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07.11.06
In, Out, Nobody Gets Hurt
posted by Absinthe | 4:53 AM
A confession: I was megatilted after the blogger tourney. A full report on all the agonizing whys will be forthcoming (and, like most tilt episodes1 it was nobody’s fault but my own), but suffice it to say the combination of minor burnout and my tourney meltdown of near-Matusowian proportions knocked me a little off kilter.
I didn’t immediately log onto my favorite poker sites upon my return, figuring that getting a little head-space would be good for me. Didn’t even fire up FTP until Monday night, when I decided to take a stab at the 8k while Kim and I started churning through our TiVo backlog.
So that went okay. The more I play these, though, the more I realize how damn lucky you’ve got to get. Moments of note at the final table:
Six-handed, I raise from SB with A9o. BB jams. I call off my stack getting 2:1 and he has JJ. Ace comes out. The next hand I get KK vs his shortstacked QQ. He does not suck out.
Five-handed, I raise from button with KJo, BB moves all-in, I am getting the 2:1 I require for donkey calls in this situation but BB’s moves to date suggest that he has me crushed, though I do have him covered. I go into the tank for as long as I can. SB types “call” into the chatbox. I fold.
Very next hand, I raise from CO with AQo after typing “you’re not in the hand, SB username redacted.” He moves all-in. “I am now” is his response. I am getting the 2:1 I require for a donkey call and do. He has 99. Q high flop and he does not improve. “Horrible call” is his parting shot.
Four-handed, I have AA in the SB, shortstacked button moves all-in, I realize how goddamn easy poker is and shove to isolate since BB is also a big stack. Button has KJ, picks up a J on the turn but misses the river.
Three-handed, I’ve become the shortstack (but not by much), button raises, I move in with AJo, he has AQo, I resign myself to third place. Turn gives me a flush draw, river J is good enough. Button is down to 30K or so at… 4000/8000? Something like that. He triples up the next hand when he turns trip K’s to pull ahead of my AQs (AK5 flop), and eventually will take second.
Three-handed, numerous times I fold craptacular hands from the SB and see the BB show a big ace, king or pocket pair. My uncanny ability to smell pending disaster is deemed remarkable by my opponents. “I have special powers” is my response.
I was well behind in chips when it got to heads-up, but managed to get my opponent to stack off with K8 vs. my AKo (all-in preflop) and pull ahead. I offered a deal shortly thereafter because the blinds were getting crazy high – it was 3-handed for a long, long time and though the Ms weren’t tiny and I had a pretty good read, I still didn’t feel like flipping a coin for a grand or so.
Thanks to Geek, Gnome and High Plains Drifter for sweating me. Especially Coco, who did the hard mathy stuff for me when my brain was dying and shrewdly pointed out my error in, uh, accidentally offering my opponent more than he actually deserved. Probably helped that he had a piece of my action.
- Except for the ones that aired on ESPN. [back]
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Topics: Poker | 5 Comments »
July 11, 2006 at 5:37 AM
Congrats, dude! Well done!
July 11, 2006 at 8:41 AM
When are you going to give yourself a little more credit?
Nice job!
July 11, 2006 at 9:42 AM
I knew it was your night! You are my tourney hero!
factually,
facty
July 11, 2006 at 12:46 PM
Congratulations! It was great to meet you in the flesh on the weekend.
July 11, 2006 at 5:03 PM
Congrats!