Opening Rounds

Tonight is the opening night of the VPT, we had a total of 7 which is a good enough turn out for the first tournament. Everybody receives 5,000 in chips and the blinds go up every 25 minutes. I was a little above even in the early going after stealing a couple of pots. I picked up in the big blind with the blinds being 25/50 three players limp and I make it 300 to go with one caller. The flop comes out I checked to trap and he bets 300 I think about it and decide this time to not go over the top and just smooth call. The the turn is an Ace the action is check check, I am putting him on nothing that makes me think whatever bet he puts out it will be dead money to me. The river comes a which gives me a full house so there is no way he could of semi bluffed the flush draw on the turn you would think he would of bet 500 there. I place a value bet of 750 hoping that will induce him to reraise me, he ended up calling I showed my huge hand and he mucked.

Surviving

After losing a big coin flip to Zach with against . I am now sucking on the respirator, at one point I only had 2,200 left I ended up going all in soon after with Zach calls with I spike an on the flop he misses his gut shot on the river and I double up. The table tightens up for a bit we get down to four players and here comes a hand that I want to discuss (it was a big hand that kinda changed the tourny).

Jack Six

I picked up in the middle position with 2nd in chips the big blind is only 200, I decided to play a little different and see a flop with this hand. The flop turned out well for me with 987 on the board player A bets a 1k I felt good enough to call and see if a 10 or a 5 pops up, who knows maybe a jack would win as well. A tight player to my left raises another 1k so at this point after player A calls I have to call with nice pot odds. The turn is an Ace player A checks I checked and Player C checks as well. The river comes a jack Player A checks still to dangerous for me to bet with middle pair and a bad kicker with any 10 that could make a straight also an ace on board. Player c I think thought the same thing and also checked (best case scenario for me) and I ended up winning the hand the other two players ended up having a pair of nines.

Heads up

After that pot I ended up having a 2.5-1 chip lead with two other short stacks left. I knock out 4th place with vs and 3rd place on the next hand with vs I caught a spade on the river for the flush. Now comes heads up (which I am confident that I will do well with a 3-1 chip lead) Matt raises the 1st pot I had jack squat so he took it down. The next hand I am in the small blind I have sometimes with big hands like this I like to disguise then see what my opposition does by just calling the big blind. Matt happened to pick up he raised me I put him all in and he called and I ended up winning the hand.

Food for Thought

I had a great time I think the tourney was a nice success. I will be looking forward on what It turns out to be thank you to every one who made the opening night a successful one. Please come and visit pokersoup.com and check out the Vancouver Poker Tour standings throught the season.

Keep playing and I will post my blog about next week and possibly a La Center run if I find the time to get there.

Hey everybody, this is Nick Lane's poker blog. Come back soon for more posts.