Clawing Back

Let's hear it for SnG's and The Wheatie! I've been mildly addicted to $11+1 Turbo SnG's on Stars of late. $12, 45 players, top 7 paid, and it takes about an hour. 2nd place brought me back from the brink of reloading, and affords me the chance to play some more of 'em.

As for the weekly WWdN - good field this week. I'm not sure what the final tally was, but it was at 68 a few minutes into the tournament. So let's say 70. Top 9 paid, with first getting around $207. Lots of new faces due to Wil advertising in his Team Pokerstars anniversary tournament thingy. To be honest, I was getting a bit worried about the Tuesday game of late -- smaller fields, and lots of the big names disappearing (yet still showing up in The Hoy or The Mookie) -- but this week had some familiar faces again.

First hand of the tourney I get dealt Hilton Sisters in the blinds. 23skidoo raises, Gracie (peacecorn) and another player call, and I re-raise. Calls all around except for Gracie who folds. Flop comes Q9x, making me very happy. I bet about 1/2 the pot, and Ski calls, the third straggler folds. Turn is crap and I again bet 1/2 the pot which Ski raises. I re-raise all-in, and Mr. Doo goes into the tank with 400-and-some chips left. He finally folds and I show my ladies. Before this, Gracie says "I had the best hand." My response while showing is, "you sure?" She folded pocket 9's (GOOD fold pre-flop, I'm impressed), and was happy to have done it. 23skidoo had Tens or some such I believe. I figured this was a sign of things to come.

Won some small pots for a bit, then got to take someone else's money when I flopped a straight after checking from the BB with a 1-gapper. After this I got moved to the TV table and kept my game going. A few hands come to mind. I had K-rag but got in cheap to see two Kings hit the flop, we checked to the turn, and my opponent put out a good-sized "represent the K" bet, which I re-raised all-in for not much more. He dutifully folded. Another hand I had K-rag suited and got in cheap to see a flush draw on the flop, and a K on the turn. Another steal attempt by a player led to me once AGAIN re-raising all-in for not much more to see him fold after much thought. Then I got the ladies again against Wil, with my set once again hitting on the flop. I pushed all-in (was getting short-stacked at the time), and Wil figured I was desperate so he called and I enjoyed his chips immensly. Finally, there was the KQo (which I saw A LOT to little avail) that flopped two pair against Iggy's Q-rag... he was all-in and I knocked the blogfather out.

In the end, at the final table with 8 left, in the SB, I had Ingoal in the BB. We were trading the short-stack back-and-forth at this point and it folded to me with A4o. I push all-in and he is forced to call since he has THE HAMMER!. I utter one word... "damn." Sure enough, turn and river are both 7's and IGH in 8th. There's no shame in losing to the strongest hand in the game though. $35 and change for a 200% ROI ain't so bad, even if it does only work out to a bit more than minimum wage. RogueTV - sorry I couldn't take it all down for Canada.

One other thing I noticed - the observer chat was far more civil this time around. No hurled insults, no attacks on Wil's acting. Some good-natured ribbing about sequel possibilities (which would all involve zombies), and Wil doing his very best ambassador job. Glad to see the Internet Fuckwad Theory wasn't in effect.