Donkin' It Up in the Mookie

I was all set to write up the second part of the first part of my SNG turbo ring strategy post today, but given the number of "sorry"s and other feelgood emails and girly's I've gotten today, I guess I have to mention the Mookie. I'll get to that next SNG post yet my pretties. Maybe.

Anyways, thanks to everybody but honestly, you don't understand. For those that don't know -- most of you I am sure -- I did final table the Mookie last night for just the second time this year. I was in the slight chip lead for most of the time between around 20 players left and maybe 8 players left, although by the time we were four-handed I was in a slight last place and I ended up pushing allin preflop on a reraise with my J5o against LJ's AK. Obviously rereraising allin with ATC is not the way I want to end a rare Mookie run for me. And yet, I wasn't even the least bit down when I lost that hand and exited in 4th place for $97 and a nice confidence boost in a tournament where historically, in a word, I blowbigfatass. And you know why I wasn't down when I busto'd myself?

Because I played like ass. The entire night. This was not one of those nights where I was killing and really deserved to win, and those are the ones that kill ya for a while afterwards. I played like a donkey as far as I can remember throughout the entire Mookie tournament this week. I ignored my own sworn advice and played loose and idiotic early, getting lucky to double up against someone maybe with AK against his AQ early or something like that. Then I basically stole 850 pots on my way to the final 25 or 30 players, when the blinds really started kicking in and the M's were dropping off the cliff. At that point, with just a little over twice the starting stack and in the middle of the pack, I must've had three or four hands over a 10-minute span where I was in the blinds or in late position with a strong hand (say, ATs or better), and saw the action before the flop fold around to someone in a stealy position with one of those 1500-chip stacks who was now desperate enough to just push in with ATC. I called my way to the top of the leaderboard over a very short period of time simply by being dealt lucky cards behind late-position shorties pushing with ATC, and miraculously all four of them held up.

That's it. That is the sum total of my chip winnings on the night. I had people commenting all over the place how I was going to donk out because I was raising every third hand for hours (I was). I played maniacal poker, got lucky a bunch without ever actually sucking out, and I made it all the way to the final table with some chips by doing just that. I doubled up early with AK over AQ, then I stole 85 pots, and finally I lucked into four pocket pairs or strong Aces in succession against late-position mid-shorties pushing with ATC and all four held up.

So I was laughing my whole way to the final table. I knew I didn't deserve to be there. Not on this night. It's a great reminder though for me of what it actually takes to actually final table this silly thing. You guys with two or three (or seven) Mookie wins ought to have your online poker cards revoked for what that says about you.

But anyways, what I'm trying to say is that yeah it was a god awful move me pushing in in that spot with two shitty cards like J5o. Just understand -- and I've said this before, though I'm not sure that I've done a good enough job of explaining my feelings on it -- I pushed with hands like J5o like a hundred times in the Mookie this week to even be there at the end. I do think I had exactly one premium hand dealt to me, AA or KK as I recall, but otherwise that I can recall my hands were pretty bad. I played that J5o hand at the end exactly like I had played seriously 18 or 19 hands before that one right in front of you all. Every time I steal-raised, I had carp. Every time I restole, I had carp. But no one called me. My only other decent pot early other than the AK > AQ hand was very early in the tournament against jeciimd when I won a hand at showdown with the Hammer, having raised preflop and raised on the flop with it as well when I flopped Q97 or some shit like that. But that's the kind of hands I won almost all of my pots with on the night -- shitty cards or just positional setups where I had to call and my favorite held up**. I didn't play one hand well all night, my reads were off -- including obviously on that last hand with LJ -- and I had no place being around. So it never feels bad to me to bust after a night like that. And yeah, again I make no excuses for pushing J5o against LJ after she had already reraised me. She indicated that she had a hand, and I figured I know LJ really wants to win the seat, I'm not getting any playable cards here, and LJ loves to resteal in tihs kind of spot, so why not see if I can make her lay down. Bad play and bad decision on my part. But just take it from me, it doesn't feel all bad to me like apparently it did for many of you out there. When you're pushing and reraising with hands made of pure smelly garbage for an hour and having chips just luck into your lap time and time again while you're doing it, it never hurts all that bad when you finally get caught.

And getting caught I did. While I got to watch every player left at the final table suck out at least two or three times on the night just while I was at their tables, I was busy running in to pocket Aces not once, not twice, not three times but four times on the night, each time allin and each time where I had been holding a good hand at the time as well. One time was around the end of the first hour with my AK preflop, that sucked. The next time early in Hour 2 was again with AK, this time my allin reraise on the King-high flop when the guy showed me Aces (that is always fun times). A third time I got allin preflop against Aces was (luckily) against a fairly short player when I held the chip lead with around 21 or 22 players left and I held JJ, and then there was the big hand that got Waffles his huge stack. Here, some shorty had pushed allin with a stack that was small enough for him to be pushing basically with ATC from his position, so I reraised him allin to isolate with my pocket 7s before the flop. Smartly, Waffles woke up behind me with pocket Aces and he tripled up at my expense. But I like the play there with 77. Some people referred to that hand last night as a setup, which I do not agree with since I only had a pair of 7s and could easily have gotten away from that mediocre hand at best. But I do believe I played it the proper way and just got very unlucky with Waffles' Aces, and as I reviewed the hand history this morning I know I would make that play in that spot again. What can I do.

So on the night I ran AK and JJ into pocket Aces from shorter stacks than mine and survived. I also ran the 77 into Waffles' Aces preflop when I (I think) correctly reraised to isolate a shorty push with ATC. And I ran AK into AA as well on a King-high flop. And that's not even counting the not once, not twice but three times I pushed allin into AK. One time early on I lost to another shorty, one time my JJ held up, and then there was the brilliant last hand where I rereraised J5o right smack into LJ's AK. Sweet night, huh? So for running allin to AA or AK a full seven times and yet somehow still lasting to 4th place, believe me when I say that I am really pleased with my performance, and I bear no ill will about anything related to last night, and I was pleased to see two people I like battle it out heads-up for the title.

On the topic of ill will though, I will say that during a deep run in the elusive Mookie like this where I was in such good shape chipwise earlier on and even early at the final table, you really find out who your friends are. Some of the people in chat really belie their true feelings for me when they chat. I am always amazed and how redonkulous some people's haterism is, and yet how readily they display this ugliest of qualities right in front of a whole group of bloggers in the game and on the rail. For the first time I have to say I really get what Gary Cox was saying in a post last week about the dumbest part of the asschatters in the BBT3 tournaments is all the veiled statements they are making to put down other players, yet which they are acting like no one really gets the rudeness of. I mean I've got people who have literally never won a single no-limit holdem mtt in their entire lives sitting on the rail and making fun of me for pushing with J5o when they *think* I'm not there to defend myself. Guys who literally haven't won an nlh tournament in their entire lives -- make no mistake, because they definitively have no clue about how to play a final table, how to push with nothing and be successful, what it takes to actually win an mtt. They know nothing. Literally. They literally wouldn't know a good poker play from a bad one in a meaningful tournament context. But suddenly, when they think I'm gone, there they are -- on the rail, because they called off their chips with 33 instead of surviving to 4th place to push allin with Jack-high, or on the rail because they don't even have the bankroll to play an $11 event -- commenting on how bad my play was, etc. Keep it up guys, you really show your true colors when you do. And people notice it and what it says about the kind of person you are. So keep it up.

The heads-up battle between LJ and Waffles was entertaining for a bit, if not a bit tight for my tastes. Both of them wanted the win and the ToC seat so bad, you could just feel it watching the two of them battle it out. The key hand in the hu battle came early, however, when LJ called the river for half her remaining stack and to go down 5-to-1 in chips on an AJ234 board with three clubs. This was a board where two clubs had flopped, I believe Waffles checked, LJ had bet out and Waffles had called the flop bet. Then the third club hit the turn, Waffles had checked again and this time LJ checked behind, only to see Waffles bet out large on the river. My point in this is just to say that he played his hand very much as if he had been on a flush draw and then had hit his flush on the turn. Anyways, not being seated at the table at the time, I could never see what hand LJ called Waffles' 20k+ bet with on that river, but he showed a 5 for the 2nd nut straight and went up something like 105k to 20k in chips at the time, a deficit from which LJ never really recovered. She did a great job fighting back and doubling up from a short stack a few times, but LJ was never able to get a real chip lead back and ended up with her A5 falling to Waffles' KJs maybe 20 minutes later or so. But I am still trying to figure out what LJ called so many chips on that river with, given that she lost to the second nut straight and obviously therefore did not have the flush either. I will have to guess it was two pair with the Ace and one of the low cards, maybe with the Ace of clubs too so she knew Waffles was not on the nut flush when she made that river call. But in the end that was the hand that did her in, Waffles showed his straight and eventually that chip lead carried him to the win.

The ToC is better with Waffles in it, is it not? I'm sure LJ will have her day soon enough. And for me, yes I had my second-deepest ever run in the Mookie last night, tying with my last 4th place finish in the middle of the BBT2 last year. But don't shed a tear, I played like a blogger all through that thing and was just happy to be there at the end along for the ride. If I had won the Mookie this week that would have been the single greatest embarrassment to the institution of the Mookie that there ever was. Take it from me.

Riverchasers tonight, don't forget the earlier start time of 9pm ET. As always, the password for Riverchasers on full tilt is "riverchasers". See you then for another Lost-free Thursday.




**PS just FYI, yes I really do love it when a blogger spends just not an entire tournament, but an entire past few years of blogger tournaments, pushing with ATC from beginning to end, constantly getting donked out early from these things, and then calls me an idiot for calling his ATC push with an uber short stack with my K6o. More stuff for you guys to please keep doing in the chat. The entertainment value alone is almost worth the $11 buyin. Thank you.