FTOPS Comes Through After All

It was a good weekend of poker for me, and it couldn't have come at a better time as I have been getting crushed by the tables at full tilt for a while. The weekend still saw me get hammered with suckout after suckout like usual, but I managed to nail a couple of big ones in key spots to record one of my biggest weekends in a loooooong time on the virtual felt. First on Friday night there was this:



This was for a $2620 seat into FTOPS #22, the two-day tourney, and it was I think the biggest satellite win I have ever recorded on line. I think. Of course I unregistered for the actual event as fast as you can say "I saw Dark Knight this weekend and the first two endings were good but the last four endings really made the thing way too long like every other movie made in the past five years".

Seriously now, if it ended after they got the Joker it would have been prolly top 25 or 30 movies of all time. Instead they ran it another 80 minutes and took it out of the top 50 entirely, without a doubt. They went and turned a 9 into a 6, once again because the ego of the editor would not allow him to cut anything. And it wasn't just me -- everyone I've spoken to says the identical same thing -- that it was just too long -- and you could see it clearly in my theater. First hour and a half, total mesmerization from everyone. Last hour and 20 or so, like 20 people just in my immediate area (myself included) looking at their watches, falling asleep, checking the time on their cell phones, etc.

Heath Ledger though -- dayummm. I had heard he was awesome so many times that I went in there fully expecting to be let down. He was even better than advertised. Could there ever be anyone more destined to win Best Actor than this guy? I mean, as soon as he died, the Academy probably had already pencilled him in, but he did put on an awesome performance, one that shocked me by actually rivalling Jack Nicholson's portrayal a decade and a half ago. Couple the show he put on with his untimely death, and Tom Hanks might as well not even accept that cushy role slated for release later this year. This Oscar has Heath Ledger's name written all over it.

But can someone please tell me, why the F even bring up all that stuff about Two-Face? Why is that guy even in this movie? And all that ghey bullshit about rigging every cell phone in the city for sonar? Come on, why do you have to go and do that, huh? Was it really necessary at all for the plot to this film? I just don't get it.

And who the fuckleberry keeps giving Maggie effing Gyllenhall sex-symbol starring roles? Don't people know she is hideous? I mean it's not just that she pales in comparison to the real hot chicks in Hollywood. She is downright hideous, to the point that I physically don't want to look at her. Look, it is Bruce fucking Wayne. He is hot, single, and the richest guy in the world. Of course he's gonna be tagging the supermodel chick. And yet Maggie G. is his lifelong love? Puh lease.

And what's with the recockulous Batman voice whenever he has the suit on? Guy sounds like a fucking grizzly bear or something. Why can't he just use his regular Bruce Wayne voice even when he's in the costume? Some things I'll just never get.

Anyways, back to the poker. So I won that $2620 on Friday night for a nice padding of ye olde roll, and then on Saturday midday on a whim I decided to sit down to this, another turbo mtt satellite to the same FTOPS #22:



Blooom! And agin, I immediately unregistered for the tournament itself, which I will never, ever have a sufficient roll online to play in. But that was $5240 in $T over basically three hours of play between Friday late night an Saturday early afternoon, you can't beat that. That shit will allow me to donk around for what? At least a week or two, given the shit I am still suffering regularly on full tilt?

These turbo megasats are the shizzle. The first one, $216 to get in (I just buy in for cash), and the top 13 finishers out of 181 win the seats. And it's turbo, so it suits my game great and allows me to make a quick hit one way or the other. 1 hour and 44 minutes later, I net over $2400 despite overcoming a sick dominated suckout against me that had me down to fewer than 10 big blinds about halfway through the tournament when my AKo could not hold up against A9s. And the second mtt sat on Saturday, that one had a $535 buyin with 263 entrants, and the top 50 getting the $2620 seats. 1 hour and 41 minutes later, bloooom! Another $2100 net. Both of these satellites have awesome, awesome odds of winning considering the amount of money at stake, and the shit gets done quizznick. What more can I ask for? Like any turbo mega, it gets a bit hairy and pushfestian at the end there, but in both tournaments I was never close to the bubble line in the last several orbits of either, and I had a relatively easy run in both all things considered.

The trick with the turbo megasats is actually fairly simple. You have to be highly aggro, which is to say that if you get AK for example, you are basically getting it allin and hoping to get called. If youget a pocket pair Tens or higher, you're basically getting it allin and hoping to get called and take your chances. Otherwise, you just need to work hard to extract maximum value from every big hand yuo make after the flop, and you really can't afford to let an opportunity to do so pass you up. So you need to get a big stack as early as you can, and then keep your eyes on the stack sizes to make sure you are in position to win at all times, or as close to that as you can. So, for example, if you know there are 200 runners with 1500 starting chips and the top 20 finishers win the seats, then you can easily do some quick math and figure there re 1500 x 200 = 300,000 starting chips in total, and with the final 20 winning the seats, that means that the final average chipstack will be 300,000 / 20 or 15,000 chips. So, if 15,000 will be the average final stack of the 20 winners, then I want to try to build my stack until it is at least 10,000 or 15,000 chips, and then I want to try to preserve that stack size. That's all it takes. Get up to enough chips to win the seat, and then do whatever I have to do to to maintain.

And maintaining in these turbo megasats -- or really in any turbo satellite for that matter -- most definitely does not mean check and fold. It means steal enough to maintain that stack, but don't take any crazy chances when you don't have to. It means call with your monsters, but otherwise you're folding everything unless you are the first one in and have a reasonable shot of stealing the blinds and antes. And one of the keys is definitely to push before getting on the literal bubble when youre within 10 people or so of winning the seats. If you let yourself fold down to the point where you suddenly find yourself on the outside of the ITM positions looking in, you've already fucked up by waiting too long. Once I get myself into the top 20 spots when 20 spots will eventually win seats in the tournament, it is my job to steal when I can, and to resteal when it makes sense, to ensure that I do not allow myself to drop out of those ITM spots without a fight or without getting unlucky.

Also this weekend, I ran down to 24th again in the 50-50 on full tilt. I absolutely pwn that structure. In this tournament, I was actually dealt four separate premium hands, which is about 200% more than usual for me. Sounds good, right? Well, unfortunately, my AA lost to KK allin preflop about 3/4 of the way through the field, a disturbing trend that has seen me lose I think 9 of the last 11 times I have picked up AA vs KK, and otherwise I was dealt QQ three times and went 0 for 3 with them. It was not a good night for cards. And yet somehow I stole and restole my way to the final three tables, but eventually ran KTo into A2s and could not stop n go my way to victory thanks to my opponent flopping a flush draw and one overcard. What can you do, it was still another great run for me in the 5050 tournament on top of what was otherwise already a large weekend for me at the tables.

Unfortunately my weekend success most definitely did not extend to the FTOPS Main Event on Sunday night. The play in this thing was definitely horrible overall (what else is new), and that worked to my benefit by helping me to nearly 18k in chips from the 5k starting stack about three hours in. But eventually the exact same stuff full tilt has been pulling on me for weeks caught up with me, as I raised UTG of all places with the hammer and then went on to flop 72J. I got the guy in for a pot-sized bet on the flop, and another nearly-pot-sized bet on the offsuit King on the turn. Then on the rivered 9 I reverse hoyed the guy for his last 3500 chips or so, and of course he called and showed? Pocket 9s. You gotta love that. I make the hammer play of a lifetime, get big bets in on both streets, the guy can't lay down 99 with the Jack or the King on the board despite my UTG raise, and then the two outer on the river basically depleted me, taking about 90% of my stack. Yes I managed to aggro my way back from 2500 chips to over 13k, but the damage had already been done. I was finished as soon as I nailed two pairs with the hammer after an UTG raise but then lost to the 2 outer on the river. Eventually, once again getting short, I raised with K7s in the cutoff and got called by A6s of the exact same suit. No doubt how that one ended up, and IGH around 1000th out of over 4800 entrants. It was a good run, but a very poor ending despite outlasting more than 3000 anusheads.

Not that I can complain after the weekend I had online. Overall I netted more than 5k in pure profits, and more importantly I had a fuckin fun time doing it. I still need to find a way to avoid getting sucked out on when I'm way way ahead in key spots though if I expect to last real deep in anything big. Not sure what I'll be focusing on this week now that the FTOPS has come and gone once again, but I'm hoping to try to enjoy myself a little bit in a few weeks I have off in between jobs. That, and hopefully not watch my former company implode before my very eyes under the weight of an increasingly horrid financial crisis in this country and around the world.

FTOPS IX

So the FTOPS is upon us once again, with the first event of FTOPS IX slated to go off on Wednesday evening at 9pm ET. Given my stated focus on playing in the bigger cash tournaments out there, I am always a real FTOPS whore, which will be especially true this time around since the last time the FTOPS ran in May, I was completely out of pocket thanks to a little dose of mononucleosis. Fun times as that was, I'm definitely looking forward to making some runs in this month's FTOPS tournament series, which I believe is the biggest and longest of any FTOPS series yet run by full tilt -- now 25 total events and I believe $15 million in guaranteed prize money. Today I wanted to take a look at the entire schedule of events and see which ones I plan on playing and which I might consider taking a shot at, even if it means buying in direct for cash. This is actually the first time I have ever sat down and looked at the entire schedule, so me doing this is more for me than it even is for you guys, but here is the full schedule of the 25 events comprising FTOPS IX, along with any comments I have after each:

Event #1
Wednesday August 6th
21:00 ET $200 + $16
NL Hold 'em $1,000,000

This first event of the FTOPS is one I have played in in basically every single FTOPS series that has run since I've been a full tilt tournament guy, as the series always begins with a standard-buyin $216 no-limit holdem tournament. This one is no exception, and I'm expecting it will be really huge since they've been running a billion satellites into this thing over the past few weeks. It's a bit late at this point, but the best ways to play into this thing on the cheap are either the nightly $10 rebuy turbo satellite that runs somewhere shortly around 9:50pm ET every night heading up to the onset of the FTOPS, or the incredibly soft $75 one-table sngs that run at all times and which pay out seats to the top 3 out of 9 finishers.


Event #2
Thursday August 7th
14:00 ET $240 + $16
PL Omaha/8
Knockout $200,000

Would love to play this one as I did two FTOPS series ago, but the timing in the middle of the day and with me leaving my current job in a couple of weeks, it's just not going to happen. This is a kickass tournament though, I highly encourage all you suckbox luckdonks out there to get in on the draw-heavy Omaha action. You know who you are.


Event #3
ThursdayAugust 7th
21:00 ET $200 + $16
NL Hold 'em
4 x Shootout
6-Max $250,000

This looks new to me, although recall that I did not play at all in FTOPS VIII so it might have been in there as well. I suspect I will be buying in direct to this one on Thursday night.


Event #4
Friday August 8th
14:00 ET $300 + $22
NL Hold 'em
1 rebuy and 1 add-on
6-Max $600,000

Another kickass tournament that I won't be playing in because of the timing. Personally I wish the 1r1a FTOPS event could be $216 buyin instead of $322, but in a way the larger buyin isn't so bad since it is only a maximum investment of under a grand. Maybe next time around for me.


Event #5
Friday August 8th
21:00 ET $200 + $16
Stud $100,000

Stud tournament? Blech.


Event #6

Saturday August 9th
14:00 ET $500 + $35
PL Omaha
6-Max $300,000

Here's another one for the suckboxes out there. The timing makes this one a no-go for me but I'm sure some of the omadonks will have a blast spending a grand to qualify and then dropping the 5 hundy when some longshot draw sucks out at the river.


Event #7
Saturday August 9th
16:30 ET TBD $100 + $9
NL Hold 'em
Rebuy $500,000

Not a huge fan of big-buyin rebuy tournaments, but at $100 a pop I do like the setup here and wish the time were later so I could get in on some of this. I don't mind missing it thought as the donkery is sure to be fast and furious early in this thing.


Event #8
Sunday August 10th
14:00 ET $240 + $16
NL Hold 'em
6-Max Knockout $500,000

Badass tournament right here. Shorthanded, knockout and a nice buyin level should combine for a super fun event. Again there's no way I'm playing a 2pm Sunday event but for those of you who like to frequent the Sunday Brawl, this one should be a no-brainer.

Event #9
Sunday August 10th
16:00 ET $500 + $35
NL Hold 'em
Heads Up $500,000

More badass. One of the few setups where I do think $500 is a good buyin level is in the heads-up tournaments. Once again Sunday at 4pm ain't happening for me but if I had the time and the cash I would be in here for sure.


Event #10
Sunday August 10th
18:00 ET $300 + $22
NL Hold 'em $1,500,000

This is another tournament that has run in this same time slot in basically every FTOPS for a couple of years now, and also one to which full tilt runs copious satellites to allow anyone who wants to get in and has a modicum of tournament skill to win his or her seat. Personally I have already won 3 if not 4 seats to Event #10 this time around, which was the same story in the last FTOPS I played in because they not only have excellent 1-table sngs for the $322 nlh tournament, but they also run regular nightly mtt satellites to it for a $50 buyin, I think maybe at 10:40pm ET every night, or something right around there. That nightly mtt sat is a great place to run into some bloggers as well as it is one of the best values around for your money in mtt play.

Event #11
Monday August 11th
14:00 ET $200 + $16
Limit Hold'em $200,000

Omg thank god this one is a Monday at a bad time. Let the Euros have their little limit tournament and save the real poker for that evening.


Event #12
Monday August 11th
21:00 ET $1,000 + $60
NL Hold 'em
6-Max $1,500,000

This is the one I mentioned yesterday that I am really looking forward to given how infrequently I get to play events with 1k buyins. The way to get in to this one is to qualify in the $165 buyin satellites that run I think several times nightly, most notably for my schedule at 10:20pm ET every night leading up to the FTOPS. The best part about these sats which themselves have that steep $165 buyin is that full tilt is smart about it, and they run nightly turbo supersatellites to get into the $165 events for the couple of hours preceding the satellite every day of the week. I've still never cashed in a 1k buyin event on full tilt, although I have come sickeningly close once in the FTOPS and once in the regular Monday 1k, so I'm hopeful I can do more than I have in the past in this one when it goes off in a couple weeks.


Event #13
TuesdayAugust 12th
14:00 ET $200 + $16
HA (half PL Hold 'em,
half PL Omaha) $200,000

Bad time for me, but a fun game with half holdem and half Omaha high. The best part is, the pot-limit structure as opposed to no limit definitely favors the more skilled players as opposed to the two-card push monkeys that we all know and love.


Event #14
Tuesday August 12th
21:00 ET $500 + $35
HORSE $300,000

Here we have my biggest money drain so far in this FTOPS, as I have probably played 4 different satellites mostly at $75 apiece without success to qualify for this bad boy. Sometimes I really can't believe I'm the same guy who was so strong in HORSE back a couple of years now, and it seems like forever ago that I managed to win the weekly Sunday HORSE 30k guaranteed tourney on full tilt. I plan to make a few more attempts here in the coming week or so, but I'm not going to go nuts with it, and at $535 to get in, I really hope I don't just buy in direct. From my view, if I can't find a way to satellite in to this event for a reasonable price, then I don't belong playing in there either.


Event #15
Tuesday August 12th
21:00 ET $200 + $16
NL Hold 'em
Turbo $500,000

I will most definitely be in this event, as turbo mtts are one of the secret pleasures in my poker mtt life. It's a fairly new FTOPS event, but I believe it is the one and only tournament I actually made the time to play in May when I was bedridden, and I cashed it and ran well doing so. Best part about this one is that the whole thing is probably done in just over two hours start to finish. Like I said, there's almost no way I miss this thing, and although I do not recall seeing many satellites to it thus far, I will fork over the cash to get in direct if that's the way it has to be.


Event #16
Wednesday August 13th
14:00 ET $200 + $16
Omaha/8 $200,000

I would love to play a good old-fashioned O8 tournament as this is a game I have had a fair amount of success in over time, but unfortunately the Euro-friendly time once again is shizz for me so I will have to pass. But that won't stop me from continuing to compete in the many sng satellites to this event, which are soft as balls, and then just unregistering and keeping the $T.


Event #17
Wednesday August 13th
21:00 ET $300 + $22
NL Hold 'em
6-Max Rebuy $1,000,000

Hoy says no to $300 rebuy tournaments. Some aggro donk with a huge bankroll though will win a pretty penny when all is said and done here. My guess is no bloggers really try to run an event like this though, myself definitely included.


Event #18
Thursday August 14th
14:00 ET $500 + $35
NL Hold 'em
3 x Shootout $300,000

Once again the timing is wrong for us working stiffs in the U.S., and of all structures I am not really a shootout guy in any event.


Event #19
Thursday August 14th
21:00 ET $300 + $22
Mixed Hold'em
6-Max $300,000

I mentioned yesterday that I recently qualified for this tournament, and I'm actually really looking forward to it. Yeah I'm not a huge limit holdem fan, but I've read all the "bibles" of limit play and I can play it well despite its donkish nature as a game that generally rewards and really forces drawing hands to stick around and suck out. And mixing it with half no-limit really makes for an entirely different feel than a straight dickass limit tournament. Definitely my preferred way to get in to this thing are the regular $105 sng satellites that are always filling up on full tilt.


Event #20
Friday August 15th
14:00 ET $200 + $16
NL Hold 'em
6-Max $400,000

Nothing like some good old-fashioned 6-max nlh, even though this isn't a game I've spent any real time playing for over a year now. If I'm around that Friday night, I will make an attempt to get in this thing. That said, this will also be my last official day at my current employer, so I might likely be hammered out of my mind.


Event #21
Friday August 15th
21:00 ET $300 + $22
Razz $150,000

I'm pretty sure only a monkey plays online razz at this buyin limit. I haven't been sucked into playing this event in any FTOPS yet, and I won't be starting now.


Event #22
Saturday August 16th
14:00 ET $2,500 + $120
NL Hold 'em
Two Day Event $2,000,000

Someday maybe I will play in this thing. But not this time around. Two days including afternoons over a weekend is not happening for me. Plus I imagine I'll still be sleeping off quite a hangover after my Friday night end-of-work festivities.


Event #23
Saturday August 16th
16:30 ET $100 + $9
PL Omaha
Rebuy $350,000

I'd love to play any $100 PLO rebuy tournament, but #1 I am not nearly luckboxian enough to survive in this thing with fewer than 15 or 20 rebuys, and #2 the time is bad at 4:30pm ET on a Saturday. So no-go for me, but the luckboxes ought to be out in force for this one.


Event #24
Sunday August 17th
14:00 ET $120 + $9
NL Hold 'em
Knockout $400,000

Again, Sunday at 2pm ET is bad for me, but otherwise I would love to play any knockout tournament with a low-ish buyin in the FTOPS.


Main Event
Sunday August 17th
18:00 ET $500 + $35
NL Hold 'em $2,500,000

Obviously I would love to play in the Main Event, especially given that juicyass $2.5M guarantee, and I am more than willing to buy in for cash although I'm quite sure I can satellite in between now and the 17th if I make it a point to do so. They have a nice $20 nightly rebuy satellite that is quite winnable compared to the other straight $26 sats they run, plus there are usually a few sng satellites going as well, and of course there is always that juicy night-before megasat with the $50 buyin where 1 out of every 10 runners will win their seat. Odds are around 50-50 I would say of me being in there, although if I do win a satellite seat then I might get up the nerve to attempt to get pre-approval for this one.


OK this post is much longer than even I intended, so I'll get it up there now. Look for me tonight in the megasatellite to FTOPS #1 that will run tonight I think at 9:45pm ET. I've already won multiple seats to this event but as I mentioned above the megasatellites are simply the very best value out there for anyone who understands solid tournament and satellite poker.

Rally Shirt

Well I didn't really talk a lot about my own poker play last week due to some more significant life events going on with me, but when I last wrote about it a couple of weeks back, I was mired in a sea of bad beats and bad play. As primarily a tournament guy, running bad is as bad as it can possibly be. I think this is because the structure and pace of the tournament basically forces people to take action with hands they might not otherwise push with in a cash game, and as a result I constantly find myself in situations where I either am a big favorite with all the money in the middle, or at least where I should be a big favorite if not for some gheyness involved in the hand somewhere like the dreaded "pokerstars flop" or running Kings into Aces situation. Unlike most people, I can't stand getting beat out of a tournament early on, and in most cases I would almost still rather prefer to run to the bubble and then lose rather than bust in the first half-hour in a bad beat. To me, the journey as opposed to the result is most of the fun, and I like a run through 1000 players in the 50-50 and then busting just short of the money more than I appreciate full tilt having the courtesy of just running my KK into AA in the first few orbits. Maybe it's just me.

Anyways, a couple of weeks back I had taken a huge number of bad beats more or less in succession, and let's just say that is effing sucked and leave it at that. But last weekend, something interesting happened -- as I was digging through my closet and my sea of white t-shirts that I wear undernearth my shirt almost every day of the year, I came across my good old full tilt shirt that I got from the full tilt booth during my first World Series of Poker back in 2005. I hadn't seen this shirt in several months, and frankly I had forgotten all about it until it showed up in my hand there from buried deep on the top shelf. Anyways, I put that bad boy on, and let's just say that, with the exception of a very very ghey last night, the past week has been very very good to me poker-wise. I can mention a couple of the highlights here, but as far as I'm concerned it's all too far in the past at this point to write a whole lot about.

Starting at the beginning, a little over a week ago, as I was preparing to give my notice that I would be leaving my current job in a couple of weeks, I final tabled the 50-50 tournament on full tilt, my 5th or 6th final table in this tournament just this year. After being the chip leader from 27 players left down until around 13 or 14 remaining, I made two aggressive plays against short stacks I read for just trying to hold on for the final table, losing with AQ against 66 and then with 99 against AK, leading me to enter final table play in 4th place of 9 stacks left. In the end, I busted in a very disappointing 6th place given my recent chiplead, netting me $1750 or so, but I know I left probably a couple grand on the table by being incorrectly aggressive in a spot where every short stack who busts before me would translate directly into more cash into my (virtual) pocket. Basically, the highly aggressive chip leader, at the time one of 3 players at the table who could bust me, raised under the gun with 6 left at the 5050 final table, and I decided to push allin on a sizeable reraise with my ATs. The F-head instacalls with AQo -- the very move that has cost me countless runs in the Mookie at an even more shorthanded final table -- and I'm done. Now I can't kill the guy for that call, but #1 I would never have made it with the chiplead, and #2 like I said it's just frustrating that everyone else seems to win when they overplay AQ big time, and yet I don't seem to win much with it even when I play it correctly. Oh well, can't complain about another 5050 final table, but as always it was a bittersweet moment to bust out without winning this thing or at least nabbing one of the big top-3 cash payouts. Next time perhaps.

In Mondays at the Hoy last week, which turns out to be the very last MATH tournament of all time, longtime blonkament crusher Surflexus was the fitting winner, taking down the $168 first prize as he won the shootout and became the final MATH champion.

Meanwhile, earlier that weekend the power of the shirt change was in effect for me as well, starting with that 5050 final table and continuing through several FTOPS satellite wins, so many that I really don't remember the exact numbers. I know I have won at least four seats to FTOPS #1 after the past week, as well as entries into a few other events that I've unregistered for because some combination of the game or the time don't work for me. I have also remained registered for a number of the other FTOPS events to which I have won seats thus far and which I do intend to play. That includes my usual haunts including FTOPS #1 $216 buyin nlh which goes off this Wednesday evening at 9pm ET, my usual spot in the Sunday $322 buyin nlh tournament as well, plus a few other fun ones. My crowning achievement FTOPS-wise so far has been winning my second attempt in the nightly 10:20pm ET satellite for a $165 buyin into the $1060 buyin FTOPS event, which I nabbed here early last week:



Another fun event that I will be playing in the FTOPS for the first time -- and in fact this is the first time I have ever seen this event in the FTOPS so it may be the first time they've ever run it -- is a new $322 buyin tournament in "Mixed Holdem", which is alternating rounds of limit and no-limit holdem. I won this in the very first satellite I ran over the past week in this event, and even though limit holdem can be quite very ghey, as an alternating structure with no-limit sprinkled in there, I found it acceptable if not somewhat enjoyable even. In the satellite I played to win this seat, I took a brutal beat early on the river, only to lay a sick bad beat on the same player heads-up at the final table when dominated to take the big lead, going on to win it the very next hand when this guy tilt-pushed and I called with A5 vs. his Q3o. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Delicious limit holdem.

Later this week I will take a full look at the upcoming FTOPS, which once again begins this coming Wednesday evening on full tilt, and take a look at which events I plan to play and which I plan to buy in to direct as opposed to satelliting in to. After an awesome last week and thanks again to the wonders of $T, the account is really flush with cash and there's no reason I shouldn't be able to buy in direct to any of the events that I don't qualify for via satellites online. I'm also looking really forward to the nightly megasatellites starting up on Tuesday evening at 9:45pm ET, as these things tend to be some of the easiest money available as far as us mtt guys are concerned.

And don't forget, no more MATH for those of you who missed my announcement at the end of last week, so don't go looking for it on full tilt and then send me a nasty email or leave the messy comments on the blog. I know it's the right decision though, because honestly I feel nothing short of relief that I don't have to pimp this thing, play this thing or write it up tomorrow.

The Mookie, the Sunday Heads-Up, the BBT3 and FTOPS #20

Well another Wednesday night come and gone, and another jerkoff donkey winning the tournament I shall never win. No, I mean seriously, Jerkoff Donkey (JD) Schellnut took down the Mookie on Wednesday night, winning his second BBT3 Tournament of Champions seat in a couple of weeks as he joins the ranks of multiple-event winners with his performance. JD's win also brings the total maximum number of entrants in the ToC down to an even 50, and at this point I think it is very fair to say that everyone's expectation value from this tournament has increased noticeably now with 5 fewer seats than what there could have been. We've had a couple of repeat winners in the previous BBT series, but nothing like 5 seats from the series-ending ToC gone already with still something like 10 events remaining in the challenge. Shrinking the total field by nearly 10% is a big boon to everybody who was won their way in to the ToC like me, and while I have stated here many times that I hope every great blonkament player wins his or her way in, I don't actually mind if the number of total seats shrinks due to multiple winners. I'm still hoping I get to add my own name to that list of multiple event winners before the series is done in a few more weeks with the usual Big Game finale event.

Speaking of the BBT3, some of you may have seen that at long last full tilt has posted the details of the big write-in contest for the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments III. And I have got to say, it is pretty fucking cool. This isn't for a WSOP or satellite seat or a prize package as with previous BBT write-in prizes, but something I think a whole lot cooler. The write-in winners will get to be a "pro" blogger for the Main Event for full tilt, writing directly to the "From the Rail" blog on the full tilt site for I believe a week at the end of the WSOP Main Event. To the contrary of some predictions and complaints I have read in other blogs to the contrary, Full Tilt will be putting the winner up in a hotel for the entire WSOP ME stay, providing round-trip airfare to and from Las Vegas, plus $1000 of spending cash for the trip. And you will get to blog the Main Event for the WSOP. I'm very into it, and I think it is a much, much cooler idea than writing one's way in to a seat, a WSOP package or anything similar. To me, those poker prizes are things that one should win in a poker tournament. But if you win a write-in event, you should win a writing package, not a poker package. So I think that kicks ass. And, directly from Al himself as well is that all the bloggers who submit write-in entries will get their link on the FTP site even if they don't win. So that is more goodness for all of us out of the BBT3 as far as I am concerned.

There is another thing out there I am really remiss in pimping this week, and now is the time. Fellow blogger and April BBT3 POM runner-up Loretta8 has started a brand new weekly private blogger tournament, called the Sunday Heads-Up, and the first such event will be this coming Sunday evening at 9pm ET on full tilt. The password for this event is "shovemonkey", and it s a $26 buyin tournament featuring full tilt's brand new heads-up format. As you know if you've read here for any significant period of time, I am a huge fan of heads-up poker, and I fancy myself to be a solidly better than average hu opponent, so I look forward to adding this tournament to the list of blonkament titles I have put together in my online poker career in due time. And to having tons of fun playing in it along the way. With the originality of the heads-up format among all the other blonkaments, and just the right buyin I think of $26, I predict big things for the Sunday heads-up, and I am already registered in there as of right now. So should you, go show Loretta some love and sign up for this tournament early so we can get a handle on how many of you donkheads are man or woman enough to battle it out heads-up for the ultimate bragging rights.

So what else? Oh yeah -- me! I cashed again in the Mookie last night, surviving four suckouts on the night while coming up with exactly zero of my own, and eventually busting out in 10th place on the final table bubble when I ran KQ at a 5-handed table into pocket Aces. It was only the fifth time on the night that I ran a strong hand into pocket Aces, so I guess I can't complain, right? Considering the venue, I will call this one another nice run by me. Unlike many of the previous Mookie tournaments I've played, including a few where I made deep runs, I actually played very well in this one, going two up and two down in four allin preflop races, and as I mentioned surviving a host of suckouts to still have a nice stack going when we got down to around 13 or 14 players remaining. But first it was my top pair solid kicker slamming into Chris Hanel's AA with I think 13 left and me at a 6-handed table, folllowed by the aforementioned KQ < AA on the final table bubble that finally did me in. I defy anyone to run four strong hands into pocket Aces and get sucked out on four times while sucking out not at all and do much better in a blogger tournament, or in any tournament for that matter. But I made the money once again in a BBT3 tournament, I played great poker overall, and who knows, maybe Mookie over there in Austin is getting a little nervous about our ongoing prop bet now after all. For a couple of months Mookie must have outlasted me in every single Mookie we played in, but now I bet I have run deeper than Mook for at least a month straight if not more like 7 out of the last 8 tournaments or some shit. I don't know if normally-tight Mookie is loosening his standards or if he is suffering from the same kind of suckouts that I normally face in this event, but for whatever reason lately out of the blue I am feeling like I might actually be the better bet in the battle of the two guys who both will probably never win another Mookie tournament.

I played the Dookie as well, the $10 PLO event at 11:30pm ET, and I had my absolutely standard performance, something that has happened almost exactly like this in most of the Dookie's I've been in over the past several weeks. I played great, made no mistakes and doubled a couple of times to amass a big stack by the middle of the final table in what was a small 13-person field. Eventually though, history repeated itself as I once again ran AAxx into KKxx and lost to PokerBrian322 who eventually won the tournament. I have got to stop this nasty-ass habit of getting cocksucked out on by the eventual Dookie winner in a hand where I am well ahead when the money goes in. I don't know why I care so much but phuck if I haven't lost the Dookie to the eventual winner three or four times in the past month and a half or so when I got in with Aces against some lower unsoooted shitpair and still managed to lose in a big pot. So ghey that PLO game is.

Lastly, on Wednesday night I also sat down to my second attempt in a satellite to Friday night's FTOPS #20, the 6-max limit holdem tournament that I have played in the past couple of FTOPS series. As I've mentioned many many times before, in general I cannot stand limit holdem as a tournament game, but in 6-max format for whatever reason I find it much more bearable. As a guy who spends probably 80% of my time at online poker focusing on no-limit holdem games, there is something refreshing and fun about limit in small, shorthanded doses for me. Yes, nlh offers the most freedom and flexibility in how to play any given hand, but there is a certain enjoyment I get from playing my big draw strong on the flop to buy a free card on the turn one time, and then checking my big draw on the flop before betting out on the turn to go for the steal the next. With the options limited somewhat as compared to no-limit games where you can bet any amount you want, at any time, it can actually be more fun I find to cycle through those options for similar hands at different times to keep your opponents guessing and keep them on the defensive.

Anyways, all this is a long way of saying that I played a $75 buyin satellite -- just the buyin level I love, as I was writing about earlier this week -- where the top 4 out of I think 22 runners would win seats to Friday night's $216 buyin FTOPS #20. And I won it, and did so fairly easily. The more limit tournaments I play, the more I force myself to learn and remember how much playing tight matters, and how the way you win in these things is twofold: (1) make a big hand or two at the final table to give you the stack to withstand and hold on for the win, and (2) avoid playing big pots with marginal hands early, so that you are still alive at the final table to hit the big hand(s) described in item #1 above. That's really the secret. Don't act too looptid early on with hands you shouldn't be getting too involved with, don't chase too much on the expensive streets at draws that might not win even if you hit them, and if you know the game you can survive deep where a couple of big hands in the right spots is all it takes to win. That's just what happened to me in the FTOPS satellite on Wednesday, and as a result I am currently registered to play on Friday at 9pm ET and am looking very much forward to it.

Anyways, Lost again tonight, so once again no Riverchasers is likely for me today, but you should be there as the next seat in the BBT3 Tournament of Champions will be awarded to the victor. Btw how fucking awesome has Lost been lately, huh? I defy anyone who is a fan of the show to tell me they are not enjoying this season, the flash-forwards, and the almost weekly roll of surprises and answers that the writers are dishing out. I know the decision to only run what, 35 or so more episodes before ending the series, has helped tremendously in this regard, as has this whole move of showing us that some of the islanders actually survive the crash and return home, so for that I am tremendously thankful to the writers and producers for keeping things going at such a high level for so long, even when other formerly popular shows like Heroes and some other shit simply fall by the wayside. Don't forget to check in with Julius Goat on Friday for one of his famous Lost writeups, as there is just no one any better than him at that stuff. Have a good Thursday everyone, just one more day till the weekend!

Monday Craziness, and When Does the FTOPS Start Again?

Another Monday, another BBT3-enabled Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt:



See you tonight at 10pm ET, password as always is "hammer". $26 buyin shorthanded no-limit holdem is the game, same as ever. 13 events left to win your BBT3 Tournament of Champions seat, so get in the game tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt.

Anyways, as I reflected over the weekend, a bunch of crazy shit actually did happen while I was out of commission for a couple of weeks, most of which I never even had the chance to mention in the blog since I was so dead to the world for about a week and a half or two weeks there.

1. In the feat whose craziness simply cannot be topped, Waffles went and won the BBT3 Player of the Month for April, along with the 2k WSOP preliminary prize package that goes along with it. When we had chatted on the girly at some point before he officially claimed the POM, Waffles said he would not play the actual WSOP with the money unless he wins the Main Event package in the upcoming BBT3 Tournament of Champions. At some point when I caught up on my blog reading after resurfacing sometime last week, I think I saw a post from Waffles that he was considering playing one of the preliminary WSOP events. Waffles, if you're out there, come play the 2k nlh tournament with me on Thursday, June 12 I think it is. You will crush that field I am sure. Anyways I know I was close at some point near the end, and I went on a big run in the middle of the month there, but when I got sick there was simply no chance of me playing. It wasn't a question of heart and it wasn't a question of pain threshold. Those of you who've had mono I am guessing will understand. I could not sit down and play for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Period. And in the end, Waffles was outplaying me thus far in the month, he was leading the race by a decent margin, and he would have gone on to win anyways.

Now at least we all get to see what we thought we'd never even have to think about seeing -- Waffles' spewage after his first big score. All you guys who've won a big tournament or made a big online score for the first time will know what I'm talking about. With 2k sitting in that account, it is gonna be dam hard for Waffles to play smart poker for a while me thinks. It's fun to get to be in that situation, don't get me wrong, but continuing to play smart gets about 10 times harder once you get a little roll to help you not worry about things.

2. I am still trying to figure out wtf happened to Buddy Dank radio while I was gone. I knew something about a new thing called Live Poker Radio, which I had processed as really just a name change, but maybe I was wrong about that. But otherwise, I basically passed out for two weeks with BDR being just BDR, our normal awesome online radio show hosted by Buddy and IT, rolling live and on-air during most of the weeks' private blogger tournament. But then I wake up and like Rip Van fuggin Winkle, now it's officially called Live Poker Radio, and they're broadcasting from the Borgata? WTF?

As you might have guessed I have been unable to listen to BDR or whatever it's called now for the past several weeks, where I am sure most of these details have been hashed and rehashed, but for those of us who haven't been awake enough to listen, can somebody give me the scoop? Are Buddy and IT down in Atlantic City broadcasting this shit live from the Borgata? How often are they broadcasting from there? Whatthephuck is going on with that shit, I have no idea but it sounds really awesome.

3. The quarterly FTOPS series of high-buyin poker tournaments basically started without me even knowing. And if you've read here for a while then you know how rare and odd that really is. Usually I am all about the FTOPS, and I will devote basically the month before the tournament to qualifying for as many FTOPS as seem interesting to me, usually averaging around 30-40% of the buyins spent to qualify for as many events as I want to play. This time around, however, I struggled to stay up to play in the Mookie last Wednesday, and when I logged in to full tilt I suddenly see the graphic up top of the lobby on the client that says FTOPS #1 and has some unnamed, probably horrifically bad red FTP pro's picture on it. I was like "Holy shit, the FTOPS is going on right now already?" So I literally missed the final two weeks of qualifying for the FTOPS before the series started, and as a result of this total lack of ability to plan, I haven't even thought about playing a single event yet. I saw some blogger donkeys qualifying for several seats so far, but I've been too out of it to even know although I have not heard of any big blogger scores so far in this thing.

So here's my plan for this week. The one FTOPS event I did qualify for this weekend in a $69 buyin 1-table sng is the one coming up I think on Tuesday evening, the $216 buyin Turbo nlh tournament. I play a whole lot of turbo tournaments in my nightly satelliting, and this thing definitely sounds interesting to me. Yes it will be quite a crapshoot about 80 or 90 minutes in or so, but it's a crapshoot that I definitely have developed the right game for, so I'm looking forward to that one. I know I say this all the time, but if you have the means, I highly recommend the $75 buyin sng sats to the $216 FTOPS events. They are so choice. You pay $75, and the top three finishers out of 9 players win their seat. It's quick, and it's effective if you know what you're doing. Top 3 out of 9 donkleshits just isn't that hard to do if you know how these things play.

Otherwise, there are probably only a couple of other FTOPS I would realistically play in at this point. I would have loved to have played in tonight's 1k buyin tournament as I have in the past two FTOPS series, and I would have too if not for being sick given how easy this one is to qualify in in one of the many, many satellites they run, but that's not gonna happen this time around. I played in the megasat on Sunday night for the 1k FTOPS event, but I picked up the dreaded open ended straight flush draw early in that one. I say "dreaded" because somehow I always end up allin against some top pair monkey or a higher flush draw, and somehow my oesfd never seems to hit despite being the alleged favorite on the flop to take it down.

Anyways the real plan is to probably play in most of the 9:45pm ET mega satellites this week, which FTOPS will run every night as they always do these days during the FTOPS. For those who don't know, these are almost always $50 buyin tournaments, and they run as mtt satellites, posted on the regular mtt tournament lobby in dark blue font. They are almost always satellites into the following night's FTOPS event, whatever that is, and typically they will take the exact same format as the underlying FTOPS event itself. It's good stuff, and with the advent of $T I can even play a gheyass game like razz where I would never actually drop the actual $322 to actually sit down and be dealt rolled up trips three times an hour at razz. No way. But I'll play it and keep the $T in a second. And with so many seats available in these 9:45 mtt sats -- that's why I always call them megasats -- they are much, much easier to qualify for the FTOPS in. Again, of course, the caveat is If you know what you're doing. To only have to end up in the top 100 finishers out of a 486-person mtt, again, it's just not that hard. Not saying it's a walk in the park, but top 100 out of 486? Come on.

The other thing I will have my eyes on this week are the nightly 10:45pm ET megasats into the FTOPS Main Event. These are typically $100 + $9 buyin mtts, they guarantee at least ten $535 FTOPS ME seats, and on average they probably attract somewhere between 55 and 80 runners a night. So basically it costs $109 to play, which may make these tournaments prohibitive for many of us and that is something I can completely be down with at this buyin level. But again, if you have the means, a 20% chance of satelliting in to the ME every single night this week? I don't care if I win the seat right away tonight, but as long as I am feeling up and awake for it, I will try to get in there every night this week until the FTOPS concludes with the $535 buyin Main Event next Sunday at 6pm ET. And if I do win a seat, then I will try to figure out how to get Hammer Wife to be cool with me playing. Man if they could just move that shit to 8pm instead of 6pm ET, I would be golden. But either way, I will definitely take at least a few cracks at the ME this week, and if I can play my way in for less than the $535 buyin, then I will view my goal for the week as being accomplished.

That, and winning a few more BBT3 tournaments maybe.

See you tonight at 10pm ET for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt!

Reversal of Fortune

Brrrrrrrr. Nothing like a minus 3 degree wind chill to get your work week started off right here in New York City. As usual for a Monday morning, I've got a ton to get to as much poker was played this weekend, but first, this:



Don't forget. The game is 6-max no-limit holdem, the buyin is $26, the time is 10pm ET and the place as usual is full tilt. And the password as always is "hammer". I've been thinking about soliciting a new banner for the Hoy, one that includes all of the above information so I don't really have to list it all out like that every week, and in particular one that doesn't have the (albeit hot) girlfriend of a cheating asshole on it, so if anyone with any skillz out there is feeling like creating some gratuitous artwork, I won't object. But seriously, come on out tonight at 10pm ET for the latest MATH tournament and have some fun in starting off the week in blogger tournaments with a bang.

So, let's follow the story of my tilt throughout the weekend. If you recall, I ended last week on a pretty deep spike of tilt. I was running horribly, suffering an inordinate amount of really recockulous beats and losses, and nothing had been going right, comparatively speaking. This led greatly into Friday night's FTOPS #5 tournament in 6-max limit holdem, where those of you who railbirded will note that I put on a clinic in trash talking to a table full of incredible donkeys who would not fold even Ace-high to three bets from me after the flop was out. Thanks to a cold which developed into full bloom during the day on Friday, I was already megatilted before ever even sitting down to that tournament, and when I saw how god awful the players were playing, I was seriously unable to control myself. I got no cards of course, and having to watch a table full of complete donkeys receive AA and KK three times apiece in the under two hours I played was really hard to deal with in the state I was in. Still, I perservered and early in the second hour I had the second-largest stack at my table thanks to some well-timed bluffs and a top pair or two on the flop. Nonetheless, eventually the unmitigating calling stationness of the donkeys at my table wore me away, and I finally got called down through the river for a large pot by a guy holding the veritable monster of K7 on an AKxxx board. The guy just could not accept that I held an Ace (or a higher King) and was willing to put his entire stack on the line for it. This was how the entire table played, and eventually thanks to my usual card death I got caught by it and went home right around the middle of the pack just short of two hours in. It sucked and like I said I was megatilted all through the night, but at least I think my chat was entertaining for a bunch of you sitting on the rail, so all was not lost on the night.

On Saturday I ended up qualifying late in the morning while the kids were out at a ballet with Hammer Wife for the FTOPS #6 $535 shorthanded PLO event, which took me two satellites and just over $200 to play my way in to. Although I did finish just one place short of the money in the first sat and won outright the second, to be honest it did little to assuage my growing tilt. I did manage to play the PLO event well, however, with minimal trash talking in the chat despite the players at my table regularly calling preflop raises with gorgeous PLO hands like KQ72 3-suits, 9984 rainbow and A256 as if we were playing the high-low version of the game. I managed to chip up on a couple of nice hands, once on a rivered boat against a donkey who had trouble laying down top pair (yes I did say just one pair) and a couple of times on straights with non-flush boards, and by two hours in I was in the top third of the remaining players with just over half the field already gone. But there it all dissipated in a flash, when my flop push got called by a player with just top pair 8s (yes you read that right) plus the ass end of an open-ender. I guess he told himself he had 10 outs, either way not nearly enough to justify calling allin with a nice-sized stack if you know what you're doing in this game, but that is the key conditional clause that I was missing out on. After the turn I was ahead with just three outs to beat me, and booom the river brought one of those three delicious outs and IGH. It royally sucked, but I can't say I was surprised given the way I have been running of late. So I closed up and got ready to head out to Tao for my brother and his fiancee's birthday dinner -- yes the same Tao as the one in the Venetian in Las Vegas. The shit, as always at Tao, was incredible and a great time was had by all.

And this brings me to Sunday. For starters, I took a page out of my own notebook and made the big step of wearing a brand new shirt as I started my poker play early in the afternoon. I wish I could put a finger on exactly what it was, but for whatever reason, the fog just seemed lifted for me. I ran a $110 turbo sitngo along with a 6-max and a full ring $55 turbo, and I found myself winning a few races and even a 40-60 shot on my way to winning the $110 outright for a sweet $495. I also won the shorthanded $55 and cashed in 2nd place in the other. A nice beginning. Then my kids came back from their friend's, and I logged off for a bit before signing back in shortly before the start of FTOPS #9, the $322 buyin nlh tournament hosted by Erick Lindgren. At that point I ran three more $55 turbos, in addition to trying my hand at another $110 turbo given my luck earlier in the day. The result? Another outright win in the $110 for another $495, and three more cashes (a first, a second and a third) in the $55s, bringing my total results to 7 cashes out of 7 sngs on the day overall. Again I managed to avoid most of the bad luck that had been plaguing me of late in my poker play, and even two suckouts on 60-40 hands once ITM in two of the $55 sngs didn't do much to faze me. With the new shirt and some solid success on the day, it all just felt different, like I might be freeing up from the tilt and the running bad that I had been experiencing. I went into FTOPS #9 feeling truly optimistic and light-hearted for the first time in a couple of weeks.

And promptly it all fell apart. Amazingly I was dealt AK on my very first hand in FTOPS #9. I raised preflop, got reraised by the button which I called, and then saw a raggy flop hit the board. I checked, the button bet out for the size of the pot, and I laid it down, not wanting to lose any more against a preflop reraiser with just AK unimproved. And then incredibly, on hand #3 of the FTOPS, I look down to find AA. I haven't seen AA this early in a big tournament is as long as I can remember, perhaps my entire life, and my heart was racing at the thought of a nice chip-up early for a change. I raised preflop, got called by two players, and again saw a raggy flop hit the board. This time I bet out, and got flat called in just one spot. The turn brought a Ten, and I opted for the checkraise on the raggy board, this time raising about 2.5x my opponent's turn bet. He smooth called my checkraise -- not a good sign at all for me holding just one pair -- and when he led out for the rest of his chips on the river even after my preflop raise, my flop bet and my turn checkraise, I knew my Aces had been cracked. I laid them down (my opponent showed TT for the turned set btw, thank you full tilt), but after those two hands out of the first three dealt to me, I was down to a lovely 745 chips from the starting stacks of 3000. What a suckdickitty beginning, and yet for some reason I was not tilted. The fog had indeed been lifted. I took it in stride -- bitching to no end in the girly chat to the guys who still listen to me on a nightly basis even through all the shit I chat while running bad, thanks guys -- but I decided to keep trying to turn things around and at least to maintain my mindset as there was lots of other good poker to be played on the night, and especially given what a strongly positive day it had already been for me at the online tables.

I waited patiently for another 20 minutes or so, and then about 30 minutes in I pushed allin for my last 750 chips or so against a preflop early position limper with my QJs. I got two callers (yuck) but I managed to flush on the river to triple up, back to 2245 in chips and at least with some room to make some moves. Unfortunately, the first move I made near the end of Hour 1 was back down to 1500 chips on a flop bluff gone wrong. I had raised preflop in late position with KJs, and the flop came all raggy against my two opponents in the small and big blind who had called my preflop raise. I bet out the size of the pot, unfortunately more than a quarter of my still short stack, and when the big blind check-raised me allin, I had to lay it down. Dammit.

Early in Hour 2, I called an early position preflop raise with KQs, and saw a flop of KKQ. Yahtzee! The utg player bet out with a c-bet, which I smooth called, not wanting to chase away the guy given my huge flop, and hoping he was on exactly AK which woulda been so sweet. When he checked the turn, I checked behind him (because I'm a man). I figured if he was willing to bet the flop, he might be willing to bet the river. Instead he checked the river, so I pushed in my last 900 chips or so, and he quickly called, flipping up AQ. This got me up to over 3000 chips for the first time literally since the very first hand of the tournament, and I was feeling good just to be back to where I started, though I could not help but wonder about what could have been if I had only not had those Aces cracked on the third hand of the night.

The rest of Hour 2 was uneventful, but early in Hour 3 I was lucky enough to flop a set of 8s, and when I bet out around 2/3 of the pot (because I'm a man) on the flop, my heads-up opponent raised me essentially a pot-committing amount for us both. I moved in the rest of my chips and he quick-called with 99, an overpair to the raggy board, and my set of 8s held up to bring me up to just over 6600 chips and my high point of the tournament to that point in time. Unfortunately the rest of Hour 3 saw a recurring theme throughout this tournament, which was that most of the times I raised with a holding not strong enough to call a reraise with, I got reraised. That happened several times throughout the balance of the third hour, with the result being that I entered Hour 4 desperate, holding around 5000 chips with the tournament average to that point sitting just over 9000 chips. Knowing I would have to be highly aggressive in order to survive another 500 players even to make the money positions which started with 738 players remaining, I ended up getting very lucky in pushing allin preflop and not getting called one time when I had 33, another time with A4o, another with A9o, and two more times still with KQo. Each one of those pushes during Hour 4 got through the entire table uncontested somehow, even when I did them from utg which I didn't want to do but was not willing to let any playable, pushable hand go to waste when I needed to be aggressive to avoid blinding out. I got very lucky not to run into any callers there. I also recorded my second big suckout of the tournament near the end of the fourth hour, when I pushed allin from late position against an early position limper with my KTo. It was a questionable move, but I read weakness from the ep limper who had not shown himself to be the type to limp strong there, and I was right as he ended up folding preflop. But where I fucked up was the big blind, who insta-pushed himself with pocket Aces, and it looked like my night would be ending early. But then the flop came down with a King and a Ten, and I avoided the board pair to jump up to over 15k in chips, then my highest point in the tournament, which I was thrilled about. Yes I had had pocket Aces cracked for 80% of my stack just three hands into this thing, so cracking someone's else Aces was in a way par for the course in this thing, but I still consider myself very lucky to have been able to chip up a bit during Hour 4 and to survive to the fourth break, just 8 players away from ITM, with me sitting in 375th place out of 746 players remaining (a whopping 5,637 players had started this event at 6pm ET). And I also made my biggest laydown of the entire tournament nearing the end of this hour, when I laid down pocket Queens to not one but two allins from larger stacks ahead of me. It turned out to be KK and AA pushing and I would have been eliminated, so good laydown by me in a key spot of the single best starting hand I saw in my last four hours of play on the night.

The money bubble broke just 8 minutes into Hour 5, with me sitting in 376th place out of 730 remaining. Just cashing one of these tournaments is not something I am proud about in itself, but recording my first FTOPS cash of any time in the last three of these tournament series, and in particular navigating through 5000 donkeys on my way to my largest cash tournament payout in a couple of months after running so poorly for the past two weeks felt big, bigger than it might otherwise have. I didn't get any more good cards in Hour 5, and when I found myself about 35 minutes later with a short stack and sitting on 97o in the big blind, but against a guy I had observed stealing from the button with the exact same 2.5x steal-raise about ten times in the past 90 minutes or so, I decided I knew he was stealing and I would just go for the allin resteal, raising his 2500-chip bet to my full 13,500-chip stack, representing just more than half of his tournament-average stack of around 27,000. But rather than admitting he had been caught stealing, instead he literally called off half his stack with QJo. While I puzzled over this inexplicably bad play, I hit a 7 on flop to give me the lead on the flop, but before I could celebrate he made a Queen on the turn and IGH in 496th place overall out of 5637 runners. What can I say. I got fucked by a guy making a horrible play in the end, I got unlucky, I got lucky, and I came out five hundy+ richer. And I outlasted over 5100 donkeys doing it too, and most of all, I had a blast playing again for the first time in a while. So I can't complain too much I guess. But what an awful dumbo play to go out on. People, if you take nothing else from this entire post, just admit you got caught stealing when you obviously get caught and are holding a hand that is quite likely dominated and almost surely behind. The dumbest thing you can ever do late in a huge tournament like this is just make an awfukkit call in that spot. Please, this is *real* money we're playing for here -- the winner of FTOPS #9 was slated to get over $291,000, so how do you just throw away half of your nice-sized stack by calling the allin push with Queen-Jack? Just terrible.

In the end, for the first time in the history of the FTOPS, the ftp pro hosting the event -- in this case, Erick Lindgren -- actually took down the entire tournament, winning the 291k and change and making a nice story to boot. How do you not love that shit? And meanwhile, our own Chad ended up busting out in 35th place at around 1:45am ET out of those same 5637 donkeys in FTOPS #9 for a some nice little pocket cash in the amount of $4904 and change. Wow way to go Chad!! Chad made some amazing plays in that tournament, got a little lucky, but made a lot of great luck for himself with lots of steals, resteals, and a couple of huge calls including one with J9s against two allins ahead of him with a short stack. I am still trying to figure that one out, but he ended up hitting a Jack against TT and 88 to help power him to another extra few hours of play and an extra few grand as well in the process. Again congratulations to Chad who played an amazingly patient and skilled game and made his own luck wherever he could along the way. It's always an eye-opener to rail players who are better than I at poker tournaments and see what they do differently than what I do, and last night saw a few key such spots where I hopefully learned something to incorporate into my own game going forward.

One last thing -- while all this was going on, I noticed earlier in the evening that full tilt seems to have finally gotten off its collective ass about running satellites to the FTOPS Main Event coming up next Sunday afternoon. I had been bitching about the site's unwillingness to run very many of these sats at all, and finally yesterday I noticed an 8:45pm ET $109 sat into the FTOPS ME, as well as a 10:45pm ET sat of the same buyin. What's more, full tilt is very smartly running a few supersats to play into those $109 satellites every night a couple of hours before the actual satellites go off, making a real opportunity for most of us out there to make a run in one night at the Main Event. So I sat down to the 8:30pm ET $26 super sat with some other bloggers in a race to finish in the top 18 or so out of 78 runners to win a seat into the $109 sat at 10:45pm ET on Sunday night while FTOPS #9 was still running, and I managed to win that seat fairly easily, nabbing the outright chip lead just before the bubble broke and basically coasting from there on a few nice hands and nice plays along the way.

Only Chad and I played in the actual FTOPS ME satellite on the night, which paid Main Event seats to the top 10 finishers plus $150 cash to 11th place with 55 total runners. My first big news from this tournament was when I found KK utg and accidentally minraised instead of my usual 3x raise in this spot, about halfway through the field and with me sitting on a nice stack near the top of the leaderboard already. Full tilt "pro" JJ Liu pushed allin on the button for the massive overraise, and although I pondered AA for about 1.5 seconds I knew I was going to call regardless. She flipped up pocket Queens, and my Kings held up to shoot me up to the top few spots on the leaderboard, and more than that, to award me a $100 bounty in the process for busting a pro. Now of course I will have another of those fatty "I busted a donkey!" t-shirts to go along with the other four I already own but never wear, but better than that was the $100 pad to my bankroll after what had already been a very profitable day for me at the tables.

Then, to top it all off, after survivng donking off half my big stack to Chad with around 20 players remaining, there was this:



So I am now officially in to the FTOPS Main Event next Sunday afternoon, which is all good, and I won my way in in only my third satellite attempt, with me having spent a grand total of $29 the first time in a $20 rebuy satellite that I bubbled in 2nd place in (winning back $13 cash for my efforts), plus one $26 satellite for a total expenditure prior to Sunday night of $54. Then on Sunday I did the dream of running $26 into $109 and then $109 into a $535 seat, all within the span of maybe four hours of play. And I had fun doing it, which again is far and away the most important thing given the way I had been running previously.

Overall Sunday was one of my best, most profitable, and most importantly, most fun nights of poker in a long, long time. Hopefully this can help turn things around for me heading into Monday night's MATH tournament as well as FTOPS #10 $1060 buyin nlh 6max tournament, the closest thing I will have played to my cash in last year's WSOP since that tournament at the WSOP. I don't know offhand of any other bloggers in this thing, but I'm hoping someone gets off their ass and joins me tonight, maybe through the turbo satellite tonight at 6:30pm ET that they run the night of all of the FTOPS events. And I definitely plan to keep my eyes on those FTOPS ME satellites running it looks like at least twice nightly (8:45 and 10:45pm ET), as I think those things are a great opportunity for someone like me to pad my roll with $535 a pop if played well and with a little luck along the way.

Turning things around when on a bad streak as a regular poker player is a feeling that cannot really be put into words. This weekend I got to experience it and it's like a big, dark cloud has been removed, like a huge weight has been lifted from off my back. And as far as I'm concerned, it couldn't have come at a better time.

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

Full Tilt vs. Pokerstars

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. Yep, Mookday. The tournament I get excited for every week, the tournament I get recockusucked out of most weeks, the tournament I can never win yadda yadda yadda why do I bother. I have no chance, but especially with ABC's brilliant move of Lost from Wednesday to Thursday, the magic 8-ball no longer says "Outlook not so good" for me playing this thing every single week. So I will be there tonight, we all know what's gonna happen, I believe Mookie himself will be on Buddydank radio, you know the routine. With some of the beats I've taken lately, nothing would surprise me at this point. When I'm losing with flopped overboats in huge spots twice in two weeks, that's when you know you're running bad.

Despite the above, my overall balance in the roll on full tilt continues to inch higher, thanks mostly to these mega-satellites full tilt's been running for the FTOPS. Having already qualified for most of the FTOPS tournaments I intend to play, at this point the megasats I'm playing are mostly for cash, but mega satelllites are probably my single best and cashiest form of poker tournament out there for me, the king of multi-seat satellite tournaments. Earlier this week I won a second seat into FTOPS #9 via the nightly 10:30pm ET megasat which offers 10 seats guaranteed to the $322 tournament and has yet to reach the minimum 65 players to meet the guarantee. I've come close in this one a couple of other times, and I know KOD won I think his third seat into this tournament on Tuesday night as well, but frankly this nightly 10:30pm ET $50 buyin tournament is something I will probably play every night of the week until FTOPS #9 goes off this coming Sunday evening, hosted by the highly aggro small-ball playing Erick Lindgren.

Now that FTOPS is upon us starting Wednesday tonight with FTOPS #1 $216 buyin nlh tournament at 9pm ET, that means that starting on Tuesday night were the nightly 9:30pm ET megasatellites into the next day's nighttime FTOPS event. These things are an absolute goldmine, take it from me, if again you know how to play some poker, can win just a couple of big pots over a few hours of play, and know solid multi-seat tournament strategy. Tuesday night at 9:30pm ET was the 100-seat guaranteed, $50 buyin megasat to FTOPS #1 on Wednesday, which again I am already in to but which I certainly fired up to win me another $216 cash money for the roll. As usual things started off slow, but with the non-turbo format and with 500-some runners and 156 FTOPS #1 seats guaranteed, there is just no reason to do anything but wait and pick your spots early on. Eventually I won a big pot when I turned a flush and the guy with two pairs could not stop himself from calling me down through the river for most of his stack and a double-up for me. I played patiently again after that, and it was probably an hour later when my AJ held up against A9 to knock out another medium-stacked player, followed shortly afterwards by my JJ winning a race against AQ, and suddenly I was top 25 in chips with about 250 players remaining. This is the place you want to be with 156 seats being awarded, because then I was basically able to sit my ass out the rest of the way. Just to be safe, I would check back in every 20 minutes or so, play for a few minutes until a good stealing opportunity presented itself and then steal me some blinds n antes, but otherwise I just sat out for the most part and was able to remain in the top 30 as the bubble approached. With 164 players remaining and me still in the top 30 in chips, I closed up for the night and went to sleep. I woke up this morning to find I finished in 12th place overall -- I'm sure some of the other donkeys who were trying to actually play the stupid thing out were good n pissed that I just blinded myself down, but what can I do when full tilt makes you play these things out even once everyone remaining will win the exact same first prize, and it's approach 1am ET? So despite coming up short in the 5050, the FTOPS #9 megasat and the hilo Skills Series tournament (thanks to Mr. Luckbox himself and his gheyass river five-outter), the roll still bumped up by a good hundy or so on the night thanks to the 9:30pm ET megasat that I will probably also be hitting up every night this week if possible.

I did see that ANIguy ended up snatching away the hilo victory from our boy Waffles. Nothing like waking up to an IM from Waffles that he thinks he just might win the Skills event, followed by opening up the final board and seeing him finished in that ugly 2nd place spot. Not that I wouldn't be psyched to even come near 2nd place in one of these things. I mean, I know I know how to play every one of these games better than most of the guys in these Skills Series tournaments, but somehow that ends up being a liability every Tuesday and on alternating Thursday nights as well for the non-nlh Riverchasers events, and I may well never cash in any of these things. But dam if I don't play better than the fonkaramas who eliminate me every single week. As usual though I had a really good time playing Skills with the no-skills bloggers, and like I always say, that's what it's all about as another large crowd of I think 46 runners came out to show the world how poorly they know even starting hand selection in stud hi-lo 8 or better.

So as I've been playing more and more at pokerstars recently, I've been thinking a lot about what exactly the differences are between the two sites. I've boiled down the list to a small handful of items that I think tell the major story between playing on the two sites, and I am interested if anyone has any different or additional thoughts on the matter. So here is my list of full tilt vs pokerstars:

1. The players are worse at pokerstars. Not by a whole lot, but it is simply easier to double-up in the big tournaments early on pokerstars than it is on full tilt. They're all full of donkeys, don't get me wrong. But here's the difference. On full tilt when you get AK on the first hand of a big mtt and the flop comes Ace-high, you can bet out your stack with bets on the flop, turn and the rest on the river, and get smooth called all three times by a guy holding AJ. Whereas, on pokerstars you will get the same clown doing the same calling off his stack with AJ through three separate bets, but there he will do it with no Ace (and not even a Jack) on the board at all. That right there sums up from my perspective the difference between the quality of opponents in the mtt's on the two sites.

2. The suckouts are worse and more plentiful on pokerstars. This has always been the case, and everyone who's played a lot on both sites has always known this to be the case. And again, it's not more by a huge margin, but pokerstars has simply always been the fucking king of giving you pocket Aces, one other guy calls your preflop raise with what turns out to be 73s or some shit like that, and then the flop comes 456 rainbow. Or you flop the overboat and end up getting beat by the runner-runner straight flush. Full tilt offers up plenty o beats, don't get me wrong, and many of them truly sick ones, but pokerstars will always be worse.

3. Pokerstars for some inexplicable reason still insits on having no "bet pot" button. So, you always have to type in the amount you want to bet, even if you want to bet exactly the pot, half the pot, or whatever. It's not the end of the world, and donkeypuncher even says that he prefers no bet pot button so that donkeys are not encouraged to make right-sized bets which is an interesting take that I had not thought of previously, but overall I find it to be an inconvenience that I know as a player I should not have to deal with. It is just dumb, period.

4. Similarly, the "last hand" function on pokerstars is about 10,000 times worse than the comparable feature on full tilt. On full tilt, you get a nice picture of the previous hand, showing your own cards as well as all of the cards that were eventually exposed or which went to showdown (even if mucked), with the hand history embedded in a text box right at the bottom of the screen. On stars, you need to click the fairly inconspicuous "Previous" link with some longass number on it, and then you have to scroll through just a textual hand history and then look to the bottom to see what was mucked by the other players who went to showdown. This one is not even close and I cannot for the life of me figure out why stars won't just admit defeat and put a dam picture up there.

5. One thing I do like on stars is that stars automatically shows you your holecards that you've previously folded, later during the same hand if people are still playing in it, just by you rolling over your avatar. On full tilt you have to hover over your avatar for a few seconds, and even then it only pops up a texty-looking "alt" window with text versions of your holecards. Stars gives you the full-out picture of the cards in true-to-life size and everything. Me likey.

6. I've mentioned this one before recently, but stars is very smart about their mtt satellites, which they automatically end instantaneously just as soon as the bubble bursts and everyone left is a winners, with no choice in the matter to play the thing out like a bunch of donkeys. On full tilt you are left with like what I did last night, going to bed and then even once the bubble in that FOTPS #1 megasat "ended", I bet it was another 45, 50 minutes before they awarded the seat because donkeys like me had to get blinded all the way down to zero, sit through a 5-minute break that had already been coming up, and just generally wait through a lot of bullshit and stooopidity even though every single winner and the winning prizes had already been determined. Dumb dumb dumb.

OK that's my thoughts.

Mookie tonight, 10pm ET, full tilt. Password as always is "vegas1". I should be out by 10:20 or so.

Sunday Bloody Sunday, But Another FTOPS Sat Win

Ahhhhhh. Is there anything better than heading on to public transportation on a Monday morning? In glorious New York, the subway riders are even more polite and cheery than usual on Mondays, and I have to tell you, what a pleasure to be around, all of them. Today's special was the clown who would not get out of the way to let some other people off the subway at the business stop in midtown, I guess just because he thought he should be allowed to block the entire doorway since he didn't feel like going to work. Or something. It's always something new with these guys. But don't worry, I elbowed him good in the ribs as I went by. Asshole.

Anyways, that last paragraph pretty much sums up how I feel after a long night of poker on Sunday night on both full tilt and pokerstars. Actually I only played one sitngo on stars, but on full tilt I ran of bunch of 6-max and full ring $55 turbo sngs, plus an mtt or two and a few satellites as well. And unsurprisingly, it was a little bit of good, a larger amount of bad, and a whole lotta ugly. Let me show you what I mean.

But first...



Don't forget, tonight is 6-max nlh blonkament time again at Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt. The time is 10pm ET, the password as always is "hammer", and we are located under the "Private" tab under "Tournaments" on the full tilt lobby interface. Come on by, and as a reminder, anyone is allowed and in fact encouraged to play the MATH every week, so don't be shy! Even if you've never played with the bloggers before but have always wanted to try, let tonight be your time to shine. We often have first-timers at the Hoy, and I have to tell you, they have had an ordinately good performance as a rule when losing their MATH virginity, so let that be you tonight and come out with your $26 in tow. Just don't expect solid play, that's really the only requirement. We are all blonkeys after all. But you can expect to have a good time, play some aggressive poker, and have a chance to get yourself known or at least recognized by a group of guys who all love to play and write about poker in their various blogs. And of course I will list n link you here tomorrow if you cash in the tournament tonight. So come out tonight at 10pm ET and join the fun at Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt! Winner gets to take home Giselle up there for one night as well, although only if Tom Brady is too hobbled to catch you. Best of luck with that.

OK so back to this weekend. I played the donkament on Friday, ran my KQ into eventual winner SoxLover's QJ on a two-Jack board and IGH somewhere short of the final table as a result. Ran a few other sngs, did reasonably well, and called it a night somewhat early as I recall. On Saturday I managed to squeeze in a couple of 4-tabling sng sessions in the afternoon, but then slept right through the evening without logging back in, having already secured my 200 FPP points and thus Gold Iron Man status for the month of January, while also working tantalizingly close to earning out my entire end-of-year Iron Man bonus of $750 or so. And then came Sunday.

Sunday saw me run a bunch more of these $55 turbo sngs, something which I am having a lot of success at and which I am very pleased to say I seem to have discovered a winning formula to. I could probably 10-table these things if my laptop monitor was big enough to fit more than 4 at a time at the smallest size I prefer to play at, without suffering hardly any degradation in my quality of play, because it really is pretty close to formulaic at this point until you get down to the bubble times when the shizz gets really interesting and I really find myself playing as much by "feel" as anything else. I will definitely be running my series of turbo sng strategy posts one day soon, but as is often the case with me I find myself having too much pokery stuff to say every day and just don't end up getting to them. But they're all about 75% written and they will definitely be going up one day soon, I promise.

Anyways, as is typical for a Sunday, I took an inordinately large (even for me) number of recockulous suckout-eliminations from tournaments on the day, as well as some truly primo setup hands. I will show you without a doubt my favorite of the many of these hands I saw on Sunday, and in keeping with my stated attempts to "get it right" I'm just going to post the actual hand history here:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5022098357: $55 + $5 Sit & Go (Turbo) (38130698), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:46:01 ET - 2008/01/27
Seat 1: toribum (1,345)
Seat 3: hoyazo (2,450) So notice, I'm already in great chip position early in this thing, just trying to play tight and not make any big mistakes or lose any big pots.
Seat 4: zoey11 (2,845)
Seat 5: edmiami (420)
Seat 6: NVN76 (1,940)
hoyazo posts the small blind of 25
zoey11 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hoyazo [8d 8h]
edmiami folds
NVN76 folds
toribum calls 50
hoyazo calls 25 Again, playing it conservatively, much more so than usual for me in fact, which is fairly typical for me with a nice stack early on in a turbo sng.
zoey11 checks
*** FLOP *** [4s 8c 4d] Ding ding ding!
hoyazo checks This is how much of a man I am. Even I am not going to bet out with the flopped overboat on a checked flop. Why bother?
zoey11 checks
toribum checks
*** TURN *** [4s 8c 4d] [Qh]
hoyazo checks Did I mention I am a mega man?
zoey11 checks
toribum bets 150
hoyazo has 15 seconds left to act
hoyazo calls 150 Serious manliness once again.
zoey11 folds
*** RIVER *** [4s 8c 4d Qh] [6s]
hoyazo bets 250 That's right biatch. Now you're gonna have to call it too!
toribum has 15 seconds left to act
msandler1403 (12:15:13 AM): toribum has 15 seconds left to act
toribum raises to 600 Hahahahahah I love being the dominant male.
hoyazo has 15 seconds left to act
hoyazo raises to 1,144 Reverse hoy, special just for this guy.
toribum raises to 1,145, and is all in
hoyazo calls 1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
toribum shows [4h 4c] four of a kind, Fours Total, complete stunned silence.
hoyazo mucks
toribum wins the pot (2,740) with four of a kind, Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,740 | Rake 0
Board: [4s 8c 4d Qh 6s]
Seat 1: toribum (button) showed [4h 4c] and won (2,740) with four of a kind, Fours
Seat 3: hoyazo (small blind) mucked [8d 8h] - a full house, Eights full of Fours Crickets chirping.
Seat 4: zoey11 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: edmiami didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: NVN76 didn't bet (folded)

Now, I am happy to say that in the end I won that particular sng outright anyways, so no hard feelings. But for a minute there it was like I was playing back on pokerstars all over again. Nothing quite like slow-playing the flopped overboat right into flopped quads, is there? Unbelievable. And that was pretty much par for the course on the night. That fit in quite nicely with the couple of dominated-hand suckouts I suffered at the final tables of events I really wanted to win on Sunday, including my $75 token attempt to satellite in to last night's NL Avatar Race where I ran AQ into the mighty Q4 on the bubble and lost to a 4 on the flop. Q4o, that is a hard hand to beat right there.

On the good side, I did somehow manage to outlast the Sunday donkery for this:



So I am in to FTOPS #1, which is coming up a week from this Wednesday, on February 6, at 9pm ET. This is a straight-up $216 buyin nlh tournament, the same tournament that full tilt has started the FTOPS with for at least four or five series in a row now, and I again managed to satellite in for around my usual 30% or so of the true buyin price. This $10 rebuy satellite has proven to be a gold mine for me as far as the FTOPS is concerned, as this time around I won my way in on just my second attempt at this rebuy sat. The first time was $11 down the drain on a final table suckout, and this time was $31 thanks to an early double-rebuy from me, for a total of $42 spent to win the $216 buyin. I'll take it.

Other good news from Sunday night is that in the middle of one of my turbo sngs, I got the window popping up informing me that I had cleared my entire end-of-year Iron Man bonus of $750. In the end, it wasn't even that hard. And I did it almost exclusively by playing tournaments -- sngs, mostly, with some mtt's and a little omaha cash thrown in, but not much of either of those. Basically the $55 and $110 turbo sngs rode me to the bonus, with 4 days to spare. Thank you full tilt, and thank you for the sucking fuckouts all night on Sunday night, easily costing me the entire value of the $750 bonus and then some. You are so fucking clever you guys. So clever.

Before I go, here is another example of a point I have made here several times on the blog about not calling allins in key spots with little pocket pairs, most recently just a couple of weeks ago when 22 called my allin in the Mookie and busted me in the first half hour or so. So I am in a $20 rebuy satellite to the FTOPS ME last night -- the first time I have attempted to satellite in to the ME this time around -- and I have amassed a nice chip lead with 4 players remaining, with me at around 12k to 8k to 6k to 5k for the 4 players left. Then, the guy with 6k sucks out on the guy in 2nd place, eventually taking the rest of his miniscule stack on the very next hand on a tilt-push. Now that guy has more than my stack, and of course not 3 hands later, he sucks out again on the remaining player, leaving me and my beautiful prior chip lead now at a 20k to 10k chip deficit heading into heads-up play, against a monkey who didn't have a clue how to get himself into good situations late in the game in mtt satellites. I hate when that happens, and it underscores the importance of being the guy to eliminate the final player or two before heads-up play, or else you often find yourself at a chip deficit even if you had been leading with just a few players remaining.

Anyways, so it's just me and this other guy, in essentially a winner-take-all heads-up battle for one FTOPS ME seat, and I look down to find 55 in the small blind against his button. Although I have closed the gap some from the starting 2-to-1 chip deficit in hu play, I am still down in chips and I am looking to win the blinds and antes so that I can get into the chip lead, always crucial in heads-up play so that I can win the entire tournament with one big hand. So I push allin as I had been with most pocket pairs during the hu session:



The guy pauses for less than 2 seconds, and types in the chat, "I have to call."

Another 2 seconds and he also types in "gg and good luck in the tourney."

Then he calls with? Check it out:



Yep. Pocket 6s. Now of course I turned out to have pocket 5s and of course he won the hand and the satellite and the ME seat, while I had to settle for a sweetass $5 cash prize for second place. Gross. But here's the thing: Why would he call this bet here? Why on earth? He has the chip lead in heads-up play for crying out loud. If he folds, we are still even in chips with both over 14,500, and he lives to fight another day with 100% certainty. But instead, he says he "has to call". Has to call? Allin with the chip lead heads-up with pocket 6s and you have to call? Come on donkey. Unless there was a man in a ski mask with a gun to your head at your pc, then you most assuredly did not "have" to call, and in fact, calling there is a putrid poker play. I just raised you allin before the flop, so the odds of me having two cards higher than 6s are probably what, 90%? And the chance of me having a pocket pair higher than 6s are what, maybe 15-20%? Pick your numbers, but the point I am making here again today just as I have said it before is, you should not call allins preflop with low pocket pairs for significant chips in key situations. It makes no sense. When you have the chip lead and are down to heads-up, such a move becomes even more laughable than usual. You are either taking a chance to race for all your chips in a spot where you already have the lead in chips, or you are going to be dominated a significant percentage of the time since the other guy already raised allin before the flop. Why do it? Don't do it. It works against me like an absolute charm of course, but against your average player, calling allins for significant chips when the chip leader in heads-up play is moronic. Learn this, and you will be ahead of the game in late-stage tournament play already right off the bat, and this applies very well to both mtts and sngs.

OK that's all for today. I'll see you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt! And don't forget, Lost is back for the first of eight powerful episodes this season, coming this Thursday night at 9pm ET on ABC. Can't wait!

Decent Mookie Run, Avatar Races are Back, and Jec is Out

For starters today, congratulations out to Evil Wonka, Jordan and chitwood (whose blog I am not familiar with so if you have one please let me know in the comments and I will link you here) for being the three bloggers who won their $75 tokens in Wednesday night's token frenzy. In the end, a full 10% of this thing was bloggers at the start, including myself who lasted about 40 minutes before running into a higher Ace and heading home in the middle of the pack. So we had 12 runners in the frenzy from our group last night, but I know we can do better than that tonight. Many of you will already be on for the 9pm ET start of the latest Riverchasers tournament (password is "riverchasers"), so how about you all man up and multitable a li'l bit with the 9:45pm ET token frenzy as well? Get in there, take a stab at the top 19% finishers who all receive a $75 token, and then when you win it, I will blog about you in this spot on Friday morning. And more importantly, you can go and register for Sunday night's Big Game right away with your win. You wanna make an instant name for yourself among the blogging crew? Win the monthly Big Game. You'll not only take home hundreds in cash for the win, but the recognition for your greatness will be hard to even put a dollar value on. So get in there and make it happen, starting with tonight's token frenzy at 9:45pm ET on full tilt. $14 gives you basically a 1-in-5 shot of winning $75. Lezdoit.

And speaking of congratulations, let's not forget Numbbono who took it all down last night for his second Mookie win in the past 51 weeks. Now I'm not sure what is wrong with this guy to have only won two Mookie's in his career, but whatever it is he played very well on Wednesday night, got some good cards and played them aggressively in a few key spots, and stole a huge chiplead away from Jestocost shortly into the heads-up session to put himself in a position to win.

This week's Mookie was good times as both Mookie and myself final tabled for I think only the second time in history -- looking at my own personal Mookie history, there can't have been that many opportunities for the dual-final-tables for Mookie and myself, that is for sure. But with us having just finalized our prop bet, this made for some interesting possibilities as we headed into the final table, with me in 7th or 8th place out of 9 and Mookie closer to 3rd or 4th as I recall. But the funny thing is, Mookie and I took very different paths to get to the final table, even though we both ended up at the same place. Me, I played pretty poorly overall on the night. I've said this before when I've run deep in a blonkament from time to time, and this week's Mookie definitely fits the bill, as surely as I have sat here and talked about how great I played on many a night when I got donked out by some uberjackass early. Well, last night I started off running bad even before the Mookie started, and by the time that I ran AK into 66 on a K6x flop with two suits maybe 30 minutes in to the tournament, I was hardly surprised. That hand, which doubled up CK early after I reraised her allin with tptk -- something I almost never try to call an allin with early in any tournament but which my style often has me raising allin with -- dropped me down to below 700 chips and it was just another standard Mookie for me right from the earlygoing. Shortly after this point, I recorded my first of two ghey suckouts on the night when I moved in with KTs on a short stack and got called by loretta's AKo, only to see me turn a flush and then dodge the redraw to loretta's nut flush on the river. What can you do. Not too long after this, I picked up pocket Aces for the first time in two years in the Mookie, and I played these things to perfection. Utg+1, himself on a short stack, had raised the 60-chip blinds up to 180, so I just smooth called that raise from early middle position, hoping my slowplay would enable me to checkraise the flop allin in a heads-up pot. Instead, someone else also smooth called the 180 behind me from MP, and then the flop came King high. The first guy led out strong and quick, and I immediately put him on AK given his lack of thought despite two players who had called his preflop raise behind him. I figured with one pair I wanted the guy behind me outta there, so I put in a standard but not huge raise. The third guy folded and the first play instantly pushed. At this point I knew he had to have AK, so I called, he flipped up the big slick and I had doubled up again to 3520, my first time back over my starting stack of 3000 chips since the first few hands on the night.

Unfortunately, that was really the highlight of my night though. As I said I really didn't play very well, it took a suckout to even be alive at that point to receive the pocket Aces, and I don't believe I was dealt one other big hand all through the night. I did suck out on someone one more time when we were down to 3 tables left, and, being the Mookie, I of course got sucked out on 3 times on the night for various sized pots, including one double up somewhere around the middle thanks to a river 3-outer that would have put me in second place with around 25 players remaining. So overall I played pretty bad poker and could never get a dam thing going, despite lasting all the way to the final table. Despite my good finishiing position, let me tell you it was basically all stealing and restealing for me. I stole about 25 pots preflop (when I was finally eliminated in 5th place I had won a full 10% of the hands I had seen all night before the flop -- think about that stat!), and I had a few nice resteals to boot, one with 82o from DubSpoke (don't know him) and once at the final table with AQ against Mookie who had been a major card rack and I really figured probably had another big pair. So as I mentioned, in the end I busted in 5th place after sitting on a short stack all through the final two hours including the entire final table, and I stayed up for a bit to see if Mookie could end our prop bet early with a big win. In the end the other two stacks kept growing, and Mookie's earlier run of good cards came to an abrupt halt, with him busting in 3rd place by running the Mookie -- T8o -- into jestocost's pocket Kings. What can ya do. So it was a valiant effort by both Mookie and myself, but once again this week it was just not meant to be. I mean, obviously winning the Riverchasers and the donkament this week will take the sting out of this for me, but you really have to wonder if I ever am going to win the Mookie, for real. But hey at least I got back on to the Mookie 2008 stat board early on this year just like I did in the MATH earlier this week, and I'll take a 5th place finish in the Mook any day of the week given my usual performance and especially given my TPTK vs flopset in the first half hour last night.

Btw, did anyone else think CK did an awesome job on buddydank radio last night? I don't know about you guys, but I am having a great time finding out which of you donkeys make good radio personalities, and which of you don't. Personally, I could listen to Don, Chad and CK all night on that thing as far the guest hosts go. And meanwhile some others of our group that I was sure would be great radio personalities have ended up either being too shy to really talk, or just plain sucking in general. Weird. But hopefully CK makes another appearance soon as to me she was a real highlight in her first ever BDR appearance.

Before I go today, Chad turned me on to the startup again of the Avatar Races on full tilt, which begin with the Limit Avatar race tonight at 9pm ET. This is a $216 buyin tournament that pays out prize packages worth $1505 apiece comprised of buyins to all the limit events on the FTOPS VII schedule -- FTOPS #3 ($535 HORSE), FTOPS #5 ($216 LHE), FTOPS #11 ($216 Limit O8), FTOPS #14 ($322 razz) and FTOPS #16 ($216 stud). And the best part about this Limit Avatar Race? It is HORSE, which makes perfect sense considering it awards seats to HORSE, limit holdem, O8, razz and stud tournaments. That is awesome. It's been a few FTOPS series now that full tilt has been running these avatar races to award several FTOPS seats in one fell swoop, but this marks the first time for a limit avatar race dealing with just the limit events, begging the question of whether or not full tilt plans to run a no-limit avatar race as well this time around. Guess we'll have to wait and see on that one, but in the meantime I would love to win myself one of these limit avatar races. No I won't consider buying in to one for $216 cash, but of course knowing me there are three cool satellites already scheduled to play our way into tonight's $216 limit avatar race at 9pm ET. The first is a regular HORSE tournament with a $26 buyin at 5:35pm ET. No way I am online anywhere near that time, and in fact only dudes who play poker at work or those of you lucky enough not to have day jobs would ever be able to play that badboy. Next there is a turbo HORSE sat at 6:55pm ET, also with a $26 buyin. Still too early for me. My only shot at satelliting in, and it's still a pretty long shot time at that, is the final sat of the night, a $40 turbo HORSE sat at 7:20pm ET. I might possibly be able to get into this thing once in a long while, but as it is probably not tonight as I am once again getting crushed at work, mostly due to the fact that my two fuckbaggy coworkers more or less come and go as they please and rarely even come into the office anymore, while I do all their work and my jackboss just sits around in his self-imposed obliviion and lets it all happen under the guise of trying to be "accomodating". And while I suppose bending over and smearing his anus with vaseline before spreading his cheeks can be considered "accomodating", I guess I just have a different view than he does of what a manager's role is really supposed to be. But I digress.

OK that's all for today. I'm sure most of you heard this already on BDR last night, but BBTwo champion jeciimd was in fact eliminated on Wednesday evening ET from the Aussie Millions when his AA lost to 53s after a guy called a preflop raise, called a 2/3 pot sized bet on the flop with just the naked flush draw, and then hit on the turn. What can ya do. A great job and a great run by jec, who received more pocket Aces now in just about 11 hours of live casino play than I have received in my entire lifetime of playing holdem in any casino, but still that is a tough way to go. Hard to put a guy on a flush draw after he calls your preflop raise and calls a decent sized bet on the flop, with the flush draw filling once a good portion of your stack is already in the pot. Congratulations again to jec for a job well done and for representing well by making it through the first day of play in his first ever live casino tournament. For those of you who have played a big-buyin tournament live in a casino, you know that is quite an accomplishment for a first-timer.

Now go read Don's post from Wednesday. This is gonna be good, I can tell already.

See you tonight at the Riverchasers at 9pm ET, and at the token frenzy at 9:45!