O-Poker

After not playing there for nearly 3 months, Cmitch and I both took the plunge and decided to make an appearance at our old stomping ground... the Orlando UPC. Our man Matt hosts tourneys every Weds. and Sun. with buy-in's ranging from $80 - $250 with two full size tables.

Wednesday night was a $100 game with a full field of 22. The players ranged from mostly wide-open-donks to a few decent players that are capable of winning it. There were quite a few regulars besides us that had also not been there for a while and it was great to see Dave L. in the mix! He put a brutal beat on Howie catching one of 2 remaining KING's on the river cracking Howie's AA and staying alive.

Playing at UPC is always interesting because it usually takes a few fortunate hands to get to the "final table" and there is certainly no cruising into the money once you're there. The blinds increase so fast that you can get to the final ten with a huge stack and get blinded down to the felt in no time. The levels were 20 minutes, but you can't expect more than about 9 or 10 hands per round.

I chipped up in the fourth level when the flop came J/9/2 of diamonds to go with my ATd (in the BB). You can't ask for much more than that, but it got even better when an opponent bet into me each street as he had flopped a lower flush. I was also fortunate enough to get AK four or five times with the same player as before raising into me 3 times. I had him 3 to 1 in chips and was able to push him off the raises each time. The best part was that he showed his ace/rag hands every time... The guy was raising with ANY ACE and showing!

Once we got down to 6 I was in good shape when Lou (a wide open player that is liable to have anything at any time) went all in in front of me. I look down and squeeeeeeeezed two black QUEENS! Insta-call and he shows AK. KING comes on the turn and I'm knocked down to about 25k with the blinds at 3000/6000. I fumbled through the next 20 hands or so picking up the blinds a few times but gaining no ground. With the blinds up to 5000/10000, we're down to the final 5 when a big hand comes up: Elmer (came to the combined table with 7000 in chips and was down to 4000 at one point) had gone all in no less than 10 times and was the current chip leader. He immediately goes all in UTG and Lou CALLS in front of me. This is one of those times you're praying for a big hand and the poker God's came through for me when I looked down to AA! Elmer had 44, Lou had JJ and I tripled up when it counted.

Unfortunately I ran into Elmer's AA when I was holding QKs three handed... GAME OVER, gg me. Third place paid $260 so it wasn't a total loss. It was actually refreshing as I had been on the wrong side of the bubble over there about 6 times in a row previously.

Loopy