Back in the Saddle

I sat down at my first blogger event since the Aussie Millions Final Tournament. I took a little break from MTT play and stuck with sit and go's to rebuild my bankroll after x-fering most of my loot to other players throughout the holidays. Apparently the holiday tables were not good to the players that I x-fered to. I can't tell people enough to stop playing with their whole roll. I always refer to the Ferguson challenge when I talk about bankroll management.... he's the living proof that brains prevail over poker skill.

The Mookie kicked off with 65 players and I played nothing for about 45 minutes. I got dealt the hammer and decided to have some fun considering nothing else was entertaining me. I raise up 4x in 2nd position and get 1 call from the SB. Flop 862. I pair up and can't imagine that the SB would have hit the 6 or 8. He leads out with a pot bet and I try a steal with a 2.5 raise... representing an overpair (or better than top pair at least). He calls the raise and 9 hits the turn. He checks and I put half of my remaining stack in, about 1100. He pushes all in.
---- I think about it. I'm open ended for the straight and have bottom pair. If I consider all my outs live, I'm looking at 8 for the straight and 5 for 2 pair... gives me 13... 26%... yet I am getting 4.5 to 1 for my all in. ---- normally, I'm not one to count my outs vs my odds in a tourney, considering that having right odds and losing means gg japan. I consider how the tourney went so far and figure that I'm not going to build my empire with 1k.. I just didn't have the patience tonite to do that. I call, I hit the straight, double up and go from there. I wanted to at least get yelled at for the play but the table broke immediately after the hand... I'm sure I am getting yelled at in a blog right now anyway.

Sit around the 6 k most of the mid parts of the tourney.

Got another all in double up when the flop comes KJ7... and I was holding KJ... player continuation bets and I push all in and he calls with A9... I didn't see the call coming with something like that considering how few few few hands I was playing.

I get another almost double up when I limp in the SB with QQ, I get reraised preflop by the BB up to 1800ish... i re-pot up to 56ooish and get flat called... yet he only had 8k total. He left himself with 2600 after the call. Flop comes 9 hi, I push all in and he folds.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

So I scoop 5600 w/o having to show the ladies.

The rest is kind of up and down without much to talk about... throughout the tourney I had AA and JJ twice with no action preflop. I got walked with AA once... just sick... nobody even attempted to steal THAT blind, yet they wanted all my other ones.

I am sitting 4/12 and 5/12 for a while when play stalls down as we get near the bubble. Top 8 get paid... time to watch the pushers push and the folders fold. I'll do my fair share to make sure I don't get chip-raped during the all-in or fold period.

We get to hand for hand it action slows down... I get involved in one hand all in... I'm in the BB with Ad7d and flop comes AKsomething.. all spades... I push, he calls with the Klan... nh.

I buy some hands with an ace here and an ace there, but just do my part to not run into a monster. We get to final table and a few hands in we lose the bubble. Into the money we go and I get A9 and AJ a few hands off eachother, A9 gets no action on an all in and I raise up my AJ, get pushed on and call and wwonka has A9. No luck for him, I double up.

So, we push and pull our way. We get down to 4 handed and I was short stack with 22K vs 57/59/60k... they were playing super tight to not lose position, so I pushed. With 6K up for grabs for the steal, I figure if I can get 2 in a row, that'll get me closer to them and unless they wake up huge, I get away scott-free.

I steal the 2 in a row and wake up to AK hearts on the 3rd hand. I get a raiser in front and I push again to make it look weak with 3 pushes in a row. He laid down. I didn't want that.

We move around some more and I gather more chips and within moments we go from 4 to 2.

Heads up, myself vs Cmitch, he is to my left and we are even in chips, both close to 95k. I get the upper hand early with a few Aces. About 5 or 6 hands in to heads-up, I get in with J7o. Flop was 5h7h9x. Cmitch bets, I raise, he pushes all in, and I make the call and have him covered. He turns over 10h6h. Gutshot str8 draw, flush draw, 1over card. He's a 55:45 favorite here.

10x hits the turn and I blank the river.

I go down huge but get right back in it with a monster flop of quad 7s. I check it to his two pair. he turns a str8 draw and pushes and I make the call with the nuts.

We get back to even and do it again. I get up early with some face card steals and we get into another big hand. I have J6 when the flop comes 10s10s4s. I check, he bets, I call. At this point I put him on the 4. I turn my 6 and it kills me. We get all the money in and he shows his trip 10s. Well played. He bet the big hand and I got an unlucky turn when I paired my card.

He goes up big again and the very next hand I have KK and he pushes all in on the SB. I immediately call and he shows J6. Flop A810. He needs runnerrunner to get there.

He gets there.

J turn, J river.

BOOOOM

I'll take it... 2nd place after I lost the flip with his drawing hand.

gg Cmitch

Beep Beep.