The $450 Question
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Funny thing happened on the way to the bar. I won $450 and a $200 Nevada Jack gift card!
Here's how:
So, it's 9:01pm. I had signed up for the PSO blogger freeroll, but later in the week, I had received an email from good pal Dave Ruff. Well, his birthday was that week, so Saturday (last night) we were all going to meet up at a bar in NYC for his birthday.
With this in mind, I decided to skip the freeroll. To me, since it was free, it was essentially worthless. BUT, if I could have a bit of fun before going out, then why the hell not.
So, 9:01pm and I'm grinding a bit at PokerShare (400 out 0f 500 points completed for my PSO bonus, another 2500 after that for the $300 PokerShare bonus), and Kaellinn hits me up in the girlie IM. "You playing the freeroll?" Oh shit, I forgot about that. So, I fire up Absolute and get a girlie IM from DuggleBogey, and next thing I know, I'm in a chat room that would grow through the night. Other members included DrewsPop, GCox, Katitude, Mookie, Little Acorn Man, and definitely some others that my mind is blanking on currently. Weak stopped by late, but let's get to all that in a moment.
As I said, I had plans, and lil' Danny Platinum was supposed to meet me at the subway at 9:30 to head to the bar. So, I decide to push all-in, on every and any hand. And I did just that. I think it was K2o, and they folded to my all-in. Then it was J5o. Same deal. Next was Q80, and I pushed after a raise. Sure enough, my opponent had AQ and I readied myself to head out. Fate would have another plan. My 8 came on the flop, and I had doubled up. OK, but I still had some chips to lose, so I amped it up. QJo, all-in, and I'm called by AK. Queen on the flop, and I bust the guy. Wha?, I think. This losing is a lot harder than Veneno makes it look (I keed, and by the way, she was in the chat room too). So, I totally donk out with an all-in with 35o, and get called again by AK. 255 flop, and by the turn, he's drawing dead.
I decide to take a look at the effect of my carnage. I held over 7500 in chips. 2nd place was around 3000. Shit man, I'm the dominating chipleader.
I toyed with the idea of continuing my push monkey ways, but then I saw the prize money. Anywhere in the top 5 was decent scratch, ranging from $150 to 540. Now, I'm all for unearned opportunities, but only when they are in the abstract, such as when you are starting a 118 person freeroll with plans that night. When you are in a dominating position though, the chances of winning shoot up like a junkie with a fresh bag.
Something else happens too. First, a lot of the players get mad at you. One in particular decided to stick around and talk smack. I talk smack with the best of them, and challenged him to a $100 Heads Up match (we eventually agreed on $250). Of course, I had no intention of following through, but this is the mental torment that I am obliged to put sore losers through if they dare question the Chosen One. According to this D-bag Supreme, I was a disgrace to poker! I didn't know being a disgrace could be so profitable.
The other players were tilting too, and many were scared of me, mostly because I'd still push all-in with wreckless abandon at times. I pushed all-in facing a raise and was called by AK. I had 66, and my pocket pair held up. I knew what he had, and I was glad that my read was right and my luck held up. Of course, I was in a position to lose without fear, as I did with AJ v AK (all-in preflop, hit the J on the flop, and he hits the K on the river).
So it went. Duggle and Falstaff were at my table for a good period of time. I believe I busted Staff, probably on one of the many suckouts I was handing out. And while the game advanced, I continued to use my big stack and began playing better poker. Meanwhile, I'd call Platinum every 20 minutes to buy more time. I didn't expect to be the chipleader with over twice as many chips as the nearest competitor. But that was my lot in life, and I had to accept it.
Now, did I just luckbox my way into the money? Certainly I had a luckbox head-start. I won't deny that. But I was also playing smart once I had that big stack. Some may have seen me gambling a bit much, but that IS big stack poker, at least when you aren't trying to just fold into the money. Remember, I wouldn't mind losing, as long as I did it fast. So, I put the pressure on my opponents. I made some big raises. I also began to fold more as we neared the money.
Meanwhile, my ill-gotten stack was getting some good competition. One player finally caught up and surpassed me by a long shot, only to eventually be humbled. Even more interesting, though, was that our entire chat room was doing disprortionately well. The final table included me, Duggle, Kaellinn, DrewsPop and Katitutde, and GCox was out just outside of the money.
At the final table, I was back to a dominating position. I was dealt the Tourist (A7) about 4 out of 5 hands in one stretch, and pushed each time. I was eventually caught by A8, but why care, I had more than the rest of the table combined.
With 500/1000 blinds (with antes), I took out Duggle with J8o in the BB (I had to call 1800 more). Duggle had 55. I may've taken out DrewsPop too, but I think someone else had that honor. I took out Kaellinn with a decent, but unremarkable hand. Suddenly, we were down to the final 5, and Kat and I were still in it. She doubled up off of me, but I still had more than the rest of the table combined. I took out 5th place, and then took out Kat in 4th. I lost a chunk of chips to BRUIN4Life, a player who had sat on my right for the entire game (a tough place to be, I'm sure). He had doubled up as a result and was near 50k to my 70k. When we took out 3rd place, we were running fairly close.
And then it was heads up. BRUIN never bitched a moment during my luckbox beginnings and my intentional effort to appear like I was still a maniac. We played heads-up for a hella-long time. It was probably 40 minutes at least. There was even a 5 minute break in the middle (thanks to the tourney structure) during which we exchanged pleasantries. "Bruin, no matter what happens, it's been a pleasure playing with you." And I meant it, sincerely. I love this game.
As it happens, BRUIN survived my Ace-high against his King-high when he was shortstack and launched a comeback. At one point, I was down to 18,000 against his 100,000+, and came back to about even. But, yep, I lost. I was card dead, and he counteracted my aggression well. I took solace in the fact that 2nd place was just $90 less than 1st, for a whopping $450 profit.
So, what am I doing with the winnings? Paying bills, mostly. But I'm also going to make a transfer. Ruff, I'm sorry I missed your birthday, but when I played, I thought to myself, "I'm doing this for Ruff. If I win, I'm giving him a cut." So, expect some nice dough in your PokerStars account.
posted by Jordan @ 8:26 AM,
6 Comments:
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At 1:23 PM,
said...
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Nice job. I caught it when you where heads up.
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At 2:51 PM,
said...
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I'm gonna miss those little gun toting rugrats.
Very nice job on the tourney... -
At 5:21 PM,
said...
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I gayed off my chips to you on the bubble to the final two tables and you can't even take it home? WEAK! In all seriousness, nice finish J! Watching you the first fifteen minutes was worth the price of admission alone, espcially since that price was FREE! Also, I'm pretty sure you owe me like $6.50 for my reminder services.
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At 7:58 PM,
said...
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Nice run J. I really wanted you to take it down to stuff it in the face of the real disgrace loser.
You didn't get me. Dymbagg something or other sucked out his AQ vs my AK and put me out 6th.
I couldn't agree more either about your comment about the special olympics payout structure. 6-13th get the same money but 5th gets 2.5 times that plus $200 more in Nevada Jacks. WTF! I mean there was really no difference between 27th and 6th, which was lame. I think the word you used when I got bounced was "soulsucking". That about summed it up at the time.
Oh well, nice job anyway. -
At 8:38 PM,
said...
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Ah yes, Drewspop. Soulsucking indeed. It was your AK v. an AQ, and I remember thinking, YEAH BOY!! WE TAKING IT TO THE FINALS, until my thoughts changed to, AW! WHAT THE HELL!
Kaellin, I just reread the post you linked to. Dizzamn! That's right, man. I had forgotten about the tourney until you IM'ed me. In fact, the night before, I asked TripJax if he would play for me. Obviously, he couldn't, but, um, well, I couldn't be happier.
THANKS PSO! -
At 11:40 AM,
said...
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Great job the other night...
