Ho Hum May

Nothing too exciting for the month of May... My bread and butter game (SNGs) continue to struggle even though I am stuck down at $6 Turbo land. More on that in a short bit.

Today starts the 2007 WSOP and there is always a bit of letdown knowing that I won't be there to play or watch. Of course, I envious of the many people making the trek down there. As usual, I will just have to live through the words of Pauly and CC and the crew.

One thing that I am going to do is play some fantasy poker. Basically, you pick 15 people per event divided by 3 tiers (A, B and C). Ah heck... here is the rules from website..

Each Event, the challenge is to put together a 15 player poker team that will earn you the most fantasy dollars in that Event, not necessarily the entire World Series of Poker*. Your roster for each event will include 15 poker players consisting of:
five "A" Players (earn triple the winnings in fantasy dollars)
five "B" players (earn double the winnings in fantasy dollars)
five "C" players (earn actual winnings in fantasy dollars) You can re-select your entire roster prior to each event or let'em ride. Note: Just remember that if you don't submit new picks, your most recent lineup will be used for the next event.

I have even set up a Group called "Poker Bloggers" if anybody is interested in joining to gain bragging rights. The password is "blogsaregay".

So far, I'm in 1st place... oh.. only 1 person in there. Feel free to pass info around.

You can get to the challenge by clicking here . If that doesn't work, just click on the cashier within Full Tilt and then go to My Promotions and at the bottom will be Fantasy Poker. I hope to see a few people in there.

Back to my SNG results. They looked something like this:

Games: 72
ITM: 36.11%
ROI: 17.69%

1st: 14 (19.44%)
2nd: 8 (11.11%)
3rd: 4 (5.56%)
4th: 9 (12.50%)
5th: 8
6th: 6
7th: 15
8th: 4
9th: 4

A couple of things stick out. I'm getting my fair share of 1sts. Not saying much due to the $6 level; but I'll take it.

The other thing is my highest count of finishes was way down in 7th with over 20% finishing there. Wow, how does that happen. Sure, I'm aware of plenty of bad beats put on me early; but didn't know that many.

I'm going to really try an concentrate this month on tournies... both SNGs and the occasional MTT. Plus, for the first time in my life, I am going to really concentrate on studying. I'm committing myself to read some books this month. I've started on the First Harrington book. To force myself to read, I hope to put occasional reviews and/or thoughts of the part of the book that I am reading. I hope to have something up on the 1st half of HOH soon.

So, we will see how it goes. I doubt, I will document my SNG challenge as I have in the past; but I will probably post some occasional updates and hand reviews.

Have a good day!!!

7 Random Things

OK, OK.. I'll succomb to the to pressure. OK, no real pressure, but being a non-conformist, I held out as long as I could. Although, my biggest reason for not doing this is that I have led about the most boringst life that you can lead so not much to read here; but I was tagged by a couple of bloggers so I will go ahead and post a few random things about Willwonka.

1) I am a huge Dallas Cowboys football fan. I was actually born in Dallas but only lived there for 5 years where we then moved to Kansas City. We stayed there for only 3 years when we moved to St Louis. I have lived here ever since; but as they say, you can take the boy out of Texas, but you can never take the Texas out of the boy. I have a room dedicated solely to the Dallas Cowboys... ok, check that.. I had 2 daughters now which took away my Dallas Cowboys room; but the Dallas Cowboys ceiling fan remains in there. Like I said, I have two daughters. If I had a son, his name would have been Troy Daniel (for Troy Aikman and Danny White) and I would have called him Roger (for Roger Staubach); but that didn't work out and we had two girls. Their names are Landry and Lily which of course are named after famous Cowboys. I'm sure that you can figure it out. I'm excited for the future and have already bought a Tony Romo Jersey as I believe he is the man.

2) I have been married for almost 7 years which is truly a miracle that somebody could put up with me for that long. I was a little older when I got married (over 30); but Mrs Wonka was certainly worth the wait. We actually worked together for a little while before we started seeing each other. The office quasi frowned on inter-office type things so we didn't tell anybody. This went on for 11 months and 11 days before I popped the question which was done in a unique way. I am a huge Rocky Balboa fan (my wife wasn't) so we went on a vacation to DC/Philly/Atlantic City. While in Philly, I made arrangements to visit the Philadelphia Zoo to recreate the proposal that Rocky gave to Adrian in front of the tiger cage. The zoo was more than cooperative and they actually alerted the media and 4 TV stations and 2 newspapers were there to record the event. My wife had not seen Rocky II so she thought we were just seeing spots from the movie. Luckily, she said yes and that is how our office found out about us as we were on the St Louis News that night. A few people said that they basically fell out of bed because they couldn't believe it.

3) As I mentioned before, I am a huge football fan and played it from age 8 through High School. I had a few offers to walk on to small colleges but decided against it. To this day, that is one of my biggest regrets. Although at 6'2 210 pounds, I would have been killed, I would of had the time of my life. The regret was kind of doubled as I asked my dad years later if he was disappointed that I didn't at least try and he said yes. Part of the deal leads to my to my most embarrassing moment. OK, not really a moment; but embarassing fact maybe. I have never been able to bench press my weight. I'm just not sure how that is possible for as much as lifting as I did in High School; but it is what it is. To this day, I have never climbed a rope or pole. Just weird.

4) Religion or should I say Christiananity is very important to me. I was born and raised Souther Baptist and married a Catholic. We have both compromised and now go to an Evangelical Free church which is OK by me. To me, religion is not the important part. It is your faith and belief in the Bible that should set the standard for your life. I don't drink, nor smoke, no cuss (what do I do); but I obviously do gamble. So there is a fine line between my faith and the many vices that are out there today. To me, as long as you stay within the means (money) of your bankroll, gambling shouldn't interfere and it hasn't for me. The problem that I have is the time factor. I will agree that I spend too much time gambling (mostly poker) that could be used for more important things. My wife goes as far as to say that I'm addicted. Don't know about that; but it is worth noting.

5) Like I just said, I don't drink. I didn't drink at all in High School; but things were different in college For whatever reason, maybe being away from home or whatever; but I was definitely different there that I was at home. I only lasted one year in college before the money ran out. My parents made too much for loans but not enough to pay for college. I quit and went home and worked for 1 1/2 or so years. From there, I paid for my college which is one of my more prouder moments. You would think that since I was paying for it, I would have taken it more seriously; but noooo. I got caught in the college life. Nothing major; just partying too much and not paying enough attention to school. At the end of the day, my grade point average was at 2.499. I needed a 2.5 to be able to get my degree (in accounting). I tried everything that I could to get teachers to raise my grade. I even went to my golf class instructor which I took my last semester and tried to get him to give me extra credit which was warranted because I played plenty of golf; but never turned in scorecard for extra credit. Going from a B to an A in golf would have done the trick; but the instructor had already left for the semester and nobody would change it. I ended up taking some Income Tax class for two weeks in what they called a winter intercession class and that did the trick and I graduated.

6) I used to be a pretty big reader; but I was as slow as molasses. My favorite being Stephen King books. No doubt, my favorite book being "The Stand". Sort of related is that my favorite movie (besides Rocky and other Sylvestor Stallone movies such as First Blood) is Shawshank Redemption which of course is a Stephen King short story. So being a slow reader, I don't read much these days (besides blogs... lol). I have never read a poker pook in its entirety except for biography type books (Chris Moneymaker and Matt Matros); but hope to change that real soon. More on this subject in a few days.

7) and lastly, I think my best quality is my ability not to worry about things. As the Bible says in Matthew 6:34, "do not worry about tomorrow today as today will have enough trouble of its own" is kind of my life slogan. My wife is/was the exact opposite as they worried about everything. She has made great strides here and is able to cope with things much better.

So there you have it and there you are.

I'm sure that there is nobody left to tag so if you haven't been tagged and you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Have a good day!!!

Back to the Drawing Board

After a little success with some MTT with the Mook and a home game $350 win. I'm back to where I was before. Now with my puny amount of dollars on FTP, I am doing a little ladder challenge to build bankroll via SNGs... So right now with the roll hanging around $250 (mostly from Mook), I am back to $6.50 SNGs. First, let me say that it was a little hard a first to go back to $6.50 SNGs when I was used to do $50 or $33 dollar ones; but it is what it is. The thing that really helped me was that went back to the roots and remembered why I play online poker. For the fun of it. It's a hobby.

I've mentioned in other posts where I was going to see what my win percentage was when I got my money in the middle or how I fared when I got in as a favorite. Well, I still hope to do that and I have written a little Access query to help me with that; but it is still has some manual work to it so I will do that at some time. There is also an 2+2 article on this. A little too technical for me probably; plus I think you need SQL version of Poker Tracker which I have not done yet.

Instead, I am going to post the last hand 7 of the 8 tournies that I played in today. I was in the money for 2 of the 8 which luckily I won both of those.

Tourney #1

It is what it is. This one is on me. I should have been all in on the flop. Results in White underneath hand.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
4 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t1450
Button: t8230
SB: t2040
Hero: t1780


Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is BB with :kd :td
UTG folds, Button raises to t800, SB folds, Hero calls t400 (pot was t1400).


Flop: :9d :2d :ah (t1800, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t400, Hero calls t400 (pot was t2200).


Turn: :qh (t2600, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t400, Hero raises all-in t580, Button calls t180 (pot was t3580).


River: :ac (t3760, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: t3760)



Results:
Final pot: t3760
Hero showed Kd Td
Button showed Kh Qs showed Kh Qs


Tourney #2

Obviously a huge favorite when chips went in.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t40/t80
8 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t2290
UTG+1: t2070
Hero: t1495
MP2: t2345
CO: t1460
Button: t1645
SB: t525
BB: t1670


Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is MP1 with :ac :js
2 folds, Hero raises to t240, MP2 folds, CO calls t240 (pot was t360), Button calls t240 (pot was t600), SB folds, BB calls t160 (pot was t840).


Flop: :6h :5h :4d (t1000, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks, Button checks.


Turn: :ad (t1000, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero is all-in t1255, CO calls all-in t1220, 2 folds.
Uncalled bets: t35 returned to Hero.


River: :th (t3440, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t3440)



Results:
Final pot: t3440
Hero showed Ac Js
CO showed Ts Ah

Tourney #3

Another dominating hand down the tubes.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t120/t240
5 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t3425
CO: t3260
Button: t5280
SB: t210
Hero: t1325


Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is BB with :tc :as
2 folds, Button raises all-in t5280, SB folds, Hero calls all-in t1085.
Uncalled bets: t3955 returned to Button.


Flop: :5h :5d :2s (t1565, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2770)



Turn: :5s (t1565, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2770)



River: :3h (t1565, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2770)



Results:
Final pot: t1565
Button showed 4s Ad
Hero showed Tc As

Tourney #4

I actually came back and won this one; but another beauty anyway...

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t250/t500
3 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
Button: t3090
SB: t4200
Hero: t6210


Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is BB with :8s :4d
Button calls t500 (pot was t750), SB calls t250 (pot was t1250), Hero checks.


Flop: :4h :8c :6d (t1500, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, Button bets t1000, SB folds, Hero raises all-in t5710, Button calls all-in t1590.
Uncalled bets: t3120 returned to Hero.


Turn: :kc (t6680, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t6680)



River: :kd (t6680, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t6680)



Results:
Final pot: t6680
Hero showed 8s 4d
Button showed Kh Td

Tourney #5

Are sure this isn't River Stars?

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t60/t120
6 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t465
UTG+1: t1495
CO: t5780
Hero: t2190
SB: t190
BB: t3380


Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with :kd :jh
3 folds, Hero raises to t360, SB calls all-in t130, BB calls t240 (pot was t610).


Flop: :kc :jd :as (t910, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: t570, Sidepot 1: t340)
BB checks, Hero bets t500, BB raises to t2410, Hero calls all-in t1330.
Uncalled bets: t580 returned to BB.


Turn: :qc (t4570, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t570, Sidepot 1: t4000)



River: :ad (t4570, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t570, Sidepot 1: t4000)



Results:
Final pot: t4570
Hero showed Kd Jh
SB showed 4s 3h
BB showed 8h Ac

Tourney #6

More fun on the river..

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t40/t80
7 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t1215
Hero: t1420
MP1: t2655
CO: t2955
Button: t1080
SB: t2750
BB: t1425


Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is UTG+1 with :as :kc
UTG raises to t320, Hero raises all-in t1420, 5 folds, UTG calls all-in t895.
Uncalled bets: t205 returned to Hero.


Flop: :3d :9s :2d (t240, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2550)



Turn: :jd (t240, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2550)



River: :qd (t240, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t2550)



Results:
Final pot: t240
UTG showed Kd Ah
Hero showed As Kc


Tourney #7

This one only took 3 hands for me to exit. Sets are definitely not golden.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t15/t30
9 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t1500
UTG+1: t1410
MP1: t2070
MP2: t1410
MP3: t1365
CO: t1485
Button: t1395
SB: t1365
Hero: t1500


Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is BB with :kc :kh
UTG calls t30 (pot was t45), 3 folds, MP3 calls t30 (pot was t75), 2 folds, SB calls t15 (pot was t105), Hero raises to t230, UTG calls t200 (pot was t290), 2 folds.


Flop: :qd :td :ks (t520, 2 players)
Hero bets t420, UTG raises to t840, Hero raises all-in t1270, UTG calls all-in t430.


Turn: :jd (t3060, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t3060)



River: :2c (t3060, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t3060)



Results:
Final pot: t3060
Hero showed Kc Kh
UTG showed Ad 7d




There you have it and there you are. 8 tournies... $2 profit. Good Times.



Any thoughts or comments (especially on first hand and last hand) would be appreciated.

Current Top Ten

With winning the Mook for the second time, he asks you to post your top ten blogs as opposed to his typical Player profile. It is posted there; but I thought I might as well post it here.

As I mentioned, I have over 100 blogs in my bloglines so I read a bunch. Today's top ten might be different than tomorrow top 10; but as of right now, there are some of the blogs that I am enjoying.

1. High on Poker / Low Limit Grinder / Three Jax - These were really the first guys that I hooked up with during my beginning blog days. These were the guys commenting on my blog when I started and if not for that, I probably wouldn't have lasted very long. Even though my blog is not near as active as it used to be, these guys still continue to crank stuff out and I see them on my Bloglines list, I make a point of seeing what they have to say.

2. Hoyazo - One of things that I most look for in a poker blog is actual poker content that I can relate or learn from. Hoy continues to crank posts day after day with strategy and thoughts. His rants also set him apart as they are pure joy to read... even when I was the rant-ee one time.

3. Mook - Of course... How does a guy get one of the most popular blogger touraments out there. It starts with his blog. Very well done. Of course, I love the tournies; but I also really look forward to the profiles of the winners as it is fun to warch.

4. Plan 3T Gong - I can't say enough about this guy and his SNG posts. If you want to talk SNG and SNG strategy, this blog is a good as any.

5. Counting My Outs - Still one of my favorites as he puts out hand histories and asks for opinions on the hand. While I don't always agree with him, I enjoy his thoughts and the thoughts of the commenters. He is also good and keeping us up to date on the current state of online poker.

6. O-Poker - Cmitch is one of those guys that I wish you could emulate. His MTT and NL cash game success rivals most anybody. He has definitely put in the time to study the game such as subscribing to sites like CardRunners which I need to do at some point.

7. CC - What can you say about this guy... other than he is one of us. He is a family man that shares alot of the things that I go through (i.e. kids, religion, bankroll, etc..). Truly one of the people that I look forward to reading... whether it be a series, trip report, tourney recaps... he just has a way of putting it that is easy to relate to.

The next few are how the trues pros play and it is fun to follow...

8. Brian Townsend... in a recent blog he talks about having a good month of May... about 1.4 million. It was nice watching him on High Stakes Poker and to follow his honest dealings as go through the world of High Stakes Poker. One of the Cardrunners guys that keeps a pretty active blog. You gotta love it.

9. High Stakes Poker... Just a report of how the pros are faring. It is not uncommon to see somebody win or lose over 500K in a session. While it is inconceivable to relate to this, it is fun to follow the ride. What's even crazier is seeing how they handle some of these hands. If they were playing 25 cent / 50 cent, we would just call them one of your typical donkeys; but these are obviously not donkeys.

10. Daily Quiz - Just a daily quiz of how to handle a poker hand and then the blog writers give their opinion. Most of the times, it is taken from high stakes cash game or tourney. Again, I don't always agree with the writer or with the majority of the voters; but it is fun to play and often times educational.

There you have it and there you are. Have a great long weekend.

Better to be Lucky than Good - MOOOOOOOOK

I wrote something a few weeks ago about Tourney success being about luck or good play. Read it here , if interested. I believe I finally concluded that it is both. There are obvious great tourney players such Rizen or the like; but man luck has to be part of it... after all , it is gambling.

I've also been watching the tourney hand histories that are posted on 2+2 and this re-assured my theory because there were plenty of suck outs on almost every tourney that I watched. I definitely encourage anybody to take a look at them as they are very interesting.

Well, my FTP balance was on life supports. I was prepared to head back to Walgreens to reload. I had enough for the MOOK and 3 $6 Turbo SNGs... Instead I opted for the Mook and 2 SNGs.. Things weren't too promising as I finished 4th in both SNGs... All you can do is get your money in good... which turned out to be a little ironical when talking about the Mook..

So without further adieu, let's talk business. Anybody who is anybody was playing the Mook tonight... minus a few Lost viewers. We still had 66 people turn out which ain't bad.

As usual with this things, there were many recognizable faces... My table had:

Lifesagrind
pvanharibo
Mattazuma
chitwood
leftylu
cracknaces
bayne_s

Things started off well.. Pkt 9s on second hand... stole blinds

8th hand I get KK in EP and I put a 3x raise and get called by lifesagrind. Flop comes TQ8 (2 spades). He then puts about a 3/4 pot bet out there and I immediately raise. No slowplaying this early in the action.. LAG folds.

2 hands latter, what do I see... KK in the BB. LAG (on the button) puts a 3x raise / steal and I just call. Flop comes 636.. I check and he puts out a pot sized bet. I know he doesn't want to be called... so I call... Turn comes T.. and goes all in... Unfortunatley for LAG, it is a easy call for me and he doesn't improve so I have doubled up in the first 10 hands. Just like the doctor ordered. He had A5o, by the way.

7 hands later, I get another pocket pair, although this time it is only 77 this time. I am in early position with plenty of chips (top 3) so I want to see a flop cheaply and just call. Everybody else folds until it gets to bayne who raises to 135 (15/30 are the blinds). Everybody folds and I have my first real decision. With my chips, I go ahead and make call. So far, everything is going my way (is that lucky?) as the flop is KQ7 (2 diamonds). I check and Bayne throws out 210 into a 310 pot. Board is scary enough to me that I'm not slow playing... again early in tourney.. no need to get fancy... I raise to 510 and he folds.

I then fold 15 hands and low and behold the rockets come my way. I raise it up and Cracknaces lives up to his name and calls with 88 and flops a set and doubles up threw me. His smooth calls obviously should have been a warning sign but I was feeling pretty indestrutable. That quickly changed as I drop down to 1800 chips and the middle of the pack.

I then go pretty card dead... picking up blinds here and there... losing blinds also... I have to wait 44 hands for my next confrontation.. albeit minor. I'm in the BB with AQo.. JoeSpeaker puts a EP raise and I'm not doing anything fancy at this point.... I call. Flop is J high and he bets out I fold... He shows AJ... It is simply amazing how dominated hands are winning these days. That puts me about 1700.

Nothing major and I chip up to about 2500; but the blinds are catching up to me.... I catch MikeMaloney in a steal and get some chips... from there is was just blind stealing... and chipped up to 6140 so a little breathing room but no much.. This leads me to my worse played hand probably...

I'd be interested in your thoughts...

FullTiltPoker Game #2496131697: The Mookie - Katie's Mom (18851745), Table 7 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:03:37 ET - 2007/05/24
Seat 1: leftylu (8,436)
Seat 2: AlCantHang (4,725)
Seat 3: DDionysus (4,625)
Seat 4: willwonka (6,140)
Seat 5: NightRanger (2,947)
Seat 6: Drizztdj (3,800)
Seat 7: MiamiDon (3,946)
Seat 8: InstantTragedy (4,673)
Seat 9: BuddyDank (1,331)
leftylu antes 50
AlCantHang antes 50
DDionysus antes 50
willwonka antes 50
NightRanger antes 50
Drizztdj antes 50
MiamiDon antes 50
InstantTragedy antes 50
BuddyDank antes 50
BuddyDank posts the small blind of 200
leftylu posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Js Jh] ... Good hand... but obviously dangerous.
AlCantHang folds
DDionysus calls 400





Do you raise to isolate.. do you want to see a flop... I got a lille fancy play syndrome in my head and just called... planning to raise anybody all in if they raised.. The table had plenty of preflop raises so it would not have been unusual.



willwonka calls 400
NightRanger folds
Drizztdj folds
MiamiDon folds
InstantTragedy folds
BuddyDank folds
leftylu checks





Dang!!! not only did nobody raise... but nobody else even played...






*** FLOP *** [7d Qc Ks] HATE that flop...
leftylu checks
DDionysus checks
willwonka checks
*** TURN *** [7d Qc Ks] [5s]
leftylu checks
DDionysus checks
willwonka checks
*** RIVER *** [7d Qc Ks 5s] [9c]
leftylu checks
DDionysus checks
willwonka checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
leftylu shows [6s 4d] (King Queen high)
DDionysus shows [Tc Ts] (a pair of Tens)
willwonka shows [Js Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
willwonka wins the pot (1,850) with a pair of Jacks

So it gets checked down... I think my biggest misstake was preflop where I could have probably got DDionysus. all in preflop..





Thoughts?





From there, I was able to make it to the final table... I was probably around 5th at the start of the final table... Top 8 paid with Zeem a huge leader (especially after 2 fortunate rivers before the final table). I played it pretty tight. It didn't take too long to break the bubble; but once we were down to 7... it stayed that way for awhile.





I'm able to knock out the man, the myth, the legend in a battle of the blinds... He tried to steal with 96o or should I say 69o and I was lucky enough to have AK and have it hold up. I then got AK on the very next hand; but only called a preflop raise and folded to c-bet on a 482 board. Very tight here; but AK has just killed me late in tourneys as of late. I have plenty of chips so I am not desperate so I will wait to fight another battle.





So at this point.. the chip counts are:





Zeem 33K


Night Ranger 20K


WW 18K


BoneDaddy 15K


leftlylu 8K


a10419 6K





Night Ranger then slow plays his Aces and loses to BoneDaddy's flopped set of sixes. He goes out next hand. We also lose a10419 so we are down to 4.. AGain with Zeem a big leader.





I get AJ and raise it up and leftylu raises 13K all in and I make the call. He turns over A7s and AJ miracously holds up and we are down to 3.





Zeem 41K


WW 30K


BoneDaddy 28K





So anybody's game.





A few hands latter I get KK (again.. 5 times in this tourney) in the BB... Zeem raies about 3x... and this time I just call as Zeem is plenty aggressive.. as long as an Ace doesn't fall, I'm ready to go stack with it. Flop comes Qs7h7c... I do fear the hammer a bit; but check... Zeem puts out a c-bet.. which I go ahead and do the raise here... he re-reraises all in and now I am really fearing the hammer... I have to call and he turns over KQ and my hand holds up. So now we have a new leader..





WW 62K


BD 28K


Z 9K





Zeem lasts about 10 more hands and his J5s loses to my J9s.. so we are now heads up.





You always hear about long heads up battles in these things. My HU battles are not usually that way. As a matter of fact our heads up battle lasted 5 hands.





Before we get to it... I always say to win a tourney.. you need to win the races... play AK well ... and most importantly .... GET LUCKY!!!!





I'm sure I had my share of luck in this game... and the biggest one other than the last hand which we will see in a minute was when I was on life support was way early when I get TT. I have 1600 chips and the blinds are 60/120. I'm in middle position and decide to just to raise all in and call it a day... well, unfortunatley cracknaces had QQ... while it took him a while to call, he did call and I thought I was on my way down to watch Lost... Full Tilt did not let me down and the board flushed and neither of us had the flush card so we chopped and that gave me the life line that I needed.





Now onto the last hand...





Chips stacks are 73K vs 25K in my favor. I get A4s in the small blind. Bone Daddy has been doing plenty of raising so I decide to try a trap here and call - reraise... So I called... and as expected BoneDaddy raised... and then (again as planned) I re-raised him almost all in (about 7K shy). Unexpectantly, he re-raised me back all in.. I obviously have to call here now.. and things are looking bleak when he turns over TT... even worse after a flop of JKT.. so now an ace does me no good... I need a Queen... Turn... 4d.. DOH!!!!.... River QUEEN QUEEN QUEEN QUEEN. I couldn't believe my eyes... In case you don't believe yours, here is the screenshot..

So there you have it and there you are... My second Mookie win. I do feel bad winning it that way as I have been on the other side of that too many times. BoneDaddy played great and probably deserved to win. He especially loved the re-steal from the BB.

Best Hand in Poker

So what do you know... even a blind donkey can find a winning hand (more on that later)... as usual, I played in the Hoy . It is obviously a great tourney... especially now that it is a deep stacked. I continued to get points in the BBT , but no cashes yet. Last night, I tried something new... I tried getting my chips in with the worst of it... They didn't work for me either.

Somewhat questionable move. I was among the top 10 and then in a couple of hands moved down to last; although, I still enough chips to be in play and not desperate. I actual chipped back up to about average when the following hand.

FullTiltPoker Game #2376677530: Mondays at the Hoy (17511686), Table 2 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:51:13 ET - 2007/05/07
Seat 1: a104l9 (2,240)
Seat 2: summer_babe (5,450)
Seat 3: willwonka (4,308)
Seat 4: ChapelncHill (28,120)
Seat 5: jjok (4,185)
Seat 6: lester000 (3,940)
Seat 7: cemfredmd (4,550)
Seat 8: mtnrider81 (9,210)
Seat 9: IslandBum1 (2,240)
a104l9 antes 25
summer_babe antes 25
willwonka antes 25
ChapelncHill antes 25
jjok antes 25
lester000 antes 25
cemfredmd antes 25
mtnrider81 antes 25
IslandBum1 antes 25
summer_babe posts the small blind of 150
willwonka posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [5c Qs]
ChapelncHill: gg kat
katitude (Observer): later kids
ChapelncHill: sorry again
katitude (Observer): don't
ChapelncHill has 15 seconds left to act
ChapelncHill folds
jjok folds
lester000 folds
cemfredmd calls 300
mtnrider81 folds
IslandBum1 folds
a104l9 folds
summer_babe folds
willwonka checks

Nothing to exciting here... Heads up with a middle position limper.

*** FLOP *** [7s 5h 7h]

What do you do... I obviously like this flop as I paired up. My plan was to check with the intention of check raising...

willwonka checks
cemfredmd bets 975

Hmmm big bet... What kind of hands to you put this person on....

My thoughts were 88-99 or 2 broadway cards. It felt like to me that he didn't want a call. What do you do? I thought I may be behind to mid pkts; but I thought I could get him to lay them down. Here is what I did.

willwonka raises to 3,983, and is all in...

Well, I was wrong... he took a little while to think... but called with JJ and IGHN.

The limp threw me off as well as the big bet. Any thoughts?

But the hand of the night for me also received a little discussion... I'm not sure I agree with the majority on this one.. but they are probably right... Here is the hand in it's entirety


Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $30/$60
8 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is BB with :kc :qc
5 folds, Button raises to $210, SB folds, Hero calls.


Flop: :tc :as :2s ($450, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $300, Hero calls.


Turn: :jc ($1050, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.


River: :ac ($1050, 2 players)
Hero bets $800, Button calls.


Results:
Final pot: $2650

An argument could be made for me playing this badly on all streets... So let's put out a 4 part questionnaire.

#1... Call preflop raise of 210 by the button from the BB (3.5 BB) with KQs out of position? My stats showed raiser to be fairly tight... but could have been just a blind steal. As it was fairly early in tourney, I'm not looking for huge preflop pots so I called. Thoughts?

#2... Flop isn't terrible; but isn't good. I check. Button Continues with a 300 chip bet into a 450 pot. I'm not sure of the right answer here. With plenty of chips and a gut shot straight and back door flush, I'm OK with seeing another card. I call.

#3... Turn... I couldn't have picked a better card to come. What do you do? I could just lead out.. but I'd rather trap with my huge draw... I check... Rats... Dealer Checks behind...

#4... River... Boo-Yah... Runner Runner Royal... What do you do? The consensus was to push which was my first thoughts as well; but would I get called? I thought no... If he had an ace, he could have made trips (seemed unlikely since he checked the turn)... would he call with a bad kicker? Would you? Dealer has 1210.. pot is 1050.. I put out 800... hoping that he goes all in with this obvious looking bet that I want called. Well, he just called with his A6o and I won a pretty good pot; but didn't knock him out.

I really don't think he calls an all in with his tourney on the line with so many things that beat him. Any straight, any flush and AT+... who knows... I wasn't too upset with the result.. It turned out to really bite me as the Dealer made a really big comeback.

Well, it was fun, as usual and I'll give it go again on Wednesday playing the Mook