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!

Health Scare, and Back and Better Than Ever

Wow. Thursday was one crazy whirlwind of a day. Sorry for no blog post, but I had a couple of weird health scares that more or less took over what I had planned to do on Thursday, which was work my first full day back in the office since coming down with mono a couple of weeks ago. On Wednesday I had been back at home again, in the morning reading to my older daughter's class at school. I chose "Harry the Dirty Dog" because it kicks ass and I remember my own parents reading it to me when I was a kid. Good stuff, the kid thinks I'm a hero because I read to her class for 30 minutes. Amazing, being a dad and all.

On Wednesday afternoon I had gone back to the doctor for another blood test. This was because, although most of my other mono symptoms -- not counting the fatigue -- had disappeared by late last week, some shit with my liver was fucked up per my last two blood tests, including the previous week when most of my other symptoms had improved or disappeared entirely. The doctors were puzzled by the liver reading, visibly puzzled. I mean they were downright goddam confused, right in front of my face. The furrowed brows, the quiet huddling together and whispering in the corner of the room, you could just tell. What a sorryass bunch of dicktors. Seriously. If you're puzzled about something you discover about a patient, don't fucking act confused right in front of them. That's what an asshole with absolutely no training in bedside manner would do. You really want to be that person? My lord. Anyways, so I was back in this week for another blood test, hoping to see the liver shit go down.

Wednesday night if you recall, I final tabled the Mookie. I ended up busting in 4th place despite once again having a big stack as the final table began. I've been playing awesome this week, I know I keep saying that, but Wednesday saw me get paid off in many different ways with a whole bunch of nice hands. I was dealt AA once -- resucking at the river on some mofo who flopped a set with 55 for my biggest pot in the early part of the tournament -- and KK probably 4 or 5 times, which believe me is unheard of for me. I also turned a couple of inside straights on the night and I believe flopped one or two sets myself. In all it was a far, far better than average night of cards, and I played 'em very well. But with so many premium starting hands it's not like I played so well, a lot of those cards just play themselves. But I didn't fuck anything up and I played a very solid night of poker overall in the tournament. So that ended around 1:15am ET for me, I stayed up and watched what was eventually won by heffmike who is another solid player to nab a BBT3 Tournament of Champions seat in recent weeks. At some point I fell asleep, feeling great, around 1:30am ET.

So I wake up on Thursday morning, ready to go to work and hopefully hear some good news from Wednesday's blood test. Only, when I wake up at 5:50am ET, my upper lip is blown up like a fucking balloon. And it's burning. And itching. The shit was inflamed big-time. I couldn't go to work, I looked like a fucking ogre. I spoke with a couple of doctors and they both confirmed that it is highly likely just an allergy, a bug bite or something like that that should have no relation to the whole mono and liver thing. But man was it fucked up. I have a lot of weird allergies so I'm not a total stranger to this sort of thing, but waking up looking like I had been punched in the mouth 100 times during the night is not exactly fun or funny if you know what I mean. Anyways, I was all kinds of freaked out.

Very long story short, by late afternoon the weird unexplained swelling in my upper lip had gone down substantially, and then I got a call from the dicktor. My liver bullshit was all good as of this week's blood test, right back down to normal. So, it's all good, once again I say it looks like I am going to make it. I will be back for follow-up in a couple of weeks, but there's just no reason to expect anything other than goodness from here, and I will just have to deal with this fatigue for another little while longer, probably several weeks. That sucks, but I'll take it. This week makes three straight weeks that I have fallen asleep before Lost begins on Thursday night. Me, the guy who's normally up to 1 or 2am every single night, and many nights I can't even make it past 9pm these days. Life is just too tiring right now.

Anyways I did see that another cool guy won a ToC seat in Riverchasers last night. I am blanking on who. Oh yeah right, it was OMGitsPokerFool, a good little nlh player who also has tremendous lucky streaks like a couple of months back when he won two late-night pushfests in a row by consistently sucking out with ridiculous cards allin preflop. Having been fast asleep in mono land, and since for some donkey reason pokerfool's blog is blocked by my websense, I have no idea how he managed to navigate through the always-tough Riverchasers field on Thursday, but I see that is the result. I believe I also saw that CK put in another nice cash in the middle of the final table, marking at least her second cash in a blogger "major" in the past few weeks, after never cashing before that time. How long before CK puts it together for her first major blonkament victory? Who knows....

So congrats to heffmike and to pokerfool for getting in to the ToC this week. Once again I point out that this thing has gotten much harder in the past two or three weeks, which obviously is not good for any of our chances individually. And yet I guess I am the only person who loves it. I want this thing to be tough as shit to win. With the amount of prizes that Al put together for this, I just think it shouldn't be me and a bunch of dead money luckboxes who only won their respective BBT3 tournaments by playing bad and getting lucky. What it should be is something that all the guys who win the most blonkaments are battling it out in. And it seems to be becoming more and more like that with almost every new BBT3 tournament won.

You know who I'm still waiting to see get in during the last month of the challenge? There are a few players whose demonstrated blogger tournament success seem to merit being part of this challenge. At the top of that list have got to be bayne and jeciimd, the winners of the previous two BBT challenges, with jec also going on to win the BBT2 Tournament of Champions and the 18k Aussie Millions prize packages. Those two guys really belong in the ToC I think, although of course they have to win their way in. I wish cracknaces would get in and play some more of the tournaments because his game is easily good enough to win one, but guys like he and Don and Iggy don't seem to be making the effort to play quite enough of the events to give themselves the best chance to get in. We still need some LJ action in the Tournament of Champions, that is something I am definitely expecting to happen this month. Speaking of guys I expect to win blonkaments this month, of course lucko probably adds a couple more to his already challenge-leading three victories. That guy is running hotter than any blogger has at any point in the past several years, that right there is a stone cold guarantee. Hopefully you've all kept up with lucko's blog over the past several weeks as he has won probably well more than 50k in poker tournaments is my guess, including a night earlier this week with I think over 14k in winning two major online tournaments in one night, and his biggest-ever poker score of some 21k in a live nlh tournament down in AC last weekend. Just incredible.

So yeah, I wanna see jec and bayne and LJ play their way into the ToC in the next few weeks. As I mentioned, ck has been making some noise lately in her still relatively short blonkament career, and everyone keeps telling me what great game she has, something I will get to decide for myself on officially out in Vegas in a few weeks. Julius Goat has now finished second twice I believe, including in this week's Mookie tournament, so he's someone you can't count out at this point. Guys like Fuel, Jordan and Gary Cox are also on the list of guys who seem to bust out with a major blonkament win every once in a while but who have not yet completed their run for the roses in the BBT3. By my count there are 12 more weekday BBT3 tournaments before the series ends at the end of May, and I think I recall there being one more Sunday night Big Game as wel, making a total of 13 more chances to win your way in to a coeveted BBT3 ToC seat. I hope everyone who wants in can make a final table in the next few weeks and get themselves into position for a big run to play for the big money on the night of June 7.

Don't forget the donkament tonight, Kat's weekly $1 rebuy extravaganza at 9pm ET on full tilt (password as always is "donkarama"). Unlike most weeks I am pretty sure I will not be able to make it tonight as I have been sleeping like a bitch in the evenings and since I will need to catch up on watching Lost after missing the live Thursday 10pm ET broadcast for the past three weeks running thanks to my sickness. But you should definitely be there for your weekly poker therapy, and I suppose one never knows if I might just make an appearance after all. Not really. But maybe.