If a tournament fell in the forest...

Apparently 10pm on the night of a major holiday is not a good time to schedule a tournament. Both of us who showed up for the WWdNot last night were disappointed when it was cancelled for not having enough participants.

Even more depressing is the reason I was actually around to try to play. I went back to the Hard Rock in Tampa to play in a $200+$40 MTT that started at 7:30. And this time I actually touched cards and chips.

The tournament started with six tables, but one table shut down pretty quickly so I'm guessing we had about 55 players. The format was decent -- 2500 in starting chips, blinds starting at 25/50, and what I'm guessing were about 15 minute levels. There was no visible clock. The TD just came to each table and announced when the blinds were going up. Play moved at a very decent pace for a live game. Everybody was taking their action in a timely manner. The only delays were for legitimate tough decisions (or what appeared to be such).

I got off to a fairly decent start. The details are a bit fuzzy. I recall slowplaying pocket aces to good effect. I remember flopping trip aces on another hand and shutting off the other guy's flush draw when I raised about 25% more than the size of the pot. He even commented that he needed one more spade, so I felt good about the big raise. I was up over 3500 at one point and thinking this was going to be pretty easy.

There was one hand, I don't recall the specifics, but I had good starters and had called somebody else's preflop raise. The two guys to my left both called. On the flop the guy in the BB, two seats to my left, put in a big bet and it folded to me. As I said, I don't recall the specifics, but I do remember there being a possibility I was beat. I looked over at him and he was sipping his coffee, holding the cup with both hands like a little kid, his arms drawn in as far as he could get them in front of him, basically making himself as small as possible. He was also glancing off into the distance to avoid eye contact. I went with Caro on this one -- strong is weak, weak is strong. He couldn't have looked weaker if he'd tried. The guy to my immediate left called the flop bet, but he folded the turn so I don't know if my read was correct.

Then came my mistake. I get AKo in late MP. Blinds are 75/150. It folds to me and I make it 450 to go. The guy in the cutoff, Mr. I-wish-I-could-be-invisible, pushed all-in. He had me covered. Then the BB, who would be down to about a M of 5 in a few minutes when the level would change, called all-in for 1500.

Now it's back to me. I figured the cutoff for a mid pair. If he had pocket aces or kings I don't think he'd have pushed like that. With the BB making the call, I think getting out of the way would have been the best decision. I didn't read the BB for strong, though I have no idea why. Just one of those hunches. But even if he wasn't strong, just having him in the hand screwed up the odds enough that my call would be pretty marginal. With 450 already in the pot, I was getting 3-to-1 on the main pot and I figured I was probably a coin flip with the big all-in. Of course, I can't say that all this was going through my head in quite so much detail at the time.

I made the call. And my reads were right on the money. The BB turned over AQo and the cuttoff showed TT. I think the all-in was a stupid move on his part. I had shown no inclination toward recklessness so far. Indeed, I hadn't bluffed even once. My 3BB raise is exactly what I would have done if I'd had a big pocket pair, so he was taking a huge chance.

The all-in call from the BB with AQo was even dumber. I'd have no problem with him making the initial push with that hand, but with a raise from MP and an all-in from the cutoff, any reasonable player would figure he was at a significant disadvantage and toss that hand without blinking an eye. I would.

So we go to the flop with me needing some help and one of my outs already in the BB's hand. The flop brings a K and I'm about to cheer (not really) when I see it also brought the cutoff his third ten. Two cards in the deck that help him and one comes on the flop. The river brought a jack, so the BB, who had no reason to be anywhere near that pot, fills a straight to take the main pot, the cutoff and his trip tens take the rest of my chips, and I'm heading to the rail less than 45 minutes after the cards were in the air.

I think my call was marginal but technically not incorrect. Given that I wouldn't have been hurting even if I'd given up my initial bet, I'm thinking I shouldn't have been risking it all on what I figured to be a coin flip (actually me at a slight disadvantage). There was still plenty of time. Vahedi says that to live, you have to be ready to die, but I don't think throwing all your chips in the pot on a coin flip is the way to tournament greatness.

The Hard Rock is doing some remodeling in their poker room and has temporarily moved all the tournament play to a separate room (which they poorly explained, but that's pretty much in keeping with the lack of explanations about poker room procedures). I went back to the main card room, but it was very busy and there were long waiting lists for all the tables. So, once again, I headed back to Orlando, having spent less time in the casino than I did on the road. I got back to my hotel just in time to sign up for the WWdNot that wasn't.