All Skill

Okay... zero skill. Those who were watching are well aware of it. Once again, there was a deck, it hit me in the face, and this time I made the most of it, by taking down the MATH.



I didn't take any screen shots until towards the final table. I started off rough, dropping below 1000 chips pretty quickly. Then I fought back with position and aggression, lamenting my card death.

Let me step back just a second. This weekend was a disaster on the poker front. I spent nearly as much to get into the FTOPS ME as if I'd just bought-in directly. This wasn't supposed to happen (I had only dropped net $15 by Sunday afternoon), but the Super Turbo Satellites called, and when I said "I'm done," a Pro entered one, so I figured it was possibly the best chance anyone could have at taking the prize for knocking one out. I joined, won the thing (but didn't knock out the pro), and was in the ME. I played a tight, positional game, and blew it all with 110 to the money when I bet 5k with AQs UTG, got re-raised all-in, and then called against TT. No improvement, and I'm done and royally pissed off with myself. I walked away to avoid tilting away more money. I took down a $22 Turbo, lost another, called it a night, and then went up and down a bit today in the $22 SnGs and peeps. I bought in to the MATH and almost unregistered out of frustration with my game.

But I stayed in to have some fun, and as I said, nearly donked out early. Then I started hitting.

- AQ over A4 (turned straight) doubled me from 1k to 2k.
- A bit later QTc vs J9c all-in on a 9hQh6c board doubles me to 5k
- Presto flops a set and turns a boat to bring me to 8.6k (vs a paired 9?), this made me the table leader.
- My last hand at the table saw me get AQo vs AKo, A66 flop, Q turn, I go to over 13k, making me the chip leader.
- First hand at the new table and I knocked out my second player with KJ vs A9 on J4Q flop, 15k. I worked my way to 18k before this table broke.
- The hammer gets me to around 22k by cracking presto.
- I knock out my 3rd player (wishing it was a KO now) with AQh vs TT. A turn, Q river. 27k
- Up to 30k uncontested
- Dealt 44, raise, face a push of 3.5k. Not a big threat, I call to race. vs A5o, 44 holds up, 33.7k. Blinds are 120/240/25 at this point.
- Take out JEC II MD's 56o with 6Ts and a 798 rainbow flop. Another KO, setup... 37k. 150/300/25. Table breaks shortly thereafter. 2nd place is 15.7k.
- Final table as chip leader.



- Take out another with QTd vs A7c. T on the flop. 41k.
- Take a HUGE hit when I make a bad read on a K56 flop with 77. 4th place player all-in with 56 and I call. 28k, with 2nd now 27k
- First time I'm not chip leader in a while, as I fall 6k behind 1st.
- Back in the chip lead uncontested. I stayed here for good.
- JJ vs Fuel's AQ all-in preflop 5-handed. Set on the flop, boat on the turn. Fuel gone. Third time's a charm as there were two borderline hands earlier that I folded that would have taken him out. 52k, 200/400/50. 4 left.



- QQ goes down to K6o after I re-raise for the first time pre-flop 3-handed?? T66 board. Go figure. 40k.
- 3-handed goes for awhile. LJ comes within 2k of taking the chip lead from me at one point... for one hand.



- Climb back to 55k after turning a pair of 5's on a straight draw and beating another straight draw. Setup turn?
- 44 raise, called by LJ. 7sJdAd on the flop. LJ checks, I check. Turn = 4 = BINGO! LJ bets 5k into a 7k pot. I re-raise to 15k, LJ pushes for 9k more, I call. A9c no good and I'm at 77k.



- 3rd hand heads up, 80k vs 12.9k I see 78o, and jmathewson_III pushes. I decided to call, and see his A7o. Oops. But I'll still have around a 3:1 chip lead if I don't hit my 8. 8 on the flop! Nothing else helps and victory is mine!



So... I was catching like my name was Bayne and took out 8 players on the way.

292 Hands
19 pocket pairs:

22 x 2
33 x 2
44 x 2
55 x 2
66 x 3
77
99
TT x 3
JJ
QQ x 2

Funny, no AA or KK.

AK x 2 <- that seems low for me too
AQ x 8
AJ x 3

KQ x 4
KJ x 2
QJ x 5

6 hammers

And just for fun - 78 x 7, 3 of those s00ted.

That's 6.5% pp, 4.4% A-face, 3.8% paint.

Basically, I won a lot of races, sucked out on dominating hands a few times, and used my stack to make small gains and keep my chip count steady. Like I said... all skill... right?