Update with Nice Score

Happy New Year! Go Ravens. They looked really good yesterday and basically dominated the Dolphins as I suspected they would. This team looks and feels a lot like the 2000 team though I am not sure this defense is quite as good as that one which was arguably one of the all time greatest. This weekend is the key. I think if we beat the Titans we will get to the Super Bowl. I just think the Steelers are not going to beat us three times this year (in fact the Ravens probably "should" have won both of the previous meetings this year). I also don't think all of the Chargers hype is warranted. They won a dreadful division mostly because the Broncos suck and totally collapsed. If the Ravens get up early on the Titans Saturday it should be a good day.

So last time I posted I was planning on playing a ton of tournaments last Sunday including the big majors and a few others. I did in fact play most of them but had no real cashes of significance. One cash for $100 and three other cashes in the $50 range. All in all, however, it was a profitable day as I had won 3 seats to the Sunday Million on Stars and my seat to the Tilt 750k. This covered all my buy-ins and a little extra though nothing great.

I also played some tournaments last week and made it fairly deep in the Stars 10k guarantee ($11 tournament at 9:15 p.m.) 2x but crapped out both times in 65th and 13th for smallish scores.

But Saturday night was a good night. I actually wasn't going to play but at 9:30 or so I decided to play a bunch of the 10 p.m. tournaments. Here are the tournaments I played:

Tilt

9:30 Fifty-Fifty (50+5) $50,000 guarantee
10:00 Big Double A (60+6)
10:00 Big Double B (60+6)

Stars

9:30 $70,000 Guarantee (50+5)
10:00 $16.50 NLHE

I also played a few satellites and sit and gos while all of this was going on.

The Big Double is an event similar to the Daily Double that if you cash in both you get a bonus (usually an extra $350 or so) with that bonus escalating if you make final tables in both and huge if you win both.

Anyway I chipped up well in all of the events. I lost coinflips for big pots in both the Stars 70k and the Tilt 50-50 eventually busting reasonably close to the money. But the Big Double and the 16.50 I had chips the whole way. Unfortunately I lost in the Big Double A with abt 40 left (18 cashed) when I flopped 2nd pair and checkraised all in. He called with an up and down str8 draw and hit. Blah! But the other two were pretty interesting.

Big Double B

I played very solid throughout and just chipped up. I got paid off and doubled up with KK when a guy reshoved on me with 66 after I had opened with a raise. This was with about 40 left and 18 got paid (started with ~180). I made a nice laydown on the turn with about 30 left. I had AJ on the button on a J246 board when the SB had made a str8 and the other player in the hand stacked off with J8. Then I kept playing solid and we were down to the final 11 or so when this came up and I FINALLY had a hand hold up in a key spot:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3672441

That hand obviously was totally standard from my perspective. His reshove with A6 is pretty bad.

The next hand to show you is a suckout by yours truly. I usually complain about bad beats so I have to balance that with the occassional bad beats I get to lay on others. To put this hand in perspective, this guy had 3 bet me probably 5 times in the last 15-20 orbits. Every time I opened the pot with a raise he would reraise me and I had to fold. So here I decided to 4 bet shove and unfortunately this time he had a monster:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3672446

This created a bit of back and forth as he was none to pleased with me. Oh well.

Finally we got to the final table and I was the big stack. I played very solid and still had the chip lead with 4 left. I chopped a pot when I got it all in with me holding AQ vs. opponents AT and the board ran JJAKx for a chopper.

Finally we were heads up and pretty close in chips. The difference in payouts was over $1,000 so closing this out was important. We both played pretty aggressively with a lot of raising and 3 betting. Finally about 20 hands in the final hand came down as follows:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3672436

I probably could have folded to his 4 bet and still had t130,000 in chips but oh well. Middle pair with an up and down str8 draw is pretty strong heads up but not strong enough to stack off 50BB. Sucks but a little less than $2k for the effort.

Stars $16.50

This tournament was pretty uneventful really as I played very solid and chipped up nicely. I did have a hand that generated a lot of noise from the rail and the others at the table. Villian in this hand is hyper aggressive and trying to run over the table when this happens:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3672448

I call with 9To on the button as his opening range is huge and if I hit I think he is spewy and will double me up. Flop comes and I make a pair. He bets I raise and he shoves. His line is very transparent and really just terribly spewy. I know he has nothing so I snap call and double up. He then went on a tirade about how bad I was, BLAH BLAH BLAH. But this shows you the value of playing the man and not just the cards. He was raising and reraising every hand and I was just waiting for a pair to double up. A lot of people can accumulate chips but have no idea how to play when they get a big stack.

Anyway I got to the final table but unfortunately went out 6th for ~$300 when the big stack raised and I shoved 9 BB with 88. He snap called with QQ and I was done.

I probably won't play a lot of tournaments now that the holidays are over and work is getting busy again. Being up that late is a little tough the next days. I will play some cash games as I have been playing and running pretty well playing NLHE cash.

I am going to the Borgata Winter Series next week and will play 2 events I think:

$500 NLHE
$350 PLO

Will let you know how that goes.