From: "BACHRACH,ADAM (HP-Roseville,ex1)" Subject: Allknight Adam's Marge '01 trip report - Very Long Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 13:55:15 -0800 I hope you all love a good story, cause here it comes... "Allknight" Adam travels back to Biloxi Mississippi to defend his No Limit Holdem title Last year at the last minute I decided to attend Marge mainly due to some strong urging by my new RGP friend Randy Collack and a favorable three-week gap in my college class schedule. What I experienced at Marge was nothing short of amazing. We all like to win and I felt like a winner the moment I entered the poker room. Immediately I felt a lot of love and southern hospitality coming from the very professional staff lead by Tony Collins the VP of Mississippi Poker Rooms at the Grand Casino. This solid crew included the very capable shift managers Cincere Mason, Gary Cobb, James Douglas, Bruce Diamond, Ricky Cannette and last but not least our fellow RGPer Johnny "Aces" Averill. Moreover this room has some top-notch brushes (Treva, Debbie, Toni and others), chip runners, and dealers who all made me feel like I was somebody special. In addition, Debbie Manuel the Tournament Director and all her staff did a marvelous job running our tourneys. And to top it off the last day of Marge many of the poker room staff baked or cooked us a bountiful selection of tasty foods that was provided for us during the break of our last tournament. If this was not enough already, I had an incredible run in the two of the three Marge '00 tourneys. Like a Cinderella story, I was able to win the No Limit Holdem event and come in second in the best all around player standings! I had a stupendous time and was anxious to come back to Biloxi again for Marge 2001 and defend my NL HE title. This time I decided to bring one of my local (Sacramento area) poker playing friends, D'Jack Klingler. D'Jack and I arrived at the Grand Casino poker room in Biloxi around 5:00 PM on Thursday. Immediately I started feeling the same welcome feeling I had experienced a year before. It was if I was back home again and not much really had changed. I started mingling with a lot of old and some new friends at the Grand Casino and fellow RGPers who made the trip from various destinations. For the sake of brevity, I will try to shorten the rest of this trip report. The following is a description of my Marge '01 tournament memories. Pot Limit Omaha Hi Event - $80- Buyin This is still a game I am trying to learn so I tried to play tight and watch and learn. Trying to figure out good starting hands in this game was on the top of my mind. In the first initial stages of this, event playing tight paid off and I started to amass a bunch of chips. However, I got a table change and I played a hand way too aggressively only to loose a bunch of chips when I bet a draw and couldn't't bluff my single opponent. This was the beginning of the end for me as I started to bleed more chips. Finally, I was moved to yet another table and I tried making a stand against Barry Shulman who made pot sized raise preflop and I called him with a sub par hand. When the board paired 9s on the turn, I thought I might be able to buy the pot by going allin only to have Barry call almost immediately with the best full house. I shook Barry's hand as I busted out 30 something in this tournament. TOC Style Event - $80- Buyin I played a solid game here and I did manage to make all the way to 20th place. Unfortunately, I should have taken a stand a little sooner as I busted out of the tourney on the very last 7 Stud round. I should have made a move during the previous Omaha 8 round when I still had a few chips. I had a decent run of cards but it just was not my day... No Limit Holdem (NL HE) Event - $110- Buyin I got to sleep earlier than usual (early at least for me while at Marge) and I felt confident about my chances in this event. Nevertheless, I knew that the chances of repeating my previous year's win in this event would be a true accomplishment. I asked Debbie Manual to pick a seat for me and she selected Table 9 Seat 10, which happens to be the month, and day of my birthday, which I thought, was a good omen. As play started I was sitting across from none other than Barry Shulman, Card Player publisher, WSOP and recent 4 Queens title poker titleholder. I found Barry to be a real nice man who shared our RGP group's passion for poker. He was also candid and had lots of good advice, which he did not mind sharing. This made him an excellent choice as guest speaker during this year's Marge! I had some real good reads on a couple players all day, which helped me stay out of trouble and slowly build my stack. One read which could have been construed as a lucky one was when I was under the gun with AKo and I raised the pot only to have Russ Fox reraise me allin. I thought for a long time trying to figure what Russ could be raising me with and after much deliberation I put Russ on AK and called and sure enough that's what Russ had and we split the pot. Next I thought I had a good read on William one of the Biloxi Grand Casino's poker dealers who joined us in the NL HE tourney. William was on my right and he had put in a normal size raise when I had a hand I wanted to play for a raise but I didn't't want to call his or anybody else's raise so I folded my hand. On the very next hand William raised again with a normal size raise preflop. I looked down and saw A8h and I since I figured William probably didn't't have another premium hand again I raised him allin. William didn't't think long and as he called my bet almost immediately which didn't't make me feel too good. William had my stack covered by about 4 to 3 ratio so my tournament run was in serious jeopardy as he turned over KK to my A8h. But the poker gods were favoring me on this day when I hit an A immediately on the flop and an 8 on the turn for two pair. This action severely crippled William's stack and doubled me through. It has been said many times you have to get lucky on a hand or two to win a tournament and this was definitely one lucky hand for me to win. Several hands later William was looking to make a stand and he again made a preflop raise and I looked down and found QQ so I reraised him allin against what turned out to be his 1010 hand and I busted him out of the tourney. Other notable hands in the tourney were when we were down to two tables and I had 66 heads up against David Newberry. The flop came J66 and I checked and David bet 1,000 and I flat called with my four of a kind. But I couldn't't trap David for any more money as he was playing a real solid game which lead to his fourth place finish. Also around this same time in the tournament I played a hand heads up against Gary Phillips that really helped me get to the final table with a good stack of chips to play. Gary was on my right and when everybody folded to his little blind he called my big blind and I didn't't raise the pot. The flop came 246 with two spades and Gary immediately lead off with 3000 in chips. I had hit a good flop so I raised him back allin and Gary thought and thought then wisely folded his hand. Soon after we were at the final table!! I think I arrived at the final table with about the third or fourth biggest stack of chips, which gave me lots of comfort. Sheri Brabec had a huge stack and really did a stupendous job controlling much of the early action with big preflop raises. I sat next to her in her first live tournament at Barge '01 and thought she played very solidly ultimately becoming the longest lasting lady in the field. I had encouraged her to play in the Marge NL HE event and was real happy to see her at the final table really playing a solid game. At first I really did not have many hands to play so I stayed out of Sheri's way and watched her put on quite a show. As he blinds starting increasing I was very happy to see that my starting hands also started improving vastly and I was able to start raising and stealing the blinds with some decent Ax Kx and paired starting hands. Pretty soon my stack was growing rapidly while the short stacks seemed to be shrinking just as fast. The most not worthy move I made was when I was in late position and Peter Secor was almost allin on the big blind. Rick Roberts made a move at the pot by making a small raise and it was folded to me. I looked down and saw A4o and thought since I easily had Rick's stack covered if I raised allin I would most likely isolate Peter heads up allin with his small stack. So I went allin and Peter called allin and Rick after a bit of deliberation decided to fold. Peter turned over something like J9o and did not improve so I busted him out and took the rest of the blinds and Rick's initial raise. From here on I stayed out of Sheri's way and started isolating the smaller stacks with constant preflop raises and effectively building my stack and knocking out the other players. Before I knew it Sheri and I were heads up and I had a small stack size advantage on her. We agreed to take a quick break and then within 10 mins or so we were playing for the championship. I started in the little blind and on the button and made a small raise when I found J10o as my starting hand. Sheri surprised me by reraising me back the same amount I had initially raised the pot. I didn't't want to give away the lead (by stack size) so easily so I called her reraise. The flop came magically J rag rag (two small cards) rainbow (three suits) cards giving me top pair. Sheri immediately made a sizeable bet at the pot. I didn't't think long as I felt pretty certain I had the best hand so I moved allin. I think Sheri was extremely surprised I made this move and she stared at me for a few minutes and then folded her hand. I would love to know what she had but I know I had a better hand after the flop. On the very next hand Sheri made a preflop raise, as she was first to act. I looked down and found 99 so I moved allin and Sheri called with K10o. I don't remember if I hit a nine but I do know that Sheri's hand didn't't improve and I was the Marge '01 champion and I had successfully defended my title! I am still pinching myself today! I feel quite fortunate to have been able to travel from my home in Rocklin, CA to Biloxi MS to be with many of my new and old RGP friends and my friends at the Grand Casino poker room. I want to thank Randy and Steve for all their hard work putting another great Marge weekend together and also for starting the collection of over $1,200 for the two Gulf coast charities in Robby's memory. Thank you Barry Shulman for coming to Marge and adding all your insight on playing winning poker and play-by-play analysis of the final table action. Thanks for Rick "DaVoice" Charles for all his Fancast broadcasts! Also thanks again to Tony Collins and his marvelous staff at the Grand Casino in Biloxi who sure know how to make us feel at home and happy!!! Thanks a lot to all my friends that also sweated me on to victory in the NL HE tourney... What a feeling - Dammmmmnnnnnnnn! See ya all again next year.