so very very mad

Four more tournaments today, four more cashless efforts.

100/9 30k gtd on Full Tilt. 45 paid, I went out around 65th trying to build a stack. EP raised, I pushed with AJs and the player had AQ. This player had called a UTG's all in for 7BB for about 1/3 of his chips with 9Ts and spiked a ten (UTG had 99). I had seen other, how do you say... loose stuff from this player.

200/15 WPT satellite on FT. I went out bluffing off my chips against a player who had no business being around. Raise in MP with KTo. Called by the CO and a blind. Flop comes 789, two diamonds. Checked to CO who bets small, blind folds and I call. Turn is another 8. I check again, CO bets small again. I raise it appreciably (but apparently not appreciably enough). CO thinks and calls. The river is the 5 of diamonds. I push, CO INSTACALLS with 66. I was dumbfounded. I don't know how he calls a reasonable checkraise on the 7889 board with 66.

100/9 15k gtd on UB. Horror show. I got to 5k early on with AA > KQ on a K high flop. Then everything went wrong. I made the fatal error of making a big laydown. UTG (new to table) limp, I raise in EP with QQ, get a LP call, folds to UTG who raises. I decide to just call and LP folds. The flop comes JT5 and UTG moves in for > pot. I believe UTG covered me slightly. I ultimately timed out trying to figure out what in the hell UTG has. After the hand UTG asks "AK?" to which I truthfully responded "You really think I'd have timed out with AK?" Karma was against me there, because I proceeded to lose a bunch of hands where I had tremendous starting cards that either a) missed the flop or b) became obviously bad by the flop. I then lost a coinflip for 85% of my chips and went out with K2 to QT who made trip tens.

And then the Saturday 200k gtd on Party. I went into this planning on a much more patient approach than I had been on Party. I even went out of my way to find a more appealing skin to play on (Yes, Chris, I think the software did have something to do with it) and found one (get the table too). I actively focused on being patient. I picked up very few hands in this event, but because I focused on being patient I was able to pick my spots well. The ONE time I got out of line in the event I was burned for it. Against a weak/loose limper I semibluffed two streets and ran into a set of aces. I didn't hit my open ender and was put down to about 4500 with blinds escalating to 300/600. I pushed 44 behind two limpers at a new table and was called by AQ. The flop was QQJ (FUCK!), the turn was a 4 (YAY!) and the river was a dangerous looking but ultimately harmless K (YAY!). I actually won a coinflip when I was all in. Crazy.

Anyway, from there I built my stack up slowly. Really slowly. Amazingly slowly. That was the last decent hand I saw till the end, except for a 77 behind a UTG raiser that I didn't feel the need to go to war with. I just found spots to pick up chips. Because I was forcing myself to be patient, I was also forcing myself to look for ways to pick up loose chips. I was doing a very good job of this, but I was still half average as we neared the bubble when my table broke again. The new table was just bad - a bunch of shorties (making me look pretty healthy) and a bunch of big stacks. Not good. A few hands in a shorty pushed, I protected with AQ, the best hand in over an hour and a big stack woke up with AK.

Cruel game, isn't it? I was able to pick up chips with nothing, but when I finally had a hand I went el busto. I did win two coinflips (one very early on against a player with 1/12th my stack. Whoopie.) so that was nice. I also seem to have hit on the key to these party tournaments. Patience. It's very different from Stars or FT where I am very very active. It only helps to be able to play both ways, though.

Fun hand from the 200k. I noticed as I folded the SB a few hands prior to this that I had 6666 chips. I announced to the table that I planned to fold for an entire orbit because I thought it was very cool that I had this count. I was talking about it for a couple hands with two others at the table when I found a nice opportunity to take advantage of this suddenly rockish image I'd immediately built for myself:


***** Hand History for Game 3624318545 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:20497549 Level:3 Blinds(50/100) - Saturday, February 25, 22:58:55 ET 2006
Table $200K Guaranteed Saturday(604784) Table #59 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: THEOSU7 ( $6666 )
Seat 3: SeverusC ( $6435 )
Seat 4: str8jacket ( $4590 )
Seat 5: voodooguide ( $14232 )
Seat 6: jjl80 ( $2555 )
Seat 7: mrcooley ( $5578 )
Seat 8: pkrjoker111 ( $6294 )
Seat 10: gregak21 ( $7323 )
Seat 9: bakerkeno ( $4831 )
Trny:20497549 Level:3
Blinds(50/100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to THEOSU7 [ Qs Js ]
jjl80 folds.
mrcooley folds.
pkrjoker111 folds.
bakerkeno folds.
gregak21 calls [100].
THEOSU7 raises [400].
SeverusC folds.
str8jacket folds.
voodooguide folds.
gregak21 calls [300].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3c, As, 8d ]
THEOSU7: i hate to do it, but i can't pass this up
gregak21 bets [424].
THEOSU7 raises [1500].
gregak21 folds.
THEOSU7 does not show cards.
THEOSU7 wins 2874 chips.


No, I don't know why seat 10 is before seat 9 in the chipcounts. But I implied a monster and followed through on it even when the flop missed me, and picked up a very nice pot.