Rundown by The Rock

No, I'm not referring to the movie (which I can't dig on cause I haven't seen yet), rather, it's what happened to me a few nights ago.

I was over at PJ Pocket's for their Tuesday midnight tournament. The format changed recently - instead of a straight $25 buy-in for 1200 chips, it's now $25 for 1000 chips, with a $20 rebuy for another 1000; and if you pay all $45 upfront, you get a T500 bonus. Blind structure is still the same: start at 25/50, 50/100, 100/200 and then SB goes up 100 each round from there. Many other places just start doubling the blinds (so you never get a 300/600 blind level). Almost everyone takes the add-on, so starting with T2500 allows for much more play... raise and reraises instead of just raise and reraise all-in... although with that many chips some people end up making T1000 raises even during the first level. Okay, whatever.

I really like this new structure and actually cashed both Monday and Tuesday last week, so I was feeling pretty confident going into it that night. Took down a few small pots early, and in the 2nd round raised 3x with A5s when it was folded to me in LP. Only the SB called. Flop comes 556. Nice flop, and not wanting to overplay it or slowplay it, I make the same continuation bet I'd made a few times before and get check-raised all-in. I have him covered by a few hundred and I make the call... Pocket Sixes? Nope, he had Pocket Eights... he had put me on a big Ace so thought his overpair was good. But of course the board comes 7, 9 so his 8 makes the straight and I was pretty much done.

I thought about how I played that hand while fiddling with my remaining T600 chips... if I had pushed on the flop, that would have screamed "I missed my overcards and I just want to take down this pot" and he would have called anyways. Checking would have given him the open-ender, and you know how people love to call all-in with their draws. So there was really nothing I could do.

I came to the realization it was just bad luck and resigned myself to a bad night. I didn't know it at the time, but my negative thoughts must have been so strong that they coalesced and came into being on this plane of existence right before my eyes. No, it wasn't in the form of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man... it was The Rock.

He was a big Samoan guy who could very well be a relative to Dwayne Johnson. And that was the only thing his nickname was based on... his play style was far from Rock-ish. In fact, as he took his seat as one of the last alternates, one of the solid players on my side of the table said, "Oh shit, I hate playing with The Rock... you can't put that guy on anything."

I thought it would be amusing to watch him play, and it didn't take long for the show to begin. On his very first hand, with blinds at 100/200, Rock was UTG and says, "Three-bet!" and puts out three T100 chips. It's explained to him he has to raise to 400, so he throws another chip out there. A few callers and the flop comes with an Ace and he goes all-in. The guy who beat me with the Pocket 8s calls and flips over A5. Rock has A9 and doubles up on his first hand. Next hand he raises from the BB, flop comes 976 and he pushes. Gets called by K9 and A7, and he shows 56s. Runner-runner 5s and Rock busts out two people!

I looked over to the solid player who made the comment and said, "You weren't kidding, were you?" Rock sat out a few hands, busily stacking his chips. Then he calls a raise and is the first to go all-in when the flop is King high. He shows K2 and the raiser has Aces in the hole. A King on the River and the Aces guy goes storming out the door in a huff.

Unbelievable. Where do these people find that kind of luck? My AK loses the race to Queens and I'm out of the tourney while the night is still young. I get myself a rack on the live 4/8 half-kill game and enjoy a comped meal and play tight and solid for the next hour, occasionally hearing a "THREE BET!" or "BUCKLE UP!" from the Rock at the tourney table. He ends up making it down the final two, and I don't know if he won or took 2nd or chopped it, but I see him counting a couple of fresh hundred dollar bills from the cage.

Wait a minute, Rock and I never tangled during the tourney. In fact, he provided me much amusement for awhile. So why all the bad vibes? Yup... he bought into the live game and his luck continued to hold up. The game had been pretty lax up to that point. Once he sat down though, it seemed that no pot went unraised, and if it was raised it was usually capped. It was rough to put $16 into the pot pre-flop with pocket tens only to have a K flop and a Q on the turn. I let it go and saw that Ace high won. I was in for another $16 with AKs. Rock led out the whole way, and I was going to raise him on the River to see what he would do. The guy before me raised first, so I folded... as did Rock.

These were huge pots. Three or four people seeing the Flop at $16 a pop... seeing the Turn was at least another 2 or 3 bets, and most everyone hung around. An ungodly portion of the time, the chips went over to The Rock... he would win one and not have enough time to stack them all before he was raising the next hand, yelling "BUCKLE UP!". He'd win that one and have even more added to the pile in front of him. Once, I had the nut Flush on the Turn when a second Duece in my suit hit the board... I bet out, he raised me, I re-raised and he capped. I was hoping he'd just hit Trip Dueces. I checked the River, saying "Pot's big enough," but he still bet. I say I call and start stacking my chips and Rock yells, "CAP IT!" and starts pushing out more chips from his pile. The dealer tells him to slow down and pushes his extra chips back... then pushes him ALL the chips when he flips over 92o for a Full House.

Buckle up, indeed. I knew I just needed to take down one of these monster pots to be able to walk out of there with a decent win. I thought it was my time when I got Pocket Aces. Of course it was capped, and flop came Jack high. It was bet and raised before me, so I 3-bet, and Rock capped it. A Trey on the Turn, all four suits, no straight possibilities, I lead out, Rock raises, and everyone else drops. I check to him on the River... take a second to think when he bets and flash the Aces to my neighbor. I make the decision to raise, and even blurt it out; but Rock wasn't paying attention (he was still stacking chips) and he tables his J3 two-pair. I showed my Aces and no one made me commit to my verbal raise, so I saved a few bets there.

Now I was down to about $60. AJc in a kill-pot. I raise it, saying "I'm on tilt!" after just having my Aces cracked. I hit an Ace and basically get the rest of my chips in... with FOUR callers! In a raised 6/12 kill-pot no less! There was over $300 in that pot, and I was beat by three of those callers... two of 'em had two-pair, one had the straight, the last was on the flush draw... and me with just my lowly pair of Aces, Jack kicker was done.

It was 4am at this point... I knew if I bought-in again, I'd eventually get a winner... but it could have cost me a few more hundred to get there the way things were going. I called it a night and tried to get in a few hours of rest before work. Hard to get any peaceful sleep though, after The Rock Layeth The Smack Down.