Another late night... at the MATH!

Well, I was gonna go play basketball tomorrow morning (Tuesday morning) before work but as I sit here and type this blog at 1:30am, I realize that's not gonna happen. Instead, I'm gonna struggle through work with multiple trips to the coffee machine... and it's almost worth it...



Yes, I came in 2nd place in the MATH. After winning the Mookie a few weeks ago, I really really wanted to take down the MATH. I felt like if I took down both of those blogger tourneys, I would gain some more respect. Huh? What, play poker for money? I already told you tournaments are -EV for me. :) Anyways, I wanted to join the ranks of what I assume is quite a good number of bloggers who have taken down both of those tourneys. Well... so close.

After this hand, I honestly thought I had it.

FullTiltPoker Game #2902738828: Mondays at the Hoy (21375318), Table 1 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:55:13 ET - 2007/07/10
Seat 4: RecessRampage (47,679)
Seat 5: PokerBrian322 (66,321)
RecessRampage antes 150
PokerBrian322 antes 150
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 600
PokerBrian322 posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [9s 9d] <--- IG was money tonight!
RecessRampage raises to 3,900
PokerBrian322 raises to 12,000
RecessRampage raises to 47,529, and is all in
PokerBrian322 calls 35,529
RecessRampage shows [9s 9d]
PokerBrian322 shows [7h Ah]
*** FLOP *** [3h 4s Kh]
*** TURN *** [3h 4s Kh] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [3h 4s Kh 8c] [Qs]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Nines
PokerBrian322 shows Ace King high
RecessRampage wins the pot (95,358) with a pair of Nines
PokerBrian322: nh
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 95,358 | Rake 0
Board: [3h 4s Kh 8c Qs]
Seat 4: RecessRampage (small blind) showed [9s 9d] and won (95,358) with a pair of Nines
Seat 5: PokerBrian322 (big blind) showed [7h Ah] and lost with Ace King high

With this hand, I took a commanding chip lead. Then few hands later, another preflop all in where I had A6 and pokerbrian322 had Q3 sooted, I thought maybe that was it... until the Q hit on the river and doubled him up. No problem. I still have the chip lead. And I find AQ sooted. Pokerbrian322 raises so I shove, overbetting the pot. He calls... with K3 (I think he has a thing for 3's). :) Flop comes 2-3-3. Next thing I know, he's got the chip lead. And my last hand? I have 9-10 sooted. He raises, I call and the flop comes A-8-2 with two spades. No spades for me. Check, check and the turn comes a J, giving me an OESD. So I shove. He thinks for a second and calls with a Q high flush draw. Blank on the river and his queen high is good. And I get this message...



I will say though... considering that I'm a tournament donk, I was pretty happy with my performance. One thing about me is that I think I soak in a lot of stuff that other people tell me... very quickly. So, when other bloggers mentioned stealing and restealing, I took it to heart. Especially the restealing part. And I was active from early on. I had position on the K.O.D. himself and I was able to use my weak tight image to steal some pots from him early on. Which is why I love the deep stack. In a regular tournament, a reraise basically becomes a shove. In a deep stack, reraise doesn't necessarily commit you. Big difference.

So, I was able to actively chip up until a big hand came up that put me in the top 3 in chips.

FullTiltPoker Game #2901723188: Mondays at the Hoy (21375318), Table 4 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:14:56 ET - 2007/07/09
Seat 1: PokerBrian322 (8,216)
Seat 2: rpinner (14,139)
Seat 3: Rake Feeder (1,010)
Seat 4: cracknaces (11,155)
Seat 5: lightning36 (5,456)
Seat 7: Mattazuma (1,954)
Seat 8: RecessRampage (5,863)
Seat 9: a104l9 (2,162)
a104l9 posts the small blind of 60
PokerBrian322 posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Js]
rpinner folds
Rake Feeder folds
cracknaces raises to 240
lightning36 folds
Mattazuma folds
RecessRampage calls 240
a104l9 folds
PokerBrian322 calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Ks 4s Th]
PokerBrian322 checks
cracknaces checks
RecessRampage checks
*** TURN *** [Ks 4s Th] [7s]
PokerBrian322 bets 480
cracknaces calls 480
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 1,600
PokerBrian322 folds
cracknaces has 15 seconds left to act
cracknaces raises to 10,915, and is all in
RecessRampage calls 4,023, and is all in
cracknaces shows [Tc Qd]
RecessRampage shows [Qs Js]
Uncalled bet of 5,292 returned to cracknaces
*** RIVER *** [Ks 4s Th 7s] [3h]
cracknaces shows a pair of Tens
RecessRampage shows a flush, King high
RecessRampage wins the pot (12,506) with a flush, King high

I'm guessing that Chad thought I was putting on a squeeze play and that if I had a flush draw, I was likely to bet on the flop. Either case, he was drawing dead and I was able to double up which was huge.

From there, I never looked back. And I actively started restealing. Even Schaubs called me out on one of them via girly chat. Hey, it was 8-10 sooted. I love that hand (though apparently, it's dubbed the mookie... I hate it when these things are taken). I continued to attack the short stacks and caught cards when I needed them. I would see the flop, reraise if I caught any piece of the board and was actually surprising myself with a) how aggressive I was and b) how well it worked... It definitely helps though if you catch the cards when you need it. And so a combination of good cards, good timing, and good karma by the FullTilt "Random" Number Generator allowed me to come to the final table very healthy. I had 5x the second highest stack.



The fact that I couldn't close this out probably says something about my end game. But still, I was pretty proud of the way I played the final table as well. I continued to be aggressive on the final table, trying to use my stack to attack the other stacks. I had my ups and downs but fortunately, with a stack like that, I was never threatened as the money bubble came and went and again, it helps to get good cards. I guess you could say that I was Astinized last night.

Well, once it got down to 3 handed play, it was apparent that LJ was getting tired of my raising and I knew that sooner or later, we were gonna tangle in a big pot. And then this came up.

FullTiltPoker Game #2902679165: Mondays at the Hoy (21375318), Table 1 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:48:46 ET - 2007/07/10
Seat 4: RecessRampage (53,179)
Seat 5: PokerBrian322 (28,176)
Seat 8: pvanharibo (32,645)
RecessRampage antes 125
PokerBrian322 antes 125
pvanharibo antes 125
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 500
PokerBrian322 posts the big blind of 1,000
PokerBrian322: lol
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ts 9d]
pvanharibo raises to 3,000 <--- from the button, steal right?
RecessRampage raises to 9,000 <--- 9-10 is a monster to resteal with, right?
PokerBrian322 folds
pvanharibo calls 6,000 <--- I've been raising a lot so she's gotta call.
*** FLOP *** [6d 6c 3d]
RecessRampage checks
pvanharibo bets 9,000
RecessRampage raises to 44,054, and is all in
pvanharibo folds
Uncalled bet of 35,054 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot (37,375)

That was big because she was second in chips and for a little while there, it seemed like we were just passing chips amongst the three of us. I wanted to make sure that I stayed aggressive and that I was in control so I took a chance. Plus, I figured, if she calls and I lose the pot, I wasn't out yet. I felt like I set it up perfectly in the sense of I played it like I had a big pair the whole way. Sure, my reraise looked like a resteal but after the check raise on the flop, she had to think I actually had a hand this time. Again, this helped me gain a significant chip lead and eventually, Lana would be sent to the rail by the evil pokerbrian322.

And as they say... the rest is history... Congrats again to pokerbrian322 (who's not even a blogger, dammit!).

Thanks to everyone who railed me and left comments and gave me tourney pointers. Schaubs and Sia (aka Pouring Reign), thanks for the rail. Hoy, Chad, and Anguila, your comments on my posts and the posts that you have on your blogs have definitely opened up my eyes and soon, I'll take Hoy's advice and watch Chad play to learn more. As usual, thanks to BuddyDank for the kick ass radio show and for Sean to join in at the final table for the added entertainment value.

Wow, that sounded like a victory speech... and I didn't even win. And now, it's 2:30am... even a night owl like myself is getting tired...