Playin' 'em all

I don't know if it is "congratulations" or "sorry to hear it" but TheCloserX5 has played every single BBT4 tournament (and he is the only person to do so). And he has actually PLAYED every single one. Not just registered and sat out to say he did it. I know for a fact he won't be missing any of the remaining events. Maybe he'll get some kind of recognition for it.

The BBT4 is off and running

Thanks to JuliusGoat and Bayne for my new Donkavatar. I had no idea what to make, so I google search Hawk and got this. I suppose it's an Iowa Hawkeye, but something different for me none the less. If you want one, wander over to the Donkavatar blog and see about getting one for yourself.

The BBT4 is on. I forgot how fun it is. Loretta8 wrote about all the drama from the past and quite frankly, I look forward to it. Bring it on.

I did terrible Sunday night in the Big Game. I couldn't get any traction. I was playing in my own tournament, The HAWK, that I run for Saint Louis area fulltilt poker players, and I guess was doing poorly at managing both games.

Last night in the Riverchasers, I did better. I caught a few good hands at the right time to build up a nice chip stack. Then I raised with 55, Hoy shoved for over half my stack, I called and he flipped over the almighty 57sooted. A 7 hits and I remember now how much I love the BBT series'. Seriously! No sarcasm. I LOVE IT. You get a feel for the players -a feel for the PLAYS. It's fun. You gotta have a thick skin and a strong stomach. I think 27th out of 81 last night. Not terrible, but plenty of room to improve. And improve I will.

I am really looking forward to the upcoming weeks of BBT4. You should come play too.

And I'll leave you with a screen shot from the last hand for the theCloserX5 last night. A little SUCK/RESUCK/ROYAL action. Gotta love it!

Stay patient....

The HAWK Part III

We started with 16 runners this time. A little low, but expected since a lot of people were still traveling home from holiday trips. Just a few hands in. BigOface is almost out. He gets down to under 200 chips (after starting with 3000).



First player out is Mazoo99 on a busted draw....


Next out is ifoldallthetime. I couldn't see his muck since he was at another table, but I would guess it was a suckout that took him out...


Andybel142 takes out Mandalgan, putting Andy as the chip leader by far.


BigOface (my son) stays alive after I try to take him out with da bitches.


babbs01 is the next one out, with Acerag.


I get knocked out on an attempted blind steal shove. I was down to 500 chips or so at the time.


BigOface outlasts his dad (me) but goes out right afterwards to blowinadeuce's mighty K2soooted...


Next out is the once big chip leader Andybel142. blowinadeuce continues to dominate anyone that takes him on. Bowie300 gets caught up in the big pot with bad timing for 2 pair and he goes out after Andybel142 only because his chip stack was bigger.


With Andybel142 and Bowie300 gone, we are down to the final table and only 8 players left. Blowinadeuce has a DOMINATING chip stack.


Here thecloserx5 wins a HUGE pot to take out JohnWPSpoker and takes about half of blowinadeuce's chips.


next out is pjloch with a pocket pair shove that can't beat Acerag.



Thecloserx5 wins another big one to take out the defending champion trusturgutshot.


Thecloserx5 continues his domination, taking out tgrazz's bitches, with Acerag.


blowinadeuce is officially out and then changed his name to blowinthechiplead. thecloserx5 now has everyone completely dominated in chips.


shimmshady goes out 3rd and first out that made the money. He gets $32.


Thecloserx5 takes out rickphillips to win it all. rickphillips gets $40 for 2nd place.


Congratulations to thecloserx5 for winning 2 out of the first 3 tournaments. He gets $80 for 1st this time and quickly offered up a bounty for taking him out next time. Next tournament will be February 8th (since The Superbowl will be the first Sunday in February). Come play and take out thecloserx5 to win your buyin back. Hope to see you there. Thanks to everyone that played this time.

The First HAWK tournament

Thanks to everyone for playing. It was pretty cool to know everyone that was playing. I set up a private tournament for people from the Saint Louis area only. We had 4 players at my house: Myself (Jamyhawk), My wife (Hawkette), My neighbor (Andybel142), and my son (Big0face). Here's how it looked:

It was pretty funny when my neighbor pushed all in on my son and he was dying to look around at his laptop and see if he should call or not.

Bowie 300 is the first to go out:

Stl_phily's aggressive play takes him out next:

Next, I take out my wife, proving there is no love in poker:

Andybel and my son both go out on the same hand and it is the last hand at their table so I don't get a chance at a screenshot.

The young Ohlsen is out after a coin flip goes my way:

Bill knocks out Dave with the un-foldable hand:

The senior ohlsen takes out a short stacked Tom:

Rich takes out Senior Ohlsen:

I've turned up the aggression, but get caught and Rich takes me out:

Joe knocks out Bill on a miracle river card:

The final hand gives it to the Closer!

Thanks again for playing. We'll do it again next month.

FTOPS X coming

My poker play is still unprofitable right now, but I do feel I have turned the corner. I've stopped tilting so much, I've returned to my tight aggressive play. I've been playing a bunch of satelites to the FTOPS and Sunday Million's on FTP. The bad thing about that is they usually only pay first place or pay very small amounts to 2nd or 3rd spot. So that hurts my ROI when I finish in the top 10% 3 out of every 10 tournaments but don't necessarily get paid.

I did qualify for FTOPS#8. It is a rebuy tournament. It will be my first FTOPS to play in. Actually, I hope it will be my 3rd or 4th. I am trying to get into FTOPS#1 and any others I can satellite into.

I've been playing almost every single night on FTP and feel like I have to get a little "fix" each night. So I think I'm going to take a few days off. Slow things down a bit. I really need to FOCUS harder when I play and if I'm playing every single night, then I think that makes me sloppy. Part of the reason for playing more has also been thanks to TheCloserX5 winning $52K+ in the Sunday 750K Guarantee. He's been on a heater lately as he took down the Big Daily Double B last Saturday as well for $2700+. Watching him do it, definitely lites a fire under me that I can do it too.

One last person to mention is sprstoner . He's been on a heater as well. I had him linked on my site forever and then I finally took him off after he seemingly quit blogging. He's back now and I love his blog. His poker thoughts run similiar to mine (although I wish it were our poker skills that were similiar). Check him out if you get a chance. I'm throwing him back up on my links indefinietly.

Tonight is my monthly tournament to win a WSOP ME buy in next year. I'm still in first place, but I'm tied now, and there are several people on my heals. Time to turn it on and prove that last month was a fluke where I went out with a set of queens to a runner-runner straight. I'm going to try to throw up a poll so look for that too, soon.

Stay patient....

Congratulations TheCloserX5

Ever since I got TheCloserX5 into the blogger tournaments, he has been obsessed with winning one, especially the Riverchasers. He proudly keeps his Riverchasers jacket at work every day just so he can hang it on the back of his chair and proudly display it's emblem for everyone to see (Thanks Riggs for that).

Well now he won his coveted tournament. Congratulations Rich! BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Guest post by "theCloserX5"

Monday night: MATH
57 minutes into the tournament. Started with 25 players, NL, deep stack, 6 handed.
I am in the BB with 7c and 8h
Cubalinks is first to act and he calls BB
Donkette is next and she calls BB
Everybody else folds even SB so I check
Flops Ks 9h and 5h
Check, Check, Check
Turns 6c
I check
Cubalinks bets pot of 180
Donkette calls
I raise x-tra 300 up to 480
Cubalinks reraises x-tra 520 up to 1000
Donkette folds
I rereraise x-tra 1470 up to 2470 to go all in
Cubalinks calls
He turns over Kh 9s for top 2 pair
Rivers 9 clubs
I take 20th place.