail for a round.

This made me more confident and relaxed and started to play alot better. I stayed patient and picked a few spots to keep a pretty much even stack with what I started with when we moved tables and the Chip Leader came sit at my table. I was card dead for 5 - 6 blind levels and traded 3 1000 chips with the chipleader for some Good Luck chips and got a good laugh out of that. Well Right before the break happened I had about 7,500 in chips and the blinds were 200 400 with a 100 ante and it was folded to me on the button. I shoved 7500 into the blinds and was instantly called by BOTH of them as I say awesome and laugh.
SB shows 10 10, BB turns over AK os and I turn over K7 like a true donk! Before the dealer turns the flop I say "7 7 flop please" and to my amazement the board runs out 7 7 6 5 K and I triple up to 23,700!!

We get down to two tables and guy who limped with a big hand earlier did it again.I have 88 and raise as it folds to the big limper who shoves all in. The way he played it, I figured him for two overs like Ace Face or KQ KJ etc. and it is for 1/3 my stack to knock him out, so I decide to make the call. He shows AJ os and flop falls 33A....shit, no worries though 8 hits the turn to get me the Boat and I am relieved and then the other 8 falls on the river for good measure to knock the guy out.

The next big pot I won involved this very solid old guy who just ran like absolute dog shit at the end of the tournament. 3 pots in a row he got either 2 or 3 outed to cripple his massive stack that he worked up and I got the last bit of it. Old Solid guy limps button, I limp small blind and BB checks. We see a flop that falls 6 8 4 and I lead out 1/4 pot. BB folds and Old solid raises 4000. I think for a bit to try to figure out what he could possibly have and from how he was playing earlier I was thinking A8 or over pair to give him top  pair. I call and Turn is the 6 giving me trips and I have a strong feeling I pull ahead right here and decide to trap him. I check and he shoves all in. I make the call after some deliberation and had him covered by about 3000. He flopped the nut straight which caught me by total surprise and I think I make a huge mistake when yet again! the 8 hits the river to give me a full house knocking him out!! I now move up to 56k in chips with about 16 players left.

When we make the Final table, the guy I traded chips with said "Those lucky chips worked out for you huh?" I laughed and said, "It appears that way huh haha" I have to battle Blake Barousse, Corrie "bigslim" Wunstel, and Bill Phillips. Some New York Cash game player and a very timid young guy who was previously the chipleader was begging for a 9 way chop for about $1000 each. I knew Blake doesn't like to chop and Wunstel was also saying no chop. Bill Gets knocked out in 10th when his 99 loses a flip vs. AK GG sir. Then New York cash gamer gets his AA cracked buy a guy's KK and sends him steaming and missing out on the cash since top 5 were getting paid. There were only 48 entrants. As I try to grind to the money, I end up having to make some folds in a couple spots knocking my stack to 26k with blinds at 600 1200 and 100 ante and as we get down to 6 players I continue to try to convince big stack Wunstel and blakeb to chop. Wunstel informs the remaining players that Blake has to get a good share too since he is the backer so I figured 2600 would be good for first place and I was willing to take off 140 of mine since I was short stack to Blake giving him more than the others. They wanted $5000 which I thought was a bit much since we were all deep enough to play it out and 1st and second was $5500 when added together. If anything we were willing to offer them 1st and 4th instead. Then I started giving Blake a guilt trip to just cut me a break this one time since we go back and we agree on $4,600 so my share of the chop along with 3 others was $1,178 as I tipped $8 to the dealers including the two $10 dts for a $28 total tip. Blake got $2,200 and Corrie Got $2,400 and I also paid Blake back $100 for a loan from way back when that he wasn't in a hurry to get back but I had it for him if he needed it.

Original Payout
1st, $3,500
2nd, $2,000
3rd, $1,550
4th, $1,230
5th, $990

Chopped 6 ways
1st Corrie "Big Slim" Wunstel $2400 - $2600??
2nd Blake Barousse $2000-$2200?? whatever they decided
3rd-6th Me and some other guys $1178
It was a perfect start to a great week and I appreciate it big for giving me a break (even though I could have probably min cashed, the extra $200 was even better.

Matt Stroud