Day 29

I did not play online on day 29. I did play in the Orange Poker League home tourney. I have blogged about a couple of these events. Basically you play a series of 5 tournaments, once 1/2 the field is eliminated, you start earning points. One point for each place higher that you finish, and one point just for playing. They total up the points for the five events (after you drop your lowest event), and the top 10 points play a championship game. 10% of the buy-in and 20% of the rebuys are skimmed and forwarded to the final event. Over $1,100 is already in the final prize pool. I had a horrible run of cards in the first two events, but managed to earn a few points, then missed event three while in Hawaii. I was sitting in 18th place going into event 4. There would be 38 people this time, so up to 20 points were availiable. The players are pretty bad, but the structrure is pretty crap-shooty.

The host of event 4 lives in what had to be a 5-10 million dollar house in Villa Park. I would take some time to describe it, but it would take way too long. I knew I would need to be aggressive, but had to be concerned about the number of calling stations out there. On the second hand, I pick up JJ, and raise to 150 (blinds 25/50 - 1500 starting chips). I immediatly thought I did not raise enough when I got 5 callers. J high flop, and I start betting small. Two callers. Turn pairs the board giving me a boat. I bet a little more, one caller. River blank, and I bet $500, and last guy folds. I am up to 2500 and feeling like I have some room to play. I stick in the 2000-3000 range for much of the rebuy period. I pick up JJ and after an UTG limper, a shorty in MP pushes in for 3x the blinds. I push-in looking to get heads up with shorty, but UTG insta-calls with AA. Not sure if this guy knew what he was doing with the AA UTG limp, but it worked, and I was stacked. I rebuy, and pick up 99 on the next hand. I need chips and I need them now, so I push-in, and get called by KT and I win the coin flip. The rebuy period ends.

After the rebuy, I pick up AA. and raise 3.5x. Two callers. Flop is all low diamonds, and I don't have one. I push, and get called by QT no diamonds (lol), by the chip leader. A blank on the turn and he is drawing dead. I continue to play pretty well, picking up a pot or two on a bluff or preflop raise. It gets down to the final table with the top 5 paying, and $700+ for first. I have 5900 in chips which puts me about 7th. Tenth place gets eliminated. With the blinds at 600/1200 and about to go to 800/1600, I pick up TT. UTG min raises to 2400. UTG appears to be a pretty solid player. My M is just over 2 when the blinds go up, so the decision is obvious and I push in. It folds to the raiser who openly puts me on JJ or TT and says he has to call. He has AK, flops a K and IGHN. If I win that coinflip I will cash for sure, but not to happen. I did pick up a valuable 12 pts to go with the 10 pts I already had. I am sitting 4 pts out of the top 1o, and will probably need a cash in the next event to make the final.

Orange Poker League
Buy-in -50
Rebuy -40
Total -90

Challenge total (online only)

+612.60