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LA Poker Classic

I just arrived back home from 5 days in Los Angeles. I was in L.A to play the main event of the L.A Poker Classic. The first night we met up with many longtime UB players for a few hours for some cocktails and some catching up. We kept it low key the first night, as we knew that the next night we were hosting a UB party for the online winners.

Thursday night was a blast. Victor coordinated one of the better UB parties of all time.  A chartered bus picked up some 40-50 winners and guests and drove to the Staples center for a L.A king's vs St. Louis Blues Hockey game. We had full access to a green room during the game and between periods which was fully catered with food and a full bar.

We had 50 seats all in the same section. It was a great group of people that went and I think everyone had a blast. Along with me and fellow team UB members Shawn Rice, and p0ker h0 some of the people who went were:

Allgolf , Dash alert, lungfish, basebaldy, neddyflanders, BIODTL, AJmoneybags, _ray and suitedkeiths.

We got to do some pretty cool stuff at the game. At first intermission Luc Robatille came into our room for a meet and greet, to take pictures and sign autographs. Luc is quite possibly the greatest left winger in NHL history scoring nearly 700 lifetime goals. This was very cool.

A group of us also got to go stand in the bench area between periods for pictures. They also let us out to center ice for a group photo after the game. I think it might have been hard for them to contain us all after a few drinks out on the ice. I shot a funny video of neddyflanders, and lungfish checking each other into the boards.

I had a day to recover Friday, since the main event day 1 started Saturday, and boy did I need it. Saturday rolled around and I was ready to go. I hadn't played a live tournament of any size since Aruba and I felt great.

The first two 90 minute levels were pretty boring. The structure is so great I just sat back and picked my spots. I only won maybe 2 significant pots in the first 2 levels and found myself up about 4k in chips going into the third level. At this point almost 4 hours into the tournament I had seen one pair 77, and AQ was the biggest ace I had seen. Just a few minutes before the third level ended I picked up KK  in the big blind. There was a raise to 300 and 1 caller in front of me. I made it 925 and got called by both players. The flop came down Q72 with 2 spades. I led out with for 1900, and the first player folded. I was then raised by the second player to 4400. I was in a tough spot here. The player I was up against was off the charts aggressive. I had seen him make flop raises in previous hands with top pair, middle pair and a flush draw. The one set I saw him play he had check called the flop, and then raised the turn. I decided to flat call the raise and make sure no Ace, Queen or spade hit the turn before going nuts. When the 2 of clubs fell on the turn I felt pretty good about my hand. I Check raised the turn all in and he beat me to the pot with a set of sevens. No help on the river and I had lost 75% of my chips. I wasn't happy that I got so involved with just one pair for the majority of my chips, but I trusted my read and I was wrong. I really believe that he was the only player at the table that I don't fold my hand to. A tough hit but I was still in the game. I managed to double up off the same player and get back up to 7600 at the dinner break.

After dinner I was still in ok shape and still felt good about my chances. I stayed patient and waited. The only decent hand I got in the first 30 minutes after dinner was JJ in middle position. I raised and got called in 2 spots including the same guy who snapped my kings off earlier. The flop was a 278 rainbow. It was checked to me and I fired out 1500 of my remaining 6300. I was flat called, and then raised by the same guy to 6k. I thought quite sometime and folded my Jacks, only to see the person behind me stack off with 1010  to that guy again who was holding a set of 8's. He had flopped his 6th set of the day and had over 55k in chips. I made a good fold but it hurt knocking me to 4800 chips. I managed to stay around the same spot for about 1 more hour watching the man with 55k implode and give all of them away to pretty much everyone but me. His final hand he check raised a K hi board all in right into a set and gave away 55k in chips on the 100/200 level. This made me feel a little better about my earlier play with my kings. A few minutes I played my last hand. With the blinds at 150/300 with a 50 ante, there was a raise from late position, a button call, and the sb called. I decided to make my stand with 77 from the big blind raising another 3250 all in. I was instantly called by the raiser,  and called fairly quickly by the button. The small blind folded. The flop came down Q82. Both players checked and the turn was a 4. Both players then checked again and the river was a 3. again they checked it down and I thought for a split second I had a triple up coming when the first guy turned up AJ. I flipped up my 77 and then the button says , "I have 2 pair", flipping up 34 off.  OMG I thought. A guy with 19k in chips just put in almost 4k pre flop with 34. Then hit running cards on me. I would have felt a lot better about losing if an Ace or Jack had beat me.

Oh well, I guess that's poker. It's always disappointing when you lose, ill just come back and keep firing at the next one.

Good luck,

Debo