From MTT to Full
Friday, July 01, 2005
That's a pun. See MTT=EmptyT. Nevermind.
Last night I entered a loooong $5 MTT on Noble. I was in the mood for an MTT, and the timing was right. All the while, fiance Kim flitted in and out of the room, occassionally asking how long it would take. At about 8:50 (it started at 8), I told may until 10. In truth, I finished around 11. When I crawled into bed next to Kim, she was all smiles. Not a complaint. No bitching. No moaning. Fiance Kim usually doesn't bitch and moan, but after a night of poker with the guys, its refreshing to know that she is cool with me spending the next night with poker on the computer.
Moving along, the tournament started with 77 players. It was a rebuy, which I did not expect, but alas, I did not have to rebuy once. I did, however, add on. So, my total cash outlay was $10.50 (.50 fee). Amongst the 77 players was GCox25, fellow blogger and future SNG challenge participant. Now, I didn't know this when the tournament started, but I did find out when we were down to two tables, and lo and behold GCox was at the other one. I popped over to say hello. I said I'd see him heads up for 1st and 2nd, but my prediction didn't come true. Instead, I ended up in 3rd, and GCox was in 5th. All in all not bad. My cut for the night was $96.50 or so. If you read GCox's blog, he says that his 5th place win wasn't for a lot of money (it was north of $60 though), but for me $96 is a lot. It amounts to about 50% of my then bankroll (~200), so this is a big win for me.
I'd love to talk about notable hands, but I don't remember much. When we were down to 13 or 14 I made a bold all-in bluff with Jc8c, and two players still in the hand. I literally had nothing on the board. There was maybe 9000 in the pot, and I had 11,000 tops, with at least one of the other players covering me. We were checking the entire way, and I decided I wanted that pot. So, I went all in, nervous as hell, but I knew they would fold, as they had to have nothing. They complied. Thanks Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. In a recent Pro Lesson from FullTilt, he suggested that you shouldn't change your play that much just because you are in a tournament. In the past, I would've checked and lost the 9000, because I didn't want to go out near the bubble. But Ferguson was playing in my head. I knew these guys would fold, and I didn't want to tighten up just because of the bubble. Instead, I played solid poker.
In fact, I played solid poker all night. I was never really a short-stack. My chips steadily grew. I bluffed a bit, and took down 2-3 pots with the hammer, one for 10K when the flop was A79 and I bet out big with a semi-bluff. It got to the point where a non-blogger at the table started yelling "hammer" for me.
AA took down an uncontested pre-flop pot, as did QQ. I didn't even go in at all besides the J8 until we were down to 5 or less players. It was smooth sailing, because I was screwed down. Bluffing at the right moments. Pushing players out of hands to avoid suckouts. It was a beautiful thing.
Toward the end, I definitely was not playing my best game. At one point I was down to 9000 or so with three players, each of whom had 40K or more. I just went into all-in or fold mode, and got back to 50K. But in the end, my all-in or fold mode broke down when my all in with A2 ran into J9, and the player hit his 9 on the flop. I can't rightly complain about his play or luck. At least I got my chips in there with the best of it.
GCox went on to play the $20 MTT, and took down first after his impressive 5th place win in the $5 tournament. Apparently, GCox also took down the 4th place in the $20 MTT the night before, so I'm very impressed. It was also a pleasure seeing a fellow blogger at the table by complete accident. The only other time I've played with a fellow blogger was during Pauly's freeroll (where, incidentally, I met GCox). And to have both of us at the final table out of 77 shows the power of blogging.
On the subject of blogging power, I had a couple of drinks last night with Robbie Hole. We discussed how, oddly, it felt like the only player I played against was Hole at the homegame. He said that reading my blog has really messed with his game against me. I think that is hysterical, especially since I know of several bloggers who have contemplated that their blogging puts their opponent/readers at an advantage. Lets be honest here. You may read Super/System, but when you are playing against Doyle Brunson, all the reading in the world won't help you, because (a) you are going to peg him as playing a certain way, (b) good players always keep things unpredictable, and (c) there is a definite intimidation. I'm not saying that Hole is intimidated. I know that much. But the blog tells how I play generally. Each hand, though, is different.
There you go. Happy 4th of July. I hope you all get stinking drunk and eat so much bbq that your pants won't buckle. This way, I'll be in good company.
Poker-tastic!
posted by Jordan @ 11:11 AM,
2 Comments:
-
At 12:21 PM,
GaryC said...
-
The pleasure was all mine.
G -
At 12:40 PM,
TripJax said...
-
Good job fellas.
