Thursday, October 25, 2007

Sooooo Close

It's a familiar story. Astin amasses huge chip lead, Astin doesn't win. 2nd isn't anything to be ashamed of, but these are winner-take-alls here. 112 runners, a new Mookie and BBT record.

Before anything else - A BIG congrats to Iggy for the win and the TOC seat. It was a hell of a battle and you completely deserve it. I hope to see you at the final table in the big one.





How it ended. Money in on the flop. I didn't put him on a set (for the second time that night), figured I had 11 outs twice at least, so I pushed. Well played Iggy.


Unlike at the MATH, I didn't make any tremendously stupid mistakes this time. I trusted my reads, got out of the way, and got cards when I needed them. For the record - AA 3x, KK 3x, AK a bunch. Most of it was early, and only one AA got me any serious chips towards the end.

I had one bad beat near the beginning when PokerBrian rivered a boat against my turned nut straight (not long before we'd split a flopped straight), but the doublestacks saved me and I had enough to fight back.

I got lucky when I was still the short stack (in fact last place at the time.. 39th?) and found snowmen. There was a bet before me, I pushed, there was a re-push and the original better called us both. I was against AQo and AKo, all of us red. Flop brought an 8, and then a 4-flush in the spades that nobody had. I was a 46% favourite, but I was lucky for the lack of spades. Has anybody seen more 4-flushes in one game than last night? It felt like every 3rd hand had 4 of one suit on the board.

I made one call against Iggy when he had a set vs my TP, but the odds looked good, there were no draws on the board (if I recall), and it would have won it for me right there. Losing didn't crush me and I built back up until a well-timed large raise on the turn by the Blogfather, when I had bottom pair and an inside straight draw and tried to steal it there, forced me to lay it down.

I am a bit confused by the vitriol sent my way in the chat during the final table. I'll go with the assumption Don decided to try and tilt me from the rail, although I have no idea why I was chosen. Something about being the worst blogger and how I sucked. Standard Don stuff. I'm having a really hard time taking it seriously. Oddly enough, I didn't knock him out. I didn't even sit at his table the whole night. I should have taken the last longer bet though. Ah well, that's a bad beat.

8 comments:

Chad C said...

Can I bash you from the rail next time?

Astin said...

Sure, I think everyone deserves a turn.

I could set up a schedule if it's easier.

lj said...

i thought it was AQ v. KQ on the 88 hand w/ the four flush.

bummer to come so close and not win, but given your two final tables so far in one week i'm guessing you'll have another shot.

Astin said...

Nope, AQ and AK. I remember because I was happy that the number of available aces was reduced, but convinced the RNG would screw me anyway.

I'll just have to try again tonight at the Riverchasers.

CC said...

Congrats, well done!

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

Awesome job, Astin!

I suggest you not think twice about anything said by Don in the chat. If we all haven't figured out by now that he says some crazy things in frustration after almost every tournament elimination (you should have seen what he called me in the girly chat right after I eliminated him from the Mookie last night), then we're just pretending to be blind. I think Don is especially frustrated by the luckboxier-seeming types out there, which for some reason is a reputation you might have garnered somehow. :) I was not there to see it but I'm sad to hear that anyone would be a dick to someone who I know is thought of as one of the all-around coolest and nicest bloggers in our group.

Keep up the good work, and I'm including you in my Pick 5 bloggers to pick the winner of Riverchasers tonight.

Astin said...

Aw shucks Hoy, that's a pretty swell thing to say. :)

Thanks.

I don't take Don's rants seriously in the least. It's not the first time I've been on the receiving end of one, it's just the first time I didn't knock him out or take a big hand from him first, which struck me as odd.

I intend to playing ultra-tight tonight and only raise with top-10 hands. Which means I should be seeing every second flop.

Anonymous said...

Well played Astin and tough break not getting the TOC seat.

That was an intense battle HU with Iggy and it could have gone either way.

Anyone who listens to what I say in chat and gets upset is crazy. Glad it didn't tilt you as you seemed to play a very good game.