FTW!

Today's episode is brought to you by the number 2. As in the number of times I've won The Hoy. It's also the number of blogger tournaments that I've won this year. With a MATH and Mookie down, it's like hitting a double and home run on the way to the cycle. I still need a Big Game win (triple) and a Wheaton (single, but with a knuckleballing fonkey on the mound).

Today's episode is also brought to you by the letter S, as in suckouts. I had my share of them last night. I turned a straight against TPTK early after calling a short all-in flop raise, and that seemed to set the tone. With around 14k in chips, I had at least a BB in with KJo (can't remember if I was the BB, limped, or bet) and IslandBum1 raised all-in with his short stack (< 1000 chips) with AKo. J on the flop, K on the river. I took some flack for this one, mostly from Don, but I'd make that call any day -- it cost me almost nothing relative to my stack, rank, or image with cards that were live against anything but a big pair, AK, or AJ, and I had no doubt that Island was pushing with any ace or paint with the blinds about to swallow him. I was partially right.

But my biggest suckout of the night came with 4 left. I raised pre-flop with some crap like K8d, and BuddyDank went all-in. I had him covered by only a few hundred chips but was tired, getting short and felt that he was maybe trying to re-steal, so I called just for the hell of it. AdQc (or similar) gets flipped over and the flop brings KKx and I'm suddenly much more alive, and Buddy goes home. Bad, terrible, horrible poker I know, but sometimes you get lucky. My apologies.

I lost some races (Presto beat by The Hoy, Ax losing to KJo for some poetic justice, etc.), but they were all minor in comparison to my wins.

That said, I think I played a solid game overall. 2 of those 3 hands were mistakes, one of which willingly put my tournament life on the line, and I got a little weak in the middle-game, but otherwise I stuck to my game and played well. Getting cards at the right time didn't hurt either.

My toughest hand was against BuddyDank earlier, with maybe 6 or 7 left. I was getting short with A6o in the SB. I raised and Buddy (with the chiplead in the BB) called. Flop comes junk and I bet out at it for most of my chips (about 1/2 the pot). The inevitable reverse Hoy raise comes and I need to make a call... I had to put him on a face with a kicker and went all-in. He flipped over far worse than I had and mine held up, giving me some much-needed breathing room. Poor stack management from me here, as I didn't realize I was committing myself until I put out the bet.

Fun times though. Early on I found my first Hammer of the game and raised it, only to get re-raised with a push. I folded and found the hammer AGAIN the next hand. Since I'd just griped about folding the previous one, it made playing this new one very easy.

As everyone knows, AJo is GOLD in the MATH. I had at least 7 of of them, and 2 suited (which are useless). My two favourites were both at the final table. One took some good cash with an A on the flop, and was followed up with THE HAMMER immediately after. Lightning and Thunder, Shake 'n Bake, Scylla and Charybdis, the unstoppable force and immoveable object, the overdramatizing and redundancy. My other favourite was of course the one in the screenshots that won the whole thing. It seems only fitting that The Hoy took down The Hoy.

For those who don't like KJ, I saw it 5 times, and it won 3 of those times, and was folded the remaining two. I also saw it win at least twice more from others. Poker is just like blackjack, right?

And for those keeping track at home - no bullets at all. Not once did I see pocket aces.

I don't remember much once we were down to 3. I know I gave a bunch of chips to Wippy1313 when I chased a draw to the turn and he made a great bet to get me off of it. I know Bayne_s had a solid chiplead at one point and I took a good chunk of it from him in a hand he was chasing and then knocked him out with some low pocket pair that held up. Heads-up was fun with the chiplead, I knew it was just a matter of time.

Thanks to InstantTragedy for the support from the rail last night. Too bad he's not a hot woman - a cheerleader's outfit would have suited him otherwise. It's always great to have some support to keep you focused and awake.

Great game to Wippy1313 too. I'll be honest, when I was next to him early in the tournament I didn't think he stood a chance to go deep with the way he was playing. Congrats on the cash.

All-in-all, worth the exhaustion this morning. The money's nice (although I wish it was on Stars, since I can't deposit there), but the pride and leaderboard rankings are better :).

I think I may actually make The Wheatie tonight for the first time in a month. Mookie, Riverchasers and a Big Game this week as well. I'll likely miss at least one of those, although I'm debating on bringing a laptop to the Victoria Day BBQ I'm going to on Sunday. Beer, BBQ, fireworks and poker... think I stand a chance?