The Elite Eight*

*Two days later, I realized there were only 16 to begin with.

I made it out of the 1st round of the HUC5 against Kajagugu. It was a sweep, although there should probably be an asterisk next to my name. Let me explain.

In the first game, I had just got bluffed off a pot holding JJ on an A high board. Amir showed JT for a busted straight draw. On the very next hand, my wonderful internet service decides to go out on me. And not for just a couple second; I have to do the whole plug & restart thing.

When I come back, Kajagugu was kind enough to not take advantage of my situation. Unfortunately for him, I have 99 when I get back, so I raise it up. He didn't expect that as he was on autofold. He raises the very next hand and I push with AK. He then asks if I want to restart. I think it's fair that we should play a full game out to determine the winner, so I agree. He calls with A7 and knocks me out anyways when the flop comes 7 high.

On to Game 2. I drop down a bit when I reraise on a 567 flop holding middle pair with a straight draw. I called his reraise but fold to his bet on the turn when I don't hit my card. Down to 810 within 5 hands or so.

I try to keep the pots small but it's not working. I drop down to 465 and it's looking pretty bleak. Time to get aggressive.

I push 44 preflop in the BB. Push top pair with nut flush draw on the turn. Push KT on a 9 high flop. Slowly but surely I'm crawling back.

I call a preflop raise with KJo and flop trips. I push on his flop bet, he folds.

Flop top pair with AK and take another pot. Up to 1165.

Finally hit a big hand with KJo again. Flop top pair on a two-spade flop, smooth call the bet. Turn pairs the 5 and completes a flush. He leads out for half the pot & I decide it's now or never. I push and he calls with AsQd. No 4 flush comes and I double up to 2330. Pretty weak play but I felt I had the best hand and wanted to milk it.

Two hands later, I flop top pair with JTo and get the chips in on the middle. Kaja shows a smaller pair and I take the lead in the matchup.

Kaja wanted to run the next one then but my girlfriend needed some help at work. SO I took a short break and came back to see if Kaja was still up. He responded about 15 minutes later and the game was on.

Full Tilt lost most of the hand history and I can't recall very many hands. I remember getting paid off a bit when I flopped trip 7s, but mostly it was just keeping the pot small, calling & making value bets. As the blinds increased so did the action. I reraised preflop with AK then c-bet a T high flop. I was way behind if the flop hit him, but the way the game was going, I was checking a lot of flops. I felt the only way to take the pot down was to c-bet & it worked.

Kaja worked his stack up a bit with some well timed bets and a fortuitous K on the river on one hand. I think I took a pot away from him when I smooth called a preflop raise with 99. I reraised his bet on a KT6 flop, then bet when the turn came an 8. I didn't think he had a K and I felt he had to fold anything else to the strength I was showing.

Kaja worked his stack up again when I paired an A on the river and called a value bet. He shows 67 for flopped trips. This brought him back to almost 1300. He was drawing closer.

A couple hands I raise his limp to 300 & he repops to 900. I hadn't seen him do this yet. 5 hands beat me right now, and many others leaving me in a coinflip situation. Whatever it was, I felt like I was ahead so I pushed. Sure enough, it's AK vs 99. But in classic fashion, I take down the game:




















It was a well played match, and I'm very gracious for Kajagugu's offer to restart after the disconnect problem. So now, I await the winner of cmitch vs. Mike Maloney.