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!

WTF FULLTILT!?!?

So here I am, with my empty stomach, recovering from the "mild" food poisoning and playing in the BBT freeroll when the FTP server lets us all down by having some serious issues. For the next hour or so, this is what I see.





I mean come on. At first, it freaked me out until I heard from girly chats and BuddyDank radio that everyone was frozen out. This sucks.... this one hour (ok, maybe it's like 40 minutes) delay is really a hinderance to us east coasters. Honestly though, the BuddyDank radio and the girly chats kept me entertained... but I'm weak from the lack of food. Oh well... Yeah, yeah, cry me a river, I know. This sucks... I am now pulling for a reschedule...

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...

Poppin the BBT cherry!!!

Finally... With a lot of pleading, begging, and soul selling with the poker gods, I took down the Mookie!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! For most, this won't be all that exciting. But I've never taken down a multi table tournament and I knew that my BBT experience will not be complete without at least taking down one tournament (regardless of the top 10 standings on the leaderboard) so this was especially satisfying. Admittedly though, I had to do A LOT of sucking out. Before I go into the details, thank you for all those that supported me and railing me. Now, somewhere in the midst of what could potentially be the longest heads up match in the BBT history (38 minutes according to the live blog), Wes and I decided to chop the cash. But we both wanted the points so we decided to play it out for the points. I actually figured that by chopping the cash, the heads up match won't last too long... well, either we were both getting really shitty cards or we both suck at heads up... well, actually, I can tell you now that I suck at heads up. I just don't have any experience in it. I am always playing a full ring or 6 max cash tables. Heads up never happens. So, I pretty much had no clue what I was doing and I'm sure it showed. Nonetheless, big props to Wes for taking two bad beats in a row with class. Sorry it had to end that way.

Generally, I would focus my hand recaps and analysis to cash games because that is what I primarily play but even though I actually had a very good night on the cash tables, the poker gods decided to show me that the MTT's can be fun too so I'm just gonna run through those tonight.

I got my two friends (Inigomontoya76 and Pouringreign) to come out for the Mookie and as usual, I was listening to the great BuddyDank Radio show hosted by BuddyDonk, er I mean BuddyDank and InstantTragedy. Buddy, of course I kid - that's for all the trash talk over the radio. :)

Well, meanwhile, I was successfully chipping up in the Fifty Fifty on FullTilt. 30 minutes into the Mookie, we were on the 1st break of the Fifty Fifty and I was doing fairly well.



I had built up a pretty big stack but unfortunately, I didn't put them to good use. It didn't help that an even bigger stack was sitting to my left. So, instead, I decided to try to conserve my chips in the middle stages as suggested on this great post on MTT by the K.O.D. himself. I was doing fine, occasionally stealing but not doing anything crazy until this hand came up...

I was in MP and so I raised it up to T$700 (blinds at T$100/$200). Button calls and we go into the flop heads up. Flop comes K-K-2. So, I thought about checking but that seems fishy so I bet out T$1000. The button smooth calls my bet and so now I'm wondering if he has a pocket pair. I check the turn which was a blank for deception. I bet T$1000 on the river to induce a call and then a funny thing happened. The button raised to T$2850. Something didn't seem right so I call. This is what I see.



I'm still shocked that I didn't go busto on that hand. Well, thank goodness because I was able to climb back up by playing the short stack fairly well and so I was one big hand away from having a big stack to potentially do some damage in this tournament. And right on cue, I get dealt pocket aces. So, as I start to wonder how to play this, this is the action I see...

FullTiltPoker Game #2790628538: The Fifty-Fifty (21080837), Table 19 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:18:30 ET - 2007/06/28
Seat 1: gunthy2 (7,067)
Seat 2: RecessRampage (10,085)
Seat 3: mostbluntedd (32,985)
Seat 4: cmitch (6,685)
Seat 5: sammy1260 (9,251)
Seat 6: Flush_Edges (5,377)
Seat 7: UGGs (26,501)
Seat 8: cheese625 (8,572)
Seat 9: MattSuspect (8,510)
gunthy2 antes 50
RecessRampage antes 50
mostbluntedd antes 50
cmitch antes 50
sammy1260 antes 50
Flush_Edges antes 50
UGGs antes 50
cheese625 antes 50
MattSuspect antes 50
cmitch posts the small blind of 200
sammy1260 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ad Ac]
Flush_Edges has 15 seconds left to act
Flush_Edges folds
UGGs folds
cheese625 raises to 8,522, and is all in
MattSuspect folds
gunthy2 calls 7,017, and is all in

WOW. The only problem is, I sensed a bad beat coming. I really did. And alas, I push all my chips in but when it's all said and done, this is what happened...



Once again, I'm crippled. At this point, the bloggers are staying strong in this tournament as I notice Hoy, Astin, and Cmitch are still in the tourney. As a matter of fact, after the above hand, I'm shortstacked again but I find a way to double through Cmitch when I jam my AQ sooooooted into his JJ and I win the race. That made my stack healthy enough to survive the cash bubble but eventually, I find myself shoving KJo and get called by pocket tens. I don't win the race this time and unfortunately, I see this message.



Well, the good news was, at that point, the Mookie was winding down and I was still in the hunt. I'm not even gonna list out all the suckouts I needed on the final table in order for me to survive and to eventually win. For those of you that had to witness the heads up match, I'm sorry. I actually took down the pot with the "Hammer" 3 times even though I only showed it once. Shoulda showed more just to keep everyone moderately entertained since I'm sure the last 30 minutes of our heads up match, all everyone wanted was for it to end...

I also thought I was gonna do a better job of recapping the hands but it's 2:42am right now and I have to get up in about 5 hrs... so, sorry for the abrupt ending, once again, thanks to all that railed me and supported me, either through the chat boxes or through girly chats. And I wish I coulda joined the blogger cash games but I had to focus on the tourneys tonight. Good night now!!!!

Blogger Pimpage!

Alright, before I start my general "I love talking about myself" blog entry, I have to do some blog pimpage for others. I kinda assumed that everyone knew but in case you missed it (ie, in case you live under a rock), Hoy cashed in the WSOP Event #12 6 max event which his specialty! Also, another blogger made some noise at the WSOP! And I know her in person! Lana, again, congrats on cashing in the WSOP Ladies Event! I'd like to think that us meeting before your trip gave you the good karma. Yes, I realize I had nothing to do with it but I'll take credit for it anyways - I mean it IS my blog after all. :) I'm sure she'll do a more detailed write up but check her blog here.

Ok, some more pimpage. First off, let me say this to all my nonblogger, poker-playing friends that the blogger tourneys are not exclusive to bloggers. It is open to everyone and more the merrier. Just to summarize, MATH (Mondays at the Hoy - password hammer) is on Mondays (never would've guessed) at 10pm EST, Mookie on Wednesdays (password vegas1) at 10pm EST, and Riverchasers on Thursdays at 9:00pm EST (password Riverchasers). So, if you guys want to play, feel free to do so. And, more importantly, BuddyDank and InstantTragedy are teaming up to bring some quality entertainment through your Media Player (I use RealPlayer but you can use Itunes or WINamp also). Seriously, it's freakin awesome and if you want to know the details, click HERE. They'll take requests, you can talk all the shit you want (Buddy, you lucky donk) and seriously, it's just a great great time. Now some of the music played can be considered questionable but it's all by request so if you don't like some of the songs, blame the other bloggers. And no, I did NOT request ABBA. That was all InstantTragedy.

But in all seriousness, the BuddyDank & IT radio is awesome. So, go check their websites out! Plus, personally, I love Buddy's banner. Never gets old. :)

Ok, well, I need to catch up on the zzzzz's so I'm gonna leave you with this interesting hand that came up.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2659589534: Table Karina Jett - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:26:19 ET - 2007/06/13
9 handed - my stack is up to $554 and the villain has a full buy-in ($400)

I'm in the SB with 79o and it's folded all the way to me.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [7s 9c]

RecessRampage raises to $12
Villain calls $8

*** FLOP *** [7d 5c 9d] <--- BOOM!
RecessRampage checks
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain bets $18
RecessRampage raises to $56 <--- kind of a draw heavy board so check raise a decent amount
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain calls $38
*** TURN *** [7d 5c 9d] [Jd]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $100
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain raises to $332, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME

Ok, so clearly, I am in a very interesting situation that I pretty much created for myself. I flop top two on a draw heavy board, a 3rd diamond comes on the turn which is clearly a scare card and yet, I somehow manage to donk bet $100 into this pot that had $136 before my bet. The strong bet was to show that I wasn't afraid of the diamond and to take down this sizeable pot. Then the villain thinks about it and pushes... It's $232 more to call with a pot that is now $568. So, it's serious thinking time.

What are your thoughts here? I raised preflop and he called. But granted, it's only from a SB so I could have anything, even though I think I had a generally tight image. Does he have a set? Catch a straight on the turn? Or did he hit the flush? I gave it some good thought and this was my thought. If he had the flush, he has no reason to push considering I've shown enough strength that he could probably reel me in. He could easily have a set but if he flopped it, I think there would've been a little more action on the flop considering the draw heavy board. Did the J on the turn give him the set? Or... And honestly, this is what I thought. Maybe he has a hand like TT with one of them being a diamond so he has a solid overpair on the flop, and now, with the scare card, he's trying to scare me off (which I played like I have an overpair) and if I call, he has outs. Honest to god, that was my exact read. And this is what happened:


RecessRampage calls $232
Villain shows [7c Ts] <--- wow, worse than I expected... not even a diamond draw
RecessRampage shows [7s 9c]
*** RIVER *** [7d 5c 9d Jd] [As]
Villain shows a pair of Sevens
RecessRampage shows two pair, Nines and Sevens
RecessRampage wins the pot ($797) with two pair, Nines and Sevens

So, it ends up that he was really doing this with air, believing his read (?) that I had maybe like AK. But honestly, with as much action as he saw from me, there's no reason for him to go to war with a hand like that.

This was a key pot for me because this actually brought me back to even after a brutal night where my AA and KK were slashed three times tonight, fortunately by relative short stacks but at these tables, the relative short stacks still have like $160 so believe me, down $500 early in the night with those suckouts hurt. This definitely brought me back to being even for the night... thank god.

Oh and the Mookie? I didn't do well tonight... I donk played (errr, slow played) AA and it cost me early... couldn't get much going with my short stack and eventually busted when I lost the race with AK vs 88. Online poker is so rigged.