GRANADA HILLS HOME TOURNAMENT

I went over to a neighbor's house today to brag about the EPT. It was at Dave's house that I won $700 in a home tourney last year. He had one on the books for tonight, so he got me invited. The host is a math teacher, and he did a good job hosting. Everything ran smoothly - he had a countdown clock on his computer to notify him of blind increases; he had three tables set up in his converted garage; he had sausages on the barbie; and it was BYOB.

Buy in was $20 plus $2 for the house. There were 26 players. There were multiple rebuys and also an add-on. My whole night was made in a span of four hands just before the add-on. First, I got a pair of jacks. I raised out the limpers and got three-way action. The flop was all hearts, king high. The player to my right went all in. I had him covered, and had the security of the rebuy, so I called, although I had no heart. I was hoping he had no king.

The turn brought the J of hearts, giving the other guy his probable flush, but giving me outs for a full house. I bet all in and he called with the Q of hearts. The river was a 9, which paired the board, and tripled me up and saved me $20.

The very next hand, I was dealt AA in early position. I raised a healthy but callable amount, and found the same two players going up against me. The flop came QQJ and the player to my right, who had just rebought, went all in. If this was Monte Carlo, I probably would have folded, but since I had him covered, I called. The third guy called as well. The turn was a blank. I went all in to get rid of the third guy, who didn't seem to have a queen. He had four to a straight and folded to my bet. The all-in turned out to be JT, and my aces held up.

I now had a huge stack and was getting razzed by the regular players. The next hand was T2, which I rightly folded. The next hand, which was the last before the break, I got JJ again in the big blind. Everybody at the table was in for a call, so I raised a good amount to thin the crowd. Two players called, then the good old guy on my right made the call and raised his final few chips. There was a ton of money on the table already, and I had a huge stack, so I went all in and forced the two other guys to make a decision. They both chose unwisely, and went all in against me. One guy had AT and the other had A2s. The other guy had T9s, same suit. I was happy to see no kings or queens, and two aces used up. I got a jack on the flop and won the hand easily.

I had such a stack at this point that I could save my money by skipping the add-on. Of course, there would be no more wins for me the rest of the night, so I atrophied away and coasted into fourth place for $122.