WPBT Report - Day 4, or where I kick your ass

Day 4. Saturday. The last day of consequence for me. The biggest of 'em too. This will be a long one.

First though - the view from my room as I returned the first night/morning




Up for the Bellagio buffet breakfast, I roped Kat, Lightning36, JJOK, and OhCaptain into it with myself and E (N & M off golfing in the cold rain). It just doesn't feel right to do Vegas without at least one buffet.

We talked, we ate, we talked, and then went off to prepare for the tournament in our own way. For me, E, and JJ, that meant walking from the buffet to Caesars.

The tournament kicked off, and I was 100% zen. I had no expectations, and just wanted to have fun. In fact, I knew I wouldn't mind busting out early because it would mean more time hanging with the other bloggers who were done.

That didn't quite happen.

Here's a quick hand recap from the beginning of the tourney to the final table:

crap, crap, more crap, crap, not quite crap so I'll raise, oh re-raise? fold, crap, crap, KK - raise and win blinds, crap, crap, nada, nothing, zip, zilch, crap, crap, 1-gapper raise, called, get bet out on broadway flop, crap, crap, shit, crap, more crap, what the hell is this crap? AQ - raise, get blinds, crap, crap, where are my chips? AJ raise, get re-raised, fuck it, all-in over the top for less than the re-raise, you folded? Sweet. Crap, crap, crap, crap, table change, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, garbage, small pair all-in with the short stack, double up and survive, crap, crap.... etc...

You get the picture. It was a game of pushing with an M of 3 and whatever I had holding up to keep me alive a bit longer. Any strong hands tended to win the blinds alone, and I caught nothing on the board. The first hour was so useless to me that I tore up my Bellagio buffet receipt and folded some origami card cappers (a crane and frog). I commented that I needed 999 more cranes to win the damned thing.

N went out somewhere in the 60's (69th according to him, 60th according to CJ), which pretty much kiboshed hopes of winning the last longer. Nobody could beat Team Roach (congrats guys!). E went out 12th with KJ losing to Alceste's aces or something, just before Change100 bubbled the final table.

And just before E and Change went down to put us at a final 10, I managed to double through AlCantHang (his second double up for me in the game). Q6s or something similar against AJs or something similar from him. I caught a card and it held. It's one of the few hands I remember, along with presto catching a set on the flop earlier to save my ass, and pocket 3's making it through an all-in on the flop from me and scaring off people who should have called.

No aces so far, by the way.

The highlight to this point was my second table. Pauly, Iggy, Garth, Maigrey, Obie, Smokkee, Blinders, Bayne... and someone else I can't recall. Blinders went out and was replaced with AlCantHang. Talk about the TV table! I figured that table was as good as any to double up at. I did a couple times, but only to survive.

Leading to the final table, I was barely above water. 40k in chips was not nearly enough at 4000/8000/1000. But we made that final 10 and the blinds were rolled back to 1500/3000/400 for some serious breathing room added. From here I had one goal - build a big stack. I knew I could take this down if I could get enough chips to take some risks and push the table around at the right times.

The bubble was tight, but it was quickly decided that we'd all chip in $10 for the bubble. Chilly got $90 to nearly break even when he went out in 10th.

Once we were in the money, my game shifted a bit. I could now take those risks without necessarily having a monster stack. It wasn't that I thought the $200 for 9th was big money, but that I'd just beat my bubble-boy performance of the previous year. 10th sucks.

So I stole some blinds, took some shots at flops, and kept ahead of the blinds as much as anyone could with the insane "get the hell out" structure that we'd hit at this point.

What was most surprising was how long the final 9 held out. Nobody was going out. Nobody was risking a significant portion of their stack to call a short all-in, because you just couldn't afford it with those levels.

I can't remember how everyone went out, but we lost Elissa, by far the best looking one at the table, in 9th. That was a loss for everyone. I blame The Rooster for distracting her with his manly charms.

Anyway, eventually people started dropping out. It was just a matter of time. Somewhere in there I knocked out someone, took some bigger pots with the right moves at the right time, and found myself as chipleader with 8 to go, then again with 5 to go, and I generally stayed up there.

By far my best played hand was against Gnome. He'd been using some timely aggression preflop to take blinds and antes, and had c-bet with some success when he actually saw a flop. He'd chased me off at least one hand earlier, and ran some air into a decent Al hand to reveal his range.

He raised preflop from the button, around 2.5x the BB, and I looked down to T8d in the BB. I called. Flop came J87 with two spades. I was pretty sure I was ahead here, and was sure he'd bet into a check from me. So I checked. He thought for a second and checked behind.

Hrmm... turn brought Qs, and I thought briefly about him having hit. I opted to check with every ounce of body language that said *I* had hit it. He started debating. I started wondering how I'd deal with a bet here. He reached for some chips and counted out a few, running them through his fingers. I put him on air, and knew he wasn't sure about me either. He put down the chips and checked.

River was a T. I didn't like this one. It gave me two pair, but also put the straight out there if he had a 9, or AK, along with the three spades on the board. But I had played this whole way with the intent of checkraising his action into me, and still had a hard time accepting he had anything. If he had hit the Q on the turn, it wasn't enough to keep him in, and he knew it. He was short enough that he could risk a bet, but not a call of a re-raise if he wasn't positive he had this. No, he had air... I checked.

And he bet 40k.

I paused, counted out the 40 while debating on the size of my raise. I wanted enough to get him out, but also wanted to leave enough behind that I could fold if he came over the top himself. 50k on top seemed like a good number. It was too much for him to just call, enough for me to leave on the table, but also enough that it looked like I was committed if he did raise. It said "I've got this and want you to call this bet..." It wasn't quite a value bet, and it was a semi-bluff even though I was almost positive he didn't have anything.

And he folded. There were plenty of mumblings around the table of what I had, if I'd just pulled off a monster bluff, or if I had the stone cold nuts there. That might have been almost as good a feeling as winning the whole thing. Especially since I have a ton of respect for Gnome's game. It was easily my favourite hand of the tournament.

Eventually, we got to 3-handed between myself, JoeSpeaker, and AlCantHang. Two guys proclaiming their drunkenness, one making sure we knew he was colour blind, and me. Both these guys were dangerous though. Speaker had been hanging back and using his whole stack strategically. Strong preflop raises and re-raises, and pushes for c-bets that were working. Al was happily shoving and raising seemingly at random, but he had enough chips to make it work.

And I realized exactly what I had to do.

Play them against each other.

But first, we had a chop discussion. With $4800 in the pot for top 3, and 7 1/2 hours of play behind us, it wasn't a bad idea. Joe and I were good with a straight up split, as only 10k separated us, and we'd even toss Al a premium as he had about 1/3rd more chips than us. But Al wanted the trophy too, and that was non-negotiable. We were playing for the trophy, not just giving it up. Al refused to chop without the Golden Hammer in the deal, and I decided it was time to start talking.

"No worries, that sounds like the kind of thing someone who doesn't think they can win it on their own would say."

That got Al ready to rumble. There was laughter and "ooooos" from the rail. Someone asked if we're going to go Canada vs America, to which I had only one response - "Find five more Americans to sit at the table and we'll call it an even match."

Game on.

The three of us passed around chips. There were walks, position raises, and some legitimate hands that got bet and shown. Al and I were pretty evenly matched stack-wise and I wasn't getting much I wanted to tangle with him with. But I also happened to be sitting directly across from him, and could tell when he was planning on pushing his stack in the middle. I avoided at least two bluffs and bet with a small pair from the button by reading his intentions. Twice Speaker bet into him only to have to fold to Al's push, and the third time Al grumbled about getting a walk and flipped over an ace.

The downside of this is that I wasn't winning more than I was losing, and my stack was shrinking. I needed something that could stand up to an Al all-in (a regular occurrence by now). This is the time when you learn who your real friends are.

And they came to my defense in a BIG way. I was in the BB, looked down, and saw my old buddies A and A looking right back at me. I'm pretty sure they winked too. They'd been holding out the whole game so they could show up when it counted the most. Al pushed from the SB and I instacalled, flipping over my rockets to a round of "oh BIG surprise! Astin has Aces." from the peanut gallery.

They held... they more than held, they brought along another of their ilk on the flop, killing all drama for the hand and announcing to the world that they had my back.

I was now the monster stack.

Al got pushy again, as Speaker picked his spots. Then Al says, "all-in in the dark" from the SB. I look down at K3o. Al starts with "instacall! You have a King? Insant!" I wait. Is he really in the dark? Is K3 worth it for 1/4 of my stack and a courtesy double-up for the biggest wildcard at the table? I'm leaning towards "no" when he peeks and says "Oh, I have an ace." I fold. He flips over AQ. In the dark my ass.

A few hands later, he tries again. "All-in in the dark." Sigh. I look down at A9o. Good enough, I call. "I have a pair." Pocket 4's from Al hold up and he's doubles while I drop 1/4. We're close again, and Speaker is letting us fight it out.

It goes between the 3 of us for a while, and Al and I are really close in chips, when I bet with A6o and he goes all-in. I think about it. I put him on nothing particularly good. In fact, I figure my ace is good. He isn't as strong as he was with his "in the dark" bets, and is hoping to get rid of me here.

I call.

Al flips over KJo, and we're away to the races. My ace hits the turn, and Al is livid. "CON-GRAT-ULATIONS! You just won the blogger tournament!" "Ace-six? Ace-six!" "What about me told you your ace-six was good?" Okay, livid isn't the right word. Tilted might be, and it wasn't even entirely from that hand. But my instincts told me I was good there, and I've lost more by ignoring those instincts than by following them.

Al is about to leave when I point out we're pretty close. Turns out Al had me beat by 4000 chips... or an ante.

Al's ante goes in, I call the BB, Speaker completes his SB. Al triples up.

Al ends up all-in with the SB, and I'm auto-in with my BB, Speaker folds. I had crap, and Al had better crap. Al doubles up.

Joe has the BB in, Al goes all-in, I look down at AKo. Speaker says he only has a few thousand behind, so I put him in, and he calls. Al has presto, Speaker has a dominated ace. Presto is gold and Al triples up, I get the remainder of Speaker's chips, and we're HU for the Golden Hammer. GG to JoeSpeaker.

We go back and forth a bit, but I have a huge chip lead, so I'm just waiting for the spot. It comes when Al goes all-in and I see AKs and insta-call. Al flips over AQh, and that's all she wrote.

Wait... what? I won? I WON? I WON! WOOOHOO!! Have I truly entered the illustrious guild of Golden Hammer winners? Is it sad that the $2600 prize is the biggest score I've taken down? Who cares! I have a hammer trophy that turns into a screwdriver (I think that may be ironic), and I went from sadly down on the trip to happily up! Up is good. Down is bad.

Now to find a place of honour for this trophy. Also, there's the parade planning. I wonder if I can catch up to the Olympic torch and help draw more crowds...

Anyway, I never thought it could happen to me, etc, etc.. Congrats to Al for taking 2nd and putting on a hell of a game. It could have gone either way a few times if not for my luckbox powers activating when needed. Thanks to April and F-Train for setting the whole thing up, CJ for the last-longer tourney, PokerStars for adding some gravy to that one, and everyone there for making the actual game a secondary concern to just having a good time and enjoying the company and competition amongst friends.

Post-game I chatted with Smokkee a bit before heading back to the room to drop off some of the winnings and meet up with E & N for dinner (having taken M back to the airport for the red-eye). Since it was after 10, most of the higher-end establishments were closing down. We opted for Burger Bar, where I had the Kobe burger on an onion bun with caramelized onions, aioli, dijon, peppered bacon, and something else I'm sure.

But that all took longer than I expected, and we didn't get back to the IP until 1am. There was a small group of bloggers at the Geisha Bar (Al, Iggy, OhCaptain, April, and a few others), Falstaff at the Pai Gow table, and a couple others scattered around, but no group... this saddened me, as I was hoping to see more people I hadn't had a chance to talk with at any length yet. I remember last year being crazy at the IP late into the night.

Regardless, I was there losing at Let it Ride and craps, and slots until 6am. The plan was to go until we needed to get to the airport, but once I started passing out at the the LiR table, I knew a power nap was needed. One hour later, we were up and out to catch the flight back home.

Less Than A Week?

Where the hell did the time go?

My first ever trip to Las Vegas was with a bachelor party 5 years ago. It was a good time, but I largely remember learning to play craps from that trip.

I definitely caught something from that trip though, because I would regularly get this itch if I stayed away from the neon lights too long.

The next year I returned with a buddy who had never been, didn't gamble much, but was looking for something to do. I introduced him to terrible casino poker tournaments and cheap drinks on Fremont street.

Somewhere between those two trips I started playing poker online. A little site known as PokerStars, in a little tournament dubbed The Wheatie (by me at least). Here I did meet some other bad poker players, and even a couple decent ones.

It seems that some of these degenerates would meet up a couple times a year in Vegas to drink, gamble, and generally have a blast. I, however, was new, a bit shy, and not entirely sure I wanted to meet up with dozens of people I only knew from their cards and icons.

So I didn't go that December.

But June rolled around, and a summer gathering was happening. I'd gotten to know these calling stations a bit better and figured it was time to take the plunge. I booked a flight, and a room at the shitastic Orleans hotel. By the time I had checked in and wandered downstairs, it was nearing 1am. I didn't know a soul, or what anybody looked like.

Of course, the Zeem and Falstaff jerseys that were being worn at the Pai Gow table helped matters. This led to meeting The Penners, Irongirl, and whoever else was around at the time. The next morning I met up with LJ, another newbie, for breakfast before finding everyone else who had made the trek.

By the end of the trip, hell, right from the start, I knew I'd be back. December came and I landed in Sin City as planned. This time with a couple friends in tow. Then Kat dragged some people up north for Eh Vegas. Then I found myself in Austin for a Weekend at Mookie's. I was in Vegas again the next summer for a much less organized gathering that involved a lot of running into people around the Amazon ballroom. Then once again in December with a posse in tow.

This year has been slimmer for meetups. I didn't make it out in the summer, but did meet up with Dawn and Mary in Atlantic City, saw VinNay a few times in either of our hometowns or Niagara falls, and of course another Eh-Vegas in the chilly Toronto winter. Yah, slim - I've only gone out of my way to see these people a half dozen times since last December.

And starting Wednesday, I'll see a whole bunch of them again. Let us ask Zoltan how it will go, after all, he was so insightful at Eh-Vegas this year.



Zoltan predicts the usual amount of far too much fun.

First Time For Everything

I failed to make it into the TOC for BBT4. First time in 4 BBTs I didn't manage to get spot. In fact, this was by far my worst performance in these series to date.

I'm pretty sure I have nobody to blame but myself. I generally played too weak-tight. True, I was also fairly card dead, seemed to have my cards face-up most of the time (I'd play a hand one way, and everyone would fold, I'd play another hand the exact same way and get 3 callers and a re-raiser, but that's poker). The thing is, I think I played alright yesterday, but QQ < KK in the end. Hell, I even folded KK pre-flop when every bone in my body screamed I was being lured into AA. Don't know if Lightning36 wants to confirm that or not though. Yah, like I said, weak-tight... even Don's got more balls than me.

I made it home just in time to be 1 minute late for the late registration for the Brit Game earlier in the day. The home game only had 6 people turn out, and I went out in 3rd. Dammit.

I went out somewhere in the teens in The Big Game Mulligan when I stopped caring and just wanted to get some sleep. Having the split flopped straight with TBA go down to his rivered 4-flush kinda took out what little wind was in my sails at the time.

So all-in-all, a shitty Sunday for poker. The flu I had all weekend (and still have) didn't help matters either.

But still, a huge THANK YOU to AlCantHang for putting this whole clusterfuck together for us unworthy degenerates. I sincerely hope that whichever two donkeys take down the WSOP ME packages USE them for their intended purpose - to PLAY IN THE WSOP!

Busto

I have just enough left in my FT account to cover the Skillz game tonight and the Big Game on Sunday. Man, did I ever stink up the last couple months. I could have taken the roll I'd built up in the beginning of the year and given it to a crack addict so at least someone was having fun.

PPI/Riverchasers last night sucked. At least the menonite-style sausage with carmelized onions, baked sweet potato fries, and tomato and cucumber salad was good.

I'll likely make The Mookie on Wednesday too (because I'll reload), but am kind of hoping I miss it due to other plans. I doubt that will happen though.

And barring a colossal ousting from the regular home game on Sunday (the one I dominated last year, but have missed the first 3 of this year), I'll miss the Brit Game.

So that means 2 or 3 chances left for yours truly to make the TOC. My chances at taking down the Skillz tonight (Stud - Full Tilt, 9:30pm ET, pw: skillz) are minimal, but stranger things have happened. Taking down The Big Game wouldn't be the first time I won my seat in the last event (also a Big Game).

I don't even know if I CAN go to the WSOP (but if I won, I'd try my damndest), but I haven't missed a TOC yet, and I really don't want to start.

Not Much to Write About

Hmmm, seems I've let this place go without a post for a few days. Sorry, just nothign all that exciting to talk about. It's been a week of leftovers, shitty poker, and staying up too late. I'm just glad it's Friday, although I'll be sending very little of this weekend at home.

Don's The Big Game is Sunday - $26 1r+1a which is cool. 9:30 on Tilt, and TBG is still my favourite of the Blogger games. I'll sign up, but I don't know if I'll be home in time to make the rebuy or add-on period, which is a bummer.

No Sale

AA 3x 5-handed with 11 players left, include two back-to-back (first won blinds and antes and got shown, 2nd reaped rewards). 1 more AA at the final table. KK, AK, AQ, QQ, and others in that stretch as well...

Came in 3rd in The Big Game for $700.35. Not a terrible score by any metric, but I could have been happier.

All week I had something envisioned. Heads-up with Goat in the last BBT3 game. Seriously. I had my list of people I'd like to see in the TOC who weren't there yet, but I kept coming back to Groucho and the Swedish Chef facing off, with a quick chop being determined.

Instead, Goat pushed from the button when I held AQ in the SB with a shortish stack, and I instacalled his K2o bluff. 323KQ board was good for getting my chips and a big chip lead, so I was happy for that. Unfortunately, he went absolutely card dead for the HU session and went down for 2nd place.

I know he wanted a seat badly. He ended up being the top money-earner in the BBT3, with over $2,700 in winnings. But he didn't play enough games to crack the top 20 in points. 25 games, 6 final tables, points 9 times, and a 36.87 ppg average... a damned shame he won't be fighting for the prize next Saturday. On the plus side, that's a fantastic ROI for the BBT3.

Well played sir.

Also, I wanted the cash from a chop.

Instead, maneki_neko, playing in his/her ONLY game of the BBT3 took it down. Congrats to them. From the looks of thing, it looks like they lived up to their name in regards to number of lives. What? You don't speak Japanese?

Now to decide if I want to do something that could piss off a bunch of people...

4-Day Week!

We are in the home stretch for Weekend at Mookie's! Flight's booked, car's booked, room set aside (I assume, if not... eh, I've got a car), 27 degrees on Friday - it's looking sweet! Now I just need to get around to some laundry and packing... in that order.

How was your weekend? Mine was solid.

Friday night - I saw Dear Zachary:A Letter to a Son About His Father - an incredibly moving documentary. The theatre was full of sobbing, with the salty streaks of tears visible on many a face as we left. Myself, I welled up, but was so infuriated at the climax that the sadness didn't hit until it had dissipated enough. Then it hit again when they film's key participants came on stage to answer questions about their heart-wrenching ordeal. It's a film that just hits you with emotional blows. If you ever get a chance to see it, do so. I won't tell you any more about what happens in it, and suggest you don't follow the above link unless you want some key information revealed. I imagine it will become available to a wider audience shortly.

That was followed up with dinner, drinks, and discussion about what we'd just seen.

Then the TTC went on strike. The ONLY public transportation system in the city went on strike at midnight on Friday, unannounced. The decision was made around 10:30pm, when everybody was already out. This stranded thousands of people downtown. As I was walking home (I live downtown and was going to walk anyway), I watched the masses mill about the subway entrances, unsure what they were going to do and ruing that last round that cost them cab fare. Anybody with 3 functioning brain cells could tell you that stranding your regular riders downtown and drunk in the middle of the night is NOT the way you engender support and sympathy for your cause. Especially of that cause reeks of union bullying. As soon as a union cries out for "job security" in an economic downturn, my hackles start to rise.

Saturday I woke up around noonish to a phone call. It was as good a time as any to get up, so I did. I strolled about my place, wasting time, until I got the expected calls from some friends. Eventually, they showed up and we headed out for dinner, drinks, and Harold & Kumar's escape from Guantanamo Bay. The beauty of a transit strike for someone who lives downtown is that (a) you can convince your friends to drive to you, and (b) you can get a seat on the patio with all the suburbanites staying home. We went to a restaurant I hadn't visited yet - The Fat Belgian. I shall be returning. A solid list of mostly Belgian beers greeted us. Naturally, the one we wanted (Delerium Tremens) was the only one out. My second choice was surprisingly available (Chimay Blue is almost impossible to find in stock). The fact that our waitress Stephanie was incredibly cute and friendly helped too. Good fried calamari for an appetizer, and belgian beer-basted ribs as my main. Yum. Mussels in Napoleon cognac and cream for one buddy, and roasted duck for the other. Chocolate trifle for dessert for me, and crème brûlée for the friends. Jokes, laughs, stories, and suddenly we had ten minutes to make the 10:30 movie. We'd had the foresight to get the tickets before dinner, and rushed down the street to the theatre. With 3 minutes to spare, we found another benefit of a transit strike - opening weekend isn't totally packed. Full, but not sold out and we found seats easily. One movie later, we left quoting and laughing at another great stupid stoner comedy. A slightly different experience than the previous night's movie.

Then I schooled them at Super Smash Bros and Guitar Hero.

Sunday involved another noon wakeup. This was unfortunate as I missed the regular Dim Sum gathering yet again. It's been a couple months now at least since I've made one. I was really looking forward to it too. Oops. The plan then became to laze around, make breakfast, relax, and play poker in anticipation of The Big Game. This was going along until I got a phone call as I was pouring my cereal. Off I went to check out a condo my best friend was VERY interested in, and I was glad to get outside. It was disappointing. I'm regularly surprised by the lack of developers to actually design things functionally. Their goal is to cram as much into a building as possible, as opposed to making it useful. A 2-bedroom unit with a kitchen that can barely hold one person. A master bedroom in the penthouse that can hold a bed, but which has a wall so off-kilter and uneven that no useful furniture can be brought in. A few simple floorplan changes and those problems are fixed. A shame, really. However, it started a search that led to unexpected areas and better real estate possibilities for her. These things happen for a reason.

I came home and made myself some dinner. Chicken, mediterranean-style elk sausage, peppers, onions, garlic, spices, and rice for something paella-like. Oh was it tasty. Chased with a McAuslan's Apricot Wheat Ale.

Then my brother came by so his future boss could pick up her laptop from him (forgotten at the job interview - that's got to be a good sign when your interviewee offers to meet you downtown with your computer). He hung out while The Big Game started up and we chatted and watched Dallas beat San Jose as I played. I also made a few phone calls re: condos and real estate. Then he left, and I continued the phone calls while "playing" the game.

By the time I was focused 100% on poker, we were close to the final table and I was near the bottom. Some timely double-ups kept me alive until I lost a race to the chipleader (my 99 vs AQo) to go home in 5th place. Good for points, good for fishcake points (except Alan went out in 4th, so he still put distance between us), good for the bankroll. The $253 was very much needed after the past couple weeks of Full Tilt saying, "no sir, you may NOT proceed past the bubble."

One might say I played a tight game:

Statistics for 296 Hands
Street	Saw	Saw/Total
Flop	34	11%
Turn	20	7%
River	13	4%
Showdown	10	3%
Street	Won	Won/Saw	Won/Total
Pre-flop	26	9%	9%
Flop	5	15%	2%
Turn	6	30%	2%
River	3	23%	1%
Showdown	6	60%	2%

I'll have to review my hand history, but I believe I was fairly card dead. I was aggressive to start, and aggressive near the bubble to chip up, but otherwise did a lot of folding.

Tonight is our regular 6-max doublestack MATH. 10pm EST on Full Tilt, password is hammer.

Great Weekend

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Friday night, which was yet another tremendously funny Apatow production (although he did little else). Mila Kunis has no ass, but was still great in this. Go see it. That was followed up with some tasty pizza and a pretty solid Ketel One martini. I naturally forgot the leftover pizza on the table as we left. D'Oh. I now owe my friend a pizza. This naturally means I'll be looking up thin crust recipes and figuring out what flavours I want to use. Red pepper sauce? Ginger-wasabi shrimp? Spinach?

Saturday was oddly busy yet not. It started around 12:30 with some errands and such. In the end, there wasn't much to show for it. Some fiberglass bug screen, magnets, hooks, beer, carbon filters, a clean car... yet somehow it took 6 hours. But it was capped off with one of the most awesome chill dinners ever, on a balcony with a pitcher of sangria and a bunch of cold foods that required minimal effort to prepare. Oh, and Guitar Hero... after a pitcher of sangria.

Sunday was poker day. I demolished the home game I was invited to. 13 or 14 runners, $20 buy-in, rebuys... over $700 in the pot by the end. I didn't rebuy or add-on. One table had 90% of the rebuys... it wasn't mine. When we merged, the stack sizes were ridculously disproportionate. So much so that one guy bet that nobody from my table would make the cash (top 4, 9 left at the time, 4 from my table). My buddy N took the bet, depsite being from the rebuy-heavy table. Naturally, this became a challenge. About 5 hands later I had sextupled up and rolled on from there. Final 3 were all from my table. HU ended when we were DEAD EVEN in chips and my JQc beat A9o. $360 for $20 and 5 hours... not bad. The win was also the biggest this group has ever had, so it moved me right to the top of the leaderboard for the TOC. Not bad since this is the first game of the year I've been able to make.

I Came home to Donkette inviting me (via MiniDonk via Donkette's girly chat account) to Uncle Chuck's Basement tourney. $4 rebuy. I was all over the place just having fun and ended up out 10th when my 88 ran into Lucko's TT. I had the chip lead about 3 times over the course of the game, but Change100 kept taking my chips no matter what the situation was when they went in. Oh, and one terrible call on the river by me to Buddy's turned straight. I KNEW it was an OBFV, and I still called. Oops. I probably still lose it all to Lucko anyway. A shame, since I was feeling good about that one.

Jays beat Detroit twice over the weekend after losing Friday, but that puts them in 3rd behind Baltimore and the BoSox. 2.5 games back. To alleviate this problem, they released Frank Thomas over the weekend. Whatever the reasons, this makes the team leaner and puts Matt Stairs at DH where he belongs. Once Adam Lind is healthy, expect him in LF with Shannon Stewart, which is a much better platoon than Stewart/Stairs.

Round 1 of the NHL playoffs is wrapping up as well. Dallas knocked out the defending champs last night, Detroit finally finished off Nashville, Colorado took out the Wild, and the Rangers took out the Devils. This leaves 3 series to be decided. Boston has somehow tied up their series with Montreal at 3-3, which does NOT bode well for the Canadiens this evening. Calgary won their game last night to go to game 7 against San Jose, which has held up better than I expected. Philly still leads their series with Washington 3-2, and SHOULD be able to wrap that up tonight. Talk about some great matchups.

Round 2 is shaping up to be pretty solid to. The only possible bad matchup would be Pittsburgh-Boston if the Bruins beat the Habs tonight. Where Montreal hasn't been able to score and their defence is collapsing around their rookie goaltender, Pittsburgh is doing just fine. No way Boston can match up against them. I'd much rather see Pittsburgh-New York and Montreal-Philly. Pennsylvania represent? Although an even BETTER (yet more unlikely) round 2 in the east could be Pittsburgh-Washington and Montreal-New York, which would be epic. Ovechkin vs Malkin/Crosby, and two more original 6 teams facing off.

In the West, Round 2 is a bit more defined. I'm pulling for Detroit-Calgary and Dallas-Colorado, but Detroit-Colorado and San Jose-Dallas would also be a great round.

Any way, my Detroit-Pittsburgh final is still looking good. Not that I wouldn't mind seeing a Canadian team make it in. Admittedly, Detroit-Montreal (or Detroit-New York, or Detroit-Boston even) would be full of original 6 nostalgia and history. The picture will be clearer around 10pm tonight. Oddly enough, the same time the MATH starts up. Make sure you come out for everyone's favourite 6-max, doublestack, $26 NLHE game. 10pm EST on Full Tilt, password is hammer.

And let's get started in those token frenzies! THE BIG GAME is this Sunday. You know you wanna.

Big Game Ouster

Ah well. I think I played the Big Game well. I was feeling on, making good reads, being aggressive, and having that aggression pay off my bigger hands.

Then I ran top two pair into Don's overpair/OESD. He turned the straight and I was done in 25th of the 62 runners. That's poker.

Way earlier I was up against an all-in Don and Recess with JJ (they both had AQ). The case A (someone else folded a 3rd) flopped and that kept them alive and me from the chiplead. Naturally, if I win this hand, Don's gone and my chipstack dictates a very different game from that point, very likely with me still alive now. But "if's and but's..."

So far, BBT3 has been a bust for me. Some points, a little bit of cash, but no big run. LOTS of time left though, so I'm not worried.

Addendum: My prediction system continues unhindered. Misogynist won the game after being the only player at the final table I didn't recognize. My apologies to everyone else who wanted to win. Apparently Misogynist is Big Mike... one of Mookie's crew I think. That's research for you.

Late Night Railing

After my early and unfortunate ouster from The Mookie last night, I stuck around for a bit. I fired up the Dookie and got creamed in that. As well as a $3 rebuy SnG sat to the $750k (fishing for T$), which only cost me $6, had me in the top 5 consistently after the add-on, and then saw my aces crushed by jacks after some great preflop luring on my part. I wisely pulled out of a Tier 2 token game. I unwisely played the 0.15/0.30 doublestack blogger cash game. I short-bought for $30, lost that, and the put in my last $38. In there somewhere I played a 50 FTP pushfest and went out down immediately. In my last orbit of the cash game, I took my $20 left to $60 and called it a night.

But not really. Noooo... I check out the final table of The Mook and saw a table full of people I'd like to see win. Joanne, Riggs, Lightning, Recess, Tripjax, PirateLawyer, and someone named Hellory. I immediately called for Hellory (at the time near the bottom) as the winner, for the simple reason that I had no idea who he was. It's a rule - if you're at a final blogger table and I'm railing and have no idea who you are, you'll win. Hellory proved me right by taking the whole thing down after an epic HU with Riggs.

Congrats to Hellory, and gg to everyone else, especially Riggs.

Damn I want another deep run.

The Riverchasers is tonight as always. I'm signed up, but will likely be both late and drunk. That's probably the best strategy for this donkfest.

And it hasn't been mentioned much.... but THE BIG GAME is THIS SUNDAY. 9 people are signed up so far I think. I'm trying for a token, but will likely reload and buy-in based simply on time constraints before Sunday. C'mon people, let's get this thing going! BBT3 points and BIIIIIG MONEY!

Turnouts

So, as stated - a phenomenal 105 runners for The Big Game last night. How many make the MATH tonight? Do we see the Monday tradition break 100? It's totally possible. What about The Mookie? 150? 200? More? Insane.

I've got my token for tonight's MATH, but I'm debating on signing up. I've got dinner at 6, which should give me plenty of time to make it, but you never know. Obviously, if I'm home before 10, I'll be in. The question is whether or not I sign up BEFORE I go out, in case I'm late. It's been a good year for the MATH for me so far. Starting with a 4-way chop, then taking one down, and pulling 2nd in another. I'm sitting on top of the MATH moneyboard, albeit not by much. Personally, I love 6-max and huge fields. There we go, decision made, I'll buy-in once I get home. Thanks for all your help.

Next decision will be The Mookie, when I hope to be playing live at the club instead. 1500 starting stack means I can't just buy-in and fold away the first hour.

For all the talk of Fischman's horrible play and incredible luckboxery last night, I think it needs to be said - he was donking it up to release steam. Having a huge stack makes it easy to play a very LAG style, especially when the win means so much to the people playing. He wasn't aware of the BBT3 stuff until the very end either, so it's not like he was being an asshole. On top of it all, I got the distinct impression that he was TRYING to give away his chips at one point. Here's a pro for whom the $75 fee is peanuts, and even the $2k win isn't significant. What does he prove by whomping a bunch of amateur donkeys who are obviously having a good time? It'd be like any of us playing a $1 SnG super-aggro and dominating it. Just doing it for fun without really anything at risk. It's not his fault he kept catching.

And then there were those who were more than happy to dump chips to him. Why raise to 9600 when he has position and 200k in front of him? Time to break out of kindergarten in that situation. The only reason you bet that there is because you have a premium hand and want to draw in his re-raise, or push on the flop. You KNOW he's calling if not raising with ATC, and then you're going to crumple if the flop doesn't hit you.

Ah well. It'd be pretty cool if we saw some more pros show up throughout this thing. It would suck if they all leave the "instant rebate" button on.

And They're Off!

Last night kicked off BBT³: Look Who's Luckboxing Now! With a bang. The Big Game, $75 ponied up to play. 105 runners. ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE! That would have been a great turnout for The Mookie in BBT2! Over $1,900 for first place! Sweet baby jeebus that's impressive.

I imagine it was helped along somewhat by the appearance of one Scott Fischman. A red pro draws flies apparently, although it being a private tourney probably discouraged a few people from putting in the 0.0003 seconds of effort required to sign up.

And of course Scotty goes and beats the entire congregation of donkeys into submission by DOMINATING the field. He was down to around 2000 chips at one point, when that wasn't very much, and turned it around to take a dominating lead about 20min later. He was heads-up with over 400k vs cmitch's 100k. But as was obvious to everyone, Scott got lucky. Repeatedly. It's like someone took Bayne and I (and some CJ too) and created a Frankenstein's Monster of poker playing. He'd lose a chunk and win it back with the "instant rebate" the very next hand. He'd call with crap and catch unbelieveable cards. 4-straights, rivered boats over sets, ATC was gold! And then if you stood up to him pre-flop, he'd have premium starting cards! It was nuts.

Me? I was out 32nd after rapidly blinding down and then impatiently shoving with Q6s and and M of about 1.7. I almost waited, and then the awfuckits hit and I was done, because I ran into KK directly to my left. Whoops.

So, 1 game down, 54 to go, and we've got a pro with the very first TOC seat. Think he'll even show up for the game? Would it be a complete disaster if he got one of the ME seats? Who wants controversy?

Otherwise, a solid, if uneventful weekend. I'm loving the T$ on Tilt now. I'm just about ready to forget about tokens and just keep playing the cheap rebuy satellites to the big tournaments. Par example (that's French for "For example"):

Played the two 50-50 rebuy sats. $2 rebuy and $3 rebuy.

- Win the $2 rebuy with $8.20 investment, play the 50-50.
- Win the $3 rebuy with $12.30 investment, take the T$
- Play the $55 $750g Guarantee 12 seat (18 seats in the end) satellite with the 50-50 T$, win $216 entry, unregister for the T$
- Play a $75 3-seat SnG, win another $216 in T$ by unregistering from the game.

There were a couple other attempts (including two 2-seat 100-chip turbos) that failed, but in the end I turned $12.30 into over $300 in T$. I'd say that's a better return than the tokens. These rebuys are ultra-soft, and tight aggressive play will take 'em down most of the time.

Back to Even

Hmm.. I believe BamBam owes me my $10 back. Told you that Giants wouldn't be beat by the weather. They're just too big. 2-for-2, as predicted. Seeing Waffles go with the opposite of my picks practically guaranteed it.

Some kind of Bowl game coming up I hear. Pats vs Giants in Arizona? I think I'll need to ponder on this before putting up my pick.

I completely missed The Big Game yesterday, despite buying-in (well, tokening in). I have no regrets about it. I hope my donation was appreciated. Obviously, I missed the Skill Game as well.

MATH tonight. I may be there, I may not. Who knows? The Shadow perhaps.

Well, that was thoroughly uninteresting.

The Big Game

I guess I'll do my small part to pimp THE BIG GAME this Sunday. 9:30pm, superstacks, $75. Rock.

I guess I won the last one, which saved me from reloading, and secured me a TOC seat*. I don't remember there being one in December, what with the holidays and all. So I guess that means I'll be playing in this one so someone has the chance to not only crack my aces, but take my temporary crown.

I love The Big Game, and it's even better with the superstacks. Lots of play, money that actually matters to the people playing, and the usual blogament good times.

I failed in my frenzy bid last night, but I'll try a couple more times for a token before I just buy in and overpay yet again. There's an outside chance it will be a donation from me as I'm keeping my day-to-day schedule pretty open these days. Maybe I'll be busy Sunday night... I probably won't be. Either way, my money will be in the pot.

So get out there, drop your $14 in the Frenzy at 9:45 EST and win some damned tokens already! Let's beef this baby up on Sunday! Ain't nobody wants to play for a $200 pool.



*Sorry to hear about the good Dr J's ousting from the Millions. AA cracked by donkish play of 35s? No shame.

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

No History Yet

I'm not at home, so I can't pour over the hand histories with a fine-toothed comb. That will come later, where I will regale people with my tales of luckboxery.

In the meantime, now that I've calmed down a bit, stopped yelling, and am not school-girl giddy over the Big Game win, I can post rationally.

First and foremost: I called it. Congrats to The Goat for taking down one of the two write-in spots for the TOC. Congrats to Fuel55 as well for the second seat, I'll assume my being busted with KK on the first hand in your tale was the point that put you over the top . Condolences to everyone else who didn't make it. Considering I didn't even get mine in due to the constant scrapping of it, I'm impressed by people even entering. Not that my opinion counts for anything.

It was a less than stellar week, as was pretty evident in the posts from at least one day. I didn't get enough sleep, I fell firmly into "friend" territory, and I found out I'd be getting paid 1/3 less than the previous year. It was a hell of a downer to come back from Vegas to. Mix in some other random bullshit, and poker on Sunday was a means of starting fresh. When that ten hit on the turn on the last hand of The Big Game, days of frustration and angst were released in one incredibly loud series of phrases... some of which aren't suitable for the children.

I believe Chad's comment when I turned the straight was, "that sums up the BBT right there." I'll take that phrase and twist it to my own uses. This increasingly less-little group we've got is about far more than poker. The BBT series takes a hobby we all love (and even if you're playing for a living, these Blogger games are a hobby), and raises the stakes. It brings us out of whatever rut we're falling into game-wise and gives us a reason to play harder. But through it all, there is still the underlying camaraderie. You can knock out someone and they'll turn around and cheer you on at the final table. People you respect offer their support and good luck. If you fail, there's no shortage of those to commiserate with. Sure, the BBT is about that Aussie Millions seat, but would any of us keep driving for that if it wasn't for the crowd we're running with down the stretch? I think THAT sums up the BBT right there.

Thanks as always go out to Al. He's once again taken the reigns and created a memorable and fantastic series. It's not over yet by a long shot, but he can't be recognized enough. Naturally, without Hoy, Mookie, and Don, there wouldn't be much of a tournament, so thanks go to them too for setting up some great games.

Which brings me to my next point. This was something Lucko brought up a few weeks back and I think now needs revisiting. There is essentially one vacant seat in the BBT with XxMagiciaNxX winning two events. This should be given to Al - an organizer's exemption if you will. I don't know how he feels about it, but I'm pretty sure that the majority of those in the TOC would support it. Let's make it happen.

Hands of interest will be posted tonight before the MATH. Non-BBToo, 6-handed NLHE. Nice.

Fingers Don't Work

My neck is SOOOO tight. My fingers are tingling. I'm wide awake, and so is my entire condo.

THIS:


Led to this:


MUTHERFUCKING YESSSSS! I can't believe I grabbed the last TOC seat. Although I guess they're finishing off the Riverchasers that suffered an Full Tilt outage tomorrow... so that's the new last seat.

And before anyone gets on my case - I'm a fucking luckbox. But I also played hard, stole like Jesse Fucking James all night, and used my big stack. I took no screen shots but those. Hands will go up later today when I it's not 2am. For the record - 7 or 8 cowboys.. not sure.

Great game Maudie, it could have gone either way, and I hated having you on my left for pretty much the entire last half of the game.

Thanks to EVERYONE who railed and sweated me both in the chatbox and girly chat. It's tremendously appreciated and got me through a lot of it. Never have I appreciated the railbirds more.

Oh, and this was nice too, sorry Grind, but it kind of pales in comparison:



Plus 4 knock-outs I think. I increased my online roll by about 6x tonight too with those wins. I was THIS -| |- close to reloading after buying into the Big Game, Skill Game, and PokerGrind.

16th in The Skill Game was way better than I deserved as well, especially since I tried to give away my chips at least 3 times and won. I thought 3-tabling was a terrible idea (plus I was playing Gin online when the Big Game started), but maybe I was wrong? Congrats to Chad for winning his own inaugural tournament.

There goes the 2nd place curse. Now to take down the TOC.

Wiped

It's 11:35am and I'm planning to take a nap as soon as I get home around 5-something this afternoon.

Please don't take that as an invitation to call me. I will send poison through the phones if you do, and then you will be poisoned and possibly die. That would suck, because then I couldn't punch you in the face the next time I see you for waking me up. Unless I'm invited to your funeral. But then I'd be worried it was a sting operation to get me for putting poison in the phone. I'm sure once I explained that I warned you not to call me that they'd understand and let me go. Then I'd punch you in the face. So let me sleep.

No, this isn't continued Vegas recovery, that was Monday. Sweet Jeebus was I tired on Monday.

Went out for drinks and a party last night. Stuck around until the bitter end. I kinda hate being a friend. But I understand it.

Still, I wish I had bugged some of the other friends. Would be interesting to hear the conversations today.

Too bad Kaja wasn't in town today instead of yesterday, I would have liked to have met him.

Mooookie tonight. I'm missing the Riverchasers tomorrow, so I've only got 2 more chances to make the TOC. I might have to try and get my token for the Big Game too. Chad's running a HORSE game as well on Sunday. I hate HORSE. Mostly because I keep missing the game changes and end up playing Razz hands in Stud. Also, getting aces is bad for Razz.

Anyway, Mookie. I plan to come into it well-rested and well-fed with a chip on my shoulder. Just stay the fuck out of my way and you'll be fine. I'm taking this bad boy down.

They Can't All Hold Up

Solved my issue by firing up a Tier 1 on Saturday around 1am or so and dominating that. Then I fired up the Tier 2 right afterwards, and through constant slipping off into unconciousness and strong play, won a token in that. Off to the races with me.

Made my live game, and went out after the first break after this brilliant play:

Dealt AA UTG+1, 150-300 with a 50 ante, I have 14k in chips. I raise to 1200 and the table folds to the button, who calls. I've been playing pretty tight so far and the only hand that's been shown was KQ that split with this same guy's KQ.

Flop come 568 with two hearts and I bet 2k into the 3300 pot. Button goes all-in, and I have him covered with 1200 left behind. I think. I look at that flop and worry about a set. No way he flopped the straight, but a flush draw is a possibility. Maybe suited connectors? I finally put him on an overpair and call.

He flips over K7o???? He called a tight player with K7o?? Connectors I could see, a 1-gapper I could see. Seeing a set wouldn't have surprised me. I'd put me on a strong hand pre-flop and call with an Ace-cracker, but K7o no heart? Wow. By far the donkiest hand I'd seen this guy play (and he'd played a few). So I'm 65% and naturally a 4 comes on the turn and I'm crippled.

Next hand I see JT and push my 1200. I get 5 callers but nothing on the board and I literally go home.

Fine. Gave me time to get some other things done before The Big Game. Went about 1 1/2 hours in that one before a donk move by me and a donk move by The Goat knocked me out (I say that in the nicest way possible JG).

Some decent play, steals, resteals, and cards that got me nothing (KK twice) had me sitting in the top 15 with 30 left. I'd been as high as 9th I think. Tripjax had been luckboxing like a madman to build a huge stack and I had some sort of suited connectors that I called his raise with. The flop brought me an inside straight and flush draw for 12 outs twice and Trip overbet the pot. I called, and it brought me to 1600 chips left, with a pot of over 4800 or thereabouts. Turn gave me an OESD with the flush draw and we both checked. River paired the board, check, check and Trip has an ace. Damn.

Mistakes I see: I like my call preflop. I hate my call on the flop. I should have pushed or folded. If he's bluffing, the 1600 extra MAY be enough to get him off with his stack not committing him to the pot. Although that's unlikely, it at least takes away any decisions I have to make on the turn if he does anything other than check. Does a push on the turn or river help me? Maybe. If I fold, I've got far more chips to play with.

Next hand I see AK UTG and push. Folds all around to Julius Goat who calls with AT. T on the flop or turn and somewhere I hear a fat lady singing.

Ah well. Cost me $35 or something in peeps to make it. Cost me far more to lose live earlier.

Then I fired up a lvl 1 peep, kicked ass but forgot to take names for a token for The Hoy tonight. So far, BBTwo has cost me around $44. I've decided to calculate based on this simple formula: (Bankroll after BBTwo) - (Bankroll before BBTwo) - (P&L for non BBTwo-related games) = Profit (or Loss) for BBTwo. If I token in to a game, then it costs me $8.70. Why? Because that was the purpose of the token. If it takes two attempts, it's $17.40 Consider it a non-optional satellite.

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In other news - the cats seem to be getting along. To the point where they were both sharing the top of the giant cat tree in the living room this morning. Good.

My computer is on its way to recovery. I spent the weekend installing and upgrading my new box, yay technology! After that was done, I hooked up my messed up drives and scanned them. Lo! It did discover data! Boo! It recovered it terribly. File extensions I've NEVER had were there, and none had a name. 20kb PNGs? I don't think so. So I deleted that recovered data (on a different drive) and tried again. This morning I attempted another recovery and it appears all is going as well as can be expected. Files with FULL file names now appearing, in all their full-sized glory. I can actually VIEW my pictures again! I left it running as I left for work, and expect a fun-filled night of renaming directories and rebuilding trees. As long as the files are there, and named, I'm happy.

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**UPDATE: Congrats to Jeciimd for taking down the Big Game. He has now pretty much guaranteed he will have a much better ROI than the first one, and not get harrassed for always pointing and not cashing. Nicely done.

It also helps a bit that both Tripjax (2nd) and The Goat cashed as well. Glad my chips worked out.

A Quandry

As is known, BBTwo kicks off on Sunday with Don's Big Game. I am faced with a dilemma. I'm out tonight, I'm busy tomorrow building computers and installing software, and on Sunday I have a live tournament at 3pm that could conceivably go until 7 or 8. I don't yet have a $75 token, and it seems unlikely that I'll be able to play for one before Sunday rolls around. I've already invested $26-and-change into token attempts, with one bubble to the desired token.

So, what's a guy to do? I imagine that by the time I get home tonight, I'll either be drunk or exhausted or both, which does not bode well for playing ability. I might be able to squeeze in a game tomorrow night, or Sunday morning (like I'll be awake). I'm actually pretty happy that I haven't reloaded at Tilt in months, but buying in directly would drop my small roll there to dangerously low. I can easily reload, but I'd rather try and actually make this poker habit profitable.

Oh, who am I kidding? If I don't token in, I'll be buying in. I'll just have to win the thing, build up the roll to a level that can pay for the whole BBT, and get that TOC spot out of the way quickly. Maybe combine it with a juicy live score and make it a truly profitable day.