My Aces cracked by Runner-Runner Queens

Played the "$20,000 Guaranteed!" tournament today at pokerroom.com. I was in about 2oth place with about $45,000 in chips,when I got pocket aces in early position. I had won the last two pots, the first with a pre-flop raise which went uncalled, the second with pocket tens, which I moved all-in with preflop. Due to my previous aggression I probably could have gotten called with a normal sized pre-flop raise, but I went ahead and limped anyway.

C-Donkey was on the button and moved all-in, and one of the blinds moved all-in behind him. The blind had me outchipped slightly, and C-Donkey had about twice as many chips as either one of us, so he would be in decent shape even if he lost.

C-Donkey showed ace-queen, and the blind showed ace-king, and my aces were an 86% favorite preflop. The flop came all blanks, and I was a 98% favorite. A queen on the turn made me a 95% favorite over C-Donkey, but one of the two remaing queens came on the river, and C-Donkey basically doubled up by eliminating both of us. I won $118 for 34th place, otu of a field of 760. Currently C-Donkey is the short stack at the final table:

1. whahooking $888,487
2. JadeofDi $600,891
3.YECoyote $233,302
4.C-Donkey $168,820

4th place will receive $1240, 1st place will win $4800. Just checked back, C-Donkey finished 4th. If you listen to his chat he likes to talk about his lucky hands, but from what I can tell he regularly goes deep into these tournaments, so don't let him fool you. He got lucky on this hand, of course, but he also had a big stack and could afford to lose it. Be careful if you find yourself at a table with C-Donkey.

As for myself, I made final tables at tournaments during six consecutive playing sessions last week, so I expect to be pulling down one of these big prizes sooner, rather than later. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but dont cry for me Argentina--LATER

Another Final Table

Not much to say, really, but I took 3rd place in a 10+1 Pot Limit Omaha Eight-or-better tournament, out of 129, winning $107.50. I was in 2nd place for a while, with 1/3 the chips of the tournament leader. By the end the ratio was much worse than that. Me and the guy that took second both had about 14,000, while he was around 100,000. In the past I haven't done too hot playing O8B, but I guess I've become more disciplined. Or something.

Holy Crap, I won a Tournament!

I just won a "10+1 NL Rebuy" on PokerRoom.com. There were 118 registered in the tournament, so it wasn't incredibly big compared to whet else is out there these days, but it's the biggest field I've managed to beat. (I think my previous best was only 30!) The payout for 1st place was supposed to be $354, but for some reason I made $582 instead. Maybe they don't add the rebuys ito the prize pool until after the tournament.

Well, I'm trying to think of what hands were critical, or at least memorable. A few minutes before the add-on I had pocket aces in the small blind. I raised, but not much, because I wanted some action. The big blind & one other limper called me. I made a fairly small bet on the flop, hoping that one of these guys would smell weakness & raise me. I don't remember what the board was, but it wasn't too threatening. Anyway, a second club hit on the turn, and instead of betting enough to make a flush draw fold, I actually made a decent sized bet, but one small enough to encourage a call. I didn't even notice the clubs until another one hit the river. Now one of the other guys made a fairly small bet, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the pot. I called, knowing he probably had a flush, and he showed 7t of clubs.

This hand didn't cost me too many chips, but I was probably in danger of tilting away a good chunk more. This is the first time in awhile that I can recall where I misplayed aces or kings that badly. I mean, this guy didn't suck out on me. I kept making bets that would keep him in! On the other hand, playing my aces in this weak fashion probably lost me less of my stack than I could have any other way, aside from checking the hands down. My stack fluctuated a little after that on failed and successful blind steals, and then the first break and the add-on came. I added on, and was back to where I was before I mishandled my aces.

My stack took a severe hit later when I moved on the blinds with 55 and got called by kj or kt, and he paired up. This dropped me down to 2500 chips or so, while I had been at about 7000 before. The big blind was 4 or 500 at this point, so I was feeling kind of desperate. About the first time it was folded around to me after that I tried to take down the blinds with 64 offsuit. One of the blinds was sitting on pocket kings, but afer I flopped a 4, I got runner-runner sixes to fill up.

Later on I lost about half my chips in another coin-flip, this time when I had aq vs 99, but soon after I tripled up when my pocket aces held up against some other big cards, maybe ak and aq. (I am writing this part later--I just ran into the same situation today, but may aces got cracked, by runner-runner queens, hence the title of my most recent post. The other memorable hand also had me with pocket aces. I was one of the blinds, and after a pre-flop raise I reraised one of the big stacks about half my stack. I don't remember how much he raised preflop at this point, but it was enough that I believed he would call this raise. I think I may also have been trying to narrow the hand to a two-way fight as well. Anyway, this guy was pretty aggressive, and the pot was pretty big, so when the flop came akx, giving me top set, I checked to him, figuring he might make a move at the pot even if he didn't have an ace, and definitely would if he did. I moved all-in, he called and turned over a9

It's the next day--just took 4th out of 317 players in another 10+1 NL Rebuy on pokerrrom.com, winning $439. 1st prize was $1372. I got all of the bad poker out of my system early, rebought, and after my add on had about an average stack. The interesting thing about this tournament to me was that I never seemed to be in any real dramatic hands like I was yesterday. I don't think any of my all-in moves got called, and the times my opponent was all in he was short stacked, so it wasn't critical. Yesterday I got some healthy doses of luck at critical times. Today it seemed like I was able to avoid trouble. I think part of it was that the tables were tighter, and I think I was a bit more selective with my blind steals. In fact, I don't think I did much true stealing today. Today I generally had a little more something to back up my raises.

$30+3, $50,000 Guaranteed NL Hold'em--pokerroom.com

We just finoished the rebuy period. I'm in 42nd place with $9290, so I didn't rebuy.

There's a guy directly across the table from me named chuckwheat who I managed to bust 2 hands in a row. Here's how they went down:

Me--54 off, big blind. chuckwheat comes in for the minimum (100) and the small blind calls. 3 way pot. The flop is 992, and the small blind checks. I decide to attack the short stack, and bet 500. (He has 4-something) Chuckwheat calls me all-in, small blind folds.
chuckie turns over jj, and I turn a 3, for an open-ended straight draw, and river a 6! Sorry, chuckie.

He rebuys, and next hand I have k8 in the small blind. The flop is kk7, and I bet 500 on the flop, as if I'm going for the same steal. (Chuck called & the bb checked pf) The bb folds and Chuck calls. The turn is another 7, so I fill up. I check, to act like I'd been on a steal, and chuck checks behind me. The river is a six, and I bet 900, knowing that Chuckie doesn't want to soldier on with a short stack when he could rebuy (he has 900 out of his 1500 rebuy). Chuckie calls, loses, and rebuys.

Ugh, alot of good play, but my qq ran into aa, and I busted out a bit later in 97th place, out of 899. Top 90 got paid. I can't really complain though, because in the last 3 days that I've played I've made 3 final tables, finishing 9th, 5th, and 5th. i've run $100 up to over $500, though I'm down to $446 after that $30 buy-in. I suppose I shoud've tried a little bit harder to make the $$, but I don't seem to be having much trouble with these big tournaments lately. That and I've done really well at PLO sit&goes the last few days, which is strange, since I've never played much Omaha at all. My basic strategy has been to see alot of flops, and hope that the big implied odds make up for my far-too-loose play. I suspect that this can't be quite right, but it's been working.

Must close, just finished in the money in a NL Turbo tournament, after the blinds ate 2/3 of my stack, and my qt made two pair, but lost to a ten hi straight. Ugh.

Oh, saw chuckie again during the Turbo, when I had $21,000 and he had $3000, about the size of the big blind. Refrained from calling him my bitch.

ND Shelves Voodoo/Other Non-pix

Well, my "Sox in Six" pick wasn't quite right, as Chicago managed to sweep the Astros. Since all of the games were close, six games still doesn't seem that far off. On the other hand, I definitely smelled a sweep coming once the Sox won Game 2. Not as a sure thing, mind you, but as a strong possibility.

Meanwhile, I haven't done much sports betting. I can't believe I missed betting on the Giants-Redskins game. I don't remember the spread for sure, but I think the Giants were favored by 2 at home. Since I think the Redskins are hopelessly overrated, (remember, they won their first 3 games by a total of six points) the Giants were an easy pick, even if the 36-0 score was a bit more lopsided than I expected. I actually don't expect many blowouts in divisional games, particularly in the competitive NFC East, but I still think the Giants should have been favored by 4 or 5.

I wrote a bunch more, but I just lost it all (FUCK!), so quickly, before the games start, here is my pick, and non-picks for the weekend. Picks are listed first, line is relative to pick (or non-pick), home teams in CAPS.

Pick: michiganstate(-5)PURDUE

Nonpicks:
NOTREDAME/NOVOODOO(-9)tennessee
auburn(-22)KENTUCKY
wisconsin(+12)PENNSTATE.

Remember, these are games I'm tempted to bet on, but the oddsmakers did too good of a job setting the line, so don't blame me if you bet on one of these games and lose. Here's a proposition bet for you though: I propose that Michigan State will beat Purdue by more points than Penn State will beat Wisconsin by. Not because Michigan State is good, but because Purdue SUCKS and Wisconsin doesn't. I'll try to flesh all of this out later when I'm not pissed off, but it may be too late by then if you decide to bet based on my reasoning. NOTREDAME/NOVOODOO means that Tennessee has not demonstrated that they are worthy of the unholy voodoo ritual treatment, so Notre Dame will only have home-field advantage here. Auburn I'd probably take if the line was 20, but their kicker has me getting stingy, after he single footedly blew the LSU game....

Before I go, here is a recap of last year's matchups--(the ones I bet on)

WISCONSIN(+2)pennstate
lsu(+1.5)AUBURN--(I know, I know, this was my non-pick two weeks ago, but still.)

...and the scores...

Wisconsin 16 Penn State 10 (I think--I know I'm close)
Auburn 10 LSU 9 (too close for comfort)

I should start keeping track of my non-picks. If they win I might have to turn them into picks....