Nice day at the tables (and coulda been soooo much more)

First off, I apologize for the distinct lack of screenshots today. Honestly, I just didn't think I'd last long enough to worry about them, and even so, there weren't that many actual specific hands of interest.

Anyway, being 100+ ass hot degress in Colorado, I thought it would be a nice day to fire up ye olde poker machine, and give a run at my new favorite tournament, the weekly PokerStars $100k guarantee -- which is actually a $175k tournament capped at 17500 runners. Yup, that's right -- well over 17,000 donkeys, all fighting for a piece of the pie. At $10+1, it attracts the low buy in fools like myself, and the play is often freeroll-worthy. Just before this, I joined about 580 other runners in a $1 tourney over at FTP, just to give myself a few more hands to see.

Long story short, I Final Tables the $1 tourney -- 5th for something like $29 dollars. SHIPPIT! Around that time, we're into the 2nd hour of the madhouse. It is truly amazing to see how fast players can fall. 17,500 runners, and we're on the money bubble (2,650 paid spots) at 2nd break. It was around this time when I caught my one and only break (um, I mean major suckout), when I ran an A into a bigger A, but board paired twice on the river to chop a full house. I would have gone home just into the cash, but fortunately was saved for a while.

Late in the 3rd hour, I witnessed one of the sickest beats I'd ever seen. Stack sizes are getting pretty healthy, and the table chipleader (with around 100k, and blinds maybe 800/1600?) makes a standard 3x raise in early position. Mid position player with about 60-70k goes over the top all in, and gets a call. Original raiser has AQ. All in has KK. Flop comes JTT. Turn comes T. River comes...

...case T. So sick. I really felt bad for the guy, be way ahead on flop, turn a boat, and lose quads to higher kicker on river. Wow.

Anyway, as for myself, I managed to pour it on for a bit, and made it to the 4th hour, and the 5th. Monies started going up here, and I had visions of my first $1k payday in about 18 months in my head. Any finish 7th or higher becomes my highest score ever, and 1st was good for $19,000.

Down to about 60 players, and I'm playing aggressive. Blinds are 30,000/60,000, with antes either 2000 or 3000, and any move here is AI, including my button steal with T4 offsuit two hands before., from blinds on my left who were truly tight. I felt if I could double up once, I'd be able to truly go deep (as if besting 17440 of 17500 wasn't deep enough). Still, I had to be careful. Noted 2+2er BadgerPro was on my right, with about 2,000,000 in chips, but there wasn't a runaway chip leader.

So early position raises to 240,000, and I look down to find AKo in mid position. Early raiser has me covered. I could call and see a flop, but if I'm already behind in a race position, do I want to risk running all my chips into the flopped set that always gets me? No, I came to play, and I'm probably ahead. I'm either slightly behind, or way ahead at this point, as I don't put this particular Nederlandse player on AA or KK so I shove.

Too bad for me, my opponent called time to think about it, because when he called with A5o, I knew I was toast, when he caught his 3 outer on the turn, and IGHN in 58th spot.

PokerStars Game #11081026536: Tournament #55537478 $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXVII (30000/60000) - 2007/07/22 - 20:16:51 (ET)
Table '55537478 276' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Mondogarage (529472 in chips)
Seat 2: psidamage (872716 in chips)
Seat 3: narnuce (362872 in chips)
Seat 4: Mr. Sparco (1010172 in chips)
Seat 5: Heros_Fan (1191698 in chips)
Seat 6: Pascal@NL (2335150 in chips)
Seat 7: Mezosius (1434096 in chips)
Seat 8: Riley1_777 (1087008 in chips)
Seat 9: BadgerPro (1256280 in chips)
Mondogarage : posts the ante 6000
psidamage: posts the ante 6000
narnuce: posts the ante 6000
Mr. Sparco: posts the ante 6000
Heros_Fan: posts the ante 6000
Pascal@NL: posts the ante 6000
Mezosius: posts the ante 6000
Riley1_777: posts the ante 6000
BadgerPro: posts the ante 6000
narnuce: posts small blind 30000
Mr. Sparco: posts big blind 60000

Holecards:
Dealt to Mondogarage [ ]
FOLD Heros_Fan
FOLD Pascal@NL
RAISE Mezosius, 120000 to 180000
FOLD Riley1_777
FOLD BadgerPro
>>>Pascal@NL said, "ja is goed kom je dan ook???"
RAISE Mondogarage , 343472 to 523472 and is all-in
FOLD psidamage
FOLD narnuce
FOLD Mr. Sparco
CALL Mezosius, 343472
>>>Pascal@NL said, "ja hoor dan geef ikwel een rondje"

Flop:
[ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]
>>>Pascal@NL said, "oei"

River:
[ ] [ ]

Showdown:
Mezosius: shows [ ] (two pair Aces and Fives)
Mondogarage : shows [ ] (a pair of Aces)

>>>BadgerPro said "ugh gg"
Mezosius collected 1190944 from pot
>>>Mezosius said "srry"



So sick. Anyway, this is still my new favorite tournament, and my $10 became $260, so I can afford a few more runs at it. But still....ohhhh sooooo close....

As an aside, damn, there were a lot of Dutchmen at that table!

Ye Poker Gods and Their Sick Sixth Sense of Humor

So, on Sunday, I'm kicking around in the PokerStars $10+1 $100,000 guarantee, which was capped at 15,000 donkey for $150,000, when I decided to 2- and 3- table tourneys, to give me a bit more play. I don't get how folks can grind eight or nine tables at once, but running a couple tables is really kids play.

However, that sometimes leaves the door open for sick, twisted events such as this one. I have found the quality of play in your typical $5 or $10 buy-in tourney to be, really, no better at all than your average freeroll. I suppose this should be an obvious conclusion, but nothing brought it home to me more than on Sunday.

While I was going out of the $150k tourney by having a fonkey with pocket 8s call my AA all the way down on a two face card board, only to hit trips on the river, I was doing this in a 2,700 player freeroll:



Of course, the difference between winning this 300 table donkfest versus winning the $150k could best be summed up here:


$15 v $18,000? Naturally.

Still, it's nice to know the cards can be kind once in a while.

Anyway, speaking of donkeys, go over to Lucko's blog and wish him continued good fortune today, as he takes his stab at Day 2B of this year's Main Event, and may the deck hit you upside the head.

In the Summertime, and the livin' is...

rather la vida loca. The Main Event is going on, and I'm not there. Following the updates at Pokernews has been fascinating, though. Lots of top names out already, and there's two Day 1s left.

Anyway, my recent Blackhawk trip didn't turn out so great. Since it was the 1st of the month, the Gilpin changed up their tourney schedule. Instead of a $70 for 7,000 tourney, it was a $60+60 tourney for 6,000 chips. Not nearly the same value, though hardly a turbo style. Yet, because there were seven full tables, they reduced levels to 15 minutes from 20 (new policy for their noon tourneys), and it was pretty much go time. I managed to win a couple of pots early, with pretty standard pre-flop bets.

Unfortunately, after a bit of card death, I was down to about 7x the BB, where I woke up in the small blind with AQs. As it was folded to me, I didn't want to simply shove to take the 800 in chips (blinds were 400/800, and I started the hand with about 5700), so I min-raised to 1600. On a K-x-x board, my C-bet was raised all in, and after my fold, the BB shows KQo. Good read, but lost over half my chips. The BB (who ended up in the money by the end) said he would have folded to a preflop all in, but I still think I made the right play in the spot at the time. I'm always interested in hearing comments, though.

Anyway, I'm out an orbit later when in the BB with ATo, UTG raises enough to put me all in, and shows A7s. I'm feeling good until the 7-9-7 flop, and IGHN. Ick. But the tourney was fun, and I'm feeling okay about my game. Okay enough to buy into the new $10+1 $100k guarantee at Stars today. Capped at 15,000 players, and with 10 minute levels, this should be a donkeyfest that far out donkeys the nightly $26k at Full Tilt. We'll see.

Good luck to all bloggers in the Main Event!