Long Live The Dank

As nice as making my second straight flush of 2011 is (the first being the royal flush I posted last week or so), it's even better when it happens in a blogger tournament, and still better at a final table of said blogger tournament. Even better than that, at a severely short-handed table, in this case when down to 3-handed left in the inaugural Dank tournament that finally officially replaces the Mookie as the Wednesday night private blogger tournament. But the best of all has got be when you make a straight flush when down to 3-handed in a private blogger tourmament, and you actually beat another straight flush:



Now granted, we both only used one card from our hands in combination with four obvious straight-flush cards on the board, but still, this one was pretty awesome.

Even more awesome was that it led to this:



So, as was so astutely pointed out by the guys on BDR last night this morning right around 1am, after struggling in vain to win my first Mookie for the better part of three years, publically embarrassing myself countless times with my gaffes and final table blunders, and enduring all the inevitable the late-game coolers and the heads-up suckouts, the guys finally change things over to The Dank, and I take down the very first one. Hopefully this means the curse of the Mookie will die with the name, as I not only won this one but did so by getting lucky in the final hand with A5 vs A6 allin on the flop, in addition to the straight-flush hand above as well as a few other nice rivers along the way.

There is so much more for me to write about right now (Survivor Poker winding down, the NCAA tournament refs butchering yet another March Madness, I could go on and on), but suffice it to say that the last week has been a whirlwind of cross-country travel and back on a couple of large deals at work that have had me absolutely unable to come up for air in any meaningful way for several days on end. I've just barely enough time to get this posted before diving back down deep in yet another 3-hour conference call with a government client lawyer who acts as if he is being paid by the minute for as long as he can drag our negotiation out. So for now this will have to be it, as I will look to get back some of my free time over the next week or two at work and back to my more normal blogging schedule.

The Profile Is Up, and Woe is the Mets

Well, my magic touch this week continued in a big way on Tuesday. First, recall that on Monday I was just writing that Vinnay is among the best players not to have won the Mookie, and then just hours later he went out and won the Monday night riverchasers game to nab his seat in the BBT4 Tournament of Champions. Then, on Tuesday I mentioned 7 or 8 players who I expected to win ToC seats during the second half of the BBT4, one of whom was longtime blonkament player Columbo. Just hours later, columbo went out and won the Tuesday night Skillz game in Razz to capture his seat. Just call me King Midas, and hope I pick you to win the Mookie tonight.

So speaking of the Mookie, I will admit that I can't believe how quickly my reign as Mookie champion is coming to an end here. Feels like it was just a day or two ago that I became enshrined with the greatest names in the history of online poker by taking down the most elusive (for me) of all the private blogger tournaments. In that vein, my long-awaited Mookie profile is now up on Mookie's blog. I can't describe how long I have waited to see that profile posted and to take my rightful place among the all-time poker greats who have been profiled there before little old me. I tried to answer all the questions as well as I could and hopefully put an interesting new spin on a few of them.

In other news, the Mets continued their slide with another disturbing 6-4 loss on Tuesday in what is becoming increasingly obvious is the same type of team with all the same type of problems as in the past couple of seasons. For the life of me I am sure that eventually this is all going to fall at the feet of the manager, Jerry Manuel, who continues to oversee a team that feels no personal responsibility, no accountability, for their actions. To wit:

Stuck in a 4-4 tie with the Cardinals on Tuesday, the Mets' high-priced slugger Carlos Beltran led off the 8th inning with a walk, quickly advancing to second on a sac bunt. When next batter Ramon Castro flew out to right field, Beltran tagged up and went to third, but when the right fielder's throw bounced away from Cardinals' third baseman Joe Thurston, Beltran broke for home. Thurston picked up the ball and threw to catcher Yadier Molina, who was able to tag out Beltran, because Carlos Beltran did not slide. You can click here to view the play in the video embedded on espn.com. It's worth watching, because (1) it is truly inexplicable why Beltran failed to slide, and (2) it's pretty obvious that Beltran would have beaten the tag if he had just applied even a modicum of effort. Asked why his slugger didn't slide, manager Jerry Manuel said only "I don't know the reason why he didn't slide."

Said Beltran: "I was running and looking at the ball. I didn't realize how close I was from home plate. [Third base coach] Razor Shines pointed to the ball, and I didn't react right away. It took time for me to react. If I would have reacted right away, I would have made it. That's how it goes."

That's how it goes? You don't slide, your manager just says he doesn't know why you didn't slide, and your excuse is that the plate was too close when you looked at it? Huh? When are you not looking at home plate once you make the decision to break from third base, Carlos? That's how it goes? I think not.

Making matters worse, Beltran's failure to break the tie by sliding into home plate in the top of the 8th inning meant that Mets' first-year Met Daniel Murphy misplayed stayed in the game for the bottom half of the inning rather than being removed for a defensive replacement (Murphy already cost the Mets a win earlier this season at the Florida Marlins with a dropped fly in the outfield). Instead, the Cardinals' Brendan Ryan's lined a shot to Murphy in the bottom of the 8th, and after starting in about ten steps, Murphy was unable to readjust and get back in time to prevent the ball from sailing over his head for a triple on his second blatant misplay to cost his team a late lead in this short season. Ryan later scored the winning run to break the 4-4 tie in the 8th after Murphy's gaffe in left field. But once again, Murphy's post-game comments about the play show just how little accountability there really is on this team right now.

"Actually I feel like I did everything right on the ball," Murphy said. "I slipped, and I went down."

You did what? You did everything right on the ball? So running in ten steps before realizing that you've horribly misplayed a key hit in a crucial spot that is now heading far over your head is now "doing everything right on the ball"? Jeezus Christopher guys.

How about this: either the Mets players start playing like a team of individuals who are each expected to do their jobs well, or they need to get rid of the greatest vestige of the previous regime in town which as a rule tolerated a whole team full of guys who just don't seem to care and don't seem to get it. Jerry Manuel, you are officially on notice. Shape your team up in the little things, the fundamentals, or you're going to find yourself out of a job much quicker than you seem to understand.

The Ten Best Players Never to Win a Mookie

With me finally finding my way off the schneid in the Mookie last week, I spent some time for you all today reviewing that lofty list of all-time Mookie winners. One thing I was focusing on was, with me at long last out of the picture, who is left on the list of "accomplished" blonkament players, with enough time playing this thing to count, who have not yet won the greatest of all blogger tournaments? Here is the list I came up with, in no particular order:

mookie. Of course, no Mookie list can start without the host, and in Mookie's case -- like with me -- he's been in mostly every Mookie ever run over a three-year timespan. Now, in Mookie's defense, he did actually win one of the earliest Mookie tournaments, back on March 1, 2006, but that was just the fourth Mookie ever run on full tilt, and as Mookie himself has explained to me in the chat, it was not a particularly big field nor was the tournament itself nearly what it has turned into today. So I can't count Mookie totally on this list, but not totally off it either I guess.

Jeciimd. I guess on one level this one did not surprise me too much, as I do not necessarily recall jec winning outright a ton of blonkaments in his day, but I also recall what this guy did to the BBT2 in winning his incredible trip to Oz to play in Gus Hansen's wheelhouse for a couple of days before having his aces cracked in most unceremonious fashion. I specifically recall jec burning his way through the entire field in the second BBT series, and doing so consistently in all of the major blogger tournaments running, so I know he has had some degree of lifetime success in the Mookie. But per the results of my search, it looks like jec never nabbed that elusive Mookie crown, either during that incredible hot streak or otherwise, and is thus still seeking the lifetime of fame and notoriety that goes along with being a Champion.

Shabazz Jenkins. Shabazz hasn't been playing the blonkaments for all that long, but it's been the better part of a year or so probably at this point. And with the way some people come in and win their very first career Mookie tournament, especially lately, and the tournament skills that Shabazz has, I figured for sure he had taken down one of these badboys sometime in 2008. But, alas, I was wrong, and your current April BBT4 leader is also still in search of his first donkey title.

1Queensup1. While we're on the topic of BBT4 leaderboard heavies, your March BBT4 winner and current overall BBT4 frontrunner 1Queensup1 also does not appears on the list of lifetime Mookie winners. Again I figured for sure that Brian had taken down a Mookie somewhere in his incredible April that saw him final table some sick number of BBT events (9 maybe?), but nope. Final tabling a blonkament is one thing, but winning it outright, particularly in a Mookie, against the talent always packed tight into that field, is a whole different ball game for sho.

Chad. This one I will absolutely never get. Chad has had tournament success on all fronts for a long time now. He has crushed the blonkaments on occasion, with highlights including winning the Bodonkey II Tournament of Champions, and absolutely crushing the original WPBT when that first ran some three years ago now. He's won thousands and thousands of dollars in tournaments on each of Full Tilt, Bodog, Ultimate Bet, Cake, Mansion, Absolute, Pokerstars and I'm sure others. The guy is about as consistent a poker tournament performer as there is in our group, if not the single most consistent. And yet, no Mookie victory. I mean, Chad's had what, seven blogs for chrissakes? If that's not a sign of extreme poker prowess, then I don't know what is.

Columbo. This was another one that surprised me a little bit, as I know columbo has had some decent blonkament success over time. I figured as I set out on my review of the previous winners that a guy like columbo, who's been playing the blonkaments at least as long as I have, would have taken home a Mookie title at some point during 2007 or 2008, but it appears that my intuition was incorrect on that one as well. Columbo is a threat any week to win, so his days on this particular list are likely numbered, but for now he remains one of the great mysteries of long-term blonkament failures when it comes to the all-hallowed Mookie.

Joanne, another longtime blogger tournament afficionado, has also never won a Mookie. There was definitely a time in 2008 when I didn't see Joanne in too too many blonkaments for a long stretch, but in general I know I've played in several Mookies with the gal over the past year or two, and to no success for either her or myself. So Joanne hasn't always consistently been at the forefront of blonkament success, but she's won her share of tournaments and I believe has finished in front for one or more BBT tournaments in the past as well. Just no Mookie as it turns out.

Vinnay. Vinnay is on this list because, like columbo and Mike Maloney before him, he's been playing in the private blogger tournaments for quite a while at this point. Me, it must have taken me a good 150 attempts to finally get my Mookie victory, and there's no way in hike Vinnay is anywhere close to there. But Vinnay's a guy who actually has some tournament skill, and yet somehow he has never climbed the poker blogiverse's loftiest mountain to date.

Drizz. This is another one that really surprises me too. I don't often see Drizz in the blogger tournaments these days, not nearly as often as I used to anyways, but I imagine Drizz has played in his fair share of Mookies over the years. And he's won his fair share of blonkaments over time as well. I had to run my search twice to make sure drizz's name was in fact missing from the list, but it appears that over several years of playing, drizzle too has never tasted the delectable honey from Mookie's nest.

Blinders. Can there be any bigger surprise than this? I mean, it feels like I've read what, 5 or 6 writeups on Mookie strategy over at his blog over time, including a striking piece just recently that sounded a whole lot to me like Folding To The Points. I was expecting to see 5 or 6 Mookie wins from the guy given what I've read on his blog over the years. I figured for sure my "find on this page" feature was broken or somehow malfunctioning, so I did a manual search but, somehow, blinders' name still did not come up. It appears that, despite all of his tremendous success in poker tournaments generally in an extended career of poker greatness, somehow blinders has never added a Mookie championship to his unending list of poker achievements. Go figure!

Here's hoping that all ten of the above players find their way off of this list sometime in 2009. Surely each has shown enough poker tournament and blonkament skill to find a way to win the Mookie, still the blonkament to beat all other blonkaments as far as this blogger is concerned. The better question is: can I win two before any of them ever win their first?

Moving On, and More on NY Baseball

Well, my first day as a Mookie Champion was surprisingly just like every other day before it. I got to my office and waited at the door for about 5 full minutes for someone to come out, roll out a red carpet and hold open the door for me. But no one. And there was no brass band welcoming me, not even one of those pianist types with the tuxedo and the white gloves, nobody. I suppose it's possible that they just don't know about the Feat I accomplished on Wednesday night, but I mean, word travels, right? I mean, how could they not know?

Otherwise, life has just kinda moved on since The Feat. I still had to go to the bathroom when I woke up on Thursday, I still have to wipe my ass like the rest of you, and I'm still in the end just another working stiff that's part of the rat race here in the biggest city in the country. Much to my surprise, having won the Mookie really hasn't had any impact at all on my day-to-day. Well, I mean, other than the smugness. Previously thought to be impossible, you should see the increased level of derision I have been bringing to all of my dealings, both at home and at the office, these past couple of days. I mean, within minutes of me arriving at the office on Thursday, some clown had the temerity to schedule me for a 5pm meeting on Thursday afternoon. Now of course the old me woulda just accepted the invitation and moved on with my day, but now that I'm a Mookie winner? Puh-lease. I may not know all the details of what being a Mookie champion entails, but I'm quite sure members of such an exclusive group do not take 5pm meetings the day after their most respected of victories. I could not have taken more than, oh, 5 seconds before sending along the "decline" via Outlook, citing simply "previous engagements" as the culprit, a personal favorite excuse of mine. And, why, just this morning my 3-year-old asked me if I would read her her favorite book before I left for work today, and I was like "What? You cannot really expect me, a winner of the Mookie, to actually sit down and recite single-syllable words to a mere child? Why, Mookie winners have personal assistants and live-in nannies for that sort of thing! Now run along, child, and find someone like that nice lady over there asleep in bed who seem more worthy of such a request." As you can see I am focused on not letting this get to my head. It's hard sometimes though, just after fulfilling your lifelong dream and all.

Speaking of that, a number of you have asked based on things I have said in the past, but no the blog is not going away now that I have won the Mookie. There was a time not too long ago where I was very clear with anyone who would listen that I would immediately be shutting down the blog if I won the Mookie. I said it back then, and I meant it too. Some time ago I was really dissatisfied with the blog and the kinds of attention it had brought me over three years of near daily posting. I mean, it's one thing to have yourself be a prominent subject of three or four other people's blogs out there, that kind of thing can be almost flattering in its own way even when the things being said about you are less than complimentary. But when I've got people impersonating me over email and blog comments, representing that I have said and done things which I did not, and people registering eerily similar IM, facebook and twitter IDs to mine and then bogusly contacting people in ways I would never do, it really makes a guy think "Why the hell am I doing this again?" So several months ago, before I changed some things up about my focus in life as well as on the blog, I really was looking for an exit strategy, and winning the Mookie was going to be it. If I ever won the Mookie, I knew exactly what I would do, which would be make one final post, decrying anything and everything about what has changed in this group of poker bloggers over the past four years or so, and then hang em up. Just like that.

But over the past many months, things have really changed. The bottom fell out of the economy in 2008, and with it I went through an incredibly stressful and tumultuous time of my own. A whole lot changed in my life during 2008, most of it in a semi rushed, semi frantic fashion, and with some of those more tangible changes came also a different outlook on my life and on the things in it that tend to contribute positively or negatively to my degree of happiness at any given time. One of the many lesser effects of all this was my somewhat abrupt change here on the focus of this here blog. What had previously been largely a daily diary of my poker-related thoughts became much more broad, frankly, because that's what I wanted to write about at the time. That's what I needed to be writing about at the time. So I did. And you know what? It's turned out A-ok with me. As I said, writing about poker all the time for several years ended up bringing me a significantly outsized proportion of grief and negativity as compared to the positives, so I just stopped writing about poker all the time. Lately, as I am quite aware, there has been very little poker here on the blog, and I'm ok with that too. I expect to focus more on poker over the balance of this year, but the changes from an all-poker, all-the-time focus here are probably gone. The downside of that of course is that you poker strategy hounds will not be as satisfied as you maybe once were with the content of my daily musings. But the upside is not only a broader, and I think more interesting range of topics (certainly from my perspective), but more generally, it buys my happiness, and my satisfaction with the direction this blog is headed.

So no, I'm not taking the blog anywhere despite the fact that I have finally, mercifully won a Mookie tournament. Some of you will no doubt be very disappointed by this, but it turns out I won the Mookie about a year or two too late for it to be the cause of blogicide. If this was 18 months ago, I tell you you all would have had a whole lot fewer words to have read over that time, because I would have happily been gone. But instead, now I think you're still stuck with me here for a while. And incidentally, I have some interesting poker-related stuff in the works over the near term, as I actually find myself missing writing about poker as much as I used to, so I look forward to getting back to that over the near term, in addition to making some of the changes to the blog's appearance and structure that I had written about as part of my New Year's goals posts for 2009.

In other news, the Yankees and Mets just continue to frustrate, with both teams managing to lose their respective home openers to ruin the debuts of each team's brand new stadium, and providing the best imaginable fodder for me to listen to on sports radio all day long. The Mets began the fun by losing 6-5 to the lowly Padres on Monday this week, in what was supposed to be a setup game to the Mets to steamroll the worst team in the National League in their home opener, and my favorite part about that was Padres leadoff man Jody Gerut smacking the first pitch of the day from the Mets' Mike Pelfrey over the left field wall, thereby getting himself and the Padres into the stadium record books with the first hit, run, home run and RBI in Citi Field history rather than some random Met player.

The Yankees fared slightly better in their own home opener on Thursday night, as they too gave up their new stadium's first run and RBI to an Indians player, but they did at least manage to record the new Yankee stadium's first ever hit from Johnny Damon in the first, and its first home run when the ageless Jorge Posada put one over the wall in the 5th inning. And then the Yankees promptly gave up 9 runs in the 7th, and got killed 10-2 to open their own stadium in style. So sweeeeeeeeet.

So the Yankees fell to 5-5, 2.5 games behind the upstart Blue Jays, through ten games so far in the 2009 season, which may not sound so bad given their starts in recent seasons, but which is certainly viewed as unacceptable by ownership who has once again provided manager Joe Girardi with far and away the greatest team money can buy, from a pure talent perspective. CC Sabathia's line from last night in the Yankees' loss? 122 pitches thrown in 5.2 innings pitched, giving up 5 hits, 5 walks, 4 strikeouts and just one earned run. So it wasn't a terrible start, but you have to wonder where the 5 walks in 5 innings comes from, or the 122 pitches that caused the Yanks' ace to be pulled from the game in the 6th and leaving its bullpen out there to eventually throw the game down the toilet. So far over three starts, Sabathia's stats are 19 hits, 10 walks, 10 strikeouts and 7 earned runs allowed in 17.2 innings pitched, providing an ERA of 3.57 and a WHIP of 1.68 that is not exactly encouraging for the guy the Yankees need to perform like the best pitcher in the American League. Add up Sabathia's and Chien-Ming Wang's stats so far this young season, and you're looking at a 1-3 record and 22.1 innings pitched featuring 34 hits, 16 walks, 11 strikeouts and 22 earned runs allowed. That's half of the Yankees' starting rotation right there. Thank God AJ Burnett has been the real deal so far for the Yankees, or they would be in serious trouble. But you've never heard the rabid Yankee fans calling for A-Rod to return to the team so quickly, I'll tell you that.

The Mets, meanwhile, currently sit at 4-5, a full 4 games behind the surging Marlins already, and the fans and announcers are just tearing their hair out all over the radio trying to figure out what is wrong with this team. I know exactly what it is, and it ain't exactly rocket science. So far in two starts, Mike Pelfrey, who like Sabathia and Wang for the Yanks was being relied on as steady consistent pitchers for the 2009 season to go as planned, has had a horrible beginning, pitching 10 innings and giving up 13 hits, 6 walks, 5 strikeouts and 9 earned runs, including 3 home runs already in just two starts. #2 man in the rotation John Maine has also pitched 10 innings, giving up 9 hits, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts and 8 earned runs. #4 starter Oliver Perez's line looks eerily similar, with 10.1 innings pitched over two starts, and giving up 8 hits, 7 walks, 11 strikeouts and 9 earned runs. When 75% of your starting rotation has a combined ERA of over 8, I don't think you have to look far to understand just what is wrong with the team.

OK before I go, I just wanted to remind everyone that this coming Sunday night at 9:30pm ET is the latest of Miami Don's Big Games, but this time with a twist. Instead of the usual $75 buyin for the Big Game, also part of the BBT4 which begins the second half of its run on Sunday, this Sunday will feature a $26 buyin, and will be a 1-rebuy, 1-addon tournament instead of its usual freezeout format. So the game is still no-limit holdem and all, but it's $26 to play, and you get one $26 rebuy anytime during the first two levels, followed by a $26 addon as well for a maximum contribution by any one entrant of $78, but giving the possibility of someone winning their way in with just one $26 investment. This may be the first time a blonkament has been played with a 1r+1a format like this, and I think it should make for a fun time and a nice break from the regular nlh freezeouts we seem to play most other days of the week. Me, I plan to be there and to play a game befitting of someone who just won the Mookie, who regularly crushes the Big Game, and who has some money to burn. So keep your eyes peeled for that on Sunday night, and of course for my Mookie profile when it gets up, probably sometime next week over on Mookie's blog, and for my own blog, which will be back here and better than ever on Monday and not gone dark like some of you had feared (or looked forward to).

Mookin' to the TOC

Is this the real life? Or is it just fantasy?

This one is gonna take a while to really hit me. I woke up this morning after a scant three hours of sleep, and I had to check the computer screen to make sure it wasn't all just some elaborate beer-fueled fantasy, but it appears to be genuine and official:

I am now a Mookie winner.

That's right. On Wednesday night (well into Thursday morning, actually), I took my place among the most hallowed names of all of poker bloggerdom. Nay, the most venerated names of all time. The name "Hoyazo" has now been etched in stone in Mookie's Hall of Champions, forever more right up alongside such lofty legends as rbledj494 way back on July 23, 2006 -- not to be confused with rmbj494 who won his Mookie on December 13, 2006.

Ahhh but you say, that was 2006, back when the Mookie was still a brand new thing, very different from what it is has become. Look to the next year, when the BBT was started and the word really started getting out about the Mookie, check out all the big names to nab Mookie victories in 2007. Ok then, so my name is now alongside the likes of mtnrider81 (March 21, 2007) and, of course, how could you forget NomeyMyHomey (May 2, 2007), and of course Julius_Goat on September 12, 2007. And of course 2008 as well, with another voraciously-attended BBT series, has contributed its own set of awe-inspiring Mookie champions, names like Jasper6294 on June 4, Roberto55 on November 11 and 777GMoney on November 26 to name a few. Shit, any tournament which can boast the likes of numbbono, waffles, evil wonka and piratelawyer all as three-time champions, I mean what more do you need to know. So to become a part of this group, enshrined, hallowed for ever among the greatest names to ever play this game, it's hard to put into words how I feel right now. Again, I still haven't even begun to really get my head around the accomplishment and the notion that I will be permanently etched in that kind of company, forever.

I knew things were going my way in the Mookie this week when, of the 68 runners who came out to play, my erstwhile prop bet opponent Mookie himself was a no-show, as was everyone's favorite chip dumper. So that was two obstacles out of my way just like that. Then, when I saw that Blinders was the first one out on the night, I knew my path to the final table was clear with the Master of the Mookie and the King of Expected Value out of the way.

On a whole, I got what I would describe as fair cards for me for a Mookie. In the end, through nearly 300 hands I received no AA and one KK, which I doubled with. I also got dealt JJ three times, and QQ and TT two times apiece, with AK twice and AQ twice as well. As I said, the way I won my first Mookie was not with superior starting cards so much as with superior luck in my big hands holding up. In a nutshell, I got in dominating or otherwise way ahead (I'm not talking races, or even "waffles races", which for those who don't know are hands favored to win about 65% of the time) several times on the night, and for the first time in as long as I can ever remember in a Mookie, I didn't lose a single 80% or better shot on the entire night. In this way I was able to take advantage of most of the big cards I was dealt, even though it wasn't really a particularly common occurrence compared to what is to be expected. In fact, I don't think I got sucked out on at all the entire night, other than when I called pushmonkey's shove with 10 left in the tournament with my A4 versus his K7o and he promptly flopped top two pairs, which is barely a suckout at all ultimately so much as a 40% hand winning in a given instance. And I can affirmatively say that I did not suck out on anyone else myself either all the way through, which is amazing given the total crap I was seeing hold up and suck out and win again and again all around me from basically start to finish on the night.

My strategy for the night was simple: bet and raise like crazy, as usual before the flop, but also on the flop and even on the turn as well. With the big fields and the silliness of the BBT, this is the way I've been approaching most of these blogger tournaments, and it has worked fairly well, with me squarely in the top 20 overall so far for the BBT, which just on Wednesday reached the midpoint of its 13-week run. In the Mookie on Wednesday, I played one of my most aggro games of all time. I raised relentlessly preflop, and I bet out on the flop and turn more often than my usual, to mostly good success start to finish, buoyed by the twelve hands I was dealt in the range of AQ+ or TT+ during the tournament. Purely from stealing alone, I had grown my 3000-chip starting stack to 3600 chips by the end of the first hour, good for 25th place of 51 remaining at the first break.

Here was my first big hand of the tournament:



Here, there were four limpers in front of me in the big blind for 120 chips apiece, and I looked down to find the Ladies in my hand. Those of you who know how I feel about pocket Queens know there is no way in hike I would consider limping along there, so I went for an outsized raise-the-limpers-move sort of raise to 700. Hacker59, a former Mookie winner himself, pushed and I insta-called. My 82% hand held, the start of that big trend on the night for me, and I had managed to near-double with my first big hand of the night early in Hour 2. For the balance of Hour 2, I bet, raised and stole my way to maintain the stack I had amassed from the Queens, sneaking my way into 6th place with 35 runners left as we neared the end of the hour.

Just before the second hour completed, I got into my second big hand of the night, this time with my only KK of the evening:



I played this one just slow enough before the flop, opting not to put in the reraise that would have committed sophie2002 to the pot to call, such that by the time she c-bet the flop after my check, she was committed to calling my check-raise on the flop with just the AK unimproved. Once again, an opponent with just four outs twice failed to hit, and my 82% hand once again prevailed, surging me up to 3rd of 32 left, where I stayed through most of the next hour thanks again mostly to some seriously aggro betting from me on all streets which repeatedly took me down many pots, big and small. This period included three of the five hammers I won pots with on the night, getting me as high as 2nd place with 19 left around midway through the third hour of the tournament.

Late in Hour 3, Carmen pushed her short stack into my pocket Jacks with her 7s -- yet again, an 81% hand holds up for me -- representing yet another instance where I was able to get serious value out of the relatively small number of strong hands I was dealt on the night:



This hand gave me my first chip lead of the night, in 1st place of 16 remaining:



Now it's nice to be in first place -- rather be there than in any other spot at least, obviously -- but it's not like I haven't been there before. I have been final table chip leader at the Mookie three or four times in the past year or so, all four of which ended in disaster of course, including once already earlier this year. I know how these things tend to go with me, so 1st of 16 left was nothing to get excited about in the least.

Here was also the point where I took the first screenshot of my ftp stats for the night. It seemed to me that for nearly three hours I had been taking down a lot of pots. A lot of em, even for me. So I checked it out, and you can see it for yourself, my stats through 179 hands of the Mookie this week, just short of the third break:



That statistic that I had won 22% of the total hands dealt at my table, at a full ring table over nearly 3 hours is utterly disgusting. I tend to push that number higher than most people when I'm playing well due to my preflop aggression factor, but 22% in a full ring tournament over three hours? That is unheard of, plain and simple. At 9-handed tables like I had been playing at for basically the entirety of the three hours so far, the math dictates that everyone should be picking up roughly 11% of the pots. To perform at twice that rate over such a long period of time in relative terms, well, it really just goes to show evidence of just how aggro and relentless I was in my approach to the tournament on Wednesday evening.

As the third break hit, I was in 2nd place of 12 players remaining. I got back into 1st of 11 after I made a steal on the flop with a donk bet into an 8000-chip pot against two other players on relatively short stacks who I figured were more interested in waiting for the final table than in calling off here on the bubble. And then here with 11 left is where I made the call with my A4s against pushmonkey's K7o and he doubled through me for my worst loss on the night as far as getting it in when ahead, but as I mentioned even this was what, a 57% favorite for me or something? The key for me was all of my significant favorite hands held up, from start to finish, for the first time maybe ever. But here, the pushmonkey hand suddenly dropped me to 5th place with 10 remaining. When the final table bubble burst a few hands later, I had stolen my way back to 3rd of 9, but still with a lot of work to do in my second consecutive Mookie final table.

Through 221 hands as the final table began, here I am still having won 21% of the total hands dealt at my table all night, seeing 18% of flops in the process:



Early at the final table, I had the hand that set up the run I ended up making for the roses. I'm sitting in the small blind, and pushmonkey, who had been living up to his name in a sick, ridiculous way all throughout this tournament, put in the button steal raise, which I immediately read for weak. I know I had just Q6o in my own hand, but looking at the stack sizes, I saw that I could push here with ATC and face pushmonkey with having to call off a quarter of his remaining stack with what I felt strongly was not a good hand. So I went for it:



I thought this would be an easy fold if pushmonkey was actually weak like I thought. But I guess I was wrong:



And, mind you, this call happened so fast, it was like he was already clicking the empty space on his screen where the "call" button was going to pop up when it became his turn. Well, here I was again with yet another 75-80% favorite with the money allin, a spot where I have gotten screwed in this tournament so many phucking times it's sick, but once again as you can see, my dominator held, and I was back in business near the top of the leaderboard at the Mookie final table.

At the fourth break, I was in 1st place of 7 remaining at the final table:



Obviously it's good to be final table chip leader anytime any way, and I had a nice chip lead over second place at the time as well, which is always good and another nice testament to my aggression even as the final table wore on. But I did have Chad sitting right behind me so I knew I had to keep my eye on that fucker if no one else. Through 251 hands, and still only 7-handed at the final table, I was still winning an utterly sick percentage of total hands dealt at my table:



My next large hand occurred about 20 minutes into Hour 5, and it was one of those hands that had to tell anyone familiar with my history in the Mookie, on full tilt, and in online poker in general that perhaps that night could be my night. I limped for 1200 into a 7500-chip pot from the small blind with 92s, based purely on pot odds and nothing else:



After the flop checked around, I led out on the turn after I picked up a runner flush draw and given the weakness shown on the flop:



And I got called by one player, not Chad thankfully. When my flush filled on the river, I debated how to best get paid off on the hand at this point. I had the sense from my opponent's call on the turn that he could have been on a draw, or holding something beatable but strong like two pairs, and with the flush having come runner-runner, I figured I had a decent opportunity for an overbet for value. The idea is that, since it's going to be so hard for me to get paid off anyways on that river, I can just pretend the guy made a straight on the river or flopped trip 7s, hope that is correct, and make as big of a bet as I think he will call if holding one of those hands. I quickly determined that that size was allin, so I pushed for the large overbet to the pot:



and somehow, he called and lost:



And check out the hand he lost with:



Bloooom. What can I say? After all the countless times I've been donked out of a tournament, sng, blonkament, cash table, you name it by losing with flushes -- runner-runner flush over flush being my preferred way of losing in terms of how many times it's happened -- to finally get to be on the winning end of one of those situations was about as sick as it could be for me. Not sure if you call that "luck" right there given the fact that I think I played the hand very well on all streets, but dam if that wasn't a sign right there that perhaps something different was in the air tonight. Instead of running AQ into AK or AQ into AA down to four-handed like happened to me twice in the Mookie during the BBT3, here I am with 5 players left flush over flushing someone in runner-runner fashion to vault to a solid 5-handed chip lead.

Unfortunately, shortly after this point, Chad's JTs fell to pushmonkey's KQs allin preflop, and pushmonkey once again nabbed the big chip lead against just myself and MaggieO, with push holding more than twice as many chips as myself and nearly 4x Maggie's stack:



I made a few of my most key decisions in the tournament during this 3-handed phase, which lasted about 15 minutes I would estimate. First, I struggled hard with this one to Maggie, before laying it down:



Then a few minutes later I was faced with a similar situation, but this time against pushmonkey who again had been flipping up utter garbage with regularity all through the previous couple of hours, to the point that a preflop raise from him almost meant nothing better than ATC:



Again I laid this one down, despite feeling I was likely ahead as I had been earlier when I had made the decision to call pm down with my A4 and then lost my 57% favorite hand to his K7o. I just kept thinking that if I could just hold out for a slightly better spot I might be able to make a huge move based on a mistake by one of my opponents. Not 5 minutes later, I got my chance. I was dealt my third and final JJ on the night, and I raised the 3000-chip big blind to 9000 from the button. Just pushmonkey called, and when the flop came down K87 rainbow, pushmonkey led out with the donk-bet despite my being the raiser preflop:



I figured the odds of me being ahead with my JJ were substantial, especially given the way pm had been playing on the night, and if I was going to lose JJ to K4 in 3-handed play then so be it, it is the Mookie after all and I am cursed, right? Anyways, I think I should like my hand here, so I'm all in:



Pushmonkey pretty much instacalled me again here, just as he had earlier on the night when he held just 76o preflop on a pretty large pot. When he called so quick I knew I had to be beat by a King-rag type of hand, but then I saw this:



There are no words.

My 75%+ favorite held up yet again here, giving me an 82k - 63k - 58k lead in what turned out to be a close matchup in three-handed play, but gave me my first Mookie chiplead with as few as three players left in at least two full years.

Again, despite being fairly sure I was ahead here, I once again figured I had to be able to find a better spot to play, so I folded another chance to knock out the pushmonkeying pushmonkey himself here:



and again here:



By the time Maggie called my very suckbetty river bet here with just A5 unimproved in her hand:



I had her pegged for feeling a little too over-aggressive and a little under-trusting of me, so when I made my inside straight on the turn a few hands later:



I checked, expecting her to bet so I could get her allin, but instead Maggie failed to take the bait. Then when the river made a higher straight possible, I decided to go with the math and the odds that I was ahead and try to get the rest of her chips right there:



Maggie called, and I won. Turns out she called me with this hand:



Now I know she was short in this spot, but T3o? Now that's what I call a lack of respect. I mean she's gonna lose to any A, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 or any pocket pair in my hand, and some of the 3s I might play as well. But such it is, she was very short at the time, and I had been betting and raising like a maniac all night, showing hammers and just generally being way aggro even for myself, and this is the kind of thing that can happen if it breaks just right for you in that kind of situation.

So here I was, heads-up in the Mookie for only the second time in my lifetime of playing Mookies -- it's gotta be at least 150 of them I've played now -- and I had a 122k to 82k chip lead. It was a nice chip lead, but nothing even close to prohibitive. Whoever would win the next allin pot would likely win the tournament, no matter which of us it was. Fortunately, pushmonkey, who had already sucked out on me allin preflop once during the tournament but then had also gifted me a huge stack of chips by calling allin when dominated by me not once but twice in the final 10 players left, and I could not have played more than four or five hands of heaqds-up play I don't think before this happened:

I was dealt K8o, a better than average hand in heads-up play, and pm started the action by raising the 4k blinds to 10k. I called for another 6k into a 15k pot with what I figured was likely -- but by no means definitely -- the best hand, given pm's shorter stack and erratic play I had seen so far on the night. The flop came King-high, giving me top pair, and of course I checked to pushmonkey since he had been the preflop raiser, but again he scrwed up my plans by checking behind. When the turn then brought a raggy 2, which was also the third heart on the board (I held the 8 of hearts), I sensed an opportunity to get in my checkraise there, since I had been surprised as it was that pm failed to c-bet the flop, but now with the three hearts I figured it would be a good bluffing opportunity that pushmonkey was not likely to miss. So I checked it to him again:



This time he did lead out, betting just 9k into the 21k pot, a decidedly smallish bet that could either mean extreme strength or extreme tentativeness. I quickly followed through with my plan to checkraise big, determined to go with my top pair decent kicker against an uncertain range in my opponent, especially given the weakness I had showed on the flop and the turn already in the hand:



PM called quickly and turned up:



And there I was. The whole word went silent. The buzzing of the little fan on my laptop, gone. The sounds of "Live Free or Die Hard" on the tv, faded to nothing. Even the crickets outside, I heard none of it. Instead, my entire Mookie life flashed before my eyes. I saw myself losing heads-up to Surf a couple of years ago when I had outflopped him and had just two cards to fade 2 outs to nab the Mookie title. I saw myself losing AA to KK down to a scant two tables left during the BBT2. Me pushing AQ into AA when 4-handed in the BBT3, and then not a three weeks later once again pushing AQ into AK, also 4-handed. It all cycled right through my vision, all in a split second, as I raised my hands in the air in silent celebration. I wanted to make sure I enjoyed the moment before the river fell, because with three Aces and four Queens, 7 outs once would still give pushmonkey a roughly 15% chance to suck out and further my Mookie Curse forever.

This was it: the moment of truth. Who am I gonna be? The Red Sox, who finally bust through the worst curse in sports history to win a World Series in 2004? Or the Cubbies, who Bartman'd away their best shot at the World Series and furthered their own curse with another tale for fans to tell their children and grandchildren? Winner or loser? Champion or runner-up? TOC or nada? Red Sox or Cubs?



It's the Red Sox, folks!



I write this today from the computer of a Mookie winner. And nobody can ever take that away from me.