Monday, February 09, 2004

What Happened? 3rd Place in My First $10 SNG

Well, Party Poker came back online. I was irked before because I logged on today at 10am, registered for a multi-table NL tourney ($5 + $1) which began at 10:30 and I went to grab something to drink. When I returned to the computer, Party Poker had disconnected and I lost the re-connection battle!

But as soon as I published my last entry... Party Poker was back up and running! And I hopped on a $10 SNG right away! Actually, in my haste, I messed up and made a serious rookie mistake... yep, I signed up for a LIMIT SNG. Yikes! After grumbling for ten minutes, I settled down and was determined to correct my mistake. I played my shitty cards, adjusted to my first Limit SNG... and had my pocket Queens cracked by A-Q. I got A-K, A-Q, A-9 suited and 6-6... raised pre-flop with all of those hands and won sizeable pots to get a chip lead. That was short lived... only to have my pocket Kings cracked by a meager Q-2 off suit from the little blind. I re-raised all-in from the button and laughed when I saw a flop: 8-4-2... and I knew... that other 2 was in the deck... and alas, it fell on the river! And I finished in 5th place wicked pissed and steaming.

I hopped on a $5 No Limit SNG... and I made sure I had the right game. It was brutal because I ignored all Buddhist patience and discipline and played looser than loose stool from a Midwestern tourist, in Mexico for the first time with Montezuma's Revenge. Early in the second round some fish went all-in UTG with 9-2 suited. Pauly had A-A. Unreal. He walked into that one. I had the chip lead early... which is worser than when NY Knicks' two guard John Starks would hit his first two three-pointers in the first couple of minutes... because you knew he'd spend the rest of the night chucking treys from way downtown... even if he missed ten in a row and drew the ire of the tenacious, hostile, and liquored-up Madison Square Garden crowd!

Anyway... I played anything on the button... and won more pots than I lost. I found A-K on the button, limped in... and bailed when a shitty flop of 3-3-4 hit and three people went all-in. I knocked some dude named Moneymaker out... when my 10-10 beat out his A-Q suited... I'm not shitting you... here's the hand:
***** Hand History for Game 380966978 *****
50/100 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 2213588) - Mon Feb 09 14:04:36 EST 2004
Table Card Room Table 4416 (Real Money) -- Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: MONEYMAKERl (1005)
Seat 2: PaulyMcGrupp (1050)
Seat 3: dedmone (1395)
Seat 5: KSUFB (1140)
Seat 7: jthunder (690)
Seat 8: oohwill (670)
Seat 10: sawatenaeo (2050)
KSUFB posts small blind (25)
jthunder posts big blind (50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PaulyMcGrupp [ Th, Td ]
oohwill calls (50)
sawatenaeo calls (50)
MONEYMAKERl raises (100) to 100
PaulyMcGrupp raises (400) to 400
dedmone folds.
KSUFB folds.
jthunder folds.
oohwill folds.
sawatenaeo folds.
MONEYMAKERl raises (905) to 1005
MONEYMAKERl calls all-In.
PaulyMcGrupp calls (605)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6d, Jd, Kc ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 7c ]
Creating Main Pot with $2185 with MONEYMAKERl
** Summary **
Main Pot: 2185 |
Board: [ 6d Jd Kc 5h 7c ]
MONEYMAKERl balance 0, lost 1005 [ Ah Qh ] [ high card ace -- Ah,Kc,Qh,Jd,7c ]
PaulyMcGrupp balance 2230, bet 1005, collected 2185, net +1180 [ Th Td ] [ a pair of tens -- Kc,Jd,Th,Td,7c ]

See I told you! Anyway, my SNG was over when on the next hand my 8-8 lost to a Q-6 when he flopped a set of 6s! Ouch. I lost miserably and found myself in 6th place.

Then I got all fired up after reading some poker blogs. I returned to the table with the same hell bent, enthusiasm of those guys in Delta Tau Chi after Bluto gave them his infamous "The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor Speech"... I was ready to play. And I bought into my first $10 No Limit SNG. And this time, I was in the right one!

$10 SNG Level 2... With 9 little fishies (well eight, if you count me as the shark!) left, my A-10 vs. A-2... Pauly knocks out one little fishie... seven little fishies left. The very next hand... Kc-5c. I'm on my Doyle Brunson theory of playing the hand right after you win a big one... and I limp in. I flopped a flush when all clubs hit the board... and I just call, but raised on the turn and one fishie calls. His Jack is no match for the King... and another fishie bites the dust... six little fishies left. Next hand... A-9 suited under the gun... what does Pauly do? I raised got one caller and went all in when A-9-4 hit the board. His A-4 was not good enough. On three consecutive hands... I knocked out three fishies! Yes, I had a huge chip lead... which is always ripe for disaster.

Don't you hate it when your favorite hockey team blows a 4-0 lead in the first period? Or when your home football team farts around and lets a four touchdown lead get away from them? Or when your beloved baseball team knocks in nine runs in the first inning... only to be bogged down in a tie late in the game after the bullpen blows the lead? Well... I almost blew it all, but saved face for a third place win.

My Demise... started when my K-K lost to 5-5 when the jerkoff flopped a 5! He had balls calling my hefty pre-flop raise. Say goodbye to 1/3 of my stack. Then, I inflicted some pain... and threw out some bad, bad, bad karma out into the poker universe. I inflicted one of the baddest bad beats in some time... because I knocked two fishies out on one shot, when I had no business being in that hand in the first place!! On the button with 9-8 I raised the one bettor in front of me and the little blind re-raised! Well, I called and on the flop (8-2-4), the little blind bet, a guy in front of me raised and went all-in... I quickly called since I'm still leading chips wise... I got top pair, but any overcard will kill me. But I called anyway, as did the little blind... Turn: 6 and the river: 8. I caught a set of 8s and flipped out when I saw that I knocked out K-K and 10-10 on the same hand! Ouch! That must've hurt. Two more fishies gone... which left remaining... plus me! I made it into the money and at least won back my entry fee and the $11 that I blindly gave away buying into that Limit SNG earlier.

OK... so my A-2 did not hold up against a Q-10 and then my A-Q suffered a humiliating loss to a K-K when a K-9-K hit the flop!! And yes, I lost all my chips... but netted a third place win. I placed in the money in my first $10 NL SNG!!

So far to date... one loss in a Limit $10 SNG (which I won't count towards any totals). And in 6 NL SNGs (5-$5 and 1-$10), I placed first once ($25) and now third ($20)... for a total sum of $45 in winnings or up $4 in No Limit SNGs!

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