1 in 12 shot, I like my odds!

Well I qualified for the $1K WSOP ME satellite on my first try. Here are a few random pics, with just some random comments

During the first few hours it was pretty much raise or fold for me. I busted the last 2 people before the final table so as you can see I had a comfortable 2nd place in chips.

The chip leader had been uber aggressive post flop. On this hand he smooth called my raise in the cutoff and then lead out on the flop. I think I actually may have been ahead but I chose to wait for a better spot.

The hand below the button raised and I put them on a steal, so I re-raised and he called. The call screamed weakness to me, so I assumed my top pair on the flop was good. I bet enough to commit him and as you can see I was basically drawing dead on the flop. Bad read by me but I still had 20x the blinds.

Here was the hand I decided to go with. Given the uber aggressiveness of the small blind I didn't think twice about getting it all in preflop. He did have a better hand than I gave him credit for but fortunately the Queens held.

The hand below I think I might have played different but my thoughts at the time were this. I have a chance to take someone out for only about 20% of my stack. The guy had just lost the majority of his stack a few hands earlier and could be pushing with complete air, in which the majority of the time I am a 60/40 or even a 80% against a lower pair. As you can see I had to suck out and we were on the bubble.

This was the final hand, I raised and he pushed preflop. I was willing to gamble since I had really big stack. I figured I was racing and with a 40X the blinds even after the call I was willing to take my chances.

Hopefully I can seal the deal tonight and head back to the big show

Back to the Future

Ok I am now Back to The Future. I don't know if anyone still checks here or not, but that doesn't matter. The reason I started this blog was for self growth. Growth in poker, job, ect.. While I definitely grew, I regressed even further. Especially in poker. (We can get in the non poker growth/regressions later)

I achieved goals that I never thought I would, I also made the most basic mistakes that signified how little I had learned.

For me poker is a DEMON,

I feel like I can control it and even master it but it pushes me to brink of obsession.

So I start over again and go back to the future. I have set a goal to go back to Vegas for the big one. I want to play like I was playing when I won (at least play online that way) my seat.

I have already registered for several of the Thursday $1K WSOP satellites, and I plan on playing in some the BBT3 events starting tonight with M00KIE.

One Hand

In every poker tournament there is usually "one hand" that defines your fate, good or bad. The good hand can be getting someone to commit themselves to TPTK when you flopped a set, or when you totally misread your opponent but go runner, runner for the suckout. If it is the bad hand it doesn't have to be the bustout hand and it doesn't have to necessarily be a bad beat, just a hand that eventually lead to your demise.

Yesterday in the FTP 100 WSOP ME, I got off to a good start. I flopped a set within the first 5 hands and played it to perfection with a hyper aggressive player who bet enough to pot commit himself but somehow managed to laydown an allin check raise by me on the turn with the pot laying him 4:1.

I also flopped a boat but couldn't get the same hypo to bite, and got several mid to big pairs. The first hour was pretty good and I was in the top 25% of chip leaders.

Sometime during the second hour my table broke and I was moved to a different table with one of the chipleaders. The average chipstack was may 4.5K this person had almost 30K and was on my left three people away. This guy was limp/calling every hand, calling any bets on the flop and betting enough to put the person all in on the turn. So needless to say I was not getting to see many flops but was still in top 50% of chips. It was about 15 minutes till the 2nd break when the "one hand" that defined my tournament played out. I was in the SB with a 4h6h and $6K in chips, the Monster Stack decided that he would not play in MP and 4 people limped I called and we saw a flop five handed. The flop was 4s8d6d, now I have bottom 2 and I am first to act. With all the possible draws there is no need to get cute, I over bet the pot $1200 into $1000 pot and get smooth called in 2 places. The turn was the ugliest card I could have ever seen.

I am not going to go broke with 2 pair when both a flush draw and straight draw just completed. I have no choice but to check fold and watch 1/3 of my chips get shipped. I didn't tilt necessarily, but I just somehow felt that this was an omen. The next hand I pick up an AJ on the button, I make a 3x raise not realizing "Monster Stack" had limped UTG, he calls and we see XXX flop rainbow and Monster checks, what do you do? Now I have $4.5K which is avg, there is $4K in the pot, If I check I am dead even if an ace comes because I he could have anything, so I decided that I was going to throw out a Cbet bluff that looked like I wanted a call and would pot commit me of 2.5K. I felt like I had to gain information and this was the only way I could. Monster stack goes into the tank and lets his timer run down and then even uses his time extension for a little more theatrics before re raising me just enough to set me in. Now his performance convinced me I was drawing dead to either a set or AA and I laid my hand down getting 4:1, maybe it was a bad lay down but I still had a couple chips. I busted out shortly later when my KQ ran into AK on K high board.

I don't know how I feel about my performance, I am disappointed but not defeated. See ya at the MATH tonight.

O'fer

O'fer 3 this week in the BBT events. I must admit Bayne_S is putting on clinic, I am not conceding yet, but man his performance has been impressive. As for me, Mookie and MATH I was pleased with the way I played but the cards didn't go my way. That's Poker!

As for my performance in the Riverchasers, lets just say it is damn near impossible to play in a live tournament and online at the same but I tried last night. Busto in fifteen minutes in the Rivershasers, took 2nd out of 30 in the live $50 tourney.

Wish me luck I am playing in FullTilt's (Bonus Code OSU) 100 seat ME Give Away this weekend since I qualified for it almost 3 months ago and hopefully can snag my 2nd seat. Lord know my BR could use the $12k.

Have a great weekend and to all the dads out there enjoy your day but mostly enjoy your kids.

Weekend Update for 6-9-07/Goals for the Week

Played a little this weekend with no good results. Here are the lowlights.

In $15K Silver Iron Man Freeroll I lost to TPTK, we he open shoved 7x the pot on Jd8c6d flop with 2 diamonds, I had Ad8d and called with what I thought was 14 outs twice but realized I only had 11 outs. Hindsight bad call by me but I stuck with my read and went with it.

Won a MTT satellite into the $50 Super for the $400K. I really like this tourney since it offers a 1 in 4 shot into the $400K. Well no excuses, I blew it. I finished about 100 short of the payday when I probably could have folded my way into. I didn't play for the prize and I should know better then to try to play big stack poker in these push monkey type tourneys. So no $400K for me.

As for my Goals for Last week let recap

• Apologize to Waffles for the Riverchasers Tirade -- CHECK
• Make the Points in Both BBT Tournaments this Week -- CHECK
• Final Table on the BBT Tourney -- CLOSE BUT NOT REALLY SEE MATH RECAP
• Win a BBT Tourney -- HAHA
• Finish Reading FullTilt Tournament Guide -- DIDN'T GET TO READ MUCH THIS WEEK SO 1/2 WAY THERE
• Walk with the Family in the Evenings -- SOME BUT NOT ENOUGH

I give myself about a C on the goals report card. I will try to finish up the uncompleted goals and add a few more.

• Make the Points in all three BBT Tournaments this Week
• Final Table a BBT Tourney
• Win a BBT Tourney
• Finish Reading FullTilt Tournament Guide
• Walk with the Family in the Evening
• Win 2nd Seat on FullTilt in the 100 WSOP ME Giveaway on Sunday

In the words of Curley -- "If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seeds"

See ya tonight at the MATH

OMG!!! and That is Just Wrong Wednesday

First of all head of to king of luck blog and congratulate him on a sick run this week. Who else can turn his last two $26 tokens into $12K Main Event Seat, $5K Donkey Fest MTT Win and $1.5K 5th place. Congrats Chad! I think I speak for the rest of us that are non-enchanted by saying we hate you. : )

Here is a question for you who is the bigger donkey in the following hand. Let me give you a little background. 4 handed Fulltilt $75 satellite to the Thursday $1k ME, only the winner gets the seat. I had double up through the donkey about 20 hands early when my JJ flopped a set and turned the boat against his trip aces, so I have a decent image at the table. The donkey limps the SB fold and I mm in the BB and am dealt the "The Hammer", what do you do? You play em like Aces! So promptly pop it to $420, tardboy smooth calls.

The flop JsKcJd and I lead out with a pot sized bet that is over half his stack and he thinks, and calls. The Turn is Ac and I bet the exact amount to set him in and he insta calls and proudly flips .....................

A effn 10c5c ohh but they were sooted. He called off 1/2 stack on the flop with a 10 high. And then won the effn pot with a 10 high. After the pot he berated me for pushing with the hammer claimed he a soooo many outs that he had to call, yada yada. So I ask you who is the bigger donkey me or him. Oh by the way he won the seat.

Much like how the donkey above played his hand I will aimlessly and without any rhyme our reason post this weeks pictorial of the wild, weird and wrong. Enjoy!

Dont forget about the M00K tonight, I will be there and will hopefully pass the angry little blogger in the BBT standings.

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