HUC 6 update

My 2nd round opponent in the HUC 6 was jmathewson_iii. I don't have the HHs or the stats with me so this will be a quick update.

He suggested doing a $20 HU match which was good in terms of not having to play against random donkeys. The $5 HU matches are brutal because it's so hard to time it to make sure that you don't end up with a random person. So, without any difficulty, once I was settled in, we got to play.

In our first match, I played aggressively like I usually do. And I noticed that it wasn't working. I was winning small pots but losing big ones. Before I knew it, I was down to like 600 chips. I kept grinding and fighting and clawing with everything I had and I think I made it fairly tough for him to finish me off... but he finished me off with his KQ vs my KJ when I shoved on a Q high flop with my very short stack.

Recess 0 - 1 jmathewson_iii

Using the new nifty rematch feature from FullTilt, we had the second game going. Based on the first match, I knew I needed to make some adjustments. He was a fairly tight opponent so I knew I could steal some pots off of him but this time, I was a lot more careful about picking my spots. I also had what Highonpoker had said before about losing begets losing. When someone posts stuff like that, I'm even more focused on proving them wrong or to make sure that doesn't happen to me. I mean I was more determined about that than actually winning, I think. But I will say, his post that pretty much laid out how losing the first can lead to just another loss was definitely in my head and I was determined to not let that happen. Well, thanks to a few good cards early, I was out to an early lead that I never relinqueshed. And eventually, I was able to chip away at jmathewson_iii's stack until he was short stacked. I don't remember the bust out hand but game 2 goes to me.

Recess 1 - 1 jmathewson_iii

The last match was similar to match 2, I think. I was able to jump to a early chip lead. Once I had 2000 chips to his 1000, I just kept applying careful pressure. I was helped by decent cards here and there and in the end, I was able to take down the 3rd match. In any of the 3 matches, I don't think there were any suckouts on either one of us. It was definitely one of the toughest HU matches I played and I felt like I had to grind quite a bit to get the win. Well played by him. I'm glad I advanced another round. I am determined to prove that my run in HUC5 was no fluke. Funny because I never play HU matches except during the heads up challenge... but oh well. It's still poker.

Recess 2 - 1 jmathewson_iii

Recess advances to Round 3 (ie Elite 8).

And I have to admit one more thing. In HUC5, I soooooo badly wanted to beat Lucko in the championship. When I took the first game, I honestly thought I had the chance to actually do it. But, I got pwned. Lucko is one of the few bloggers I really look up to in terms of poker prowess so it woulda been sweet to take him down. Too bad he got busted in rd 1 of HUC6 so no chance for me to exact revenge. However, there's another blogger that I would love to beat on my way to winning this thing. None other than Fuel. He's been a big supporter/poker mentor of mine from early in my blogging career (which is a little over a year old now) and I would love to show him how far I've come by beating him HU. Of course, I have to win one more match before I get to him so hopefully I won't be looking past my next opponent. I doubt it since I take these HU matches seriously. So if I lose, all the credit goes to my opponent that has yet to be determined. For the full bracket, go to the official HUC site.