Vegas Baby!!!!!!!

I am heading to the Main Event!!!! First things first I want to thank all you that railed me, I don't want to mention names because I will probably leave someone out. But thank you, thank you!

Now here are few key hands of my Fonkey Poker in this here Main Event Qualifier.

My first table had some playas at it. A quick search of thepokerdb (stats from Jan 1, 2006 thru today) has this to say about my table.

• Bonaparte - First thing you notice about him is the dam Gold Football Player Avatar that has aFTOPS #1, and $93,429 in winnings

• Pechorin - $56,146 in winnings

• BadBoyKilla - $27,038 in winnings

• MindFreak001 - $7,140 in winnings

• Scalpelpls - $1174 in winnings

• Sapster - $66,796 in winnings

• Horryclutch - $66,461 in winnings

• Jokenfold - $2110 in winnings

Not your run of the mill donkeys. I started to hear in my head if you can't spot the sucker you are the sucker. So I decide I would play tight until I get a feel for the table. Yea right!! Four hands into the tourney in LP I look down and find the powerful of A10 off. So I make it 60 to go, SB just calls, BB folds. Flop comes down 9510 rainbow, and SB fires 1/2 pot bet. Now my reads are this guy is firing with Air or Has a big Ace or over pair, so I decide I need to know where I am at and raise it $200, SB calls. Now I feel that this guy has a big A or on a straight draw, Turn is a 5 and Pairs the board. Now I still like my hand, reasoning is Pocket 5s 9s or 10s with an aggressive player is going to re raise either on the flop to protect against the flop. Now there is $540 in the pot he check calls my bet of $320 (I just don't put him on monster but I am watching with one eye open) . Pot is now $1180 and the river is another 9 (oh chit!) now he could have boated with any 9 or any 5 all are definite possibilities and he insta fires $800. Now I let the timer run all the way down to the last tick, in fact I had the mouse on the fold button the whole time but something didn't seem right, just smelled fishy and I think it was the way and the amount he bet. The insta bet was like he typed the amount in before the river card was even dealt and the amount left him enough that all he need to was double back up to be in the hunt (also the case for me if I call and loose). I reluctantly call and was spot on with my read.

Booyah I am feeling pretty good about myself and have increased my stack by 50% and leading the tourney. In fact I lead this tourney 5 different times at various stages.

Second key hand was hand #152 and I woke up with AA in the BB, folded to SB who calls. The SB was the chipleader and very very aggressive, so I play them strong and raise the 3 x to $840 and he calls. Flop comes 823 rainbow and he checks, and I fire out a pot sized bet of 1800 hoping he thinks it is a CB. Right on cue he re-raises me all in and I insta call he turns over this mighty hand and types I guess I miss judge your hand. He-Haw

Now this happened with about 40-50 left and I am cloud nine and thinking I got this in the bag, no way I am not making the final table. Now there is a fine line between confidence and cockiness, I experienced the later just a mere 25 hands latter.

I am in the steal seat sitting about 3 rd in chips with 15K and I find 77 and make a 3x raise, the BB re-raises leaving 1/2 half his stack (which I interpreted as re-steal) so I donked an allin bet only thinking that he was re-stealing. BIG BIG Mistake, and one I chastised myself for along time. He has AK and as you can see



dumb dumb play, one that could have and almost did cost the whole tourney.

This left me below average with about 27 to go and blinds climbing. I go card dead for several orbits. I don't think I played a hand for what seemed like an eternity. So with a M of less than 10 I am now starting to feel the pressure and think I am going to blow it again. I know I have to at least stay ahead or even with the blinds so it is push and pray time (close your eyes but listen and hope that you hear silence for 16 seconds).

The next few orbits I push hands like AQ, AJ, 88 all from mid to late position and slowly chip up to an avg stack size. By doing this it allowed me start putting Fonkey Pressure on other players. I made them make decisions that would cost them their stacks (or a large portion of it) if they played a pot with me. Now I will push the edges with AK, AQ, QQ, JJ, 910 but I also push my monsters as well (see above) and putting pressure on people is a delicate science and sooner or later someone is going to either play back at you or try to beat you at your on game. I also know that in order to win one of these tournies you are going to have to win a race or two. So far I was 0 for 1 in the races. And I got myself into the key hand of the tourney on hand #226. We are down to the final 12 I wake with AQ and my old nemesis Mr. AK open raised UTG 3x for 1800. Now 6 handed I put his range on anything from AK to 22 but I don't put him on AA or KK (just my thought process) . Now MR AK has me out chipped by only 3.5K, and If I re-raise I am going to be pot committed to an allin so I decide to make him wake up with a big hand if he is going to play and besides I am happy this dead money in the pot. I come over the top and he thinks for a little while and calls with 1010 (not something I am calling almost all my stack with but that is just me) and flop is a beautiful 97Q rainbow and the turn brings a 6 (why does the turn always give your opponents more out) for gut draw for and the river is the beautiful unnecessary Ad



This hand propelled into the final table in about the 4th chip spot. Now with 72 runners that left 7 people to get paid, but only 6 got the seat and 7th gets a mere 2K which is only double the entry but still nothing to sneer at. So naturally I tighten up just a bit and start to feel the effects of the blinds. I slipped to about 6 position and was determined to not let things get away. It was shortly after that this one hand in particular came up. The hand that had everyone talking was my dramatic EP raise and smooth call of BB re-raise. The came J87 rainbow and I push all in after BB checks. He thinks for every and claims he laid down KK, I say bullchit to that, After that move people stayed out of my way.

It takes about 30 hands to bust the money bubble and now I am at least guaranteed a payday, but I want that seat dammit. We played an hour 7 handed and I was to tight. It took a comment from Waffles (he said his grandma could knock this table off a hand) to finally wake me and make me realize that I still wasn't guaranteed a seat and there was still a lot of poker to be played. So play I did I raise and re raised 8 of the next 20 pots to become the chipleader for the 4th time in the tourney. By playing my game it allowed me to accumulate the chips necessary to eventual make the call of the bubble boy without risking more than 1/3 of my stack. And yes I made my one and only suckout in dramatic fashion. My 1010 vs the bubble boys AA, (oh did I mention the 2nd biggest stack also called he only had QQ) a beautiful 10 on the flop sealed it and I am going to Sin City.

Once again thanks for all the support and kind words of congratulations. I really appreciated it.

Shawn