Bodonkey Goes Hee-Haw

So yea, I finally got to burst my Bodonkey cherry last night, and boy, did it feel good. I'm not even sore this morning, though I'm not sure what the donkey did to give me this crick in my neck.

Anyway, let me just say that this was the best played blogger tournament I've ever had the pleasure of participating in. How well played was it? Out of 30 runners, only three headed to the rail in the first hour (one was a QQ < KK AIPF hand). With 3000 starting chips, and opening blinds of 5/10, the structure allowed for lots of play, and players seemed patient enough to not openraise with a hammer just to get to show their cards.

As for myself, I drifted mostly down in the first hour, after having to fold several marginal-to-decent pockets to reraises on flop bets on scary boards. I was able to chip up some in hour 2, and doubled up when I was able to induce a call of an overbet for value of AA by AT on a Txx flop, and things were solid. Unfortunately, during hour 3, I was mostly card-dead, and three times had to fold to resteals when I held hands with little showdown value and a stack with little remaining fold equity, and rereraises would have committed me to being all in. As a result, Once we got down to the final table, I was 7th or 8th in chips, where I saw ATo on the button, and my shove was called by AK in the big blind, and IHGN in 8th.

But this being the Bodonkey, 8th was good for a return of my buyin -- you gotta love that. In a tournament of 30 runners, 5 got cash money AND $109 in tournament buyin credit, and the next five got their buyins back, meaning a full 1/3 of the field got paid. Bless the Bodonkey, and thanks to Smokkee for putting this series together.

I'd also like to tip my hat to PokerPeaker, Jordan, Blinders (had no idea you were "What's the Nuts"), WWonka (again, no idea MoFo69 was you), and Chayse Tilton (nice to make your acquaintance) for cashing in the Bodonkey and playing so well.

Smokkee's got a big announcement coming soon with regard to a full-on tournament series, replete with a Tournament of Champions -- I can't wait for this to start. I know it can be tough for some to put $$$ on Bodog, but then fuck it, we don't get to play that ATM known as PartyPoker, so pffffft.

I'm really looking forward to this tournament series, because unlike the recent blogger series at FullTilt, this one will be one tournament, one night a week, and thus, something I should be able to manage to enter on a consistent basis, provided I kill off playing bar poker on Tuesdays. I can only imagine what awaits the TOC champion -- given Bodog's history of overlays, I suspect it may be something truly cool, like a WSOP Main Event buyin, or something. Beyond that, the play level was better than any $10+1 event I play at any other site, and that really means a lot to me.

Now, if I can just figure out why I'm unable to chat as an observer in Bodog...