Monday Quickie and Nice MTT Score

This is gonna have to be a quick one since I am technically still on vacation until the end of Monday. Well, technically I am back to work today, but I've got some shit going on for most of the day that will keep me otherwise occupied and away from the pc where I spin my clever little yarns for you all on a daily basis.

So here goes:

First, tonight is once again Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt, and tonight we're going to start for the first time with the Shootout format for the tournament. Same time of 10pm ET as always, same buyin of $24 + $2, and the same password of "hammer", but the game this week will be a shorthanded shootout structure as we explore how shootouts work for our private blogger tournaments for the first time. So come on out and be among the first to play a blogger shootout and experience all the fun and excitement for yourself. There has already been a rare Tripjax sighting on the early registration list for this week's Hoy, and of course first-timers are always welcome, encouraged and lucky as ballz in this thing. See you then!

I should also make brief mention of a few other items around the world of the other poker blogs and bloggers out there that I have taken note of over the past week or so but have not been able yet to blog about. PLO expert and overall good guy Bayne recently busted out with yet another big score which can be read about over at his blog. Of course everyone knows about Lucko and LJ's recent online tournament successes, but Bayne has quietly watched his tournament game improve, pretty much right in line with an increased focus on tight, smart poker. It's always a thrill for me to watch anyone in our group evolving their tournament game and seeing the results they are looking for, and Bayne is no exception here so if you haven't been keeping up with that, head over to Bayne's blog and catch yourself up.

And speaking of some great blog posts, I have been remiss in not mentioning until now the spate of great strategy posts that once again have been regularly populating the space over at Emptyman's blog. Empty is a somewhat recent blogger and an excellent player in all the poker games, and he has had a whole host of great posts over the past year or so detailing various strategy points relating to holdem and most of the HORSE variants. Take it from me, if you are looking to improve your HORSE game, do yourself a personal favor and read through the recent archives as well as the older stuff at Emptyman's blog and you will not be disappointed.

And speaking of Lucko and LJ btw, it appears that both sides of the happy couple are busto from the World Series of Poker Main Event, both on Day One during the second round of the tournament. Loretta did make it through to Day Two, to be played later this week, and is sitting on a stack of around 35k after starting with 20k in chips. And the big story has got to be everyone's favorite poker dwarf Iggy himself, who has also survived through to Day Two with a stack of just under 38,000 chips. With the incredibly slow structure of the WSOP ME, lasting to the second day having nearly doubled the starting chip stack is a great outcome in my book, and I continue to think that Iggy has just the kind of patient, smart game to make a real run in a tournamemt like this. I'm sure you can keep up with all the Vegas happenings for these guys on their own blogs and of course on Pauly and the other media outlets covering the WSOP this year.

Well this is really all the time I have for today. Let me just reiterate that if I have any say in it, this week is going to be perhaps the biggest mtt bender of my entire life, an effort that I got off to a great start with over the weekend upon my late night Saturday return to New York City sans Hammer Girls and sans Hammer Wife, who again remain at the beach for one more week until I head down to pick them up next weekend. I played a bunch of tournaments for the first time ever over the weekend, including the donkorific phenomena known as the Turbo Fiddy and the Turbo Hundo, including a 14th place cash in the Hundo after losing a race that would have left me atop the leaderboard with a little luck. I also played my first ever Sunday Brawl as well as the 750k this week, neither of which worked out as I had been hoping although I made a decent run in each.

One thing that did work out on Sunday night / Monday morning was this:





A 4th place finish is nothing to go nuts about, but it's the first big score I've had since getting sick as I have pretty much stayed away from the mtt scene for a few months, so in that sense this felt great. I had been in 2nd place of four left before pushing into the chip leader when his top pair had mine beat, but in the end I'll take the cash and try to duplicate it again in my bender that has started off about as good as could reasonably be hoped. The most interesting aspect of this thing I think is that here I am final-tabling the 5050 again right here during the exact same week-after-July-4th when I first final-tabled it on back to back nights last year. As I mentioned last week, something about being free to play all night without disturbing anyone or anyone else being around is very liberating to me and has historically led to good results for my game. Here's hoping that this can continue tonight and into the rest of the week with my own mtt play.

See you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy -- Shootout style -- on full tilt!