HUC5 and Fifty-Fifty

I told myself I was going to bed earlier tonight. I was exhausted from staying up late on Tuesday night so I thought I'll play a few tourneys and if I bust out early, I'll just hit the sac. Being the tournament donk that I am, that's not such an unreasonable thought. Also, in order to get ready for the heads up challenge, I decided to play a few HU SNG's. The first one I saw was a $10+.75 buy in, 4 person HU SNG. I won both matches to take home the $40 first place prize so I thought that this was a good start.

Then Matt saw me crush that competition so he decided to challenge me for a $5 HU match. In the end, he was no match my luckboxery and I thought that this might be a good sign for my upcoming 1st round match with WillWonka. And boy, I had no idea. Since WillWonka had cash in UB (or so he thought), and since UB has the "challenge opponent" feature, we decided to play there. I have about $180 sitting in UB so it was no problem for me. We decided to play the $5 regular HU SNG (no turbo). Well, initially, since I was too stupid to figure out the "challenge" feature on UB, I just put myself on the waiting list and low and behold, I find myself sitting and playing a HU match against a random UB player. Finally, my match with WillWonka started as well... and all this while the Mookie and the Fifty-Fifty were going on. Let me tell you. 4 tabling, 2 of which are HU matches are insanely difficult.

But, luck would be on my side tonight. I beat the random UB player and also won two straight matches against WillWonka to advance to the second round. I'm not sure who I'm playing against next and I'm too lazy to check right now.

So, that would be 6 HU matches I played tonight (not 8 like I incorrectly told some people) and won all of them. But my luck wouldn't stop here...

I honestly don't know much about the Mookie except in the end, I busted out when my JJ couldn't hold up against AK or something like that... I think. It was a blur. Between the heads up matches and the Fifty-Fifty, I have to admit that my concentration was not there. That's really not my excuse. I just don't have any memorable hands or anything to report.

As for the Fifty-Fifty, my luckboxery way continued. I was getting paid off on some big hands and next thing I knew, I found myself in top 3 with about a third of the 1000+ field remaining. Then this hand came up that set me back a little.

FullTiltPoker Game #3405802150: The Fifty-Fifty (25609973), Table 27 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:58:46 ET - 2007/08/29
Seat 1: Titleist432 (19,358)
Seat 2: zestfulyclean (4,575)
Seat 3: Bluffer9 (11,158)
Seat 4: RecessRampage (21,969)
Seat 5: TheAssassinato (3,467)
Seat 6: ChuckSty (10,970)
Seat 7: only1likeme777 (6,105)
Seat 8: charder30 (3,861)
Seat 9: muckthenuts (12,305)
Titleist432 antes 25
zestfulyclean antes 25
Bluffer9 antes 25
RecessRampage antes 25
TheAssassinato antes 25
ChuckSty antes 25
only1likeme777 antes 25
charder30 antes 25
muckthenuts antes 25
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 150
TheAssassinato posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ad Qd]
ChuckSty folds
only1likeme777 folds
charder30 folds
muckthenuts folds
Titleist432 folds
zestfulyclean folds
Bluffer9 folds
RecessRampage calls 150
TheAssassinato raises to 3,442, and is all in
RecessRampage calls 3,142
TheAssassinato shows [Ts 3h]
RecessRampage shows [Ad Qd]
*** FLOP *** [Jd 6s Kd]
*** TURN *** [Jd 6s Kd] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 6s Kd 3s] [4c]
TheAssassinato shows a pair of Threes
RecessRampage shows Ace King high
TheAssassinato wins the pot (7,109) with a pair of Threes

Few orbits earlier, there was an exact same scenario except I limped from the SB when it was folded to me and he shoved and I folded. And so I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to spring the trap. And it was. Too bad FullTilt had other plans for me.

Around this time, I notice that my 3rd place spot was now occupied by another blogger. Yeah, that's right. Mike_Maloney was playing in the same tournament and next thing I know, he's got a huge stack. The money bubble came and went for both of us fairly quickly since we both had decent stacks. Well, he had a big stack... I had a passable stack. Fortunately for me, as my M dwindled down, I shoved with Q9 from the button, only to be called by both the SB and the BB. AJ and K10 were what they had. When it was all said and done, the 9 high board allowed me to triple up and make me healthy again.

At this point, Mike_Maloney and I had similar stacks and I actually had visions of a run similar to what Hoy and Iak had put together previous in this same tournament.

Well, it was not meant to be. This was the hand that did me in.

FullTiltPoker Game #3406900989: The Fifty-Fifty (25609973), Table 82 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:04:43 ET - 2007/08/30
Seat 1: hawkkk (18,496)
Seat 2: superliquid (100,529)
Seat 4: PrincessGlo (44,494)
Seat 5: samloomis13 (64,212)
Seat 6: Joker789 (84,699)
Seat 7: adamskf (107,290)
Seat 8: RecessRampage (51,172)
hawkkk antes 300
superliquid antes 300
PrincessGlo antes 300
samloomis13 antes 300
Joker789 antes 300
adamskf antes 300
RecessRampage antes 300
adamskf posts the small blind of 1,200
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc 9s]
hawkkk folds
superliquid raises to 4,800
PrincessGlo folds
samloomis13 folds
Joker789 folds
adamskf calls 3,600
RecessRampage calls 2,400

Stacks were deep enough and since I already had money in the pot, no brainer call here. I contemplated shoving but it's also a fishy min raise from a big stack so I wanted to at least see the flop.

*** FLOP *** [9c 3d Tc]
hawkkk: nn catch sam
adamskf bets 12,000
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 46,072, and is all in
superliquid: ace king sucks monkey balls.
superliquid folds
adamskf: wtf
adamskf has 15 seconds left to act
superliquid: jack jack
PrincessGlo: KQ is the worst
superliquid: or queen queen
adamskf calls 34,072
RecessRampage shows [Qc 9s]
adamskf shows [Ks Th]

Honestly, when he bet out the 12,000, I felt that his hand wasn't so strong. Maybe even a draw. So, I thought that if I shove, I can get him to fold. And if not, there's also a chance that my hand was good. Unfortunately, I needed to improve...

*** TURN *** [9c 3d Tc] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [9c 3d Tc 7d] [Jd]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Nines
adamskf shows a pair of Tens
adamskf wins the pot (108,644) with a pair of Tens
RecessRampage stands up

And that, I didn't do... as such, this message pops up. As much as it hurt, I don't think I overplayed the hand. I mean if you just read the hand history, it might seem that way but I read his hand as being weak and so I went with it. And it was fairly weak. But not weak enough.



As I was typing up this blog, Mike_Maloney busted out as well. He came in 26th place, getting him $264 for his efforts. It was very fun to keep track of each other and making it deep in a big MTT like this one. I really wanted both of us to final table this but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

One day, man... one day, I will get a big score.

Thanks to LJ, Matt, InstantTragedy, and Sia aka PouringReign for railing.

Oh... I also did play some cash games tonight and netted more money in less time than the 50-50. But I have to admit. That was fun. I'm gonna be dead tired tomorrow. Thanks again to all who stopped by. Good night now!