MATH Pimp, Weekend in Tournaments, NFL and BBTwo Preview

Another Monday, another Mondays at the Hoy tournament on full tilt!



10pm ET tonight, we'll have a blast as the donkeys always come out to play in the weekly MATH tournament on full tilt. Password as always is "hammer", and the buyin is just one measly $26 token or $26 cash.

As far as this weekend goes, overall the results were so-so. I feel like I played very well almost all the times I sat down to the virtual felt, and yet I have very little to show for it in overall profits for the weekend. I probably ended the weekend up $100 or so, so I certainly can't complain about that, but to be honest I got busted in big spots from multiple tournaments on suckouts or just horrible plays by my opponent, and that never feels good when you play a lot of poker tournaments and run into a string of those kinds of losses. And the worst part is, the fucking JackAce followed me around and single-handedly did me in more than any other oppponents' hand all weekend long.

It started on Friday night, when I cashed again (but again bubbling for the seat) in one of the FTOPS mtt satellites, either for #3 in pot-limit holdem or #11 I think it is in PLO8. I am too lazy to go look up the details now, but basically some jackass called me allin right on the seat bubble with a medium sized stack against my medium sized stack and just JJ42 on an AK94 rainbow flop. I of course had the only low draw and I had AK in my hand for top two pairs, but the Queen on the turn and the lovely Jack on the river took care of that one right quick, and once again no seat for me. Later that same night came my biggest tournament cash of the weekend, when I finished in 11th place in the nightly 14k 6-max nlh tournament at 11pm ET on full tilt. The score won me more than 8 buyins (around $220 as I recall), but again it was the way I went out that really stings, when some phucking jackidiot again calls my allin when I held pocket 8s on a board of T73 rainbow. He had just the JackAce -- does this guy know how to play medium Aces or what? -- and of course the Ace on the river once again did me in in a sick and twisted turn of events. That was in fact my second suckout at the hands of the JackAce in that same tournament, it what would become the theme of my weekend overall at the mercy of the poker gods. But I could not recover from that one as it depleted most of my stack and took me from top few stacks to right near the bottom of the short list of remaining players, and I was out one suckout later when some big stack called me with a hand he knew had to be behind but just felt like taking a shot, which of course hit. Very difficult loss to swallow, but another good run and more confirmation that my tournament game is slowly but surely finding its way back to its form from a couple of months ago.

Through the rest of the weekend, more of the same would ensue. I did play in that $216 buyin Winners Choice tournament on Saturday night at 9pm ET on full tilt that I had satellited into late last week, and again in that one it was another stoopid suckout that relieved me of most of my chips once down to two tables. I was in first place in that one with 66 players remaining, and I was back in first place again with 22 players left, but eventually my constant insistence on getting in ahead once again proved to be a curse and not a benefit as I was called allin again by a large stack with a pair on the flop by a guy holding just AK unimproved (insta-called, btw -- another genius) and lost to a river Ace. Then a clown calling my allin for the rest of my short stack with his JackAce (genius!) of course hit his card against my medium pocket pair, and IGH in 13th place out of I think 74 runners overall. I made a great run in this thing and played some awesome poker, but again the JackAce and a donkey playing it stood in my way of getting where I wanted to be in this thing. I just don't focus on that WC tournament as much as I intended to when 2007 began for whatever reason, but I do love to play it, I love the 12k package awarded to the winner, and most of all, from my last few forays into this event, I know I can beat this field. Even at a $216 buyin level, the competition is just not that good, there are a number of significant donkeys playing for their longshot to enter a WPT or WSOP main event, and if I play tight, aggressive and appropriately trappy poker I know with confidence that I can really take it to this level of player.

So after a weekend of these frustrating suckouts, but with some nice cashes to boot, where does that leave me here as we start a new week on Monday? I'm not sure. I'll tell you this -- for the first time in a few weeks maybe, I go into the week of blonkaments with some confidence. Yes I got hideously pounded on by suckouts over the weekend, but to be honest I played some really good poker, made a number of excellent decisions using the right thought process, and I am feeling like my tournament game is back in the hizzy. Every time I sit down to play a tournament, I feel like I can win, like I am going to win, and I feel like I have an equity advantage over most other players at every table I am at. And when I get feeling like that, the mtt profits tend to roll in, so here's hoping this week is the start of something big. I just need to avoid the phucking JackAce at all costs, I cannot beat that thing to save a life. Hopefully tonight in the MATH I can evade that vile weed of a hand once and for all and make a nice deep run for the first time in several weeks in my own weekly tournament.

Real quick, Week 6 in the NFL has now come and gone, and with more than a third of the season now in the books for most of the teams, it is plenty deep to be able to make some good generalizations about some of the players and some of the teams involved. As usual with the NFL, some of those generalizations are nothing earth-shattering or profound, but some others are truly unexpected. Here are some of my thoughts so far on the 2007 NFL season through Week 6:

1. The Chicago Bears defense is a joke. Period. They're done. Injuries have definitely taken their toll, but this team gets beaten down on almost week in and week out at this point. With the offense at Soldier Field being what it is, that team is in a world of hurt and is going to have a real struggle making the playoffs after giving up 34 points to a shitty Minnesota team this weekend at home in losing a key divisional matchup.

2. Arizona is still the same, shitty Arizona team. Different year, different coach, different quarterback, but it's the same goddam franchise every year.

3. I'm sure much to this guy's chagrin, the Cincinnatti Bungles probably have the single worst defense in the league. Either way, the Bungles are hideous and horrendous, and are also back to the same old team as always. Marvin Lewis, watch out. One year ten players go to jail, and the next year your team is complete and utter trash. Not a good combination.

4. The Patriots. Averaging something like 36 points per game, Brady is on pace to break all kinds of season records this year, and the defense is underrated and really keeping all the opposition well in check. They're gonna be big trouble for anybody to beat even one time this season.

5. Props out to Vinny Testaverde this week. Just signed this past Tuesday or something from wherever the F he was making pizza or washing dishes or whatever, and here the guy is starting, going something like 21 for 30 for 200 yards and a score. That's at least one touchdown pass thrown in an NFL record 21 straight seasons now for good ole' Vinny T.

6. What the phuck ever happened to the ManGenius in New York? After a stupendous rookie season as a head coach in 2006-07, Eric Mangini had his team beating the divisional rival Patriots on his way to the playoffs and everyone was talking about the bright future for Chad Pennington & co. in New York. Now just a few games into the 2007-08 season, and the Jets are just about the worst team in football. Almost no defense other than dominator Jonathan Vilma, and on offense, it's no runningback, only one decent receiver in Coles, and a quarterback who I personally love in Pennington, but one with no arm strength whatsoever, and thus aboslutely no vertical game at all to speak of for this team.

7. What can you not say about Jeff Garcia and the upstart Tampa Bay Bucaneers? After leading the Eagles to a tremendous and totally unexpected playoff run in 2007-08, the Eagles decided to stay with oft-injured Donovan McNabb, and had to let Garcia go to the Bucs because having Garcia on the bench would not possibly be handled well by the emotionally fragile McNabb. Now 6 games in, Garcia and the Bucs are an improbably 4-2, while the Eagles flounder at 2-3 and have only played anything other than horrible in one game this entire season. When is Jeff Garcia going to start getting the props he obviously deserves? Bet those Eagles fans would kill to have him back right about now, huh?

OK that's all for today. I will say this -- go and check out Al's blog here for a large announcement regarding the BBTwo. I will write more about this over the next few days, but go check out Al's post today for the details of what basically amounts to full tilt providing us with more than 20 grand in free giveaways in the form of large tournament entries and similar items in exchange for us running an Aussie Millions challenge over the next couple of months. Rather than me get into it today, just go read Al's post here and get most of the details from him. More on that whole thing to come for sure.

See you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy!