HUC 6 - Finally complete

Alright, first things first, I final tabled the Riverchasers but one big mistake later, I reraised swimmom all in with KK, only to get it cracked by her TT. She did put those chips to good use and secured a TOC seat. And no, this wasn't intended to be a bad beat story. It was a no brainer call for her considering my short stack and to her credit, it wasn't an instacall. If I didn't have a massive suckout of my own with QTs when I shoved from EP, only to get called by Lucko who had AK, and Lightning36 who had AQ, I wouldn't even be there so it sucks but I can deal with that. I'm more upset about the mistake I made when I incorrectly thought that actyper did not have an A on a A-high flop and so I foolishly put him all in with my AT and he calls with AQ, I double him up and I go from chip lead to short stack.

But I didn't really care. I did but that didn't hurt nearly as much as my loss to Emptyman in the finals of the Heads Up Challenge. Twice. 2nd place both times. I honestly didn't even know what second place prize was. I didn't know and I didn't care. It wasn't even about the money. It was about the glory of winning it. Something to add to my completely blank poker resume. And yet, after last night, I still got nothing.

After our match ended where in the last match, I had a 2:1 chip lead and only to see it disappear in a matter of few hands when my AQ < JT (all in pre) and QQ < K7 (all in on flop of 456), I was devastated. I really wanted to win. This meant a lot to me. For all of you out there, who thinks, dude, you make a good amount of money playing poker, what do you care... well, I care a lot. I have no credentials to back up my "skill." I haven't won any major tournaments, I've never played in the WSOP, I've never really won anything. Hell, even my buddy, Pouringreign, who doesn't take poker nearly as seriously as I do has won a 1000+ person (I think) tourney on PartyPoker back in the day. To say that I have a tourney complex is an understatement. But, again, this is not a please tell me how great I am post. It's just my honest take on how I feel and hence, how much winning the HUC would have meant to me. I listed the hands above just as an example but not as a "Emptyman sucked out on me and that's the only reason he won" type of post. I was probably like a 60% favorite on the first, and a virtual flip on the second. So, it's not even really a suckout. As a matter of fact, I will say this for the record.

I got pwned by Emptyman.

I really did. After the first two games, I felt so lost. I have never felt as confused and worried in a heads up match as I did against him. He played real well, I couldn't tell when he was bluffing, I called his value bets, probably folded to his bluffs, let him catch up when I had hands, and just played poorly overall. I had to keep making adjustments which was fine and I finally felt like I was starting to get into the groove. I really wish I coulda taken down game 4. It woulda been interesting to take the match to game 5 but it wasn't meant to be. Emptyman played great and deserved to win. Honestly, even if I ended up winning a seat to the TOC last night, it really woulda done nothing to how shitty I felt about losing the HUC. I mean a seat to the TOC is great but it's not the end goal. The goal is to win a WSOP seat and TOC is just a means to get that. My goal was never to GET a seat to the TOC. I will get that. My goal is to get a seat to the WSOP. Gotta start somewhere.

GL to all this weekend and again, congrats to Emptyman for taking down the Finals and becoming the latest HUC champion.

Note: I'll link up everyone later. Unfortunately, I gotta get back to work. Busy Fridays blow.