Gus Shmus

It's been a few days now and I am finally over the shock and horror. One of the biggest upsets in recent poker history occurred a few days ago and some of you might have missed it. I know, the WPT has become a boring all-in-final-table-pushfest and nobody watches it anymore. I even told my trusty Tivo not to bother recording it anymore. But I still read about it from time to time.

So the WPT Championship $25K event ended with a HUGE bang a few days ago. Gus Hansen went in with the final table chip lead and lucksacked his way to an incredible lead when heads up. This deserves special mention. Apparently he folded the first four hands but then played the next 16 of 19 hands dealt. He eliminated 4 players in that 19 hand span, coming from behind all but once for a super-suckout (Hansen's hands on the left):

AcQc vs Ts9s - T on the river.
55 vs TT - Flopped set over set (presto no goot).
AdJs vs 7d5d - Flop QcJd6d, all-in, river 3d.
KK vs AcTc - All-in pre, flop J98, river 7.

So at this point it's Gus and David Chiu heads-up and Gus has a 22.9M to 4.3M advantage (blinds 160k/80k/15k).

And he lost. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa???

He tried to bully Chiu a few times early by shoving, but only got folds. Then he shoved 22 into Chiu's 55 and doubled him up (presto is goot now? WTF!). Chiu chipped away at Hansen's lead and eventually drew to almost even in chips. Then Gus made a mistake and bluffed at a 554A9 board and got a call from Chiu with 97, finally giving away the lead after around 80 hands.

Two hands after losing the chip lead to Chiu the final hand of the tournament played out this way:

Hansen raises pre and get's a call.
Flop is AcTc8s and Chiu check-calls.
Turn is 5s, Chiu bets and Hansen moves all-in.
Chiu thinks and counts stacks and thinks and eventually calls.
Hansen shows two pair with Ts8h.
Chiu shows As9s for top pair and nut flush draw. He needs an Ace, 9, 5 or a spade on the river to win.

River is Ah.

Booooooooooooooooooommmmmm!!!!

And $3.4M for the winner.

So what do you think about this Hansen collapse? Did I pre-order the wrong damn book?

WHW? My favorite new move! - The Answer

Well, this was a pretty easy one and some of you got it right away. It's the old check-TPTK-out-of-position-into-the-pre-flop-raiser, or as I like to call it CTPTPOOPITPFR:

FullTiltPoker Game #5997817892: $28,000 Guarantee (45001765), Table 131 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:06:57 ET - 2008/04/11
Seat 1: Ex_Corpse (2,985)
Seat 2: donkeyherder1 (2,895)
Seat 3: MasterCraft205 (2,955)
Seat 4: busttout (2,650)
Seat 5: ClawDad (3,830)
Seat 6: math-head (2,970)
Seat 7: tweeddeluxe (2,970)
Seat 8: Kajagugu (2,655)
Seat 9: IzzyMandelbaum (3,090)
math-head posts the small blind of 15
tweeddeluxe posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Kajagugu [As Qc]
Kajagugu raises to 105
IzzyMandelbaum folds
Ex_Corpse folds
donkeyherder1 has 15 seconds left to act
donkeyherder1 folds
MasterCraft205 has 15 seconds left to act
MasterCraft205 folds
busttout raises to 360
ClawDad folds
math-head folds
tweeddeluxe folds
Kajagugu calls 255
*** FLOP *** [4c 3s Qh]
Kajagugu checks
busttout bets 388
Kajagugu calls 388
*** TURN *** [4c 3s Qh] [8d]
Kajagugu checks
busttout bets 450
Kajagugu raises to 1,907, and is all in
busttout has 15 seconds left to act
busttout has requested TIME
busttout calls 1,452, and is all in
Kajagugu shows [As Qc]
busttout shows [Ts Td]
Uncalled bet of 5 returned to Kajagugu
*** RIVER *** [4c 3s Qh 8d] [Kc]
Kajagugu shows a pair of Queens
busttout shows a pair of Tens
Kajagugu wins the pot (5,345) with a pair of Queens
busttout stands up



I love this play. It is so basic and yet so effective. I can't count the number of times I've pulled it off. Of course once in a while you will run into a flopped set or an overpair but it is more likely to work than not.

This was very early in the 28K, first or second blind level. I open-raise UTG and get re-raised by LP player. I have no idea what he's re-raising with but I don't think it's AA or KK. I figure it's a mid-pair that wants to eliminate the blinds and potentially get me to fold.

I call his re-raise knowing full well that I have to let the hand go if I miss. But the flop is B.E.A.Utiful. He does not have a set on this flop. And my check tells him I missed it. So he fires out a c-bet and I just call.

Then when the turn is an 8, I am ahead of everything I was before except for a pair of 8s. But if he hit his set he probably just checks behind. So I check and he can't resist but fire a second bullet. At this point I am almost certain that he either has AK (3 outs), KQ (3 outs), JJ-99 (2 outs).

So I check raise him all-in and he pauses to think about it a little and calls with second pair, drawing to two outs. Good thing he didn't have AK or KQ, huh?

Fairly simple, very straightforward, level-1 play that works a ton of times. Some of you will probably think that I am the donkey for raise-calling UTG with AQs and I will agree about 40% of the time. But early on in a deep stack MTT with 1500+ players I will take some cheap flops and see what happens.

Also, another variant of this play is to do the same in position after the pre-flop raiser check the Q-high flop. They just can't resist going for it on the turn.

Comments?

WHW? My favorite new move!

I have been doing this a lot lately with very good results. Can you try to figure out Who Has What?

FullTiltPoker Game #5997817892: $28,000 Guarantee (45001765), Table 131 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:06:57 ET - 2008/04/11
Seat 1: Ex_Corpse (2,985)
Seat 2: donkeyherder1 (2,895)
Seat 3: MasterCraft205 (2,955)
Seat 4: busttout (2,650)
Seat 5: ClawDad (3,830)
Seat 6: math-head (2,970)
Seat 7: tweeddeluxe (2,970)
Seat 8: Kajagugu (2,655)
Seat 9: IzzyMandelbaum (3,090)
math-head posts the small blind of 15
tweeddeluxe posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Kajagugu [something]
Kajagugu raises to 105
IzzyMandelbaum folds
Ex_Corpse folds
donkeyherder1 has 15 seconds left to act
donkeyherder1 folds
MasterCraft205 has 15 seconds left to act
MasterCraft205 folds
busttout raises to 360
ClawDad folds
math-head folds
tweeddeluxe folds
Kajagugu calls 255
*** FLOP *** [4c 3s Qh]
Kajagugu checks
busttout bets 388
Kajagugu calls 388
*** TURN *** [4c 3s Qh] [8d]
Kajagugu checks
busttout bets 450
Kajagugu raises to 1,907, and is all in
busttout has 15 seconds left to act
busttout has requested TIME
busttout calls 1,452, and is all in
Kajagugu shows [something]
busttout shows [something]
Uncalled bet of 5 returned to Kajagugu
*** RIVER *** [4c 3s Qh 8d] [Kc]
Kajagugu shows something
busttout shows something else
Kajagugu wins the pot (5,345) with something
busttout stands up

Wow Wow Wednesday!

Had a couple of free hours last night and while I didn't think I would play the Mookie I fired up a few quick tournaments. FTP just doesn't compare to the amount of MTTs going off on Stars and I ended up playing double shootouts and turbo 180s.

What I didn't notice is that this week's Sunday Million is the $500+30 buy-in instead of the usual $200+15. That meant the double shootouts only payed a single seat instead of the usual 2-3 seats. Basically a winner take all. So I just had to go out and win it:



So I immediately withdrew from the tourney for a nice T$530 payday:



I also went deep in one of the $12 turbo 180 seaters. Final table I get it all in with KK vs QQ to see this happen:





That sucked!

I stayed patient and tried to work my way back up but the blinds were insane and then this happened:





Even with that hand I was still very short and went out in 5th:



Wednesdays are becoming my most profitable nights! I can't believe that double shootout took almost 3.5 hours though.

Poker Books

Has anyone heard anything about the new "Gus Hansen: Every Hand Revealed" book? Looks like it's coming out at the end of the month. Is this the book he's been writing where he kept muttering into his dictation device at the tables? I wonder if it will be any good.

And while I'm asking questions, has anyone read "Kill Phil" or "Kill Everyone"?

If you could recommend one book about tournaments (other than Harrington, Brunson and Gordon books), what would it be?

Brandi Hawbaker vs Chip Reese

I read Pauly's post about the Brandi Hawbaker suicide and what a disgrace it is that Chip Reese didn't get as much coverage, and I agree. So I decided to do some research.

I did a quick 3 month blog trend search and this is what I got:



IceRocket.com shows that Brandi got a total of 27 post in the last three months while
Chip got 368 with 4 blog posts per day on average. And that's after his death. Brandi only got a big spike in traffic this past weekend. That's understandable. And history will definitely show that Chip made a lasting impact on poker, whereas Brandi's story will be a sad sidetrack mini freakshow.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Obviously people love gossip and drama and that's why Brandi has generated so much interest. It's a sad story, but it brings to light the negative aspects of this industry. We don't get to hear about the Reese's and Seidel's because that's boring. Instead we hear about the Belande's, Skalnsky's and Hawbaker's. It's the same reason that Perez Hilton is so huge. People love drama.

It's also the reason blogger dorks get all up in arms about the BBT3 dramz of late. If everyone played perfect poker and didn't type anything offensive in chat, who would want to read the benign posts and hand histories. It's voyeurism at it's finest. Why do people read Wawfuls? For the literary aspects of his posts? Or for his non-stop ranting abilities?

Controversies are much more interesting than agreements.

Plain vanilla sucks. Hot and spicy sells.

Weird Wednesday

I had a very strange Wednesday night this week. I was traveling again and as I settled into my hotel room late on the first night, I fired up both FTP and Stars to see what tourneys were coming up. I also tuned into BDR to give myself a little laugh. Those guys are great.

Anyway, I ended up choosing an $8 MTT and the Midnight Madness on FTP and a random $20 MTT on Stars. I cashed in all of them. Not some serious cashes, but still some significant fields.

The $8 only got 64 people to sign-up. They've been running these 180-max tourneys with a nice structure and they hardly ever fill up. I finished 7th when I jammed A5o from the CO and the button called me with KJ and rivered a Jack on the river. Final table and cash, I'll take it.

The Midnight Madness had 1592 runners and I ended up in 81st place on a really bad blind battle play. It was a really bad play on my part and I should know better by now. I might post it sometime to get an idea of what others think. I thought my betting line would make it clear to my opponent that I he shouldn't draw, but he did and he got there. Oh well.

The $20 on Stars had 378 players and I finished in 22nd after being a super shortstack forever. I was just sitting there very patiently, picking my spots and doubling up every once in a while to stay afloat. I eventually shoved 11BB from UTG with TT only to get called by AQo and KK with bigger stacks. AQo made a boat. I guess I could have waited some more, but TT UTG so short? I have to shove, right?

So 3 MTTs and 3 cashes is great. The weird thing about this whole night was that I was exhausted from an early travel schedule and full day at the office and a corporate dinner, I was feeling very sick for some reason and I was sitting in my room shivering so hard to the point where I couldn't even click the mouse on my laptop to call a bet!

I swear, I have never felt that way before in my entire life and I have no idea what the hell was going on! On one hand, where I wanted to raise, I tried to type in the raise amount and almost timed out. So between running to check the thermostat (I had raised it up all the way to 85 degrees), trying to wrap myself up in the comforter and playing three tournaments at once, I still managed to go deep and cash.

Whenever things like this happen, I always try to imagine how I would play if I had the time to invest in it. Was this just the good side of variance shining on me for once? Was I getting deep because I was so distracted by everything else that was going on? I have no idea.

Anyway, I have some awesome hands saved up and I will do some WWYD? and WHW? posts in the near future.

Subscription Milestone

I've been tweaking my blog lately. Playing around with positioning stuff around and shifting sizes and colors and so on. One of the things I like keeping track of is how many people actually read my nonsensical drivel. Well, a few days ago I played around with some setting and found out I have over 100 subscribers! How in the world????

Well, up until lately I just used to see how many bloglines readers I had. But I recently found out the Feedburner was bought by Google. And what this means is that they now have a way to hijack the default blogger feed and consolidate all the stats into one place. And when I did I found out I was at 102 subscribers. And it's jumped to 108 the next day.

So you can sign up for Feedburner for free. Then when you burn your feed, you get the following window:



You fill that out and take the Feed Address and copy that into Blogger:



Anyway, there are a bunch of cool features you can use to optimize your feed. And it's also an easy way to get some stats.

So a big thank you to all my subscribers and readers. Hope this was helpful. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any.

Live Band Karaoke

Monday night we had a rare treat at Casa de Kaja and went out on the town. We got our neighbor to come babysit KajaKid and headed out to dinner at Sotto Sotto (if you are in Atlanta and want some amazing Italian food, you should check out this place). But that was just the opening act for the rest of the evening.

We headed into the Highlands to meet JJ and CC who was celebrating her birthday at the Dark Horse Tavern. The reason they chose this place is that downstairs, in the basement they have a Live Band Karaoke night with a band called Metalsome Incorporated. You can check them out on their website and also their myspace page.

These. Guys. Rock. Out!!!

This was so cool. It's a live band that sounds amazing and you are standing center stage singing with them. They have a huge song list and every song sounded incredible. Especially the lead guitarist who nailed every guitar solo and the drummer (Ganash) who just banged it out.

We had so much fun! CC took the mic first and sang 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' really well. Then JJ kind of butchered 'Cum On Feel The Noize' but still had a blast. Then I took the stage and murdered 'White Wedding'. KajaWife decided to spare our eardrums (according to her) and would not relent to my persistence to get up there and rock!

They had a lot of regulars who can carry a tune and looked the part as well. We had some Ozzy, Kansas, Stones and other great songs. This band plays a huge song list and like I already said - they nail it every time. My ears were ringing for the next day.

One band I was not familiar with but was totally insane is Buckcherry. Some filmmaker from New York who was out here for some film festival sang both of their songs. You should check out these lyrics.

Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry

Alright!

Break me down
You got a lovely face
We're going to your place
And now you got to freak me out
Scream so loud
Getting fucking laid
You want me to stay
But I got to make my way

Chorus:
Hey!
You're a crazy bitch
But you fuck so good I'm on top of it
When I dream
I'm doing you all night
Scratches all down my back to keep me right on

(Repeat Chorus)

Take it off
The paper is your game
You jump in bed with fame
Another one night payed in full
You're so fine
It won't be a loss
Cashing in the rocks
Just to get you face to face

(Chorus x2)

Get the video
Fuck you so good
Get the video
Fuck you so good

Crazy bitch
Crazy bitch
Crazy... bitch

(Chorus)

Hey
You're a crazy bitch
But you fuck so good I'm on top of it
When I dream
I'm doing you all night
Scratches all down my back
Come on!

Baby girl
You want it all
To be a star you'll have to go down
Take it off
No need to talk
You're crazy but I like the way you fuck me!

(Chorus x2)

You keep me right on
You're crazy but I like the way you fuck me!

And if that's not enough for you, check out the other song:

Lit Up - Buckcherry

I'm on a plane with cocaine
And yes I'm all lit up again
Cough up love and touch up
Your mama said packing lines is sin

*
And yes I'm all lit up again
On the couch, in my bed
And yes, I 'm all lit up again
Flying...I love the cocaine
I love the cocaine
Mama can't you wait, mama can't you wait

I'm on a train, and right on
You know the train is staying off the track
I'm in touch from this crutch
Your at ten but money I'm on eleven

(*Repeat)

Crack the door for the curious girl
cause she's waiting
She's been waiting
Chop a line for the fiending man
cause he wants on
Can you feel it can you feel it
tonight are you high
Tell me are you fucking high
In the moment you are just so right
are you right love

(*Repeat)

Chopper Backgammon

A while back I wrote a post about backgammon and how much I used to play it half my life ago. Boy how time flies.

Anyway, there's a pretty cool backgammon event about to happen that is supposed to make it into the Guinness Book of Records. They are going to play on a giant table about and acre in size and throw the huge dice from a helicopter. The match will be held between two world champs and a crew that will move their 3 foot tiles on the board. Insane!

The real world record is in fact for the longest dice toss, which will measure around 200-300 feet from the chopper. That is going to be so much fun to do.

I also just read an article in Bluff Magazine about Eric Seidel and how he came up through the ranks playing backgammon and eventually making his way over to poker. That guy is so under appreciated. And so good.

Anyway, the whole event is hosted by online backgammon mega-site BackgammonMasters.com. While this site has been the leader in online backgammon for a long time, they have been dabbling in other areas. They recently opened an entire casino and now have a full blown poker room as well.

It's a cool take on online poker, I think. While other sites let you move funds between casino, sportsbook and poker room, I am not sure if there are other sites that let you play backgammon online with these funds. Check it out if you're in the mood for a game.

Rockin' Out!

So as I might have mentioned before, I got Guitar Hero III for my birthday. It was actually very hard for me to pick something but then on the day before the holy day celebrated my millions three (four-max) people I was over at my buddy Chris's house and saw the game. So that's what I asked for and that's what I got.

Let me tell you something. It's awesome! I am so late to get on this bandwagon, though. I've heard, read and seen it in so many places and never had the urge to buy or even try it out. But once I had that mini plastic guitar strapped over my shoulders I felt like a freakin' rock star! And I am so good at the game, it's scary.

Well, by good I mean I easily cleared the Easy mode and am making my way through Medium. I tried a practice run at some Hard level songs and boy it's a challenge. I also had enough money to buy all the extra songs and some other goodies at the store.

I swear if you buy this game you will quickly develop carpal tunnel in your fret hand. After playing some of the songs I can't even hold my left hand up, let alone move the fingers.

One more thing to note is that this is not my standard listening type of music. I am traditionally much more of a electro-techno-trance-hard house-80's kind of guy. Some of the classic tracks I've obviously heard before, but there are some I have no clue how to play. It's definitely been a learning curve, but I am walking around humming guitar solos from bands I have never heard of before.

It's available for all the platforms (PS2, PS3, Wii, XBox360, PC, etc.) - Just choose from the carousel below:



And obviously there is nothing more demoralizing than seeing a 9-year old play the hardest song at the Expert level:

Feel the BOOM! & Hugh Atkin

I have to send you people to a couple of links. First on the list is the brand-spanking-new Feel the BOOM! which is pretty much the answer to all your your BOOM! related problems. It's pretty hilarious. Instant Tragedy is a genius and thanks for inviting me to contribute.

And now on to something I just discovered today. Some of you may have seen this guy's work but since it slipped past my radar, I figured I would share. His name is Hugh Atkins, he's an Aussie and he writes a blog called The Margins of Error. And he is brilliant, yo!

It hink his first claim to worldwide fame came when he spoofed the famous Sarah Silverman / Jimmy Kimmel Fucking Matt/Ben videos with this gem:



This obviously spawned a bunch of copy-cats, but the original is still my favorite. But then he takes on Tom Cruise in a couple of outstanding videos:





There are a ton of other interesting original and linked videos on the blog and one that I especially liked was the Will.I.Am video of the "Yes, We Can" speech Obama gave a few weeks ago. Enjoy:

PokerStars $1M WSOP ME Giveaway

You read that right. PokerStars is giving away $1M worth of seats through freerolls. Starting tomorrow you can play 1 round 1 freeroll a week until late June. These freerolls run every hour, 5 minutes past the hour. Top 50 advance to the weekly events (there are three of these and you can choose which one to play) and a total of 6 Main Event seats will be awarded every week.

The package includes the $10K buy-in, hotel stay at the Palms and $2,500 spending money. So that's a total of 80 seats that will be given away.

Just remember you can only play one freeroll a week. But with 24 of them each day you can choose the best hour of the day to try to get into the top 50 and get your round 2 ticket.

Download PokerStars today and try your luck skill.

I didn't know Iggy plays soccer

I don't know Iggy. I've just heard the stories and legends. So in honor of the blogfather I decided to post this clip:



Look at these guys go!

Eins, Zwei, PokerStars(.de)

EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo is starting again this week, if you didn't know. Obviously if you play poker on PokerStars you would. It is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and certainly in Europe. And since the Euro is so strong against the dollar right now, the 10K buy-in is a little bigger than regular WPT events and even the WSOP main event.

Speaking of the WSOP, PokerStars is commited to sending at least 1000 people to the main event this year. That would be almost a 6th of the entire field that played last year. That's insane! There are a lot of ways to get there, starting with some very small buy-ins and even FPP tournaments. One of the more popular ways to get in on the cheap is to play the steps sit-n-go single table tournaments.

Speaking of SNGs, PokerStars has introduced their "Battles of the Planets" SNG leaderboard event. There is a lot of free money being thrown at the winners of this one. You should definitely check it out, because from what I've seen these SNGs are pretty soft.

Last but not least, some of the biggest names in poker play on PokerStars and you can easily find them at the tables. Amongst these big name pros you can find WSOP bracelet winner Katja Thater as well as main event winners MoneyMaker, Hachem and Raymer.

So head on over and start playing!

Winning the Dookie (1/21)

After getting bounced from the Mookie, largely because I could not control my tilt factor, I signed up for the Dookie. It's been PLO turbo for the past several weeks. And for anyone who did not know, I am about to spill the beans on PLO:

PLO is all luck. Well maybe not ALL luck. There's something to be said for stack sizes. But the rest is just luck. I know. I won the damn thing! And I have absolutely no idea how to play PLO!

The beauty of this win is that it was a crushing obliteration of the field. Total annihilation. Let's see how it happened, shall we?

Hand #1:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
pokerenthusiast shows [ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
Kajagugu shows three of a kind Threes
pokerenthusiast shows a pair of Nines
Kajagugu wins the pot (3 045) with three of a kind Threes
pokerenthusiast stands up

So that was a good start.

Hand #2:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
Jestocost shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 840 returned to Kajagugu

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
Kajagugu shows three of a kind Fives
Jestocost shows two pair Kings and Fives
Kajagugu wins the pot (4 050) with three of a kind Fives
Jestocost stands up

Another one gone.

Hand #3:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
twoblackaces shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 2 320 returned to Kajagugu

Turn :
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
Kajagugu shows a full house Jacks full of Fours
twoblackaces shows a pair of Fours
Kajagugu wins the pot (2 320) with a full house Jacks full of Fours
twoblackaces stands up

TBA eliminated as well.

Hand #4: (very next hand)

ck31 shows [ ]
Kajagugu shows [ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
ck31 shows two pair Kings and Jacks
Kajagugu shows three of a kind Threes
Kajagugu wins the pot (2 880) with three of a kind Threes
ck31 stands up

That was brutal.

Hand #5:

bayne_s shows [ ]
Kajagugu shows [ ]

Turn :
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
bayne_s shows a straight Ten high
Kajagugu shows a straight Ten high
bayne_s ties for the pot (2 845) with a straight Ten high
Kajagugu ties for the pot (2 845) with a straight Ten high

Bayne said something about no me being re-drawless. He was right.

Hand #6:

curiousgeorge77 shows [ ]
curiousgeorge77 : 1 more suckout please lol :)
Kajagugu shows [ ]
Donkette shows [ ]

Flop:
[ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
curiousgeorge77 shows a full house Sevens full of Sixes
Kajagugu shows a full house Kings full of Sixes
Kajagugu wins the side pot (770) with a full house Kings full of Sixes
Donkette shows two pair Nines and Sixes
Kajagugu wins the main pot (3 165) with a full house Kings full of Sixes
curiousgeorge77: lol nh
Donkette stands up
curiousgeorge77 stands up

Double elimination on that one.

Hand #7:

surflexus shows [ ]
Kajagugu shows [ ]

Turn :
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
surflexus shows two pair Nines and Sevens
Kajagugu shows a straight Nine high
Kajagugu wins the pot (5 000) with a straight Nine high
surflexus stands up

My man Surf was next.

Hand #8:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
jeciimd shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 685 returned to Kajagugu

Turn :
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
Kajagugu shows a straight Seven high
jeciimd shows King Queen high
Kajagugu wins the pot (2 380) with a straight Seven high
jeciimd stands up

Dr. J was next.

At the final table I slowed down considerably and didn't play many hands.

Hand #9:

hoyazo shows [ ]
Kajagugu shows [ ]

Flop :
[ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
hoyazo shows two pair Aces and Sixes
Kajagugu shows a full house Jacks full of Sixes
Kajagugu wins the pot (11 850) with a full house Jacks full of Sixes
Kajagugu : gg hoy
hoyazo stands up

Hoy down.

Hand #10:

riggstad shows [ ]
Kajagugu shows [ ]

Flop:
[ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
riggstad shows a pair of Aces
Kajagugu shows a flush King high
Kajagugu wins the pot (12 230) with a flush King high
Kajagugu : gg
riggstad stands up

Knocked Riggs out on the bubble.

Hand #11:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
presdlee shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 2,515 returned to Kajagugu

River:
[ ] [ ]
presdlee: gg
Kajagugu shows a full house Sixes full of Aces
presdlee shows two pair Aces and Nines
Kajagugu wins the pot (21 440) with a full house Sixes full of Aces
presdlee stands up

Presdlee was drawing dead here.

Hand #12:

Kajagugu shows [ ]
mookie99 shows [ ]
Uncalled bet of 855 returned to Kajagugu

Flop :
[ ]

Turn:
[ ] [ ]

River:
[ ] [ ]
Kajagugu shows two pair Queens and Jacks
mookie99: gg man
mookie99 shows two pair Queens and Threes
Kajagugu wins the pot (8 290) with two pair Queens and Jacks
mookie99 stands up
Kajagugu stands up

Final hand against our gracious host.

So PLO is just pure dumb luck. Really the only takeaway I have from this is win is that a big stack is such a huge advantage. I don't have stats on this tourney but I am sure that in the early stages I was seeing upwards of 75% of the flops. Especially in un-raised pots.

Hey, a win is a win and I will take 'em were I can.