Season 7 opener breaks records (part 1)

To be honest, I started getting a little worried during season six that the alure of the league was fading a little and people were getting tired of the same old "show up, drink beer, eat pizza, give CMoney your cash". We needed two things to break the cycle - fresh blood and better participation. The key to making sure that one person doesn't dominate is variance. The more players who enter combined with new playing styles makes it tough to win tournaments consistently.

I'm happy to welcome our three newest members: Woody, HowieMandel, and BreadWinner. Why these names? Well, a Woody by any other name is still a Woody. HowieMandel - I'm not married to that but I'll be damned if he's not the spitting image. And BreadWinner? Well she's Chuckles' wife who managed to equal his winnings over 12 tournaments in a single underground to earn her way into the league. Impressive. Would that solid play backed by a crazy run of pocket aces carry it's way into the league opener?

As per usual, switching to 3rd person so I can write about how well I played from a totally unbiased point of view.

Two records were broken this night. Fourteen suckers with visions of the championship dancing in their heads arrived, the most ever in a single tournament. The DDR league points system puts a lot of weight on this number so it was already sure to be historic. Combine that with another record - a $900 total prize pool and we were off and running to create the largest first place cash (and points) ever seen.

The rebuy period started with fireworks on the first hand. CMoney limped from the small blind with J8o and watched the flop come down J84. Motown decided to make a play with a bare 8 and CMoney doubled up to 8K in chips. A few hands later he took two more players down with AKs versus two AJ hands (note to all, AJ isn't a great showdown hand. More to come on that in a bit). Within 10 minutes CMoney's stack swelled to 17K and the rest of the table looked on in quiet desparation. The three time champ was looking to strike fear into the new players, all three of which ended up at the red table to start.

Over on the green table the rebuys were also coming fast and furious. It seemed like every 3 hands someone was taking the walk of shame over to the rebuy pile and plunking down yet another $20 in the hopes that this time it would work out better.

When the dust settled after the rebuy period there had been 17 rebuys and all 14 players took the add-on swelling the prize pool to a robust $900. After taking out the bonus money ($50 bounty, $50 champion pool, $20 DD bonus), winning the tournament would earn one of these players $390. The previous record was set in November 2009 when 13 players built a $820 prize pool. In that event we saw Mojo take down first place and $350.

It was either the end of the rebuy or right at the beginning of the "real tournament" that DiceMan was dealt deuces and flopped two more for quads. Nothing was going to take that $20 from his hands, although I'm told that the board showed 22AA on the turn which is actually an interesting situation. If someone were holding any ace, an ace on the river would actually make this a bad beat hand in most card rooms (quads over quads). It's so rare that at a place like Tulalip DiceMan would end up with $20,000 or more depending on how much time has passed since the last bad beat.

SlimChance, the only league member who showed up late, decided that four "early retirement" achievements just isn't enough for his taste. With A6s CMoney called his small raise from late position. The flop came down AK6. SlimChance bet out about half the pot, and CMoney raised the minimum. SlimChance called and a 7 came on the turn. SlimChance slowed down this time and checked. CMoney, knowing that SlimChance loves to bet when anybody shows weakness checked behind. The river brought another A, giving CMoney what felt like his 10th full house of the night. SlimChance threw out his typical "you're weak so I bet some of these purple chips" type bets. CMoney pushed behind having him well covered and for whatever reason SlimChance decided to call with KT. Given that he still had a ton of chips and the blinds were so low, I'm baffled by this call. The only thing he could really beat is a stone cold bluff or a bare king... but even KQ/KJ has him beat. SlimChance out in 14th place, earning that 5th early retirement which ties Motown for the league record (don't worry Canuck, you're only one behind!).

Busting painfully in 13th place was Jodizzle. Painful because:

1. She flopped a set of aces
2. She was up against her nemesis CMoney
3. In 34 tournaments, she's NEVER missed a final table

The hand went down like so many top set beats. Coming in from early position at an aggressive table she decided to limp with AA. CMoney was in the small blind with Kd3d and was playing a monstrous stack. The big blind came along and we looked at a Ad9d4s flop. With the perfect preflop setup, she bet out T600. The reason this play is so damn good is that a lot of people in this tournament will limp with bare aces (AT-A5 type hands). Since she didn't raise preflop, her aces are completely hidden. The 7d came on the turn to give CMoney the nuts. He decided to bet into Jodizzle to disguise the strength of his hand. A check-raise here likely won't get paid off because it's pretty obvious that the draw hit. Instead a half pot bet of T1200 made sense. Jodizzle min-raised to T2400. After 10 or 15 seconds of Hollywooding, CMoney pushed all in. This play is confusing because of the initial bet. It's easy to put CMoney on a bluff, or even a weak ace here because once again, there's no way he can put her on aces because of the preflop play and the fact that he has so many chips. Ultimately she couldn't lay them down (most people wouldn't) and called. The board didn't pair and she busts in 13th place, by far the worst finish she's ever had.

Since the first two busts came at the red table, it was time to move someone from the other table. TheCanuck ended up being the guy to make the move. Not having seen the destruction is no excuse - the 40K stack sitting in front of CMoney should have been enough warning to stay away. No sooner had he sat down did he find himself in a terrible spot against CMoney on the river, who had hit yet another full house and was betting out about half of TheCanuck's stack. After a short ponder he decided to call and shipped another big pot to CMoney. Soon after that he found himself all in with KQ called by one of the new players - Woody who showed AT. The flop came AQT giving TheCanuck a few outs, but none came. Out in 12th.

StillNotFat was welcomed back into the league with a severe bad beat from Mojo. I don't feel so bad about my river 6 from season five any more after hearing about this one. I don't have the specific details on preflop action, but StillNotFat saw a miracle 7 on the turn holding 77 after a 8T8 flop. It turns out Mojo was in there with T9, ahead on the flop but way behind on the turn. They ended up getting all the chips in and it looked like Mojo was going to be crippled and start another season in the gutter. Low and behold, another 8 came on the river giving Mojo a bigger full house. StillNotFat's 91% hand turned into an 11th place.

Now down to 10, it was time for the final table bubble to burst. Motown, who had a mostly frustrating night so far with CMoney's big stack on his left decided it was time to welcome two of the new players into the league with a nice early night of rest. This hand still baffles me - all three players seemed to experience temporary insanity. I'm going to go on a long rant here because this hand was played so strangely by all involved.

From the button with blinds at 200-400, Woody raised to 3x the big blind. BreadWinner pushed her stack in immediately from the small blind, around 7,700 chips. Even though she's new to the league, she's already known as a fairly tight, good player after taking down $407 in the July underground. Motown shows me his AQo and mumbles something about "I can't fold this". He decides to call. Let's pause for a moment. One of the biggest mistakes DDR league members make is to forget about the other person still in the hand. If the plan is to isolate the all in player, only a re-raise here makes sense. Woody, who still has 17K chips can always re-raise BreadWinners bet. Here's the thing: Motown is already committing almost half his stack to the pot. If Woody raises, will he fold? Probably not. If you're already deciding you "can't fold", the only play here is to re-push and try to get Woody out of the hand. In tournament poker it's always favorable to isolate one player for a big pot preflop.

Instead, Motown calls. To me this is a blunder because it helps narrow his hand range quite a bit. It is very likely a big ace or a medium pair. To add to the confusion, Woody decides to flat call the raise as well, putting half HIS stack into the pot. Since Motown will act first on the flop, this is a dangerous play because it's so easy to get bluffed out when the flop comes coordinated. Personally I've only seen this kind of thing done with AA or KK. It's sort of a "hey, I'm not folding these aces. I might as well just flat call here and let Motown hang himself on the flop." Don't forget that BreadWinner is still eligible for this entire pot so if you're either Motown or Woody you have to be pretty sure you've got her beat to make these calls.

The flop comes down ten high. Motown checks and Woody goes all in. Let's pause again. What range can we put him on at this point? He's betting into a dry pot (an all in player is eligible for the entire pot, so you should have a hand that can beat the all in player to make this bet). My range for Woody here is approximately AA (40%), KK (40%), QQ (18%), AK (2%). If I'm Motown, I'd be thinking... hold on... I would not have even called BreadWinner's original all in so I can't put myself in this situation. But now that he's in this situation, I have to put Woody on a hand that has AQ completely crushed. Motown doesn't have a pair, or even a draw. Again we hear "I can't fold this". Since I've seen his hand, I can't believe what I hear... "call".

I'm in total shock when I watch Woody and BreadWinner turn over the same hand, AJs. It might be time for me to dust off the old poker books, because I would have guessed wrong on all three of these hands. Blanks on the turn and river, Motown takes down a HUGE pot, busts BreadWinner in 10th place by virtue of starting the hand with less chips than Woody, who finishes 9th.

The crazy thing here is that neither Motown nor Woody had to play this hand. With around 50 big blinds in their stack, it's nowhere near time to be taking this kind of risk. Motown gets away preflop with around 20K and Woody can easily fold to BreadWinner's all in with his 17K left. Guys, this is a tournament not a cash game. I actually like BreadWinner's all in here, because it stands to take down a pot that already represents 20% of her stack and she knows Woody can be raising from the button with a very wide range of hands that will likely fold to pressure.

We head to the final table 8-handed with Motown taking the tournament chip lead. Stay tuned for part 2...