This Week in Blogger Tournaments

So it's not that I haven't been playing in the regular blogger events this week. I just haven't been blogging about them. Of course I had my regular post detailing my review of my Mondays at the Hoy tournament, weekly on Monday nights at 10pm ET on pokerstars (password: hammer), but since then, I played in my usual WWdN on Tuesday evening, and Wednesday's night regular Mookie tournament as well. Both of these tournaments were a blast as usual. But, I've recently begun reading Antonio Esfandiari's WPT book on winning cash games (don't worry, I'm not quite ready to switch from MTTs to cash, so I won't be horning in on your territory), and one thing The Magician harps on again and again, almost Felicia-style, is to never, ever tell a single bad beat story. Nobody cares, he says, as does Felicia. Can I really be the only person out there who enjoys reading a good bad beat story? I mean, I don't want to sit and listen to someone rattle on for six hours about the last 50 bad beats they have suffered. But I like a good, concise, well-told bad beat story. I enjoy it. What's wrong with that? But anyways, Antonio says never tell a bad beat story. And bad beats is what I've been dealing with again and again and again in the blogger events lately. So, I've tried to stay away from posting about these beats. After last night, I figured why not just do a quick post so everyone knows what I've been up to lately as far as my regular blogger play.

As you may recall from my earlier post about the Hoy tournament this past Monday night, in that one I was victimized (I was going to say sodomized but then that seemed too graphic, albeit basically accurate) when this allin on the flop:



turned into this on the turn and the river:



What a sick, sick way to be knocked out of a tournament. But that was me, and that's how things have been running for me lately on pokerstars, plain and simple. The turn and the river are fucking killing me lately. Same thing happened in the big blogger tournaments last week, and it hasn't stopped yet.

Anyways, I was doing pretty well in the WWdN event this past Tuesday as well. I had my ups (knocked out 2 of the first 5 players eliminated, and was well in first place during most of the first half hour of the event), and my downs, but in the end I was looking at this on the flop with all my chips in the middle:



However, this time once again the effing river had something to say about me winning in this way, and voila, here was your final board:



and IGH in 35th place out of 58 entrants. Again another sick, sick way to go, and something which I really tried not to blog about because it really frustrates me just to think about the succession of tournament exits like this of late. I mean what am I supposed to do, flop two pairs, know this guy will call me with his higher Ace, but then not bet it, just in case? Come on. I had to do it, and I took another one in the chin in the WWdN. And I would mention who won the WWdN or who did well in it, but for the first time in forever, I really didn't know most of the final tablers in the event, and am definitely not familiar with the winner who I believe was someone named AAjoshmanAA or something similar to that. If I recall correctly (I've tried to block most of it out, to be honest), SoxLover maybe came in 8th place despite getting not many strong starting hands, as detailed on Sox's blog, and I believe Hacker59 made another final table appearance as well, maybe taking down 6th place or something close to there. The rest of the finalists were more or less a mystery to me, and after 100 straight bad beats at the hands of fellow bloggers, I'm sorry if I'm not super interested in people I don't recognize taking down the event this week.

I would love to tell you that the Mookie, but in this case I just got F'd in a different way, but just as nastily. Long story short, I was playing my usual great game early. I watched a tilty Waffles bust out first again. Dam Waffles is going through some tough times lately. He posted in his blog last night about how he was actually ahead in the hand on the flop when Smokkee called Waffles' allin bet, but Waffles still needed to hit either a straight or a flush card to win, so I don't see how Waffles can really call that a "bad beat" that he suffered. But I can sympathize with his feeling frustrated about the call. Smokkee made a very questionable call on that hand, and arguably deserved to lose (was behind when he made the call). But as I explained to Waffles last night on the girly chat, that's the way Smokkee plays. He's aggressive and if he gets some hands or gets some luck early, he amasses a huge stack. And I also pointed out to Waffles that he maybe needs to at least consider the fact that a guy like Smokkee does not like to leave his chips out there without defending them once he's moved at a pot, before going and moving in on someone with just what is essentially a drawing hand (even a favored drawing hand at the time). Anyways, I can sympathize with Waffles falling victim to a dubious move by Smokkee yesterday, because a short while later, that's exactly what happened to me.

So, you want some more evidence that pokerstars hates me lately? How about this hand, my first chance to win a big hand during the Mookie tournament on Wednesday night. I limp from the SB with QTo, and then I nail top two pairs on the flop of QT8 rainbow. I bet out, and cc, who won the Hoy tourney a week and a half ago, calls me:



I don't know what he has, but of course I'm almost certainly ahead here. Long story short, I bet and got twice after the flop came out, and I bet and got called on the river, and here's what happened in the end to my beautiful top two pairs on the flop:



Disgusting. And I can't stand seeing smart players get rewarded for making poor-odds calls like this oesd call by cc on the flop. But what are ya gonna do. I was able to chip up significantly later in the Mookie tournament last night with some more solid, deceptive play, and then eventually this hand happened, again with cc, my new nemesis of the hour among the bloggers. Three late position limpers, and I have 77 in the BB, so I do a typical move, raising it up large since I almost surely have the best hand here, and would love to win the blinds but am also ok if I get called here since I'm basically sure from the preflop action that I have the best hand:



And CC almost beats me into the pot with an allin reraise:



Now I haven't played with CC much, but I have never before seen him act so quickly like that. And I just knew it wasn't accidental. This wasn't a guy holding AA. If it was Aces or Kings, cc would have taken his time, not wanting to betray the true strength of his hand. It was very clear to me right away that this was an attempt to appear very strong when in fact he was not. In fact, I was positive that I was ahead, and I figured cc probably didn't even have AK or AQ, or he still would have tried to add a little deception here. In my head this was a guy who was on a pure ballz move here, and I knew I had the best hand. So I called, and he flipped:



Wow what a poor read by cc. In fact, while I'm busy feeling embarrassed for him for his move here, this flop hits:



bailing him out for a second time against me in this tournament, and in fact eliminating me entirely from the event in 47th place out of 55 entrants. Against an allin reraise with KJs, from a guy who clearly read me to just be putting another move on before the flop. Ugly, ugly stuff.

So in all, another week of frustration in the blogger tournaments. I feel like I'm playing well, and certainly I am getting in with the best of it for the most part in these events, but the flops, turns and rivers are just consistently doing me in. I know it can't continue, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow when it happens at the time.

Which reminds me, unfortunately I will not be able to defend my DADI VI title in the DADI VII event tonight, as much as I would love to play. Hammer Wife reminded me yesterday of some plans I had already agreed to for this evening, so I will be out and about in New York City instead of playing awesomely and getting sucked out on on the river somewhere against you blogger types. I will for sure log in and see the action live whenever I get back in, but I don't know when that will be. I already told Waffles on the girly chat thing last night, since he was the creator of our 3-way last-longer team with Dugglebogey, and he seemed pissed (like me) but understood just fine. But I am bummed to say that I won't be able to make it tonight after all. So best of luck to everyone -- if you haven't figured out yet to play in these DADI events, you are probably hopeless, truly -- and please cheer on Waffles and Duggle in my absence. I hope they are able to find a suitable replacement in time so that my late scratch from the tournament doesn't impact them too negatively. I expect to play some tonight, but probably not until later in the evening, so maybe I'll see you there.