My first ever Mookie and some nonpoker stuff

So last night was the first time I participated in the "Mookie" and it was very interesting. I honestly had no idea what to expect from a blogger tournament so this was pretty fun. I also wondered how much people would actually disclose their hands and stuff because to an extent, you don't want to disclose all your bluffs and real hands right? Honestly, I just wasn't sure. I registered early because I wanted to make sure I got to play but I wasn't able to sit at the table till about 9:30. In my first ever tourney, I didn't want to get too far out of line so I played relatively tight aggressive but straight forward poker. Fortunately, I was rewarded with decent cards until right before break #2 when my 77 ran into Iakaris's pocket rockets... It's not even fair to say that my 77 "ran into" pocket aces since I was the one that called off all my chips in a donkish play though I kinda justified it in my head at the time. Iakaris built up a nice stack and so he was starting to bully the table a little bit. So, knowing that these bloggers can get pretty aggressive with a decent stack and since we were down to like 20 players, I felt that he was really trying to take control of the table. I also had a very healthy stack at that point (I think I had top 10 stack) so I wanted to keep him in check. From EP, he raised it to a T$1000 so I reraised it to T$3000 with my pocket 7s. He then pushed the rest of his stack for another T$4000. At that point, I felt like I might be beat but I also thought he could be doing that with two overs. If I fold, I would have approx T$3800 left which was not desperate time but close. So, I decided to call and hope that it would be a race.... it was a race that I was badly losing since he had AA and that put an end to my first ever Mookie (not quite the first ever blogger tourney since I played MATH once on Stars. So, that sucked but it was fun.

Early in the tourney, when I sat, Miamidon asked if I had a blog so I told him about this awesome site. :) He then said that he also had notes on me from the cash games. Funny thing is, I thought his avatar (the Italian mobster) with his name seemed familiar so I wasn't too surprised. So, I fired up my PT to see if I had any info on him (I'm not an avid notetaker) and sadly, I couldn't find anything. So, at least I found comfort in the fact that his notes had to be from 2005 since I just got PT in January of 2006. I mean I had to be better now than I was back then right????

The tournament itself was a lot of fun but now that I read the "live blog" that the host did, it's even more entertaining. I kinda wished I paid attention to the fact that this live blog was going on... It would just be an added entertainment. What was also fun was the fact that I was playing a $1-2 NL hold'em game at the same time (didn't want to do 2-4NL since I wanted to focus on the tournament more) and this hand came up:

MP raises to $5 (2.5x BB) on the 9 handed table and gets one caller from CO-1 so I limp from the button with 89 of diamonds, blind calls another $3 and we see the flop 4 handed. Flop comes 6-7-10 with two clubs giving me the nut straight. The BB checks and the initial raiser bets $20. CO-1 calls and I thought about raising here since there were two clubs. But I didn't want to kill the action too much so I decided to call here and see what happens. BB folds and the turn is a non-club ace. Surprisingly, the initial raiser bets $40 at which point the CO-1 calls again. I'm obviously not going to fold my current nuts so I decide this pot has gotten enough action and that it was time for me to take it down. Also, I figured, one of them had to have a set so if I push, that should get the flush draw (if there was one) out and the guy with the set considering how big the pot is now will definitely call. So, I pushed the rest of my stack and sure enough, the initial raiser instafolded but CO-1 calls... with pocket 7's for trips. River comes a 9 of clubs so my straight took down a $571 pot!!! Huge pot for a $1-2NL game. That's always fun!

Anyways, I intend to play as many of these tournaments as possible. The late starting time definitely suits me well. I'd like to play in the Riverchasers tourney as well since they are all part of the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments but I have basketball from 8-10pm and if there's one thing I cannot miss, then it's playing basketball on Thursday nights... so unfortunately, no blogger tourney for me tonight.

***NONPOKER CONTENT STARTS HERE***

Last night, as I was playing the Mookie, I really wanted to go to bed. Not because I was tired (which I was) because I work hard during the day (which I kinda sorta do) but also because I had to get up early in the morning... how early? Try 3:45am.... that's almost not even morning... Well, the only reason I'd do something crazy is because I love my job.... of course, I kid. My mom has been visiting us this past week and the airport limo service was coming to pick her up from our house at 4am for her 6am flight. So, I wanted to see her out the door (I tried to do something similar when my dad was in the same situation but unfortunately, I came downstairs, just to see that he hopped in the car and left) so after I got busted from the Mookie around 11pm, I finished off my cash game which was closer to 12am ("finishing off" is a very ambiguous phrase for me) and went to sleep. Few hours later, I was up drinking green tea with my mom as we waited for her ride. For those of you that don't know me (ie other bloggers that may or may not care), my family lives in Japan... a mere 14 hr flight from here in VA. So, even though she was only here for a week, it was nice to get to spend time with her, especially because that wasn't possible in Christmas (when my dad came) because my grandpa passed away. It's always nice to be able to spend time with the family. I love playing poker and playing basketball but without family and friends, all this would be meaningless. So, in that sense, it was nice to be able to chat about the times I spent with grandpa (which was A LOT when I was growing up) and the random memories that I would have from growing up. And through all that, I still find time to play poker! Dedication? Maybe. Addiction? For sure...