FTOPS #1, Mookie, and Buddy Dank Radio appearance

Wow... I have so much to go over. And yet I know I won't have time to cover everything. So, first off, let me get all the important stuff out of the way. Congrats again to PvanHaribo (LJ/Lana) for coming in 3rd in the 32k that she satellited into with $8.80 and turned it into $4,700+. Too funny considering just the day before, she was talking about how she needed to build her online roll and so she was playing in $2 sng... amazing how quickly things change.

Next, I know none of these guys are probably happy where they ended up but they all did cash in the FTOPS #1 event. And yes, I know that there's no glory in cashing for these guys but hey, something is better than nothing. So, please go congratulate Julius_Goat, Hoy, and Cmitch.

Ok, so now I spread the love for my fellow bloggers, let's see... how did I do? Well, few weeks back, I played in a $8 single table super satellite to FTOPS #1. I took that down and quite frankly, never played in any other satellite to the FTOPS. So, I was entered into the $55 satellite last night into event #1 and I sneaked into the tournament, coming in 240th (top 243 places won the entry).

As for the FTOPS event itself... I wasn't so successful. I eventually busted out in 952nd place out of the original 4,165 runners. I suck. What more can I say? And I don't say this in a "I'll say I suck so please give me pity" type of way. Early in the tournament, I was doing fine, I think. Now I wasn't giving it the focus it probably deserved because I also had two 2-4NL cash games open and an hour into the FTOPS, the Mookie started. Oh yeah... and I made a guest appearance on the BuddyDank radio. That was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I didn't water down the show too much for all you listeners out there. And thanks to Buddy and Sean (aka InstantTragedy) for letting me come on the show. Again, that was a lot of fun.

Shortly thereafter though, I did close down the cash tables so that I could focus on the tournaments... but now that I went from 4 tables to 2, I decided to look for other bloggers. And I found Hoy and Cmitch so I started railing them. It wasn't till much later when Bayne told me that Jgoat was in as well. And one thing I noticed? I suck in tournaments. Wait, did I say that already? Why do I say that? Watching them, I could tell that they are picking their spots but they are also making moves. Or so I assume. I know Hoy was very active. Cmitch seemed to have timely aggression. Me? None of that. Ok, maybe once in a while but eventually, not enough to keep up with the pace of the escalating blinds and eventually, I go into a double up or go home mode. And no matter who says what, that is NOT a key to success in tournaments. I'm bound to lose a race or get sucked out on eventually and by letting my stack get shorter, I'm handcuffing myself from making plays and pretty much gets to a push and pray mode. So much more to learn for me.

Surprisingly, I was doing well in the Mookie. I don't even know how. Mookie was almost like an afterthought for me. Like a background music. Something to cover up the portion of my laptop screen that doesn't have a poker table up. But next thing I knew, we were down to like 15 players and there I was... in top 6 or something. Eventually (again, this is still all a blur and I don't have the HH with me to go over it right now), we get down to the final table but at this point, I'm more interested in how Hoy and Cmitch were doing in the FTOPS... well, pretty much. But now that we were at the final table, I wanted to win.

So, I started focusing my efforts on the final table of the Mookie and I think I played fairly well. Eventually, the money bubble broke and there were 5 remaining when Don suggested a chop. No one really said anything but when we lost another player, we seemed to have agreed to a chop. Or did we? It was interesting actually.

I don't have the chat log but last night, we saw what was probably the most controversial over the least amount of money at 1:30am-ish... At one point or another, all 4 remaining players (Don, Jordan, Joe Mav (I don't know your blog, if you have a blog AND you read this, please comment so I can link you, and myself) agreed on a 4 way chop when our chip counts were all relatively even. I was ok with this since it was late and winning the Mookie was like $210 or something vs the $130 or so that we get if we chopped. At this point, $80 was close to nothing... not to laugh at $80 but considering I play $2-4NL, that's like a size of one pot... so it really wasn't worth arguing over. So, once I thought we agreed on a chop, I shoved my KQ from the BB when JoeMav in SB raised. Believe it or not, it was more or less a "oh well" shove. I busted out in that hand against JoeMav's AJ. And then an interesting thing happened. I saw in the chat, someone goes "so are we chopping?" HUH? I thought we just agreed on that... and from that point on, a huge discussion ensues about whether they agreed to a chop or not... AFTER I busted.

Personally, I really don't care. If they end up chopping 3 ways, that's fine. If they do it 4 ways, that's fine. Either way, no grudge held here. Believe me. I have no problems with other bloggers and I'm not about to start one for $80 or so. So, any controversy/disagreements aside, gg to Don, Jordan, and JoeMav. Thanks again to Buddy and Sean for having me on their show and good job Lana, Hoy, Goat, and Cmitch.
And if anyone said anything to me on the chat box at the tables, sorry I didn't respond. I never saw anything but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss it. I had 4 tables up so when I do that, I can't pay attention to the chat. And if you wanna talk to me, my girly chats are to the right of this screen. Hit me up anytime!