MATH WIN!

First of all. Thanks to Hoy for hosting and more importantly, for his post from this weekend. See my post below to see how I planned to not play the MATH tonight, but decided to after reading Hoy's post.

Anyway, this tournament is perfect for me as I tend to either do well in turbo's or go out early. No hanging around until the middle and then donkin' out like usual MTT's. I don't remember a lot of hands from early on but I do know I sucked out more than once. Maybe 3 times. And, some of my key races held up. Don't get me wrong, I was super short stacked a few times, but managed to chip back up.

In a turbo tournament, a lot of times you are just trying to amass chips by stealing blinds. And you see the blind stealing with all in's , not just 3 or 4xBB raises. I think we went from the 50% field to 20% in a half hour time frame.

I work with a friend (thecloserx5) that says to win a tournament you have to suck out 5 times, and then you have to win several races. Well, I surely sucked out 5 times. But hopefully not much more than that.

Here is the final table. A lot of really good players. I start off hoping to make around 4th. LJ, Mookie, Kaja, Evy and Tripjax are all good players that I see all the time late in tourneys. And obviously, the other players are here, so aren't too shabby.



Here is a key hand winning a race.

The very next hand I am dealt JJ. I just went all in from the button and now I am going to jam again? I thought about raising only, but this is a turbo tournament and everyone has had "shove-itis", so I push and get a call. No such luck and I give back half of the chips I just got with 88.

I hit several key hands, sucked out, won races and then sometimes just tried to bully the blinds. It all worked out and we were heads up. I was ready to easily take this down. But SnailTrax had other ideas. We were about even when this hand came:

Full Tilt Poker Game #4158840222: Mondays at the Hoy (30720258), Table 2 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:13:25 ET - 2007/11/13
Seat 1: jamyhawk (61,616) <--I've got some work to do
Seat 9: SnailTrax (163,384)
jamyhawk antes 1,000
SnailTrax antes 1,000
jamyhawk posts the small blind of 4,000
SnailTrax posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jamyhawk [8c 7s]
jamyhawk raises to 26,000 <--try to steal it here.
SnailTrax calls 18,000 <--not all bad. I have two live cards.
*** FLOP *** [Ad Ac 7c]
SnailTrax checks <--I don't remember seeing him slow play anything.
jamyhawk bets 34,616, and is all in <--MONEY bet. If he has an Ace, GG IGHN.
SnailTrax folds
Uncalled bet of 34,616 returned to jamyhawk
jamyhawk mucks
jamyhawk wins the pot (54,000) <--this was huge for me. Turned things around and let me know how he is going to be playing. *** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 54,000 Rake 0
Board: [Ad Ac 7c]
Seat 1: jamyhawk (small blind) collected (54,000), mucked
Seat 9: SnailTrax (big blind) folded on the Flop

This is the hand that crippled him.

Full Tilt Poker Game #4158849349: Mondays at the Hoy (30720258), Table 2 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:14:20 ET - 2007/11/13
Seat 1: jamyhawk (118,616)
Seat 9: SnailTrax (106,384)
jamyhawk antes 1,000
SnailTrax antes 1,000
SnailTrax posts the small blind of 5,000
jamyhawk posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #9
SnailTrax: nh
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jamyhawk [Ah Ad] <-- need to maximize return. SnailTrax raises to 25,000 <--good news for me.
jamyhawk raises to 40,000 <--try to build the pot.
SnailTrax calls 15,000
*** FLOP *** [Jd 2d 8h] <--great flop for me especially with Ad
jamyhawk bets 10,000 <--way underbet the pot of 80K
SnailTrax calls 10,000 <--he has to call with those odds
*** TURN *** [Jd 2d 8h] [6s]
jamyhawk bets 67,616, and is all in <--now I have to be ahead here, but what could he be drawing to? A8? Two diamonds? J-small kicker? I don't mind winning it here because then I can try to bully him or if he is slow playing a set, I am done anyway. No way I am folding AA.
SnailTrax folds
Uncalled bet of 67,616 returned to jamyhawk
jamyhawk mucks
jamyhawk wins the pot (102,000) <--this was a great win but I am thinking now I blew a chance to take down the tournament here.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 102,000 Rake 0
Board: [Jd 2d 8h 6s]
Seat 1: jamyhawk (big blind) collected (102,000), mucked
Seat 9: SnailTrax (small blind) folded on the Turn

So I start pushing and he is folding, waiting for the right hand to call with. I am well ahead when he finally calls one of my pushes:

Sorry Fuel55. Presto not always gold!

This looked nice:

Even more impressive for me were all the great players in the top 14. Well, I'm sure it will be discounted since it was turbo. But I had fun. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! I'm pumped to be in the TOC! See you there Suckazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

It is so late now and I was going to skip tonight's MATH so I could get some sleep. But I am trying to calm down. I didn't drink while playing tonight so having a couple of beers while writing this and then will head to bed. BTW, I am so freakin' happy I don't have to write my way in. I was dreading that but figured I would give it a try. Believe me, I would not have won. Too many other good entries out there already....

I'll be pasting in links to everyone in the morning sometime. Thanks to Riggstad and theCloserx5 for railing me. Geeeeez, you'd think I just won my first blogger tourney. Well, it is my first MATH win.

And of course, I have to thank Al for all this fun. This one's for you, Al:

Stay patient....