Small cash in The Clarence Cup

Last night I played in one of 2 local home tournaments I've finagled invites to. This one is called the Clarence Cup, (held on Clarence Street). It's held monthly, and is a $25 rebuy tournament with a very good structure. You start with T1000 and 5/10 blinds, 15 minute levels. Last night there were 13 runners, including the 15 year old son of the host. We started a table of 7 and a table of 6, I was at the table of 6.

At the start, I had position on a player I might call my nemesis (let's call him "N"). He plays in the other tourney I play in (the Bonnament), and is known for breaching all types of poker etiquette (including one player to a hand, mis-calling the board) and is pretty boisterous. He's pretty harmless though, and not terribly good, playing on maybe level 1.5. To my left was the reigning 2 time champ of the Cup tourney, next to him was a good buddy of mine who can be a tough opponent, followed by the host and another fairly solid player.

I played fairly loose to start given it was 6 handed, so my opening range was any ace, and face and sooted connectors. On the second hand dealt, I raised to 100 UTG with 78 off, and "N" calls. Flop comes J69r, and N bets 100, I raise to 350, he re-raises and I shove. In this tourney, you need to chip up quick, or you're toast, so I'm happy to get in here and try to hit my oesd, or even a pair with cards to come. I can't give him credit for anything. He has a J, the turn is a blank and the river is a 5. Yahtzee!, I quickly double.

Yadda Yadda, I take a bunch of chips from him and others with some good hands and some crappy hands (Q6 with a Q6x flop ahem), and win the min with QQ when I flop quads heads up against a good player and he folds to my turn bet.

Nothing exciting happens until I loose T1K or so of my T3K stack in the 25/50 level with AJ v AQ. I'm still in good shape and immedately bust a shortie with AK. At the end of the rebuy period, there had been 22 or so buyins+rebuys, for a $550 prize pool. Of course my table had like 4 re-buys, and the other table had 9, creating a significant chip imbalance that would put me at a disadvantage when we consolidated to the 9 handed final table.

At that table, I had about T3500 to start with blinds around 50/100. The table consisted of the 2 time reigning champ, my good buddy, another friend who made day 3 of the ME this year, the host, "N" with a short stack, the host's 15 year old son with a monster stack, another friend who played the ME this year (Day 2?) and a few other decent players.

Yadda Yadda, I went card dead, but sorter stacks decided to race, and then we were down to 4, and I was short with about 15BB, but someone decided to play aggressive against the host's son, who was playing pretty well for a young kid against some very strong adults. Of course, the kid had AA against against the other guys KK, and did a great job of sucked him into getting all his chips in preflop. That put me in the money 3rd in chips behind him and one of the ME guys (a very good and tricky player). A few hands in, I raise with K10, kid calls, flop comes Q high (blanks for me), I shove knowing he'll call, which he does, and kid has a Q. No K come for me, and I'm out in 3rd for $110 ($85 profit). Weeee.

Of course, my buddy ended up leaving quickly after busting at the start of the final table,and he was my ride. The rest of the guys all live on Clarence Street (errr...Clarence Cup...get it?), so of course, "N" gave me a ride home. He really is a decent guy, I guess I need to just realize a home tourney is not going to be the same as the daily tourney at the Borgata, including the type of behavior tolerated.