I should just change the name of this blog...

... to "Almost Poker". Not only because I seem to be almost there to make my big score, but perhaps as many as you might think what I do is almost like playing poker. Whatever haters!

First off congrats to Carmen for becoming the PokerWeblogs Blog of the Month! Woot!



Now seriously, I am about to go into a massive MTT dump below and I wanted to know if any of you find this the least bit entertaining or educational. Please leave me a comment if I should just cut it out or not. M'kay?

So last night was a pretty good one overall I have to admit. I cashed in a bunch of tourneys, once again making the money in the Midnight Madness as well as an FTOPS#1 sat. I also cashed in the Bodog 4K guarantee and won an FTP token. So all-in-all not so bad. No big scores to report about. Getting desensitized to the bad beats and just going about my business.

The evening started with the Bodonkey which was set up wrong with 60 minute levels and a break every ten minutes. That could be a great structure if you had a lot of time on your hands and suffered from TBS (tiny bladder syndrome). Bodog stopped the tourney and reset it and we were off again. I managed to play a decent game and eventually got it all-in after NewinNov raised to my right and I jammed AQ. He though and though and then made the call with TT. Flopped an Ace and rivered a Ten to send me packing. Boo! I really wanted one of those T$109 packages to the $100K. There's always next week, I guess.

While all this was going on I also played the $4K guarantee which had over 500 runners this time and no overlay. 54 spot paid and I ended in 42 place after some beat and an eventual bad timed push. Here is an example of how bad some of these guys are. Guy to my right raises 3x pre-flop as he has been doing a lot and I pop him to 9x. He smooth calls. He checks the flop like he usually does and then when I bet the pot he moves all-in. Obviously he gets his miracle 2-outer (his queens are dead), but even more miraculously I get my own 2-outer (now my queens are dead) on the river to take him out. Sick hand got the whole table going crazy:



I played a $10 6-max MTT and was the chip leader before the first orbit was over due to some serious aggressiveness and ruckboxery (thank you CK for embedding this crap in my head):

Here I am raising the first hand and getting everyone to fold:


Here I am in the second hand calling with suited connectors and betting on the flop to get everyone to fold:


Here I am on the forth hand getting a top-pair-is-gold donk to commit all his chips on the flop to my overpair that makes a set on the turn (like I really needed it):


Here I am on the 5th hand getting another stack when I flop a set of aces and improve to a full house on the turn:


So I played and won 4 of the first 5 hands. That is insane.

As I have said previously, I have no idea what the right strategy is for 6-max (I wish Hoy would do a quick refresher or something). I just know that since you get hit with the blinds much faster and you are only playing against a maximum of 5 more people, you need to play a little looser and a lot more aggressive. I don't remember what happened in the end of this tourney but I didn't cash.

I started the FTOPS#1 sat in much the same way winning 7 of the first 11 hands and taking two stacks in the process. The best one was the 9th hand where I flopped a set of 3s and bet the flop (because I'm a man) and there were two clubs out there and someone moved in on me with nothing:



Well played THE SOLID ROCK. That was obviously not what I was expecting but thanks for all the chips.

So now I decided to slow down since I had over 3 times the starting stack and we were still in the first level. Not sure why I slowed down but i missed a ton of hands that would have sent me into hyper-space:

This first one is where I folded to a raise and re-raise. It was a good fold at the time but heartbreak followed:


This one was even more painful and is a great example why not to slow play. I raised UTG and got called twice. When the flop came I had to check-fold, but had these two slow played their set of aces, I would have taken them both out. So sick:


One of the things that I seem to be doing lately is playing against short stacks and getting to a point where I have to call. This time I did it on the turn when i was drawing dead:


I took out a big stack with a one-two punch when he did the old min-raise with aces in the CO. I had nice suited connectors on the button, smooth called and flopped a set of 7s. When he check-raised my flop bet I got a big chunk of his stack:


Then on the very next hand he shoved A9s into my AJ:


On the way to the final table I doubled up two shorties who were all-in pre-flop and I called:



Right before that last suckout I slow played my flopped two pair that turned into a boat on the river. I was praying that he had at least one diamond but I guess I value bet too much and he folded. Hey at least he didn't have A2d or 67d:


It took forever to burst the FT bubble. With decent stacks nobody was in a hurry to bust, so I stole and stole and stole and stole and when we eventually got the FT I was the chip leader. Then I stole some more at the FT because we were on the money bubble. I double up a shortie (again) when I tried to slow-play flopped two pair in a blinds battle. I check-called the flop and check-raised the river. She moved-all-in and I had to call. She had a better two pair that became a boat on the river. Fun times:



I chipped back up a bit and then on the next blind battle with shadylady13 I raised with A6o in the SB, she shoved from the BB to put me all-in (with 33 she showed later) and I laid it down. Two hands later I raised in the CO with J9o and she flap called. The flop was gave me 10 outs twice so I moved all-in and she thought long and hard. She had enough chips to call, said it was a donkey call but she was getting the right odds and flipped over KQs to take me out when non of my outs arrived:


She took out the next guy when she flopped a boat on his ass one orbit later:


This was very disappointing. Again. But at least I cashed and got close. I wish they had more satellites.

Ok, that's it for now. I might or might not play the Mookie tonight. See ya!