Queen of the Mookie

Congratulations to LJ for taking down the Mookie last night. Click on her name to go congratulate her yourself. She played a tough heads up match to get the win! Way to go!

Great job to GCox25 for finishing 2nd. He was really playing well also.



At my starting table I had MiamiDon on my immediate left and Cracknaces on my right. They are two very aggressive players and both have knocked me out of tournaments before. I managed to hold my own and within 30 minutes got moved to another table. I played fairly solid poker, but never managed to chip up much. I would go down to 1,000 then back up to 3000.



With about 3500 in chips, I got moved back to a table with MiamiDon now on my immediate right. I know Don likes to steal blinds, ESPECIALLY mine, so I would have to be careful not to get into trouble with him. One particular hand, he min raised my BB and I made a loose call with J4 sooooooted. The flop comes J high -no 4 but I have 4 to the flush. Don bets out and I re-raise him with my TPWK. Don comes back over the top all in. Now I know Don likes to put the pressure on. I put his range here to include QK same suit as the board, QQ, or a flopped set. I know he could also have trash but calling his all in would end my tournament and I can't see going out on Top Pair with a 4 kicker, so I let it go. He shows J8, so I was outkicked. I have about 1000 in chips again.



I tighten up and manage to chip back up to nearly 4000 in chips. On this next hand, Don is UTG+2 with about 5000 in chips and it folds to him. He makes a pot sized bet which is about 15% of his stack. I have AA and decide to call to see if I can either get another player in or trap Don. Usually, I will raise this hand to isolate, but given Don's aggressive play, I wanted to mix it up. Everyone else folds and we are heads up, which is perfect for me. The flop comes rags 9 high no flush or straight. Don bets out the pot. I don't think I could lay this down anyway, but his large bet assured me he didn't have the set. I went all in, he called and flipped over 1010. The 10 on the river sends me home. As quick as that and I am gone. Sucked, but I felt like I was playing pretty well, and I am not getting out of that hand without putting all my chips in against Don. I mean, he will put the pressure on if I tried to control the pot size anyway.



In the Dookie, we played limit Hold'em turbo. Made it to the final table where basically everyone there had an M of 5 or lower due to the turbo blind increases. I finished 5th with no major suckouts or brilliant plays that I remember. I'm sure I sucked out a few times, but every hand seemed like you were pot committed as soon as you entered it.



Stay patient...

Mookie and Dookie

First the Mookie. I really suck when I get down to the final 20% of the field. Especially if I have a lot of chips. Does that make sense? I tend to get overly aggressive and end up in too many pots. I figure people will start folding to get through the bubble. Not the case. I was chip leader briefly with around 13 players left, and I went out 10th. Very disappointing.


Congratulations to SoCo Al for taking down first! See everyone again next week.



The Dookie was a different story. Turbo Razz. I really like Razz but Turbo is hard. You have to just get in as much money as you can with any 3 starting cards all 8 and under. For example, if your starting cards are A58, start raising hard. You can always back off, since it is a limit game. Also, pay attention to what cards are showing for your opponents. You can steal once in a while with a hand like KK2, if your 2 is face up and everyone else's up card is 8 and higher. Like any tournament, you have to luckbox a few hands to win (or take 2nd). I did win a Razz hand with quad 4's (that wasn't what I used for the low, of course).
Congratulations to leftylu! He has won in consecutive weeks the Mookie, the Mookie, and the Dookie. . . I think from now on I shall call him the MooMooDook.