WWdN Stands For "When Will Donkeys Notdrawoutonmeanymore?"

Seriously. I stayed up until 11:30pm to get a seat in the latest WWdN installment, and seated right at my table were Wes (event winner from last week), and Penner, so an auspicious start to the tourney right there. Add to this that I made a REALLY bonehead play against one of the strangers at the table early on, bluffing off half my chips in a raggy flop after having my preflop raise called, only to see my opponent raise me allin and requiring me to fold with just 700 of my starting 1500 chips after only maybe 10 or 15 minutes in the tournament. Despite that bad beginning, I held on in the 700-1000 chip range for quite a while, not really able to bluff effectively given my short stack, but at least waiting until the first few people started to get eliminated (I canNOT suffer the embarrassment of being the first one out for the SECOND time), and even withstanding several hands after Joanne joined our table, who I have to say has got to be the person with the single most feared reputation among all the bloggers who regularly play in these events. Anyways, finally near the end of the first hour, I managed to get dealt TPTK which then held up against a donkey's flush draw (not-nut even) on the flop, and I checked to see that I had sneaked my way up to 15th out of 40 remaining players (50 started the event). The very next hand, I was dealt 44, and raised it up 3x, getting just one caller. Flop came 2d3s5h. My donkponent checked, and I bet slightly more than the pot. The donkponent, who had been speeding around and calling willy-nilly with ANYthing all night, moved in. It didn't take me much thought to decide I had the best hand with a pair and an OESD, so I called. I flip my 4s, ane donkboy flips....A-10 suited, spades. So he moved me allin with just an inside straight draw, a backdoor flush draw and high card ace, leaving me as a big favorite with two cards to come. Now I'd love to tell you that I lost because a 4 came on the river, giving me trips but him his inside straight, but that's not what happened. I'd even love to say he hit his Ace on the turn and then a 10 on the river to best me with a cheap two pair, but that isn't the story either. Instead, the turn was the 6 of spades, so I made my straight and was nearly unbeatable, and then the river was some other spade, and I lost on a backdoor runner runner flush pull, out in 37th place out of 50 entrants. Disgust doesn't even begin to capture my feeling after yet another not-good showing in WWdN. Pretty soon you people will start thinking I don't know how to play, when in reality I have been dominatory in these things, but have just repeatedly taken it on the chin sometime before the final table.

Also last night I played in my other two bitches, the $5 turbo tourney and the $10 large tourney, both on pokerstars. In the $5 event, I went out in the first round when my QK on a board of J-9-Q-10-8 managed to lose an allin to a guy who had slowplayed big slick the whole way, making a higher straight than mine. You always have to hate it when you're slowplaying, you finally make your big move after successfully executing the slowplay, and then it turns out your opponent was ALSO slow-playing you with an even bigger hand. Not good.

Rounding out the night, I fared much better in the $10 tournament, which had 743 entrants and paid the top 126 (how much do I hate this 20% payout structure btw?! WTF do I want with a $1.13 profit after playing for 4 hours? Jeesh!). I started off solid in the very first round, making a full house over a made nut flush which is always good for a big payout, and then sucking out not one but TWO flush draws against opponents with short stacks, leaving me with 5215 chips, in 48th place out of 340 when the first break hit. Early in Round 2 I limped in with 55, and the flop came...55x. I checked it and ended up winning just a few BBs worth of bets as the flop didn't really help either of my opponents in that hand either, but that did lift me up to 32nd out of 317 remaining at that time. Some hands later I played a JJ for a 4x raise, got one caller from a fairly shortish stack (at least after the 400 was taken from his stack to the middle of the table). Flop came 9-high, he moved in and I had to call, which turned out to be just a flush draw for him that did not fill. I took down a pot in the 1500-chip range, lifting my standing to 12th out of 298 remaining , which swelled even higher later in Round 2 when i moved in another medium stack my 99 on a flop of 557, and got him to call off his chips holding 66, which did not improve, and which boosted me to 11,193 chips, good for 6th place out of 262. Eventually, after making some more money with QQ and 99, and bullying the table with my stack to steal a number of smallish pots, I made it into the cash, eventually ended Round 2 in 9th place out of 117 remaining, with 20,124 in chips. Unbeknownst to me, this was about as good as it would get for me on this night. Shortly into Round 3, I made the "blunder" of raising 5 thou with the Hammer in the SB, and of COURSE the BB just HAPPENS to have AA. My own fault for going nuts with the Hammer, but I mean, I was the SB, everyone had folded around to me, what was I supposed to do? I'm THE Hammer Player for crying out loud. So this dropped me quickly down to 39th out of 102 remaining, and I was never able to regain my former glory from that point. I went completely card dead, and without the big stack it becomes very difficult in the top 100 of these large online tournaments to do much stealing and bullying off of hands. My flop percentage dropped from 25% in the middle of round 2, down to 20% by early in Round 3. Finally, with blinds of 400/800 and a $50 ante, I was in 53rd out of 78 remaining, and everyone folded to me again in the SB. I looked at A5s and moved in on the short stacked BB, who thought momentarily and then donkeycalled me with 67s. Unfortunately he hit not just one pair but two pairs on the flop and I was nearly done. On the very next hand I got allin against this same donkfellow, this time with my QK against his AA. Ouch, and out in 74th place for a $17.08 profit on the tourney.

Overall a fun but frustrating night of online poker. Seems like I'm saying that a whole lot recently. Especially when the WWdN is in town. Yes still I long for next Tuesday, when I am SURE that THIS time, I will redeem myself! Yeah right.