A History of Hands

Some will be quick, others more detailed. I personally can't stand looking through the text hand histories. The quick and dirty stats are at the bottom.

My starting table: Chitwood, Emptyman, Maudie, Pvanharibo, Qwackers, Hoyazo, Iakaris, and Lucko21. I was never moved to another table.

1st hand was KK UTG, I got no action.

2nd hand was KQo in the BB, Iak raised to 105 (15/30) from MP, I called the 75.
Flop comes 7J9 rainbow, I check, Iak bets 150 (< 1/2 pot), I call with the inside draw.
Turn is the T. Bingo. I bet 210 (1/3 pot), Iak raises to 600, I raise to 2325, Iak tanks, goes all-in, I call. Iak has 86o for the baby straight. I double up early, and am convincingly in first.

3rd hand was QQ. I re-raise Lucko, he calls. QJK rainbow flop. I bet, Lucko folds.

Not a bad way to start any tournament.

Next orbit I get KK UTG again. I get the pot on the flop.

Two hands later I flop middle pair and turn a straight against LJ. The flop is all diamonds, and she won't give up, so I figure she has the flush. She value bets the river and I call... she flips over AA, no flush. Oops.

Next hand I get the Hammer and reraise Hoy with it. He wonders why he even calls, flop is a bunch of bricks and I bet at it. Hoy folds and I show.

Another KK came later where I took a big pot off Lucko who chased a draw that didn't catch. Nothing on the board was in the least bit scary.

There were other minor hands in there... and then came the first break. I had over 16k in chips.

2 minutes after the break I got.... KK.

Sometime later I had TT and raised. Recess pushed and it smelled very racy. I said as much and called. He flipped over AKo and my tens held for a big pot.

Then I had AQc, and folded to: LJ raising, Lucko re-raising 3x LJ's, and Chitwood calling all-in. Lucko with AA, Chit with 77. Flop? Ts9cKc. Turn 6c. Damn.

Some set mining later worked well to take a good pot on the turn.

Then I ended up with Maudie all-in against my AKo with TT. No improvement for me doubled up Maudie, and brought us within 3k of one another. This was a sign of things to come apparently.

Nothing more of note came before the second break.

I got into an all-in withTripjax with presto vs his 44. The board played with 99AA9. Wow.

Then KK again for a non-showdown win.

9 minutes later... KK again against Tripjax's all-in 99. It held but 4-flushed for good measure. I'm over 22k with the blinds at 500/1000/125.

A key hand was soon later. I had dropped to 15k after a few rough hands. Maudie had 42k. I managed to pull down the pot on the turn with an all-in re-raise that moved me to 20k.

The next hand was... oh yah! KK. No action.

DDionysus got all-in with A9o vs my A5h. The turn gave me a ton of outs, and they hit on the river with a flush. Over 37k in chips now.

Maudie and I kept switching places in terms of chips. I took down a pot on an ugly board to bring us even at 55k again.

Another hammer was nice too.

Then Chad started with his regular banter of, "Why don't you raise every hand? I'd be all-in all the time if I was you."

Eventually came this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #4528972193: Blogger Big Game (31592889), Table 5 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:58:04 ET - 2007/12/17
Seat 1: a104l9 (10,969)
Seat 3: Astin (55,090)
Seat 4: Maudie (68,935)
Seat 5: cracknaces (21,897)
Seat 6: pebble78 (12,730)
Seat 7: jeciimd (16,661)
Seat 8: emptyman (7,188)
Seat 9: cemfredmd (31,530)
a104l9 antes 300
Astin antes 300
Maudie antes 300
cracknaces antes 300
pebble78 antes 300
jeciimd antes 300
emptyman antes 300
cemfredmd antes 300
Maudie posts the small blind of 1,200
cracknaces posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Astin [7h 7d]
pebble78 folds
jeciimd folds
emptyman has 15 seconds left to act
emptyman folds
cemfredmd folds
a104l9 folds
Astin raises to 9,600
Maudie folds
cracknaces has 15 seconds left to act
cracknaces: OMG, Astin has AA??
cracknaces calls 7,200
*** FLOP *** [Jh 3s 8h]
cracknaces bets 11,997, and is all in
Astin has 15 seconds left to act
Astin has requested TIME
cracknaces: hammer?
Astin calls 11,997
cracknaces shows [5h Qd]
Astin shows [7h 7d]
*** TURN *** [Jh 3s 8h] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 3s 8h 6s] [9c]
cracknaces shows Queen Jack high
Astin shows a pair of Sevens
Astin wins the pot (46,794) with a pair of Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 46,794 Rake 0
Board: [Jh 3s 8h 6s 9c]
Seat 1: a104l9 folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Astin (button) showed [7h 7d] and won (46,794) with a pair of Sevens
Seat 4: Maudie (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: cracknaces (big blind) showed [5h Qd] and lost with Queen Jack high
Seat 6: pebble78 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: jeciimd folded before the Flop
Seat 8: emptyman folded before the Flop
Seat 9: cemfredmd folded before the Flop

Things of note: It would cost me a bit less than 1/4 of my stack to knock out the biggest threat at the table and take a big lead. I finally put him on a flush draw or overcards, which put me ahead. It took a while to discount J9h as a possibility. When he flipped over Q5o, I nearly spit out my drink. The claim is that he'll never try a move against me again.

Oh, and he was playing blind. But I didn't know that at the time.

I started to bleed chips. Maudie had the lead again with 87k to Jeciimd's 49k and my 42k in 3rd. 5-handed at the final table.

AK got me a good pot from Maudie to bring me around 55k and some room to work with.

I limped in a pot with 44 and the flop came T42 rainbow. Pirate Wes pushed with 35o for the straight draw vs my set. The board paired on the river to give me the full boat and chip lead.

4-handed, Maudie took the lead again, which we then proceeded to bounce between us.

Jec took a hit to Pebbles' boat.

Then he went down to her pocket jacks. I had over 100k

Then Pebbles went all aggressive for a few hands and chipped up nicely, bringing her close to Maudie and Me (we had around 80k, she had 63k)

Then her 99 ran into my JJ and she was gone.

HU with Maudie. Me 141k, her 83k.

It was back and forth, until I had her on the ropes. She pushed her small stack and I called with K7o. She flipped over KK and doubled up.

I then got hurt but stole and pushed back until the ugly win of my K3 over her J3 on a 536 flop.

From there it was short. Up, down, a flop of three jacks and my A-high held.

Then the last hand.

132k vs 92k.

300/6000/750.

I raise to 19,500 with QJo. Maudie thinks and pushes. I call the remaining 72k.

I couldn't put her on an ace or any strong pair, and I don't think she'd push with just K-high (barring KQ maybe). That left either suited connectors or a medium pocket pair. I'd have 40k left if I was wrong, and knew I could fight back with that again.

She flipped 44 and we were racing.

Ks2cAd flop. I'm yelling for the T. T hits the turn and I throw up my arms and holler. K on the river does no harm and I collapse in my chair.

And for the record:

398 hands
28 pp

KK 7x
QQ 1x
JJ 1x
TT 1x
99 1x
77 2x
66 1x
55 5x
44 4x
33 4x
22 1x

No AA or 88.

AK 5x
AQ 7x
AJ 1x
KQ 4x
KJ 2x
QJ 3x