Destiny? I guess not (3/114)

Yesterday I went live my new blog that details my Aussie Millions Win. The reason it went live yesterday was because the way I get into the TOC is by winning the Halloween Mookie. Throughout the tournament I had a sense of destiny. As if I was writing the future. A couple of people picked up on it and the destiny chants were getting a little surreal.

But it was not to be. I ended up calling Loretta8's millionth shove with AT while he held AJ. It was a mistake to make that call. I know that now. I was chip leader and had a lot of chips left to play with. It was an unnecessary mistake. But he was jamming for the past 5 minutes. Almost every hand. I thought I was a head of his range. I was gone on the next hand. Sucks.

There were a few hands that I wanted to go over and get your comments.

The first hand was against -o-LuckTruck-o-. He had been pretty aggressive and had amassed a big stack. We were on the money bubble and I was sitting one to his right on the button and found 9c8c. I have not tried many steals so far and raised it up. I think the blinds were 500/1000 and I raised it 2800. He re-raised from the SB to 6000 and the BB folded. This looked very strong to me or it could have been a bubble re-steal attempt. My first thought was that he was trying to price me in with a monster. The pot was a little over 10K at this point and it cost me 3200 more to call so I figured with 3-to-1 odds I am willing to see this flop in position. We both had over 25K stack so the implied odds were great.

The flop was a great 993 rainbow and I am not sure what the action (I think he bet out on the flop and I smooth called) was but eventually we got it all-in on the turn where he jammed the rest of his 15K stack and I called:



I got a lot of flack for the loose pre-flop call. LuckTruck was pretty upset and I got some unkind words from Al. But I admit it was a loose call and I got very lucky. I think LuckTruck could have gotten away from the hand and didn't have to shove on the turn with 2 outs.

So what would you do here? Is it that bad to call with 98s in position against another big stack? He told me to pay attention, he had only shown down AQ and AA in the last orbit. Could I really put him on Aces again and fold pre-flop? Or do I take the loose/lucky route and try to stack him with suited connectors in position? I don't think that was such a bad call.

Another hand that got me in hot water was a little earlier with cracknaces (KOD). He had been on a tear and a massive stack at the table, but then ran into a river to lose some chips. He had been raising almost every hand for a long time so I didn't play much against him and sitting to his right gave him a bunch of walks in the blinds.

On one hand I was once again in the SB and had 87o. I completed and he checked, blinds are 120/240/25. The flop was 869 rainbow so I flopped middle pair and an OESD. I bet 440 into the 680 pot and he raised to 2K which was almost half my stack. I had basically two options, fold or jam and I elected to jam. He called and showed T9o for top pair and a gutty. I caught one of my 9 outs on the river and he was not happy:



I mean, how can I put this guy on any hand here? The 2K raise seems like a total bully move. I had 4K to his 20K so obviously he was trying to apply pressure.

How would play this hand?

Anyway, he went on some sick tilt and just gifted me most of his chips about an orbit or so later. He raised UTG to 1250 (blinds were now 250/500/50), I re-raised in the BB with Queens to 4250. He jammed and I called. He shows 97s. Really? Yep:



Not sure what that was all about.

One of the big hands that gave me a lot of chips was when UnTiltable15 min-raised to 1000 UTG with QQ and I re-raised in the CO to 2800 with KK. He shoved and I was just hoping I didn't fall for the old min-raise with Aces UTG. I called and doubled up to take the chip lead with 33 remaining. Then came the LuckTruck hand and I was up to over 60K and the chip lead when we the bubble burst.

I took a huge hit from a really bad play by dmanns. Blinds are at 600/1200/150 and I am still sitting on the 60K stack and not playing many hands at all. dmanns min-raises from the CO and I am pretty much priced in to call with Tc3c. We see a flop of AT3 rainbow. I check, he bets 3K into the 6.5K pot and I check-raise him to 8K. At this point I have 45K behind and he has 33K. He goes ahead and re-raises me to 25K at which point I am starting to think that he actually might have Aces or even AT. I discounted Aces because there is no reason to go to 25K here. And if I got bottom two against top two that is just evil. But I also don't think he would play AT pre-flop like that, so I am really hoping he has AK at this point. I jam and he calls. With Ace-fucking-four-fucking-off-fucking-suit. You read that right. A4o. Min-raise pre-flop. Call for your tourney life, when you are one of the bigger stacks. Very nice, thank you for the chips.

Oh, wait. What's that? FTP RNG just woke up from his nap? What do you need dmanns? An Ace or a 4? Sure no problem:



So from a 3-to-1 favorite I got to a 9-to-1 underdog on the turn and lose 2/3 of my stack. I win that one and I am going to be unstoppable. Sigh.

I don't think there is any other way to play this one. Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

At this point I still had some chips to work with and had to calm down. It helped that FTP TD took dmanns to the other table where they had probably 80% of the chips in play and left us shorties to battle it out. My first good hand was to take out mowenumdown:



Then I had a tough decision to make. On of many that I would have all night long. I think it was the very next hand because there was no SB and I was the BB (800/1600/200). Schaubs calls on the button and I check with Th4h. The pot is 4200 and we see a flop of 8hJh4c which gives me a flush draw and bottom pair. I bet out 2600 and he jams 18.6K and while I do have him covered this is a really tough one. I finally figured I was beat and gave up on the hand to conserve chips for later:



What the hell did you have, Schaubs? What would others do here?

Then GScottW who was down to 6K shoved UTG and I re-raised all-in from the SB with AT to isolate and lost. I guess this was a sign of things to come?



I made it to the final table 5th in chips with two huge stacks to my left. UnTiltable15 shoved on the button and I called from the SB with pocket Jacks:



No lucky flush for him and I was back in contention. Then I had another tough hand. dmanns raised UTG+1 to 5K (blinds were 1K/2K/250) and BornLate55 smooth called a third of his chips in the CO. I had Kh4h in the BB and called 3K more to see the flop. I am getting 5-to-1, I have to take it, right? The flop is 346 rainbow, so I check, dmanns checks and BornLate55 moves all in for 10K more into the 18K pot. I had no idea what hand to put him on at this point. My guess was a high pocket pair trying to suck someone in. The problem was that I had dmanns still to act and we all know his range by now. I eventually folded and so did dmanns.



I took Schaubs out next when he jammed A& on the button into my AQ in the SB:



The hand before that Loretta tried to steal my blinds for the brazillianth time and I jammed with AK and he folded. So getting AQ against Schaubs was lucky.

Then I took out GScottW in a huge pot with 99 vs AK:



Then I took out dmanns in the blinds when he decided to re-raise me with K4:



When we were down to three I played a strange hand against BornLate55. I guess this was the next hand after dmanns was eliminated because there was no SB (blinds at 2.5K/5K/600). I raised it to 16.8K from the button with 55 and he called from the BB for about 12K more. The flop was 829 rainbow and he leads out with a weak 5K min-bet into a 35K pot. I decided to see where I was and raised to 15K, which he called. The turn was a 6h which was the second heart on the board and again he min-bets again into a 65K pot. At this point I got a little scared and just called. The river was a 7s which completed my dummy straight and he checked it to me. No need to bet into a better hand so I check behind and he shows A3o. Wow:



There was one more interesting hand before my eventual demise. Born was down to 10K or 2BB and jammed on the button. Loretta in the SB made it 35K and I jammed on top. If Loretta calls and wins we are both gone. But if he folds and I lose I just made an extra 25K there:



What do you think of this move? Worth putting my tournament life on the line? Worth getting that extra 25K? If Loretta had just smooth called Born's jam I probably call and check it down. But since he raised I went for it. Interesting spot. Not sure what the right play is.

Eventually I made my fatal mistake and after seeing Loretta jam almost every hand I raised on the button with AT. Loretta moved all in from the BB to what I thought was a re-steal and quite frankly a huge range and I called only to find myself behind his JackAce:



Next hand I have nothing left and finish in third:



They were done on the next hand when Born jammed A6 into Loretta's A7. Well done to Loretta8 for taking down his first bloggerment and Mookie.

I guess destiny was not on my side last night...