$30 Rebuy

This happened yesterday.

A friend of mine told me about a tournament that a local bar was hosting, so I figured, what the hell? How bad could it possibly be? I find out the tourney is starting on Tuesday night at 6pm, so I make sure to get off a little early to make enough time for registration. I pick my buddy up and we make our way over there, arriving at about 4:45 (registration was at 5:00). My impression up to this point was that the tournament was a $20 shootout. I go and ask the head bartender and he tells me in no uncertain terms that I'm very wrong. It is in fact a $30 rebuy. (Unlimited rebuys for $30/starting stack up until the end of the first half, at which time you may purchase an add-on for $30 regardless of current stack size) Grumbling under my breathe as I sign in, I take a peek around the room to see what sort of competetion I've got. Old guys, old guys, an old mexican guy, a few more old guys, and one young white trash girl that's letting a bunch of random guys spank her with a paddle. Yeah. No joke.

So I go outside and smoke something like 10 cigarettes in a row. 6:00 rolls around, and I go in to see how the set-up is doing, where I find out that the tournament has been pushed back another hour because the turn out was much larger than expected.

...

FUCK!
BULLSHIT!
... I need more cigarettes.

...

10 cigarettes and 5 games of pool later the tournament starts. I hit pretty much nothing for the first 1/2 hour or so, then look down and see red 2's on the button. Everyone (Yes, everyone) limps in, so I raise to 40. Flop comes As 2s 4c. SB checks, MP bets 40, MP1 raises to 100, everyone folds to me. I call. Turn is a blank (something like an 8d I think). MP bets 40, MP1 calls, I raise it to 200. Both players call. River is a 4h. MP bets 50, I raise it to 200. He calls, and rolls over Ks 4s (had the flush draw on the flop, made trips on the river). Too bad I have a full house. Easy way to almost double up.

Another 30 minutes or so go by and I look down at aces. Problem is, I'm the big bling, and everyone else thinks it's the right time to fold, so I don't even get an opportunity to check them.

1 hour later. Best hand I've seen since the bullets is A8 off. I look down and find AKs. Long story short, I played them a bit too hard (Yeah, I know.)and ended losing to trips. Still had about 800 in chips.

Here's the last hand. Everyone folds to a known bluffer, who makes it 200 to go. Everyone folds to me. I look down and see black 7's. I decide to call. Flop comes 37K rainbow. He deliberates for barely a second and throws out a bet of 250. I spend a long time looking at him and I notice something interesting on his face. Up in between his right eye and his forehead there's a vein that's throbbing a mile a minute. I figure this means one of two things. Either this guy snorted a few pounds of speed, or he's nervous. Why would he be nervous right now? Unless..... he doesn't want me to call him.

"All in!" I proudly announce, and shove my remaining 600 or so chips towards the middle of the table.

And before I had barely finished my statement, he almost fell out of his chair in an attempt to shove his stack in as well. Oops. He flips over pocket kings. Set over set, and I didn't improve. Next time I see a vein pumping that much blood to a dumbass's miniscule brain, I'll take another second to think about it.

Time to get drunk and watch the Family Guy.