Big Game Blonkery

So the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments 3 started off with a serious bang with Sunday night's Big Game. And when I say bang, I'm talking like the Big Bang. As in, 105 runners and a whopping $7425 prize pool, with $1956.15 going to the winner. Yes, you read that right. I mean, with all the incredible stuff we are offering this time around, and in particular with the 7 World Series of Poker seats available, I figured the BBT3 was gonna be big. But I know I was having conversations on the girlie with some other bloggers during the weekend trying to predict whether we would break the record for the largest-ever blogger tournament in dollar terms. The previous record was already held by the $75-buyin Big Game, the first event of BBT2 which had 57 runners and a total pot of $3993. Somehow though, this one nearly doubled that record, with the bloggers coming together to make nearly $7500 at stake in addition to the coveted first Tournament of Champions seat to play for the two WSOP Main Event seats and two preliminary WSOP event seats as well.

Anyways, to say I am shocked at the participation here as the BBT3 has begun would be a major understatement. 105 blonkeys coming out and ponying up $75 apiece. That is just sick. And it definitely has me thinking about participation in all of these events, with the first Mondays at the Hoy tournament of the BBT3 slated for tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt:



Remember, the password for the MATH is "hammer" as always, and anyone and everyone is welcome to join -- all you need is the $26 buyin and a serious lucky streak to be ready to outlast a laaaaaaarge field. Personally I can't see this one tonight growing beyond the size of Sunday night's Big Game, but I suppose it's a reasonable assumption that we will be somewhere nearing the century mark once again given that crowd. Good times.

Anyways, I think it was jeciimd who was the first to point out the irony during the Big Game that huntsvegas, our gigli for the night, was the very last player eliminated from BBT2 and then the very first one eliminated from BBT3. But even he was not gone until a good 30, 40 minutes in, with the blonkeys as a group showing a tightness befitting of a superstack tournament but not normally befitting of bloggers. After hunts, though, the looser and/or unluckier players in the group starting dropping like flies, and that was when the suckouts started happening. The biggest deliverer of the early suckouts had to be ftp pro Scott Fischman, whom riggstad had talked into playing a few hours earlier on Sunday, and Fischman definitely showed up to splash around. Later at the final table, Fischman would explain that he was "just having fun after a horrid day." No shit. Fischman got it allin behind three times in the first 90 minutes and won them all, giving him a large stack early that would soon develop into the chip lead before the first two hours were up.

Meanwhile, this was one of those blonkaments where a good 60, 70% of the eliminations happened on suckouts, pretty much from start to finish. It just happens that way every once in a while, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. I remember a few WWdN tournaments like that back in the day, and I know there have been two or three MATH's just the same as that as well over the past couple of years. Well this weekend's Big Game saw some of the most recockulously poor play getting rewarded over and over, and there were even a number of unreal resucks just for good measure. Check out these couple of hand histories, both of which occurred just at my table during the first couple of hours of the Big Game:

At 10:47pm ET, early in the second hour:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5478424685: Blogger Big Game (40523592), Table 8 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:45:57 ET - 2008/03/02
Seat 1: actyper (3,350)
Seat 2: hoyazo (6,225)
Seat 3: RajunRhino (3,015)
Seat 4: HAGBARD_III (5,790)
Seat 5: peacecorn (4,570)
Seat 6: KillinKegz (4,920)
Seat 7: Drizztdj (3,910)
Seat 8: chitwood (6,620)
Seat 9: dnasty13 (6,600)
chitwood posts the small blind of 60
dnasty13 posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hoyazo [8c 3c]
actyper folds
hoyazo folds
RajunRhino folds
HAGBARD_III folds
peacecorn folds
KillinKegz raises to 360
Drizztdj folds
chitwood raises to 1,200
dnasty13 folds
KillinKegz has 15 seconds left to act
KillinKegz raises to 4,920, and is all in
chitwood has 15 seconds left to act
chitwood calls 3,720
KillinKegz shows [Ah As]
chitwood shows [Kc Kd]
chitwood: nh
*** FLOP *** [Td Jh Kh]
*** TURN *** [Td Jh Kh] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Td Jh Kh Qc] [Ks]
KillinKegz shows a straight, Ace high
chitwood shows four of a kind, Kings
chitwood wins the pot (9,960) with four of a kind, Kings
KillinKegz: not really
hoyazo: OMG
chitwood: wow
KillinKegz stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9,960 | Rake 0
Board: [Td Jh Kh Qc Ks]
Seat 1: actyper didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: hoyazo didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: RajunRhino didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: HAGBARD_III didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: peacecorn didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: KillinKegz showed [Ah As] and lost with a straight, Ace high
Seat 7: Drizztdj (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: chitwood (small blind) showed [Kc Kd] and won (9,960) with four of a kind, Kings
Seat 9: dnasty13 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Does it get any sicker than that?

At 11:10pm ET, middle of second hour:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5478709300: Blogger Big Game (40523592), Table 11 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:07:55 ET - 2008/03/02
Seat 1: OMGitsPokerFool (7,535)
Seat 2: Julius_Goat (12,035)
Seat 3: noair (2,255)
Seat 4: asphnxma (16,995)
Seat 5: lucko21 (6,705)
Seat 6: JL514 (7,690)
Seat 7: XXXXXXXX (4,452)
Seat 8: cracknaces (2,370)
Seat 9: ChapelncHill (7,375)
OMGitsPokerFool antes 25
Julius_Goat antes 25
noair antes 25
asphnxma antes 25
lucko21 antes 25
JL514 antes 25
XXXXXXXX antes 25
cracknaces antes 25
OMGitsPokerFool posts the small blind of 120
Julius_Goat posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
noair folds
asphnxma folds
lucko21 folds
JL514 folds
XXXXXXXX calls 240
cracknaces raises to 2,345, and is all in
OMGitsPokerFool folds
Julius_Goat folds
XXXXXXXX calls 2,105
cracknaces shows [7s Ac]
XXXXXXXX shows [Ks 5s]
*** FLOP *** [Td Kc 5d]
*** TURN *** [Td Kc 5d] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Td Kc 5d 2c] [Ts]
cracknaces shows a pair of Tens
XXXXXXXX shows two pair, Kings and Tens
XXXXXXXX wins the pot (5,250) with two pair, Kings and Tens
cracknaces stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,250 | Rake 0
Board: [Td Kc 5d 2c Ts]
Seat 1: OMGitsPokerFool (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Julius_Goat (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: noair folded before the Flop
Seat 4: asphnxma folded before the Flop
Seat 5: lucko21 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: JL514 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: XXXXXXXX showed [Ks 5s] and won (5,250) with two pair, Kings and Tens
Seat 8: cracknaces (button) showed [7s Ac] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 9: ChapelncHill is sitting out

OK that one's not a suckout or a resuck, but holy god is there a worse way to play poker than that hand right there (names have been erased to protect the guilty)? I'm still trying to figure out how anyone can limp-call an allin with K5s just 90 minutes in to a big tournament and when sitting on a decent-sized stack.

Anyways, here is at 11:29pm ET -- BoneDaddy's very first hand after being moved to my table:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5478972151: Blogger Big Game (40523592), Table 8 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:28:56 ET - 2008/03/02
Seat 1: a104l9 (7,425)
Seat 2: hoyazo (11,185)
Seat 4: HAGBARD_III (11,720)
Seat 5: peacecorn (11,090)
Seat 6: BuddyDank (5,912)
Seat 7: Drizztdj (5,000)
Seat 8: chitwood (11,255)
Seat 9: Bone_Daddy84 (7,735)
a104l9 antes 50
hoyazo antes 50
HAGBARD_III antes 50
peacecorn antes 50
BuddyDank antes 50
Drizztdj antes 50
chitwood antes 50
Bone_Daddy84 antes 50
chitwood posts the small blind of 200
Bone_Daddy84 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hoyazo [9h 2h]
a104l9 folds
hoyazo folds
HAGBARD_III folds
peacecorn folds
BuddyDank folds
Drizztdj raises to 4,950, and is all in
chitwood folds
Bone_Daddy84 calls 4,550
Drizztdj shows [Js Kh]
Bone_Daddy84 shows [Ah Ac]
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ts 9d]
*** TURN *** [Qd Ts 9d] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ts 9d Jh] [Kc]
Drizztdj shows a straight, King high
Bone_Daddy84 shows a straight, Ace high
Bone_Daddy84 wins the pot (10,500) with a straight, Ace high
Drizztdj stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10,500 | Rake 0
Board: [Qd Ts 9d Jh Kc]
Seat 1: a104l9 folded before the Flop
Seat 2: hoyazo folded before the Flop
Seat 4: HAGBARD_III folded before the Flop
Seat 5: peacecorn folded before the Flop
Seat 6: BuddyDank folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Drizztdj (button) showed [Js Kh] and lost with a straight, King high
Seat 8: chitwood (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: Bone_Daddy84 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and won (10,500) with a straight, Ace high

Yet another resuck in a night full of some of the sickest sucking and suckouting you will ever see, even from a bunch of bloggers.

And speaking of BoneDaddy and suckouts, I survived two early suckouts against me to end up rivering a set after being allin preflop with 99 against BoneDaddy's AA about two and a half hours in to prolong my own existence in the Big Game. I raised UTG preflop with my pocket 9s, and when Eric put me allin from the blinds, I had no choice but to call with about 40% of my stack already in the pot with my preflop raise. I did manage to get called a donkey which is always a plus too, especially when it makes no sense as is usually the case whenever another blogger is the accuser. Nonetheless, I hit my 20% shot and jumped up to the top few slots out of fewer than 30 players remaining at the time. By this time, however, Scott Fischman had used his keep-trying-as-hard-as-he-can-to-lose-and-then-suckout style to power ahead to a massive chip lead, actually close to three times the second place player at the time and more than thrice my 3rd place stack at the time.

A few minutes later the BBT point bubble broke at 27 players remaining, and I was moved to Fischman's table, where I would stay to watch the festivities for the remainder of the tournament. There I got to see Fischman instacall preflop raises with 84o, call off huge portions of his huge stack with just naked Jack-high flush draws and other good stuff like that. And he won every single one of them. It was unbelievable to watch. Truly, madly and deeply unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it. And the worst part was, as we moved to the final two tables, I outplayed Fischman hard not once but twice, both times taking half his stack and at one point knocking him out of the chip lead, but in both cases it was not more than two hands later when some other blonkey cashed him right back up to the chip lead again, a lead he would not relinquish.

As the final table started, I was in 3rd place but still a good 20% or so behind Fischman, who just kept relentlessly caling allins with nothing great and overpushing all for many many BBs against 5 players still to act, winning every single one of these confrontations. If memory serves, Fischman suckout-eliminated three different players at the final table, and setup-eliminated at least two more. Speaking of which, he eventually caught me and busted me in third place when he open-pushed for a billion BBs and I looked down to find A8o. Having sat and watched him for the past hour, I felt I had to call with A8o three-handed in this spot, with the way Fischman had been playing making it as likely that he would have 43o there as AA. The more I thought and think about this hand, the more I agree that I simply could not lay down A8 in that spot down to three players and with a chance to get within one double-up of Fischman's stack, which at that point was a good five times larger than either my own or that of cmitch in third place. Natch Fischman flipped up A9o and I could not suck out or pull the chop, and I was out in third place overall:



As you can see from the above, after a valiant effort cmitch was unable to overcome the nearly 6 to 1 chip deficit heading in to heads-up play, and Scott Fischman went on to become your Big Game champion and the first entrant into the series-ending BBT3 Tournament of Champions after playing like the ultimate fonkey for nearly four hours against the blonkeys. I counted 6 or 7 reslobulous suckouts for Fischman, just in the final hour or so that we played at the same table. He played unbelievably silly poker, desperately trying to lose, instacalling with all bullshit pre and postflop, calling allins with J3 on KQJ flop at the final table and then lamenting having flopped a pair, stuff like that, again and again and again. It was atrocious to be honest, easily without exaggeration the single worst performance to win a blonkament in the history of time. No joke, no exaggeration, no doubt. I mean, this was even worse than that time Waffles won the MATH by shutting his eyes and just clicking call all night. Seriously, if you didn't watch it, you won't believe how lucky Fischman got to take this thing down. He shoulda been out in the first 30 minutes, and about 15 or 20 other times along the way, but that's how these things go sometimes and this Sunday night was definitely Scott Fischman's night.

On the good side, I played good, solid poker on the night, had a blast and have basically freerolled now all the rest of the BBT3 with the $923 I won in the Big Game myself for my third place finish. I've also solidified my position in the top couple of spots of lifetime winnings in Big Game with another solid performance, my third top-3 finish and fourth final table in the smallish number of times this tournament has run in its illustrious big-buyin career. So that is all good, with my full tilt roll at another all-time high after the miraculous February I have just gotten through, and March starting off strong like February ended is a very good sign indeed.

So after an absolutely huge and super fun beginning to the BBT3, be sure not to miss tonight' second BBT3 tournament at 10pm ET in Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt. Remember, tonight's event is a much cheaper $26 buyin, and the password is "hammer" as with all of my private events. Hopefully all of you who showed up for the Big Game can come out for the Hoy as well this evening, and I'm really hoping we can get a bunch of first-timers as well to help expand our group and the reach of our ghey litle community. See you tonight at for Mondays at the Hoy at 10pm ET on full tilt!!