Good Start in Biloxi...

This is not my first time to Biloxi, but it is my first time playing poker at the Gulf Coast casinos. After an arduous trans-Atlantic trip I decided to take my first shot at the Casinos. After reading some posts on 2 + 2 I choose the Beau Rivage as my first casino. I gave myself a 300 "allowance" for the week and went with the intentions of playing the $100 tournament (that I read about on the BB). However, when I got there they were running bigger tournaments to compete with the IPs tournaments (IP Classic). The buy-in was $300 + 40. I was ready to play a tournament so I figured I might as well blow my load and take a shot at the $15K guaranteed payout. With good play and some luck I was able to win the tourney-- well kind of. The game was supposed to pay 9, but we all agreed to give 10th place their money back. When it got to 8 a chop, based on chip count, was proposed. I was the chip leader at the time and we all agreed. I took in $3200. I was sitting at 51K in chips with 2 shorts stacks (under 6K), 2 others sitting at about 25-30K and the rest somewhere in between. The deal proposed probably wasn't the best deal for me--but I accepted it for 2 big reasons. First, I was wiped out. 30 hours of travel yesterday and 7 hours of grinding it out had me looking forward to getting back to the room and crash (after posting). Second, first place paid a little over 6K... but, if you win over 5K you must fill out a tax form and give uncle sam his "share". Realistically I would have finished no worse than 6th (of course I thought I'd win). The chop would have put my pay out a little higher than the 3rd place spot. With these two factors I went along--with factor one being the more important factor. Possibly a mistake... I probably should have waited it out a few minutes to see what happened to the two guys on life support--it could have made me a bit more--but I was happy to walk a way with 10 times my investment.

Three very interesting hands I want to talk about. The first hand was significant, and it crippled me in a big way. I was BB and was dealt 88. Starting chip count 4K, Single blind of 25 chips. Four guys limped in and I raised to 200 and got one caller. Since I didn't get re-raised I felt comfortable that I had the best starting hand, but I still wanted a favorable flop--and boy did I get it! Flop fell J-9-8 rainbow. Of course I was a little worried about a Q-T but didn't think it was likely. I noticed that the guy was watching me when the flop rolled out so I guessed that he felt confident on his ability to read people. I intentionally overbet the pot... throwing in 700. Then I put on a little acting job. I stared dead at him and held my breath. I noticed he read my "bluff" tells and made the call... I was expecting that he would raise after carefully watching me. However he only called... I was putting him on A-9 or T-J. The turn brought another 9. Obviously I was thrilled!!! I felt the best course of action was to put out an intentionally mediocre bet of 1.4K and gave the same stare down/breath holding hoping he would go over the top. He watched me and was thinking hard, now I was convinced he had A-9 and was hoping he was also on a flush draw. Unfortunately (I thought at the time) he only called. The river was devistating. Another J, one of the 3 cards I feared. I new I was screwed and checked. He bet a scared 700. I had 1700 and considered pushing on the now bluff. It was to early to know if he'd lay it down so I didn't. I was also too stubborn to pass (probably a mistake), I called... sure enough, he filled up his A-9 on the river. I was feeling pretty down, but before the first break I clawed back to 2900 and was feeling a lot better. I played well and soon got back in healthy chip-count zone.

The next hand I want to talk about was my "lucky" hand. I have heard it said that you have to get lucky in a big tournament to win, and this was no exception. Blinds were 300/600 and a 25 or 50 ante. I was small blind with K-J of diamonds. Everyone folded to the button, one of the big stacks and a guy who had regularly been stealing blinds, he raised to 1800. I called and was left with around 3500. The BB also called and he was left with about 4500. The flop came J-7-3 all unsuited but no diamond. I pushed All-in (a move which I believe was correct). The BB thought for about 30 seconds and called, button folded. I said to the BB "you have an ace kicker don't you". He said yes and flipped of the A-J off. I stood up and was gathering my stuff... then a King fell on the river. Of course I was ecstatic, but I felt somewhat bad (since I am usually on the other end of that luck). I said "you had the best hand, I got lucky". The guy was steaming! At first he just nodded, but about 5 minutes later he called me a donkey. I chuckled and said that he could call it what he wanted but I still had almost all of his chips. He later came up and said he was sorry--he was just upset. I told him "that's too bad, I'd rather have you steaming". With my suck out I was in a lot more comfortable position and could relax a bit.

The next important hand came with 11 players left. I was on the button and the extremely aggressive, fairly loose Asian guy raised the pot. He and I were real close in chip count, I had him by a couple hundred chips (2 or 4 I can't remember). I was the chip leader at the table (6 person) and was holding AJ off. Blinds were something like 600/1200 with a 100 ante. As I said he raised from middle position and made it 3500 to go. I re-raised to 7K and he called. Flop came A-Q-8 rainbow. He was first to act and shoved all his chips in, around 20K. I had seem him play a lot of A-rag and knew that was a strong possibility. I felt AK or AQ was EXTREMELY unlikely, but I did fear A8 or a set of 8s. It was definitely a huge over bet, and we were on the bubble so I decided the non-paired A rag was more likely. I called and was relieved to see A3 suited. The turn was no help for him and killed his flush draw. The river was a blank and I was in great position and sailed into the money.

All in all, I was surprised at what I saw here. I expected generally poor play, but the game was much better than I expected. Of course there were a few bad players, but all in all it was a quality field. I don't know if it was normal for this area or not. A bunch of guys were stopping by Biloxi on their way back, or in conjunction with a trip to Tunica for the WSOP and WTP circuits and were not locals. We'll see next weekend!