Maybe Seafoam Taffeta

Around the end of the Mook, I think Don (or was it Chad?) made a comment on BDR. "Man, Astin must be getting sick of coming in second." They were right.

Granted, 2nd is better than 9th, or 18th, or 23rd, or 112th, but as everyone knows, it sucks more in its own very special way. Especially in the BBToo format.

I played MY game Wednesday night, not the wait-for-aces crap I can fall into. I spent the time before the Mookie going over my gameplan and visualizing the stages of the game. Yah, that's kind of sad for a $10 tournament, but there are bigger things on the line. I played in some token games (and won) to get warmed up, and then a $22 Turbo for some quick 1-table practice and warmup. I was ready to kick ass at 10pm.

There was a big long discussion of various hand here. Blogger chewed it up. Too bad. Coles notes version:

Came over the top of Willwonka bet mid-game because I had a hand on a non-scary board and put him on a steal/draw/mid-pair. Doubled me up and I found aces next hand to take all of Chipperdh's chips and jump to 5th.

Made a solid call on Roguejo when the final table was very short-handed. K99K board and he puts me all-in when I have 88. I tank for a few seconds and decide he has AQ. I call, he proves me right and I double up.

Got away from a 3-way hand with 99 when Irongirl pushed over the top of JoeMav's all-in and Mike Maloney's call. I was totally in if she smooth-called, but she hadn't made a peep all final table so she had to be big. It ended up being her AK vs Joe's AT and Mike's KQc. Mike won with a Q on the flop. My 99 would have flopped a set, and I'd have been chipleader instead of Mike. That said, both Mike and Joe were stronger than I put them on (connected cards and A-rag respectively), and IG fell right into the range I figured (AK, AA, or KK, with MAYBE QQ as a possibility).

I was insanely lucky that Rogue and Mike got into it with with a set vs straight battle and Rogue got crippled. The 3-way all-in next hand that I won put me heads-up with Mike at a 4:1 chips disadvantage. The best I acheived was a 2:1 disadvantage, after a huge JT vs TT broadway suckout, before succumbing to bad cards, no fold equity and well-timed aggression from Mike.

As I've mentioned here, I've also been seeing a lot of 2nd places in $22 Turbo SnG's of late. I blame this largely on me giving SAGE a shot in these. All this all-in before the flop crap makes for too much of a coinflip heads-up. That said, I do think it's a valuable system for assessing hand value and improving heads-up aggression. I'll be sure to incorporate any lessons learned from it into my game.

So with some work, these second place finishes should start becoming firsts. I do have a Mookie and a couple MATH wins under my belt, but those numbers need to increase, especially for the BBT (73*2-6)/20 - 5.