Kind Of A Long Post

I tried my hand at another TOC seat last night in the Mookie. My demise was courtesy of the second best starting hand I had all night: ATo.

I raise the standard from the CO. Lucko calls on the button. Actyper shoves for about 1700 more.

Normally, I’m not the type to reshove ATo for all my chips, but I thought there was a strong possibility that he was squeezing light. Folding left me with 20BB; obviously workable but I was tired of folding. So I went with my read and reshoved.

Actyper shows T4. Woohoo, I made a stellar read!

Oh yeah, Lucko anticipated the squeeze and called too with JJ and it held. Bleh.

Oh well, I suppose I can’t complain too much. At least I already have a seat. SUCKAS!

(note: in case actyper reads this, my comment in the chat box of “stupid squeeze play” wasn’t personal. It was more in the vein of a Homer Simpson comment, like “stupid sexy Flanders ”. But, yes, my call with ATo was pretty great, eh?)

......

Intermission: for a vomit-inducing hand, see Jamy’s latest post from a 5-table Super Turbo we both ended up in. It’s not every day you get KK and be absolutely drawing dead on the flop. Stupid super turbos (again, think Homer Simpson).

......

Back to TOC talk and, consequently, WSOP talk.

It’s crazy to think that I’m one tournament victory away from being able to play in the WSOP. It’s crazier to think that I’ve even got a chance to win given the competition in the TOC, but I’m in so I’m saying there’s a chance. Nevertheless, I’m realistic of my chance and I’m not anticipating a trip to the WSOP this year. Next year though, that’s a different story.

When I first started this blog, I did it with the primary intent of somehow wedging my way into the group of poker bloggers that I was reading on a regular basis. This was almost three years ago. Back then, I was a bigger donkey than I am now; it might be hard for some to imagine that I’ve actually improved as a player, but I certainly see it when I read my older posts.

I didn’t have very many goals back then. I wanted to improve but didn’t really know where to start. I wasn’t looking to “go pro” or even start playing higher stakes, but I at least wanted to be more competitive at the levels I was playing. But I did establish one goal back then, a goal that I still think about regularly, a goal that’s stated in my blog’s tagline:

“The WSOP...in 2010.”

It’s kind of a funny goal if you really dissect it. My goal has nothing to do with winning or making money, usually a common denominator for a poker-oriented goal. My goal is just to play. In simpler terms, my goal is really about being able to spend a large amount of money on a poker tournament. Thinking about it that way, it makes a lot of sense.

I doubt I’ll ever take poker very seriously. Sure, I want to be good at it and play competitively, but the time & dedication needed to accomplish that is something that I can’t accommodate. Even if any other competing priorities were eliminated, I don’t know if I have the desire to make that investment. I’m interested in improving but I also accept that there’s a certain ceiling that I’ll hit if I’m not willing to make certain sacrifices elsewhere in my life. Additionally, I’ve set certain financial goals in my life, and those goals have demanded at times that A) I set aside a limited amount of money for poker and\or B) that I dip into my bankroll to help achieve these goals.

So although my one main goal can be simplified as a goal of just spending money, for me, it’s still an achievement. Truthfully, I’m much closer these days to being able drop down that cash than ever before. I’m employed again, in a position that is both as stable as one could ask for these days & paying me enough to make some of those financial goals happen sooner. Additionally, although it’s waned a bit since I started this blog, my passion & enthusiasm for poker is still very strong and the allure of the WSOP is still exciting to me.

Each year, hundreds of poker head into Vegas this time of year hoping to be the next Chris Moneymaker; the next rags-to-riches donkey with a bracelet on one arm and loads of cash under the other. I’m hoping to be the next Moneymaker as well, but my sights are set on being the version that starts the tournament: an unknown, casual poker player in his first WSOP, just happy to be there. For me, that’s an accomplishment, and anything else beyond that is really just gravy.

......

About that gravy.

Yeah, sure, it’ll be wonderful to play the WSOP, and I know that when I do, I’ll be dead money in the eyes of many there. With that said, the goal is to play in the WSOP, not just sit there and consciously hand my chips over and bounce out in the first level. Just like with the TOC, I’m not crazy enough to think I’m a favorite to finish first, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think I can be somewhat competitive.

This year, the TOC is part of that gravy. If I happen to get one of the WSOP prizes, it’s very unlikely that I’ll end up making the trek. It’ll be nearly impossible to take the time off from my new job, not to mention that I’ve already got two vacations during this year’s season that are solidly booked. One of the smaller packages is a bit more likely, but if I end up with a ME seat, the odds of me actually playing are just as slim as they are of me winning it.

That doesn’t mean that the prize would be a waste. There’s other steps I want to take over the course of the next year to be better prepared for my first WSOP, and having a nice chuck of change online would be a benefit, even if it’s $10k in T$ or whatever happens if you don’t take the seat. I’m still mapping out everything I need to do, but over the course of the next several months, expect this blog to be a lot more active than it has recently. Most of it will be some form of bland drivel, maybe a few bad beat stories, hopefully many more hand histories to discuss. I’m still figuring out just how much dedication I can put into this, but I have the intent to at least step it up between now and this time next year.

‘Cause I’ve got a goal to accomplish.

Good luck to all those playing the WSOP this year (hopefully it doesn’t happen via knocking me out on the bubble during the TOC); I’ll definitely be seeing you there next year.

Finally

After playing online poker for four and a half years now, it finally happened. I've had bigger cashes than this, I've won countless SNGs, and I've taken down a blogger tourney or two.

But today, I finally stopped finishing second and took down a (non-blogger) MTT:

















And in NLO8 of all games. Crazy. There are far better O8 players than I, but this is proof that there are far worse players as well.

After debating between this and the Double Deuce, I signed up for this on a whim because I figured if I was going to take down an MTT, I'd like to do it in under 5 hours (the DD is still going as I write this). It wasn't even until 20 minutes in that I realized it was NL, not PL.

I doubled up early when I scooped a pot against a very loose caller with a fortuitous deuce on the river:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12142403417: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 4 - 15/30 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 17:00:53 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: UF_man3 (4,395)
Seat 2: sarcel (3,640)
Seat 3: IN_DA_WIND (3,330)
Seat 4: holdmyown31 (2,835)
Seat 5: mclarich (2,880)
Seat 6: marie1953 (1,265)
Seat 7: jb 0624 (1,725)
Seat 8: BJ824 (3,900)
Seat 9: nibiru (2,880)
IN_DA_WIND posts the small blind of 15
holdmyown31 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [3c Ah Th Ac]
mclarich raises to 120
marie1953 folds
jb 0624 calls 120
BJ824 folds
nibiru calls 120
UF_man3 folds
sarcel calls 120
IN_DA_WIND folds
holdmyown31 folds
*** FLOP *** [6c Ts 2h]
mclarich bets 390
jb 0624 calls 390
nibiru has 15 seconds left to act
nibiru calls 390
sarcel folds
*** TURN *** [6c Ts 2h] [7c]
mclarich bets 1,230
jb 0624 has 15 seconds left to act
jb 0624 folds
nibiru has 15 seconds left to act
nibiru raises to 2,370, and is all in
mclarich calls 1,140, and is all in
nibiru shows [7d 5d 6h 3s]
mclarich shows [3c Ah Th Ac]
*** RIVER *** [6c Ts 2h 7c] [2d]
nibiru shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes, for high and 7,6,5,3,2, for low
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Twos, for high and 7,6,3,2,A, for low
mclarich wins the high pot (3,218) with two pair, Aces and Twos
mclarich wins the low pot (3,217) with 7,6,3,2,A

I lost some chips later against an anonymous frequenter of blogger tournaments who called my reraise with A359 all diamonds and flopped nut-nut against my AA48 on a 254 flop. Amazingly, I still had outs to chop & to scoop with the 3h; not surprisingly, I didn't get there.

About an hour in, the pushmonkeys started thinning out, and we were able to actually have some post-flop action. I was the victor of an unlucky setup hand for the other guy here to chip up some more:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12143878359: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 15 - 80/160 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 18:12:00 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: tbone5700 (8,743)
Seat 2: HOKIE ACES (6,413)
Seat 3: VictoRev (2,131)
Seat 4: mclarich (11,553)
Seat 5: RASN_Player (4,738)
Seat 6: assblaster4000 (7,489)
Seat 7: 24fan48 (2,435)
Seat 8: Zed Corleone (786)
VictoRev posts the small blind of 80
mclarich posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Jc Js 2c Ks]
mikethemiz1800 sits down
mikethemiz1800 adds 2,830
RASN_Player folds
assblaster4000 calls 160
24fan48 folds
Zed Corleone folds
tbone5700 folds
HOKIE ACES calls 160
VictoRev has 15 seconds left to act
VictoRev calls 80
mclarich checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 7s Jh]
VictoRev checks
mclarich bets 480
assblaster4000 folds
HOKIE ACES calls 480
VictoRev folds
*** TURN *** [9d 7s Jh] [Ac]
mclarich checks
HOKIE ACES checks
*** RIVER *** [9d 7s Jh Ac] [9s]
mclarich bets 1,120
HOKIE ACES has 15 seconds left to act
HOKIE ACES raises to 2,560
mclarich raises to 8,480
HOKIE ACES calls 3,213, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 2,707 returned to mclarich
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mclarich shows [Jc Js 2c Ks] a full house, Jacks full of Nines, for high
HOKIE ACES mucks
mclarich wins the pot (13,146) with a full house, Jacks full of Nines
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 13,146 | Rake 0
Board: [9d 7s Jh Ac 9s]
Seat 2: HOKIE ACES (button) mucked [6h 9c Kc Jd] - HI: a full house, Nines full of Jacks
Seat 4: mclarich (big blind) showed [Jc Js 2c Ks] and won (13,146) with HI: a full house, Jacks full of Nines

Even more chips were sent my way when some clown shipped me 2\3rds of her stack with nothing but the nut flush draw:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12144652239: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 5 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 18:49:25 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: skotina (9,787)
Seat 2: patti8989 (30,243)
Seat 4: mclarich (20,627)
Seat 5: WTFseeB8 (2,053)
Seat 6: SergioHilel (5,067)
Seat 7: Mr Hi Rollller (6,789)
Seat 8: ntngu (1,708)
Seat 9: martukemun (4,113)
skotina antes 50
patti8989 antes 50
mclarich antes 50
WTFseeB8 antes 50
SergioHilel antes 50
Mr Hi Rollller antes 50
ntngu antes 50
martukemun antes 50
mclarich posts the small blind of 200
WTFseeB8 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Tc Td 6c Qd]
SergioHilel has 15 seconds left to act
SergioHilel folds
Mr Hi Rollller folds
ntngu folds
martukemun folds
skotina folds
patti8989 calls 400
mclarich calls 200
WTFseeB8 checks
*** FLOP *** [Th Kd 3d]
mclarich bets 800
WTFseeB8 raises to 1,603, and is all in
patti8989 calls 1,603
mclarich raises to 4,800
patti8989 calls 3,197
*** TURN *** [Th Kd 3d] [9h]
mclarich bets 15,377, and is all in
patti8989 calls 15,377
mclarich shows [Tc Td 6c Qd]
WTFseeB8 shows [Ks 5h Kh 5d]
patti8989 shows [7c 4c 4d Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Th Kd 3d 9h] [3c]
mclarich shows a full house, Tens full of Threes, for high
patti8989 shows two pair, Fours and Threes, for high
mclarich wins the side pot (37,148) with a full house, Tens full of Threes
WTFseeB8 shows a full house, Kings full of Threes, for high
WTFseeB8 wins the main pot (6,409) with a full house, Kings full of Threes
No low hand qualified

That moved me into the top 3 with 4 tables left.

I got horribly lucky here when I miscalled this guy's OBFV. I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize he shoved until it was too late; I thought I was only calling a small bet at first. Luckily the river gave me the scoop:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12145878243: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 12 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 19:53:31 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: mclarich (44,013)
Seat 2: sunbirdflying (32,536)
Seat 3: garfield86 (21,934)
Seat 4: krazy kdub (106,144)
Seat 5: miller2009 (96,717)
Seat 7: whadaplayer (23,880)
Seat 9: CallmeDee (20,252)
mclarich antes 200
sunbirdflying antes 200
garfield86 antes 200
krazy kdub antes 200
miller2009 antes 200
whadaplayer antes 200
CallmeDee antes 200
sunbirdflying posts the small blind of 800
garfield86 posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah 9s 7d 2d]
krazy kdub calls 1,600
miller2009 folds
whadaplayer calls 1,600
CallmeDee folds
mclarich calls 1,600
sunbirdflying calls 800
garfield86 checks
*** FLOP *** [5d Kd 8c]
sunbirdflying has 15 seconds left to act
sunbirdflying bets 30,736, and is all in
garfield86 folds
krazy kdub folds
whadaplayer folds
mclarich calls 30,736
sunbirdflying shows [Kc Kh As 5s]
mclarich shows [Ah 9s 7d 2d]
*** TURN *** [5d Kd 8c] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [5d Kd 8c Th] [Jh]
sunbirdflying shows three of a kind, Kings, for high
mclarich shows a straight, Jack high, for high
mclarich wins the pot (70,872) with a straight, Jack high
No low hand qualified

Still in the top 3 but separating ourselves from the rest of the pack, I get a huge double up through the chipleader here who outflopped me for the high but I get runner-runner for the low then the scoop:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12146210849: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 12 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 20:12:29 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: mclarich (77,049)
Seat 2: Emrald (24,595)
Seat 3: garfield86 (19,734)
Seat 4: krazy kdub (102,469)
Seat 5: miller2009 (80,917)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (78,231)
Seat 7: whadaplayer (26,480)
Seat 8: marie1953 (27,001), is sitting out
Seat 9: CallmeDee (22,752)
mclarich antes 250
Emrald antes 250
garfield86 antes 250
krazy kdub antes 250
miller2009 antes 250
dreamer86 antes 250
whadaplayer antes 250
marie1953 antes 250
CallmeDee antes 250
Emrald posts the small blind of 1,000
garfield86 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kh Ah 3c As]
krazy kdub calls 2,000
miller2009 folds
dreamer86 has 15 seconds left to act
dreamer86 folds
whadaplayer folds
marie1953 folds
CallmeDee folds
mclarich raises to 10,000
Emrald folds
garfield86 folds
krazy kdub calls 8,000
*** FLOP *** [Js 6h 2c]
krazy kdub checks
mclarich bets 14,000
krazy kdub raises to 92,219, and is all in
mclarich calls 52,799, and is all in
krazy kdub shows [4h 2d Ad Jh]
mclarich shows [Kh Ah 3c As]
Uncalled bet of 25,420 returned to krazy kdub
*** TURN *** [Js 6h 2c] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [Js 6h 2c 7s] [7h]
krazy kdub shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens, for high and 7,6,4,2,A, for low
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Sevens, for high and 7,6,3,2,A, for low
mclarich wins the high pot (79,424) with two pair, Aces and Sevens
mclarich wins the low pot (79,424) with 7,6,3,2,A

I build my stack some more, getting to the final table with a sizeable stack vs the rest of the table:

Seat 1: BIGSTICK1952 (61,546)
Seat 2: miller2009 (18,756)
Seat 3: bennynick1011 (101,950)
Seat 4: marie1953 (4,301)
Seat 5: CallmeDee (38,622)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (90,222)
Seat 7: superiorbath (86,206)
Seat 8: Mr Hi Rollller (38,400)
Seat 9: mclarich (270,997)

Within the first couple of hands, I use my stack to start bullying the table, including this hand against the 2nd place stack:


Full Tilt Poker Game #12146689864: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 25 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 20:36:12 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: BIGSTICK1952 (57,346)
Seat 2: miller2009 (17,556)
Seat 3: bennynick1011 (100,750)
Seat 4: marie1953 (3,101)
Seat 5: CallmeDee (37,822)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (100,522)
Seat 7: superiorbath (83,506)
Seat 8: Mr Hi Rollller (32,700)
Seat 9: mclarich (277,697)
BIGSTICK1952 antes 400
miller2009 antes 400
bennynick1011 antes 400
marie1953 antes 400
CallmeDee antes 400
dreamer86 antes 400
superiorbath antes 400
Mr Hi Rollller antes 400
mclarich antes 400
BIGSTICK1952 posts the small blind of 1,500
miller2009 posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kc As 9h Ah]
bennynick1011 has 15 seconds left to act
bennynick1011 raises to 14,100
marie1953 folds
CallmeDee folds
dreamer86 folds
superiorbath folds
Mr Hi Rollller folds
mclarich raises to 117,000
BIGSTICK1952 folds
miller2009 folds
bennynick1011 calls 86,250, and is all in
mclarich shows [Kc As 9h Ah]
bennynick1011 shows [Jh Ad 8s 3s]
Uncalled bet of 16,650 returned to mclarich
*** FLOP *** [2c 2h Kh]
*** TURN *** [2c 2h Kh] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [2c 2h Kh Tc] [Kd]
mclarich shows three of a kind, Kings, for high
bennynick1011 shows a pair of Kings, for high
mclarich wins the pot (208,800) with three of a kind, Kings
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 208,800 | Rake 0
Board: [2c 2h Kh Tc Kd]

Unbelievable that he gets all this way just to call off his stack with no pair, no A2. At least he was double sooted, but still.

At that point I had just over half the chips in play with 8 people left and almost a 4:1 lead over 2nd place. Even better, the table REALLY tightened up, allowing me to build my stack to almost 500k without seeing a showdown. By the time we got down to three, victory seemed like an inevitability:

Seat 5: CallmeDee (54,704)
Seat 7: superiorbath (43,034)
Seat 9: mclarich (613,262)

And it was. My stack never dropped below 530k from that point forward, and I wrapped up the win just a couple hands later.

......

I was absent from the online game for the past several months, but I have to say I've made quite the return. One month ago to the date, I redeposited on FTP just enough to play around with. $60 to be exact. Suffice to say it's been a pretty good month; between this cash and a good run in the Super Turbos, I'm back up to a four digit bankroll again. Add to that the seat in the TOC that I luckboxed my way into...it's hard to ask for a better return to online poker.