No Knockout Punch and a little Satisfaction

My wife, who gets up at 5AM every morning to work out, keeps urging me to also start working out. Maybe one of these days. I can't go in the mornings as I have kid duty. And I find it hard to go in the evenings after we put the kids to bed. Back in the day, that was my preferred workout time. I loved the evenings. I could stay up late and not really have any problems getting up in the morning. Maybe because I was in better shape. Hmmm.. Maybe if I was in better shape, I would have a good Knockout Punch.

Anyway, I say all of that to say this. I lack the knockout punch needed in the end of tourneys. Yet another deep finish at the MATH. I was actually struggling to begin with as I was at a very tough opening table where the players were obviously comfortable with the 6 max format. I was among the cellar dwellers at the fist break.

After the break, things started happening and all of a sudden, I find myself in 2nd place. And at the second break, I am still among the leaders. I'm doing my thing. I'm probably not playing the big stack as well as I should have; but the thing is that it was not an overwhelming big stack so I did need to be careful and pick my spots.

We are getting mighty close to the money bubble and here is how my table looked..

FullTiltPoker Game #5948599611: Mondays at the Hoy (45101230), Table 1 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:33:33 ET - 2008/04/08
Seat 1: willwonka (17,576)
Seat 2: katiemother (7,154)
Seat 3: PokerBrian322 (12,870)
Seat 4: Chippy McStacks (27,733)
Seat 6: Schaubs (23,473)

I'm holding my own; but need to be careful and then I make this mistake which probably ends up the same way no matter how I play it.


willwonka antes 100
katiemother antes 100
PokerBrian322 antes 100
Chippy McStacks antes 100
Schaubs antes 100
willwonka posts the small blind of 400
katiemother posts the big blind of 800


Dealt to willwonka [7d As]
PokerBrian322 folds
Chippy McStacks folds
Schaubs folds
willwonka ??????

This is normally a slam dunk push; but for some reason I just raise to 2900



katiemother raises to 7,054, and is all in
willwonka calls 4,154

I have to call...

katiemother shows [Kd Qh]

OK... not terrible... Have to win these 60/40s to make the good payday. OK, it is actually 57/43.

Flop comes K2Q and that is that. As usual, I can't make the knockout punch.

I now find myself in a very familiar position. I'm not sure how much longer; but I find myself in 9th place after this with 8 people getting paid. Not another bubble is what I keep telling myself. It's going back and forth for a while but finally the bubble is burst when our good buddy Jordan's pocket 9s are no match for PokahDave's boat.

Not too much later, I go out in 8th when my A9 can't beat ChippyMcStacks K5. This time a 63/36 favorite and I could not get the Knockout Punch. OK, I guess I did as I knocked myself out. Chippy wasn't quite getting 2-1; but he had so many chips that who can blame him for calling. I was so shortstacked, it really didn't matter even if I did double up there as I would still be on my last breaths.

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I did also try a 2 table SNG as recommended by Jamyhawk ; but got a little impatient and pushed with top pair into some body's flopped set. I still think that I will give that another try to get a $26 token.

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I did get a few hands in cash play but started off badly again. Early on, my KK was busted by a flopped set of 3s. I definitely could have and should have gotten away from this one. Hopefully, live and learn on this one.

Towards the end of the night, I am down about 2 buyins and now have two Uber LAG-tards to my right on my tables. One of them is just killing me. He is a 72/0/3 guy so he is limping and calling with everything. He stacks my QQ with A8, he hits flushes on me, I flop 2 pair with AJ; but he hits his set. You know the story.

So what do I do. I call it quits like the other night and lick my wounds. Yeah right!!! Never!!! He has my chips and I want them back so I do the worst thing possible. I start limping in right along with him. Hey, if you can't beat them, join them. I was still raising my good hands to build pots; but I found my self limping with suited connectors and one gappers to try and trap him.

One hand I flopped Quads and guess who wasn't in the hand? You guessed it. That also steams you. This guy would stick around the whole hand and then put crazy 5x pot bets on river. I finally caught him with pocket ACes and I just let him keep betting into me and raise him on river in which he folds.

And then finally this hand. A little Satisfaction. I apologize for raw HH. Converter didn't work on this hand.



FullTiltPoker Game #5949084378: Table Ellsworth (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:19:19 ET - 2008/04/08
Seat 1: mothernorth ($70.10)
Seat 2: jdills1371 ($111.50)
Seat 3: willwonka ($89)
Seat 4: Punk_Fish ($88.50)
Seat 5: cartoonman1 ($50)
Seat 6: YesItsTrue ($90.35)
cartoonman1 posts the small blind of $0.25
YesItsTrue posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Kd Ah]
mothernorth raises to $1.75
jdills1371 calls $1.75
willwonka raises to $6.50
Punk_Fish folds
cartoonman1 adds $0.25
cartoonman1 folds
YesItsTrue has 15 seconds left to act
YesItsTrue folds
mothernorth folds
jdills1371 calls $4.75
*** FLOP *** [Td Ks 3c]
jdills1371 bets $11.50
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka raises to $33
jdills1371 raises to $105, and is all in
willwonka calls $49.50, and is all in
jdills1371 shows [7c 6d]
willwonka shows [Kd Ah]
Uncalled bet of $22.50 returned to jdills1371
*** TURN *** [Td Ks 3c] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [Td Ks 3c 8s] [7h]
jdills1371 shows a pair of Sevens
willwonka shows a pair of Kings
willwonka wins the pot ($177.50) with a pair of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $180.50 Rake $3
Board: [Td Ks 3c 8s 7h]


Gotta love the LAG-tards. Well, at least sometimes.

All in all after 666 hands, I ended up 1 buyin which equates to 7.20 bb/100.

My stats are much less aggressive due to the way I played towards the end. They ended up being:

23/17/2.58

I don't mean to be results oriented; but I will take the winning day and move on and try to keep improving.

I'm off to watch the BB game.

Have a nice day!!!!