Treasure Island Resort and Casino Poker Gone Wild

The Treasure Island poker department will be hosting a poker tournament on the first Friday of each month. The tournament will be a No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament with a $30 buy-in and a $10 entry fee. There will be a joker in each deck used in the tournament and the joker will be wild! Each player will receive $2000 dollars in tournament chips and the blinds will increase every twenty minutes. The tournament will be limited to the first 50 guests to register. Re-entries, alternates and late entries will be accepted until the first break. Seats can be bought through the Box Office up to a month in advance. There will be an optional $5 add-on at initial seating to receive $1000 more in starting chips. Check-in will begin at 5:00pm and the cards hit the air at 6:00pm. TDA tournament rules will apply. All decisions by the Tournament Director are final. The following will be the tournament format.

$25-$25 blinds

$25-$50 blinds

$50-$100 blinds

$75-$150 blinds

Ten minute break.

$100-$200 blinds ($25 ante)

$150-$300 blinds ($25 ante)

$200-$400 blinds ($50 ante)

$300-$600 blinds ($75 ante)

Ten minute break. (Race off the $25 chips)

$400-$800 blinds ($100 ante)

$500-$1000 blinds ($100 ante)

$1000-$2000 blinds ($200 ante)

$2000-$4000 blinds ($200 ante)

Ten minute break. (Race off the $100 chips)

$3000-$6000 blinds ($500 ante)

$4000-$8000 blinds ($500 ante)

$5000-$10,000 blinds ($1000 ante)

$6000-$12,000 blinds ($1000 ante)

Ten minute break.**

**After this level the blinds and antes will continue to increase until a winner is

determined.

Top 5 places will be paid if the tournament is full (unless otherwise decided by the final table).

Erick Wright of Shoreview, Minnesota continued his strong 2011 campaign late Sunday night/Monday morning by winning the $1,000+$100 buy-in Running Acess Anniversary Tournament.  71players entered Sunday morning and Wright outlasted them all to earn $19,225.  Running Aces Harness Park is located in Columbus, MN. 

Back in January, Wright finished runner-up in the Minnesota Freeze Out for $23K.  Matt Hyland won that event for just over $41K. 

This Anniversary Tourney final table featured several established Minnesota studs.  Final table regular Todd Melander finished 3rd.  Three-time HPT champ and MSPT champ Jeremy Dresch finished 4th.  Tony Moses has been hot this year as well and finished 10th.

With 3 players remaining Erick Wright held a healthy chip lead over his two opponents after he ousted Dresch in 4th place with 99 vs. AJ.  Things then took a turn for the worse.  He doubled up Melander and Jared Michelizzi dropping him to 3rd overall.  With a short stack, Wright got hot again. 

Wright doubled through Melander.  With the blinds at 20/40K, 2K ante, Wright raised to 100K with JJ.  Melander shoved with AK.  Wright called and his JJ held doubling him to roughly 1.1M.  Melander was left with about 300K.  Not long after, Wright’s 77 held up over Melander’s Q-10 to eliminate Melander in 3rd place. 

Then Wright finished off Michelizzi with KQ vs. A6 suited.  Wright flopped top-two and that was it.

I was playing 8-16 limit hold’em, and I look down at A-A.  This was, perhaps, seventy minutes into a session, and I had yet to win a pot.  I raised under-the-gun and action folded to the big-blind who called.  Upon calling, he had only five small bets remaining in his stack.

The flop was Qd-Jd-2c.  The big-blind bet.  I raised.  He three-bet, and seeing as this was going to be an all-in situation, I four-bet.  He five-bet all-in.  I turned over my two black Aces, and he turned over Qh-9d, for top-pair.  The turn was the 5d, and now the all-in man stands up and begins chanting, “DIAMOND, DIAMOND, DIAMOND!”  As you’ve probably already guessed, the river was the 8d, giving him the winning flush.

At this point, the man starts exuberantly celebrating: “Yes!  Finally!  What a river card!”

At the time, of course, being as I couldn’t win a hand, I was a little off-put by his behavior.  Have a little courtesy, my friend!

But then I got to thinking… did he really do anything wrong?

I’ve had a similar thought when watching the WSOP on television.  Somebody will suck out on a crucial hand, and will jump into the crowd to celebrate as the defeated man is left baffled and frustrated.  Is this level of boasting excitement acceptable?  After all, for every winner in the hand, there is at least one loser.  Should respect be paid to his misfortune?

I’m actually posing more questions than I’m answering because I don’t have a firm opinion on the matter.  Both sides have legitimate arguments.  One the one hand, winning a hand unexpectedly really is exciting!  You should be allowed a certain amount of celebration.  The other player is an adult, they should be able to handle themselves.  On the other hand, perhaps some grandeur should be displayed, if not for the losing party, then simply in the name of dignity.  You don’t see Doyle Brunson stand up and shout when he wins a pot.  Act like you’ve been there before.

I don’t know what I think, ultimately.  What do you guys think?

ALSO, FOR ANY READERS WHO ENJOY MY BLOGS, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY NEW WEBSITE, A PERSONAL BLOG SITE:

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Saturday SuperStack Tournaments
Saturdays Starting on May 21st
3 pm Start Time
Registration begins on Fridays at 12 PM
Start with $25,000 in tournament chips
$50 + $10 entry fee for 20,000 in tournament chips
$5 Staff Bonus for 5,000 in chips
                                            
This tournament will be played 9 handed until the final table.  Max entries is 45.
All levels are 20 minutes.  Breaks are 10 minutes. 
Diamond Jo Management reserves the right to change, cancel or modify this tournament at any time.

The hot hand in the state of Minnesota right now belongs to Kye Longtin.  Longtin has been climbing up the Player of the Year leaderboard and has cashed 5 times in the last two weeks.  

Longtin now leads the state with 11 total cashes and ranks 3rd in total points behind only Jason Seitz and Rob WazWaz.

Running Aces in Columbus, MN will be hosting their Anniversary Tournament this Sunday, May 29.  The buy-in will be $1,000 + $100 and begin at 10:30 AM, registration opens at 8:30 AM.

The Main Event will consist of 40-minute levels and 25,000 starting chips.  Entries and Re-entries will be allowed through the first 3 levels of play.

Canterbury Park went a little old school on it and hosted a $500+$50 tournament this past Sunday, May 22.  When poker was booming a few years back the $400+$40 was a regular, monthly event on the Canterbury calendar. 

81 players battled for the $40,500 prize pool and Daniel Schmidt of So. St. Paul emerged from the field victorious.  Schmidt took home $11,340 for his efforts. 

1st Place          Daniel Schmidt           So. St. Paul, MN         $11,340                                  

2nd Place        Robert Van Syckle      St. Paul, MN               $8100

3rd Place         Richard Scofield         Winnebago, MN         $5670

4th Place         Derek Crooks              Morton, MN                $4050

5th Place         Richard Berry             Minneapolis, MN        $2835

6th Place         David Dorau               Bloomington, MN       $2430

7th Place         Randall Johnson          Minnetonka, MN        $2025

8th Place         Dago Oyarzabal          Chanhassen, MN         $1620

9th Place         Sara Allgood               Bloomington, MN       $1215

10th Place       David Pritchett           Apple Valley, MN      $1215

Being good at poker doesn’t necessarily translate to winning at poker.  Duh, right?  But this obvious statement is particularly true in the short-term.  Once in a while a hand will be played that serves as a perfect microcosm for this reality: a player manages to make the incorrect play almost every time he’s faced with a decision; yet, despite himself, he wins the pot.

8-16 limit hold’em, I’m in the big-blind.  A maniac on a mega-heater is on my right.  Three players limp, and the maniac predictably raises from the small-blind.  I look down at 9-9.  Based on the way this man had been playing, I was fairly certain I had the best hand.  But I don’t like three-betting in this spot.  One, it typically fails to slim the field, as three limpers are already in the pot.  Two, I have to play the rest of the hand from very early position.  And three, there is a good chance the small-blind with four-bet, and I don’t want to play a monstrous pot with 9-9 in the big-blind.  So, pre-flop, I just call, as do the three limpers.

The flop is 10c-6h-2s.  Now the small-blind maniac checks.  This guy is so weird… He could have anything.  Really, he could have anything.  He could have 7-3 or 10-10.  But I don’t like the idea of giving a free card just because this guy is goofy.  I want to weed out the players behind me with over-cards, and force goofball to make a choice.  So I bet.  One limper calls me, and two limpers fold.  The small-blind calls.

The turn is the King-of-spades.  The small-blind checks again.  An argument could definitely be made for betting again.  Maintaining aggression is almost always reasonable, and the small-blind could have a hand like Q-J or A-J, and charging him to draw would be ideal.  But the field is already slim, just three of us, and I don’t mind saving a big bet here, not knowing where the hell I am.  There is a good chance I’m behind, either because of the 10 on the flop or the king on the turn.  I check, as does the limper behind me.

The river is a meaningless 3-of-diamonds.  This time, the small-blind bets.  I contemplate my options.  He could very easily be betting with nothing.  The guy has no poker instincts at all, and it’s only one more bet to win the pot.  I call.  The man behind me folds.

The small-blind turns over K-8 of diamonds.

Ooooookay?  You could’ve given me twenty-five guesses to pinpoint his hand, even equipped with the knowledge that he’s awful, and I wouldn’t have figured out K-8.  I confusedly muck my cards as he scoops yet another pot.

Let’s review, shall we?  With three players already in the pot, he decides to raise, from the small-blind, with K-8.  Wrong.  Then, on a pretty dry board, after being aggressive pre-flop with nothing, he chooses to check the flop.  Wrong.  After I bet the flop and receive one caller, he thinks it’d be a dandy idea to call a bet!  With K-8!  On a 10-6-2 diamond-less flop!  WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!  Then, of course, he nails his three-outer on the turn… and adds ZERO bets to the pot!  Wrong.  Finally, he decides to bet the best hand on the river and receive a crying call from me.

Wow!  How can you make so many wrong decisions and still win?  Real funny, poker gods.  Real funny.

ALSO, FOR ANY READERS WHO ENJOY MY BLOGS, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY NEW WEBSITE, A PERSONAL BLOG SITE:

JAYMIND.COM