Blogger MATH, and Playing AK on the Flop

OK, lots to cover today. First let's talk MATH. Last night was Mondays At The Hoy, every Monday night at 10pm ET under the "private" tab on pokerstars, password = "hammer". As most of you probably know, I have still never cashed in the MATH tournament, now out of I think 8 tries, since I opened up the game to my imaginary internet blogger friends. And meanwhile my recently tight-lipped buddy drraz has cashed I believe in 6 out of those 8 events. Disgusting. Anyways, tonight was supposed to be the night that that all changed for me. 20 players joined the fray for our regular $20 buyin format, playing for a first prize of $200 and three total payout spots. And the field of 20 did not include many of the usual heavy hitters who have made some noise in this tourney in the recent past. No Jules, no SoxLover, no Gary Cox, no Miami Don or the lovely Carmen, no Iak, and not even either of our two favorite trashtalkers. So I figured for sure this was the night for me to (finally) make my move.

But I forgot about one thing: CC. Yes, he of the phat new blog address. And yes, he of the top-flight WSOP coverage and picture galleries. And yes, he of the thrice-confirmed huge pile of WSOP swag. Anyways, a few weeks ago at the MATH tournament, on his way to taking down the entire event, CC reraised me allin preflop from late position with KJo. I took one look at his raise and my instincts told me he was bluffing. So I called him with my pocket 7s. Presumably to make that move with KJo, CC must have put me on a flat bluff. But despite my quality read and my slight favorite hand going in, CC flopped a King and IGH in the middle of the pack.

Fast forward to last night, the latest Hoy tournament. Once again we're somewhere in the middle of the pack of the 20 participants. I have been up a little, and down a little, and right now I'm sitting on around 1150 chips from our starting stack of 1500. Not great, but I'm doing fine and still have plenty of chips to make a move and get into great position. I find AJs in middle position, it is folded around to me, so I raise it up 4x, my standard preflop raise for this situation as most of you know. It is folded around to CC in late position, and the guy cc-hoy-reraises me (allin but for two chips) preflop. This was more or less exactly the same situation as when cc knocked me out a few weeks back, and once again I instantly got that same weak read. Weak as in, this was not some KK or QQ hand cc was reraising me with here. I had AJ, I was suited, I thought cc was weak and I was a little short, so I went ahead and called the allin. I flip my AJs and cc flips his...






KQs. Again with almost-surely-behind-but-reraising-preflop-anyways move. And again I've read it perfectly. Again I'm ahead for all my chips preflop after again calling down a bet from cc when he held inferior cards, both inferior to my own cards, but also inferior to what should be his starting hand requirements to make this kind of a move. But would I get to punish cc this time for once again playing far too aggressively here against me? Well, the flop had a King and an Ace, so I was still styling. Then the turn card comes, and it's a Queen. Two pairs for the new MATH luckbox, and then the river came another Queen just to add insult to injury. And IGH, once again in the middle of the pack, once again wronged and shamed in my own tournament.

And once again, CC went on to win the entire event, emboldened by hitting his 9-to-1 underdog five-outer on the turn to take my chips and vault to the top of the leaderboard:



Congratulations to CC for his $200 cash in the MATH tournament, as well as to jeciimd for his 2nd place finish, and Bobby Bracelet for cashing in 3rd place, for Bobby's first Hoy cash that I can recall.

The second thing I wanted to post about today involved an elimination I watched from a small mtt last night. I spoke with one of the players involved, and he is absolutely insistent that he played this hand properly. I would like to know everyone's thoughts.

So Mr. Victim is in early position and looks down to find AKo. He raises it up 3x preflop from EP. It is folded around to the button, an aggressive player who has been known to play all kinds of junk even for small raises preflop. Mr. Aggressive calls the 3x raise, and we go to a flop heads-up. The flop comes 9-9-7. Mr. Aggressive checks. Mr. Victim moves allin with his Ace-King high, and is quickly called by Mr. Aggressive, who flips over 96o for a set of flopped trips and the victory, eliminating Mr. Victim from the tournament in a most unceremonious fashion.

I'd like to know your thoughts on how this hand was played, by both players. Should either, or both, have played this hand differently?