Final Table Riverchasers, Sort of....

It was a fun night playing Riverchasers last night, a tournament that lived up to its name. I played tight early, but after Katitude showed the hammer and a few other bluffs get shown, I realized that I would have to take my shots with hands I might not sometimes. For the most part it worked out, although twice I was hurting badly for chips, and got MASSIVE suckouts. I should have been out in about 35th, when I had 1,200 chips and pushed a huge gutterball that I knew I was behind on, but had tried to push someone off their hand (like that is possible) and ended up being committed to the pot. I runner-runner the straight, and I am right back in it. When we get down to two table I am in the same position, and another lucky hit for me put me about 8th with 13 left. We are finally down to 10, and I get A9off in Early position, wiht just under 4,000 chips. Blinds are 1000/2000 at this point, or some other crazy amount. I raise with it, and get a reraise from the only stack at the table lower then me, and they the BIG stack caps it. At this point I figure I am beat, but if the big stack knocks both of us out, I get 9th instead of 10th. Or I could totally suckout on someone. My A9 vs AQ (other small stack) vs AK. K on the turn seals it for the big stack, and I go home with a "Final Table" even though I didnt play a hand at it. Oh, and almost doubled my money with the $19.50 payout.

Maybe a Bracelet Race tonight, and possible a shot at the 32K. On Kat's Donkarama, or all three. Who knows?

Playing Better

Just a short post today. Played a good bit lately, have been working on improving my play by being a more Tight Aggressive player, and it has seemed to work. Did fairly well in the MATH, finishing 13th of 70, and did OK in the Skills Game, getting a few timely suckouts to finish 26th of 70. When I finally went to bed Hoy had a big chip lead with 3 left, have to check out his blog to see if he won his TOC seat or now. Most happy with my play in the Bodonkey, which I have played horribly lately. I played tight, but managed to double up early with a flopped nut straight in the big blind to knock up TripJax, and later knocked out another player with top set. Had the chip lead early, but could not find anything to play in the middle stages, and finally got knocked out in 11th, just short of the T$.

Probably taking Wednesday off, but will hopefully be playing Riverchaser, as I have been playing Limit quite well lately.

Playing with Tournament Dollars

Played a little bit on Sunday, first tried to take $109 tournament dollars and turn it into a ME satellite seat. To say I was card dead would be the understatement of the year, as the best hand I got was pocket 9's twice, and both times the flop came with 3 overcards to my pair. I lasted an impressive 45 hands, winning only 2, and seeing only 5 flops. Being that card dead I still managed to outlast 37 other donkeys. I then took my other Tier Two token, and played a satellite into the $750 Guarentee (which I already knew I would cash out of if I won it). With 31 places paying, I was in a world of trouble when I was 42nd of 42 left. This went for a while, and everyone started playing tight when we got to 35th. I started pushing my good hands, stealing blinds usually twice each time around the board. This eventually put me up to 25th with 32 left, so I just sat on my chips and waited until the last person finally got bounced. Another $216 in touranment dollars, so that runs me to about $350 now, enough for one Bracelet Race and almost enough for a 2nd one.

Don't Let Success Go To Your Head AKA Crash and Burning MATH

Had a fantastic run on Sunday and early Monday. Played four tournaments. First was the Satellite into the $750 Guarentee. Played very well early, built a huge chip stack, and then just played super tight to make sure I didnt spew off chips and lose the seat. Sure enough, I got the $216 seat, with I cashed out for Tournament Dollars to use soon in a Bracelet Race tournament. I then jumped into the $3,000 Guarentee, which was limit hold'em. Despite having a crazy aggressive player to my left, I stayed at or above the average stack until the very end, when I finally got down to 5 players and became the short stack. My push into the very same maniac ended up in his favor, but I still cashed for $225. A two table Sit N Go for a $26 token was successful, if uneventful. Finally I played a $15 super satellite for the satellite into next weeks $750 Guarentee, and again started hot early and easily got the win.

Then came Monday at the Hoy Not much to tell, as 6 hands in I limp in with J10o, and end up flopping the nut straight. A raise ahead of me gets reraised by me, for about 1/3 our stacks. With two spades on the board I thought this would be enough to discourage and flush draws. Sure enough, the Ace of Spade coms on the turn. I know in my mind he likely has the flush, and probably with the King of Spades in his hand. He goes all in, and I talk myself out of my read, telling myself I have been running good, he is just trying to bluff me off the pot. I call, and sure enough he turns over the King and Queen of Spades, and I am drawing dead.

Lesson Learned.

BBT 3 and Non-Bloggers

I have played in about 1/2 of the BBT 3 tournaments, and I have noticed like many others that there are a lot of non-bloggers in these tournaments. I don't really have a problem with this, it adds more to the prize fund for all of us, and honestly the bloggers play against each other so often that I think it helps all our games to have people in these tournaments that we dont know how they play. For me, it gives more of a opportunity to learn to read how people play, instead of depending on the fact that I know who is agressive and who is a rock because I have played with them 50 times already. With that said, my major problem with SOME of these players is that they honestly dont know how to act. Sitting and watching people talk a bunch of crap for no reason, just trying to start an arguement, is stupid. I finally got fed up with it last night during the Mookie. I started rough, getting hit hard one a hand I was sure I was ahead on to start, but by the river and the all-in bet against me, I was sure I was done. Tread water for a while, get some hands, and finally I got AA to triple up back over my starting stack of 1,500. A little more time goes by and some good play by others and bad luck with flops gets me back down to 1,200. I find AK in the big blind, and short stack (Non-Blogger) pushes over the top. He was one of the people I had hit earlier with my AA to triple up, and I felt good about my cards, so I push over the top. He calls, and he has 4c5c. Of course the 5 hits on the flop, and I dont improve, and I am crippled to under 200 chips. How the hand played out I dont have a problem with. However, very quickly in the chat all of a sudden he types in "Don't play that kind of crap with me" or something to that effect. Seriously?? You think if you just massively sucked out you could just shut the hell up and take your chips. I didnt even bother to deal with it anymore, pushing the rest of my stack in the next hand, and losing it (I had a fairly good hand in the small blind). To show the opposite, in the Dookie, I am top 5 in chips with 11 left, and have AA with three hearts. LJ is to my right, and she raises, I re-raise all-in, she calls, and flips up KKxx. King hits on the flop and I am totally crippled again. Does LJ rub it in my face? No, she even acknowledged that it was sick that she hit her 2-outer. And her and other bloggers as always acknowledge (and others when they get knocked out) that we played a good game (even if we sometimes don't!). I guess all I am really saying, is if Al, Hoy, Chad, Mookie and Don have done all they have to get these tournaments together, and Al working with Full Tilt to get such a great prize package, and then non-bloggers are allowed to play (which I dont have a problem with), then they can be a little be less of an asshole sometimes. And we all know, my little episode here is minor compared to other stuff that has happened during the BBT 3.

Ok, off my soapbox now. Live poker (maybe) on Friday. And what the hell did Full Tilt do to their Bracelet Races? These things are a shadow of what they have been last year.