Bad Day, Still Feelin Good

I did nothing but lose on Wednesday in the online poker world. I mean, I played a bunch of tournaments and I didn't cash shit. I came close a couple of times, but my ROI for the day was flat out zero. In that regard it sucked, and in the end that's the only regard that anybody including myself really cares about. That said, I wake up this morning still feeling plenty good and optimistic about my play in general. In the past I have always known when a good streak (don't tell Tommy Angelo I used that word please) has turned to bad, when I've gone from running good to running like donkey. It happens to me, all the time. But it hasn't happened yet, even given my straight-up losing night on Wednesday. Let me explain.

My night started with me sitting down for both 5050 tournaments on full tilt and pokerstars at 9:30pm ET. A little tune-up for the Mookie at 10 o clock if you will. Having just final tabled the full tilt 5050 last night, I was feeling good. In fact I've been amassing a big stack in the pokerstars 5050 with some regularity as well, including the previous two nights, so I went into both of these badboys feeling strong. Eight minutes in to the 5050 on full tilt, I pick up pocket Aces, in the small blind no less. Never happens that early. There's a raiser ahead of me, so I reraise and the guy puts in the third raise behind me. I'm allin with the Aces, he calls with Kings, and Booooooooom a King on the flop and IGH 8 minutes in. That was how my night began on Wednesday. Probably the 7th or 8th time out of my last 10 times I took Aces up against Kings that I lost the showdown. It is literally at the point that when I've got Aces and someone shows me Kings allin preflop, I expect to lose. I know I'm going to lose that showdown. That is rough.

Despite the early 5050 flameout on full tilt, I managed to chip up in the pokerstars 5050 using the same tactics that always seem to work on the donkeys that populate the large mtts on pokerstars. First I bluffed allin on a third-bullet bluff with absolute air when the river made a flush possible on the board, and the guy who had called my 2/3 of the pot sized bets on both the flop and again on the turn decided to give it up at the river. A few minutes later I snapped off a JackAce TPTK with my turned two pairs, and it was off to the races. I stayed in contention in the pokerstars 5050 for about 2 1/2 hours, but then I lost a key race with AK when pocket Tens called my allin which would have put me into the top 20 in chips had I won it. I'm not complaining there, I took a chance at a calculated time that I figured would either run me out of the tournament or get me into position to dominate the table once the ITM positions hit, which were probably about 30 or 40 spots away. A few hands and one short-stacked suckout later, and IGH, again without the cash.

Skipping back in time a little bit, I ran up and down in the Mookie, getting no good cards in an hour of playing but winning a few pots and losing a few pots. With the 1500 starting chips things can get away from you really quick after the first 40, 45 minutes or so, and eventually I found myself back below my starting stack with just a few minutes left to play in Hour #1. Then I open-raised from middle position with A9s, found one caller on the button and saw a flop of A94. Bizzleningo! Three rounds of betting and calling later, and my opponent with the perfect setup hand of A4 has made a boat thanks to the 4 on the river, and IGH early. You gotta love the Mookie curse. I even flop top two against a guy who can't get away from his top and bottom pairs, and I still lose at the river. I just cannot win that fuckin thing.

Not to be outdone, I did tune in for the 11:30pm ET $5 PLO Dookie tournament as well, an event I have won twice already this year including two weeks ago in the first $10 plo Dookie extravaganza. I knew when I got seated at a starting table with The Suckout King that my time in this thing would be short. Mercifully the redonkulous setup with Bayne happened early, where I held 85xx and saw a flop for free from the big blind, with the flop coming 88T with two spades. There was a bet and a call on the flop, and then the turn card came the 5♠, filling the flush draw but also making me a boat on the turn. I figured him of course for the flush or maybe some kind of 8Axx hand for the top trips, but of course when we got it allin on that uber-setup turn card, Bayne flipped up TTxx and IGH to the flopped nut boat. It's so Bayne, isn't it? In all honesty, I do not believe I have sat at the same table with Bayne in any game in any situation for more than 20 minutes without him suckout-eliminating me or setup-eliminating me. Ever. And I wonder...what must it feel like to actually get outplayed by Bayne? Does anyone know?

So that was my Wednesday night in a nutshell. I got off to a big start and ran pretty deep in the pokerstars 5050 but fell short of the cash, and I was 5 cards away from the very early double-up in the full tilt 5050 before losing AA to KK allin preflop. In the Mookie my flopped top two pairs lost to the flopped top-and-bottom pairs thanks to the 2-outer at the river, and in the Dookie I got set up like a bitch and of course Bayne was waiting there with the flopped nut boat to pick up the pieces. So I won nothing, and I lost every dollar I put into the online poker system overall on the night. But I have to say, I still played well. I like my decisions in both of the 5050 tournaments given what I was dealt to play with in those two events, and I don't think I would really play my Mookie or Dookie hands any differently if I could do them over this morning. I will take another look tonight for sure as I review yesterday's hand histories, but my point here is that even a night of nothing but losing has not (yet) knocked away my feeling that I am still running good, playing well and running well at the same time. And that feels gooooooood.

Speaking of running hot, did I mention that Lucko likes to win tournaments in bunches? Well he is back with a vengeance now, and the rest of the bloggers will have to deal with his wrath until we figure out some way to stop giving him 5x the average stack of chips early on in our blonkaments. Lucko won his second blogger tournament of the week and his second BBT3 victory as well by taking down the Mookie last night. I did not stay up for the final table, but much like the MATH earlier this week, Lucko got off to a big stack early and stayed at or near the top all the way through the rest of the event, using the final table chip lead to finish off the competition in that way that only Lucko can. I've said this before many times, but while there may be a very small handful of bloggers who can claim to be in Lucko's league in terms of general poker tournament skill, nobody plays the big stack like Lucko does. Nobody. Period. And he showed it again last night, taking down the Mookie for I think maybe the second time in his career, and bringing the total number of seats in the BBT3 Tournament of Champions to 54 since now Lucko technically owns two seats. What a dominatory couple of weeks he is having on the poker front. Too bad I didn't extend my prop bet to more tournament wins for Lucko this week or I coulda been really rich, I mean like 5050 final table rich, right now. Oh well, maybe next time.

And while I'm on the subject of the Mookie, I thought I would take some time here to review some of the best players (in my opinion) who have played a lot of Mookies but never yet won the thing. For starters, most of you donkeyshits out there have already managed to win a Mookie at least once. Any of you luckshit monkeypushing button mashers have by definition the right formula to win the Mookie in the one week where you get luckier than anybody else, and most of you fonkadonks have managed to pull one out at least one time with all of your calling allin preflop early with pocket 2s and calling 3 allins ahead of you with pocket Tens and your calling pot-sized bets with just primary draws on the turn stuff that the rest of us literally have deep belly laughs over when we read about your play the next morning. But as a result of this weekly Wednesday night poker silliness, there are still a handful of actual good players who've played in a ton of Mookie tournaments but who have never won the damn thing. Other than myself of course whose consistent Mookie failures are a matter of public ridicule record. So, starting from April 12, 2006 when the Mookie had grown regularly large and Mookie himself started keeping his weekly Champion Profiles, here is the list of the best players to achieve total Mookie futility over near two full years of attempts (in no particular order, and I am not counting people who've only been playing the blonkaments for a short time or who don't play them often, who will need to earn their way on to this list over time):

Hoyazo
Mookie
Cracknaces
Jeciimd
Joe Speaker
Gary Cox
Scottmc
Peacecorn
HighonPoker
StB

Which of the above ten people will get the Mookiemonkey off their back first? Who will get a taste of the Mookie crown at all during 2008? Your guess is as good as mine.

Remember, tonight at 9pm ET is the next BBT3 event, the Riverchasers. I believe we are back to straight-up nlh this week for the RC, so come on out where the fields have been a little bit smaller while Lost is running for perhaps your best chance yet of getting in to the BBT3 Tournament of Champions. That is, unless lucko is playing and gets off to a big stack early.