Donks do what donks do best - FTOPS IV Event 4

First off, if you haven't looked, this is not a victory speech or a "this is how I won more money in a tournament ever" blog...

Having said that, I want to thank surflexus for railing me till I donked off my chips with J-10... that was kinda embarrassing but I thought my image was tight enough and I was desperate enough that my early position raise would be respected... I guess not. When the villain pushed, I had no choice but to call, considering the stack size, blinds, level of play, etc hoping I had two live cards, which I did. I have to admit... the level of play overall in this tournament was definitely above me. When you can "feel" several players at the table making a play on you and yet you do nothing about it, it's not good. I tight donked my way to 215th out of 908 runners. Surf, thanks again for the support. You helped a lot more than you know.

I also want to thank InstantTragedy and Astin for the priceless entertainment they provided at the MATH "discussing" today's episode of Heroes which I obviously didn't watch because of the FTOPS tournament. It's DVR'ed so I will certainly catch it, hopefully at lunch tomorrow but if not, on Wednesday for sure (as of now, I intend to play at the PAPT tomorrow night). Seriously though, you guys were cracking me up which definitely helped because early in the FTOPS tourney, I was a nervous wreck. The dollar amount of the buy-in should not affect my tourney play considering I originally put up $26 for it... but it did. You guys helped calm my nerves... too bad I needed a lot more than just calm nerves to make anything happen.

A quick recap of how I went down... Really, I think my starting table said it all... I got nervous (read intimidated) from the beginning when I saw my starting table...



Bonaparte9 (past FTOPS winner) to my left, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and his railing posse at the table, I was pretty intimidated... And I played like a donk early... very donkish. There were two hands that I felt I was ahead but wasn't sure... so instead of being aggressive with it, I acted passive, and then folded to a bet which was surely induced by my show of weakness... fortunately, I was able to come back from that after a while but again, I couldn't really get anything going. And I was relatively card dead when the blinds got high... I mean there were times I was willing to push with anything that was coordinated... Ax, any two face cards, any pair, any connector, any suited one gapper or better... and all I kept getting were 8-3, J-2, 9-4, etc... I mean I've heard the ATC but I guess I'm just not loose enough...

I just wish that I chose a better hand to go down with but given that I made the initial mistake by raising from EP with J-10off, after that, I don't think calling the push that would put me all in was a mistake. Folding would have left me with a M of less than 4 and I was going to be either UTG+1 or UTG next hand so the blinds were right there... that was the spot that I was gonna have to get lucky... again, after the blunder that was raising with JToff... I honestly thought I would get away with it though because I've been playing tight all tourney and I know I was giving off that image... oh well. You live you learn I guess.

Again, thanks to all who railed me, entertained me, and wished me gl. I know all the thanking sounds like a victory speech... too bad it's not. Good night now!