Told you I was just warming up...
I was sooooo damn lucky I can hardly explain it. If I sucked out on you, feel free to email me, or point me to your post so I can refresh my memory.
I'll have a more complete write up soon. Congrats Kevin! See ya at the Shootout!
(Update: Pro-like analysis in the extended entry)
I backup my blind steals with suckouts.
I did warn them. Those were my words. I was under no pretense that I was anywhere in the class of the bloggers with whom I was sitting down.
31 of the top bloggers played and just two would earn the coveted seats into the Bill Rini Vegas shootout. At the end of three weeks, that meant six players would play in a winner-take-all format for about a thousands bucks.
How do I suck out on thee... let me count the ways.
Sometimes the best cards win, and sometimes you face a donkey with a cock as his avatar. He was an angry cock, though, I made sure of that. You see, cockfighting is legal down here in Leezy-anna, and mine was wearing spurs.
The game started innocently enough. My first table was packed with the blogging elite. It was a Murderer's Row of bloggers better than me.
#1: Sorry Maudie
Tomorrow, I will join the crowd at Full Tilt for Rini's roundup. I am eager, I am breathless in anticipation, nay, I am -- dare I say it -- creaming to see what level of bad beat will be exacted to knock me out of Sunday's tournament.
Those were Maudie's words yesterday on her blog. It seems as though she's on a particularly bad Drizz-like tourney run. I did nothing to alleviate her problems.
I'm dealt pocket 4's in early position and I limp. No one raises and the flop comes down 8-3-2. Just one overcard and I'm liking my hand. Frankly, I can't really remember the action, but I think Maudie had a bet about 2/3 of the pot. I put her on two overcards figuring it was a continuation bet. I called. I guess if I thought I was really ahead I could have raised, but I wanted to see a four.
The turn was another 3. In my mind, it didn't help her. I lead out this time trying to represent the 3. I think. Maudie called, and the river was a 4 giving me the boat. I pushed and Maudie couldn't help but call if she put me on overcards, too. She had 55. I hit my two outer, and Maudie was out a few hands later when my Ace outkicked hers.
Donkey 1, Bloggers 0
#2 Sorry Pauly
Pauly tried a blind steal from the button with JTo. I had the suited JackHammer, and a pretty big stack, so I wasn't laying this one down. I called, and a flop of x-4-4 gave me a monster. Pauly bluffed at it for his whole stack figuring there's no way I called his raise with a hand that bad. I did. And Pauly was out. The JackHammer lives.
Donkey 2, Bloggers 0
#3 Sorry Easy Cure
My memory is getting really fuzzy here, but I believe I made a blind steal attempt with K2o. EZ came back at me all in. I announced I was going to suckout on him, and The Poker Geek, for that matter, who was all in with his blind. With the suckout proclamation there, I pressed the call button. (Tennessee Jason has proclaimed it the "worst call ever." So much so he was compelled to write about a hand he wasn't involved in and then call it bullshit! Wow.)
K2o vs. the Geeks 86o and EZ's 99.
The flop and the river both brought K's.
Donkey 3, Bloggers 0
The Final Table
To say I was scared out of my mind was an understatement.
1s: CJ
2s: BG
3s: -EV
4s: Royal
5s: Bill
6s: Gracie
7s: Kent
8s: Head
9s: Hank
I was the chip leader, but that didn't mean much at this table!
#4 Sorry Kent
This was the first of my big races at the final table. I had just folded to a re-raise by Hank, he was bullying me pretty good. I didn't like it. The next hand, Kent makes a standard 3x raise with KQo and I raise him virtually all in with 99. Someone said it was a steam bet.
Kent thought for a moment, saying he suddenly didn't like his hand anymore. If I was AK or AQ, he was way behind. I wanted him to fold. He called, and luckily for me, he missed.
Up For Poker 1, LA Bloggers 0
#5 Sorry Bill Bah, I owed you one!
Before the final table, Bill got moved to my table one seat to my left. I told him that I back up my blind steals with suckouts. He considered himself warned.
With 6 left, I looked down at the suited JackHammer again. I raised UTG and got called by -EV. That's when Bill went all in. I again announced I was going to suckout and called, reluctantly. Kevin thought for a while and reluctantly folded. Bill flipped over a big hand, AJ, I think, and had me dominated.
The flop was harmless, low cards that missed me, and only one diamond. The turn was another diamond. And the river gave me the runner-runner flush. It was the worst of the bad beats that I dealt out. Kevin says he folded the nuts, too, AQd, which would make my suckout even worse.
Up For Poker 2, LA Bloggers 0
#6 Sorry Gracie
We're down to five and I'm in the BB with 82o. Gracie makes a min-raise from late position and it's folded to me. With the antes in the pot and my huge stack, I can't help but call. The flop comes down 8-high, I think. I check, Gracie bets, and I put her all in. She has to call with her overcards, but misses. Another fortunate hand for me.
#7 Sorry Hank
This was my second big race of the final table. Hank had been bullying me since he sat down to my right. We were one-two in chip stacks for much of the time until he lost a huge part of his stack to Royal.
This time, he raised from the button, I think, and I pushed him all-in with pocket 10s from the small blind. Kevin folded and Hank showed A5o. The Ace never came.
Up For Poker 3, LA Bloggers 0
#8 Sorry Royal
Actually, this thing would have been practically over earlier, except I lost a race with Royal. I think it was 88 vs. A9 and Royal caught his 9 on the river. (Correction, as Kevin tells us in the comments, this lost race was against him, not Royal.)
When we got down to three, I found JJ. Royal raised from the button and I put him all in from the SB. Kevin folded and Royal called with KQ. Once again, my pocket pair held up and that was that.
I'm STILL shocked
Kevin and I had secured our seats in the shootout. The next hand I got Big Slick suited and Kevin got Presto. The hand didn't matter much, but there's a good chance we would have gotten all our money in the pot either way. I caught a K on the flop and it was really all over.
I really want to thank all the railbirds who cheered me on until the end. It was a blast!