A Night Of Firsts

Tonight, not only did I play for the first time on Full Tilt, but I also played my first blogger tournament, The Mookie.

I started off relatively well (read: lucky). Unfortunately, I didn't save my hand history so I don't remember details.

I played tight to start, but I wasn't getting any cards, so I decided to start opening it up a bit. My first table was playing tight as well, so I stayed around the starting stack of 1500 for the first orbit or two.

The first big hand I encountered, it was folded to me on the button. With 97o, I raise it up 3x to 120. The BB reraises to 200, and I figure he's got to have a big hand, but I'm not going to fold for 80 more chips. But unless I flop a big hand, I'm done with the hand.

Fortunately, the flop comes 9K7. The only hand I'd put myself behind is KK, so I lead for 160 and the other guy just calls. Turn is a 7. If I'm up against KK, I'm screwed, so I check it, and he checks it as well. The river is a blank, and I check it again. He leads out for 350, and at this point, for some reason I don't put him on KK anymore. I reraise to 840 - if I get reraised, I'm done. He calls, and AA gets cracked once again.

I push Joe Speaker off of (supposedly) the hammer with AK, then I steal the blinds the next hand with my own hammer. The monsters are coming at me left and right.

Until the last break I hovered within the top 5 of chips. I was originally a little nervous about playing a blogger event, but once I realized I was holding my own, all that anxiety subsided. It was only a $11 event, but the last thing I wanted to do was end up as just another donkey (title plug) in a blogger event.

And yet, after the break, I decide to do just that. I raise from EP with AJo and get once caller, cracknaces. I've read his blog before so I'm pretty aware of his skill level. The flop comes A75 with two hearts. I lead out for about half the pot and he calls. The turn is 6h, we both check it. The river is a 5, and I'm behind any number of hands - a flush, trips, even AQ. I check it again and he leads out for 1600. It's close to a pot size bet, enough to make me think it's a bluff attempt. Is he using the 6h as a scare card? It's a good bet, enough to make me fold.

A couple hands later I limp in with AKo with the intent of check raising any raisers. I get my raise, but we both end up with AKo.

Finally, I open from EP w\A9 off. One caller, and the flop comes A3c5c. I lead out for 800 and he reraises to 2200. I've got him covered but not by much. I go back and forth between calling and folding but for some reason I decide he's on a flush draw and go all in. Why I came up with that read, I dunno, but I was well behind AK and IGH the next hand.

I went from being in the top 5, playing well and making good reads to donking off my chips within a couple of hands. Basically, I got impatient and started playing horribly. I'm still not completely sure I made a good laydown with my AJ, but that wasn't my biggest undoing anyways, the A9o hand was.

All in all it was a good time and a good introduction to the blogger games. I look forward to playing more and donking it up less.