Today We're Teaching Poodles How To Fly

Interesting night on the poker front.

Have I mentioned I like this Skype thing? Free long distance, free video calls, that's all kinds of cool. Anyway...

It started off slow. I played a bit of cash as I was waiting for something and chatting with people about the thunder and lightning outside with the snowstorm. .25/.50 for about 10 minutes that covered my Mookie buy-in.

Then no poker for an hour or so until I fired up a level 1 peep with thoughts of using it to play the 28k. Then I opened the FTOPS #1 lobby and saw the super-turbo satellites running with 20min to go. The peep was soon background (bubbled).

I loaded up a $50 two-ticket and automatically tripled up + blinds. From there it was easy to win. Of course, I also fired up to 1-ticket $25 ones and lost them both. Could have saved $50 if I just stuck with the first one. I immediately wondered WHY I signed up for a tournament on a Wednesday night that had over 5000 runners, double stacks, and 12 min blinds, figuring it would be 4am at least before it was over. Not to worry... I played like a donk and was gone in 30 minutes.

Actually, I played what I think was a decent early game. I folded anything that I'd get in trouble with, got in cheap with drawing hands, and took down a few small pots with decent stuff, usually by the flop. Seeing AK on the second hand was fun too. I gave up on an inside straight flush draw on the turn to an all-in (easy fold), folded small pocket pairs when I'd be racing at best, etc.. I had a brief run where I was able to chip back up over the starting stack when this happened:

Dealt aces in MP. One limper before me. I'm chatting with Fuel and say, "Aces this early in FTOPS can't be good..." and raise it up to 4x the BB. BB and limper both call. Well, I'm pretty sure they don't have aces. Flop comes 35J, two clubs. Check, check, and I bet the pot. BB folds, limper raises around 750 more. Shit. I tank. The bet smells fishy, but this is such a donkfest that I can't be sure he has a clue. I think maybe JJ, but convince myself that's not it. I finally figure (read: HOPE) it's AJ or a club draw. No way he has J5 or J3, and 53 seems pretty unlikely too. I mean to push but leave 120 chips behind, he raises me those and I KNOW I'm fucked but am totally committed at this point. He flips over 33 for the bottom set and I smack my head on the wall. No miracles for me and I'm done. I would have liked the 183k too. Me and Goat even had an agreement to chop it up when we were heads-up at the end, so the $147k would be fine. Ah well.

Then The Mookie started up, as did the BIG cash game. I was tempted to buy in short to the cash game, but thought better of it. $800 is a pretty steep for my online roll, and with that table, I knew it'd be at risk. Scared poker is losing poker after all.

The Mook, however, was fun as always. I have screenshots at home, but let's say it was classic me - AA, KK, QQ, straight flush, AK, AK, AJ, AQh = flush... say it with me now, "And then we hit the first break." I had the lead for a bit, lost it with AKh vs QQ vs KK (K on the flop), and was in 4th at the break. The second hour was card death, but I stayed afloat in the top 10 until the break where I dropped to 14th. Hour three brought disaster and I ended up pushing with AQo in EP when I still had SOME fold equity... and ran into 99 which hit a 966 flop, knocking me out.

I was about to load up a $22 SnG, but thought better of it and shut it all down a bit after midnight.