It's Football Time!!!!

College Football kicked off last night in a not so dramatic form. I'll tell you what though, the one thing that makes college sports what it is, is the the atmosphere. The only type of atmosphere that even comes close to a college game is an NFL playoff game...or if your watching Golden State in the playoffs. Even then I don't think they can match it. There are going to be tons of great games this year. September alone is a monster month filled with exciting matchups. And with that comes a little bit of Gambling. I'm in an pool with a bunch of the guys around the town, probably around 60-70 in all. It's very fun. I thought I'd take it a step further and pick 10 College Football and 10 Pro Games here on the blog and pick some winners. With that I'll keep track of Wins and Losses all season long. Considering there are no Pro Games until Thursday, a couple of college games will have to do.

Here's the format I'm going to use..

Philadelphia @ New York Giants + 3.5

Ok, so Philadelphia is at NY, the Giants are the home team. The home team is always going to dictate the spread. So here the Giants are getting 3.5 points. If it was -3.5, they would be giving those points. I think I'm also going to do 1 "Lock Game" for each college and NFL. These will be 2 games that are sure winners. On to this weeks picks..


1) Georgia Tech @ Notre Dame -2.5

I'm gonna go with Georgia Tech here. There are just too many questions regarding the ND offense. I'm not even sure of Charlie Weiss knows who he wants to start at QB.

Pick: Georgia Tech

2) Washington St @ Wisconsin -14.5

P.J. Hill is just too good for Washington St to handle. Coming off a 1500 yard 15 TD season as a Freshman, all signs point to another big year for this spectacular running back.

Pick: Wisconsin

3) Wake Forest @ Boston College -6.5

I think BC is going to have a great year. They are returning their star QB, Matt Ryan, who led one of the best passing offenses in the Nation last year. With the loss of Brian Toal, the defense is going to need some fresh faces to step up and be leaders. I see BC getting the nod here.

Pick: Boston College

4) East Carolina @ Virginia Tech -24.5

There is just too much to overcome here for Carolina. The emotion is going to be unreal as the Hokes storm onto the field in Blacksburg. The hokies just need to worry about covering the spread here for me.

Pick: Virginia Tech

5) Oklahoma St @ Georgia -6.5

Georgia has underachieved the last few years, putting up sub par records. Matt Stafford returns with a bunch of weapons on offense with Kregg Lumpkin and Mohammed Massoqui to name a few. They have some questions on Defense, but I think they will be alright.

Pick: Georgia

6) Missouri @ Illinois +5.5

All I'm going to say is Ron Zook.

Pick: Missouri

7) Kansas St @ Auburn -13.5

The Wildcats aren't going to know what hits them when they walk into Jordan-Hare stadium on Saturday. Even though he didn't start last year, Auburn returns Brad Lester who had a team high 9 rushing td's and 4.9 yards per carry. Auburn in a blowout.

Pick: Auburn

8) Houston @ Oregon -14.5

Derek Dixon and James Stewart come out in the Pistol formation, Dixon steps back and they run the option. Dixon cuts, pitches back to Stewart and hes at the 30...20...10...5...TD

Pick: Oregon

9) Florida State @ Clemson +3

It's another edition of the Bowden Bowl! It was bad enough that my Seminoles had to open with Miami, and since they didn't renew the contract, they are scheduling different opponents. Now, you would think Bobby Bowden would learn and open with a cupcake team, but that's certainly not the case here. However, he did finally shake up his coaching staff with the boldest moving firing his offensive coordinator(his son). FSU and Clemson both return pretty much everybody, so why is anything going to be different this year? I'm going to give my Noles' some credit since they are coming into the season after a Bowl victory last year, and the Tigers dropping 4 of their last 5 including a bowl loss to...Kentucky? OOOOOOOOOO oooo OOOOOO oooooo OOOOO dun dun dun dun dun dun

Pick: Florida State

10) Tennessee @ California -5.5

The most anticipated game of the first week of the season is no doubt the Vols vs the Bears. After getting absolutely destroyed last year at Tennessee, Cal has been licking their chops all summer long to get another crack at Phil Fulmer's squad. Speaking of Fulmer, he is 14-1 in season openers. How is Tennessee going to get plays into the game when Cal is planning to distribute 50,000 megaphones before the game to its fans. Are we kidding? I think this game is really a tossup with the spread. It could end up playing out like last year with Cal getting the quick start on Tennessee since they're are at home. I'm going to go with a 28-20 win for Cal when Nate Longshore throws a fade to DeSean Jackson to put the Bears up for good.

Pick: Cal


*Pick of the Week*

Idaho @ USC -49

Oh that's right my friends. The only thing that would have saved Idaho is Pete Carroll was buddies with Idaho's D-Coordinator. They might have eased off the pedal...if he was still there. He is now with Carroll's staff so there is no holding back. The only thing funnier about a 7 TD spread is that they are actually going to cover...easily

Pick: USC


So that does it for this week. I tried to pick some games that were going to be competitive for my regular picks. Being the first week of the season it's kind of hard to find some. Check back next week where I have my NFL Season Preview, complete with your Superbowl winner.

SNG Comedy

Here are a couple of hands from tonight's session. These are why sngs are a very easy way to build a bankroll.

1)

Seat 1: trixter23 (990)
Seat 7: dmiles1032 (4,000)

trixter23 posts the small blind of 40
montana3303 posts the big blind of 80
Dealt to trixter23 [Ah Ks]

dmiles1032 calls 80
trixter23 raises to 990, and is all in
dmiles1032 shows [5s 3s]
*** FLOP *** [8d 5c Jh]
*** TURN *** [8d 5c Jh] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [8d 5c Jh 9h] [7d]
dmiles1032 wins the pot (2,060) with a pair of Fives
trixter23 stands up

2)

Seat 1: Badstew (3,965)
Seat 6: trixter23 (1,930)

Badstew posts the small blind of 30
Big Daddy J Dub posts the big blind of 60

Dealt to trixter23 [Ad Ah]
trixter23 raises to 180
Badstew calls 150

*** FLOP *** [2d Qs 4h]
Badstew checks
trixter23 bets 300
Badstew raises to 600
trixter23 raises to 1,750, and is all in
Badstew calls 1,150

Badstew shows [Qd Ac]
*** TURN *** [2d Qs 4h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [2d Qs 4h 8s] [2c]
trixter23 wins the pot (3,920) with two pair, Aces and Twos

3) THE VERY NEXT HAND!

Seat 1: Badstew (2,035)
Seat 2: Big Daddy J Dub (3,830)
Seat 6: trixter23 (3,920)

Dealt to trixter23 [Ah Ac]
trixter23 raises to 180
Badstew calls 180
Big Daddy J Dub calls 150

*** FLOP *** [Kc 8d 2d]

Big Daddy J Dub checks
trixter23 bets 3,740, and is all in
Badstew calls 1,855, and is all in
Big Daddy J Dub folds

Badstew shows [Jc Kh]

*** TURN *** [Kc 8d 2d] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 8d 2d 9s] [Ts]
trixter23 wins the pot (4,310) with a pair of Aces

Doesnt he learn? lololol

4) The last guy guy chips within the first 10 hands of the tournament he knocked 2 players out each with 1500 chips with T5 vs 22 on a T77 board after the flop and 55 vs AK aipf.

Seat 1: derny (5,615)
Seat 5: trixter23 (1,395)

MaxStirner posts the small blind of 20
FRAKINNUTS posts the big blind of 40

Dealt to trixter23 [Ad Ac]
derny raises to 120
trixter23 raises to 500
derny raises to 1,320
trixter23 raises to 1,395, and is all in
derny calls 75

trixter23 shows [Ad Ac]
derny shows [8d Kd]

*** FLOP *** [8c Kh 4d]
*** TURN *** [8c Kh 4d] [Tc]
LosBorrachos: bastardo!
*** RIVER *** [8c Kh 4d Tc] [9s]
trixter23 stands up

Nostradamus Who? - Just Ship It!

This Pot Limit Omaha tournament on Full Tilt has been absolutely haunting me. I have 3 cashes in my last 4 try's in it, so when I found myself with a decent stack in the final 18 I was chipping up very nicely for the final table. I had just lost a coinflip, yes after the turn it was exactly 50/50 going into the river. I had an open-ended straight draw, with the nut flush draw vs 2 pair and a gutshot straight draw. I didn't get there so I only had a few chippies left. I did indeed finally make it to the final table on Friday.



Unfortunately, I had probably the worst position on the table. With the 200k stack(lol) 2 to my left, 3rd in chips directly to my left, and 2nd in chips 2 to my right. I really wasn't going to be able to get any chips unless I got lucky. I gambled a little bit when there was a ton of chips in the middle pre flop and I went all in with A567 double suited but didn't catch anything. I headed to the rail in 8th for a couple bucks. Also in case you were wondering, no that guy with 200k didn't win the tournament.





I finally took the leap of faith and signed up for Absolute Poker. I've wanted to do it for the longest time, because it's one of ...if not the only site I can get rakeback on. Since AP decided to spruce up its software this week, I decided to give it a go and see what happens. I got everything all signed up through my rakeback site, and got money deposited JUST in time for a $5 donkament. Now when I mean just in time, I mean during late registration. I'm oh so very grateful it was easy to get money on the site. I had to take out of stars, go to epassporte, then into AP. In the post gambling act age, this is incredible. Let me tell you though, AP SURE knows how to welcome a new player!

At first I thought I was playing on PokerStars. The chip styles, and sounds are exactly the same. There are 2 things that I disliked after I found out about them. First off I raised in LP with the tourist(A7) and the bb was disconnected, he timed out but they declared him all in and played his hand out to the river. I had won the pot when his monster 52 didn't hit. But I think his hand should just be declared dead since I had raised pre. Also, when you're in the blinds when it's 200/400 for example, and you want to raise to 1200..then you have to hit raise 800 to get to 1200. It's not like other sites where if you want it to be 1200 you just hit 1200. This got me a few times. Back to the tournament though.

I was playing my usual game and was just picking up hand after hand. I would love to say I outplayed people, but that just wasn't the case. This was probably one of my easiest wins to date. We'll pick up the action from the Final Table.



I had really good position coming in. The big stack(who hit a set on the river 88 vs 99 AIPF) was directly to my right. I had short stacks to pick on to my left, so everything should be good. I just had to keep playing well and picking good spots. Here is the hand where I got all my chips
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1411483 I really didn't know what to do when I saw the utg raise, then a mini raise repop from mid position. It had to be something strong. UTG was a tight player and he wasn't coming into the pot with anything. I decided to go with it and the poker gods held out and we won the hand. Going into the break after a few more hands the stacks looked like this.



I was really able to take a lot of pots from the 2 to my left. After a few hands it was clear to me that they were playing to place a little bit higher to get more money. So I beat on them a little bit. Bocabluff and I each knocked one out and we then went to 3 handed play. I was getting a little beat up at this juncture. They were 3 betting me quite a bit. Once they showed down a hand that they played, I was done folding. They just had no fear. I called a raise in the bb from the sb next to me and got a super flop. He open insta shoved all his chips in my face with a gut shot and somehow didn't hit.





So we were now heads up. I had a little dilemma on my hands. If you notice the avatar that the player has I'm facing, it's Al Pacino from Scarface. I could either A) lose to him so I dont get killed or B) be one of the few players to win their first tournament on a poker site ever. After some pondering I said, "THIS IS SPARTA!" and attacked. He was making ridiculous raises and I was just getting sick of him to be honest. He made the mistake of showing me not once but TWICE what he was shoving with and it was garbage. So I called him the third time and he paid for it.





I found it a little scary I felt a big win was coming up. Monetarily, it isn't the biggest, but it sure does give me an insta-bankroll for AP. I mean really, how many people can say they won their first tournament on a poker site? I took down $525 for 1st in this $5 tournament. Not bad for 5 hours work, I'll take it. It's certainly been a great week. 3 Final Tables, 1 of them being a victory, crushing Sit and Go's, and making decent money at cash games. Maybe I'll take the day off tomorrow...or should I?




*click images to enlarge

Movin On Up

When I was playing cash games, I just didn't play a very good MTT. I was impatient and trying to bully people out of pots. At the micro limits, you're just not going to do that. So I didn't play them at all. Now that I'm in sng mode once again, my MTT game has gotten back into shape. On Monday I fell short of a FT with a 15th place finish in a PLO tournament. On Tuesday I made the final table of a $5 6 max tournament. I broke the golden rule of micro mtt's when I tried to get cute and shove over a blind raiser with K2 which didn't work out too well when he had 22. It was for his stack and somehow the K2 didn't hold. I went out 3rd for a $147 dollar payday.



That helps the BR on Full Tilt out pretty significantly. I'm 10 bucks short of 30 buyins for the next level of Sit and Go's which is the $10 level. There really isn't that much difference between the two, but I might play 100 $5 sng's considering I'm half way there already. I just got done with another PLO tournament. I bubbled yet again in 13th. I had limped on the button with 20k behind with 9935 after 5 ...yes 5 people limped in front of me. It's an easy situation where I'm looking for a 9 or folding. I got an absolute perfect flop of 9 3 5 rainbow. I bet 5500 into the 6500 pot and got c/r all in by a guy who I had covered by about 400 chips. I insta-call and he flips KKJ3. Of course he gets there on the river with a King and I'm out.

I'll continue to play sng's and mtt's on the side, I'm smelling a big win in the near future.

Full Tilt SNG's = Cakewalk?

As I said last week, I put $50 onto FT to play some Sit and Go's. Tilts structure compared to Stars' is way better. Players are extremely tight on the bubble which has been very profitable for me so far. I really didn't want to post results on here not because I dont like to share with my few readers, but because everytime I do the pokersite turns on the doomswitch for me. Now keep in mind I could just be on a heater, because you really can't draw any conclusions from just 24 sng's.

$5 Level

# of Tourneys - 24

Buy-In - $132

Amount Won - $250.50

Net Profit - $118.50

ROI% - 89.77

Fin. In the $ - 62.5%

Avg Finish - 3.29

1st Place - 8

2nd Place - 1

3rd Place - 6

There is no way I'll be able to keep up with the 89% ROI. Generally over a long term I believe I can sustain a 30% ROI at this level. Also If you look at the Place finishes, thats exactly how it should look. I can attribute much of my ROI to my heads up play. If I had say 5 firsts and 4 seconds I'm looking at a 20% drop in ROI easy. Within a few more sng's if everything goes according to plan I can start moving up. I'm really focused on sng's right now especially since PXF just started a SNG League that's in the beta form right now. Hopefully things can continue down this path and I'll be updating frequently.

It's Almost Time

The Countdown is on ladies and gentleman. 6 long months without the greatest sport on the face of the earth has worn down to a mere 3 weeks. Fantasy drafts are now taking place, where diehard fans take the next unknown and turn them into gold. A National holiday is declared for August 14h, 2008, for the release of Madden 08. Yes it's really here. One of the first clear cut signs that Football is once again upon us. There is only one question to be answered, Who Wants It More?

Catch of the Year

40lb King Salmon - I'm gonna eat good tonight!

Play A Sit-and-Go With Me

I deposited $50 to see how the SNG's on Full Tilt Poker run. I watched Entourage last night, and played just one after that. This is that SNG. Now before I get into this, let me start by explaining how I play one of these. For those that know normal strategy, that's what i'll be talking about and you can skip right to the hh's. These single table tournaments are a great way to build a bankroll. I believe you have the lowest variance out of the big 3 types of games(Cash, MTT, and SNG). They are very easy to beat, but a lot of people really don't know how to play them properly. Generally speaking, you should be playing an ULTRA tight game. Only really playing premium hands. You can play more than the usual hands if you want, but make sure you play them well or it's really just a waste.

Your first goal should be to make the money. That's all you really want to do. Once you get there, then you can worry about winning. Because anything other than 3rd and your going home with nothing but a waste of time. As long as you make the right decisions there is nothing you can do about the cards not going your way.

There is a lot of great instructional material in this one. It shows me being tight, what happens when you try and outplay people, and the crucial bubble play. I was actually thinking of another sng on Pokerstars to do this with last week, but this one is perfect. Lets get to the SNG.

Level - 15/30.

1) JJ - I picked up JJ in mp and limp. I don't need to raise here at all because most of the time I'll be faced with multiple callers and usually an overcard will flop. Generally with pp's early, I'm looking to flop a set or fold.

Both the sb and bb are in the hand with 1 limper. The flop comes A 4 4, and I fold to a flop bet.

Stack: 1470

2) 77 - Well we get another pp and I limp again. We're faced with a mini raise to 60 and its an easy call. The flop comes AKQ and I fold.

Stack: 1410

3) Kh 8d - Fold
4) 2d 4d(bb) - Fold - Stack 1380
5) 9c 4h(sb) - Fold - Stack 1365

6) Qs Jc - Now here is a great hand to illustrate how tight you have to play. I played this hand as bad as you could. I really dont even need to play this at this point. There were 2 limpers ahead and I had the QJ on the button. I try to pick up the pot pre-flop with a raise to 100 but both limpers and the sb call. We see a flop of..

8 3 5

Now for some reason on such a dry board and into 4 people I bet 120 into the 390 pot. I get 2 callers. We all check the turn which brought a Ten. A 7 comes on the river and they check to me and I fire 325 into the 750 pot. The oringal limper is the only caller and flips over A3 for bottom pair with no draw. This just shows what they are going to call you down with. So instead of 1335 chips, I'm down to 830. Now I really can't limp with hands to try and get a quick double up.

Level - 20/40

7) Js 3h - Fold
8) Js 4c - Fold
9) Ac 4h - Fold
10) 6s 7c - Fold
11) 9c 6d - Fold
12) Kh 8d(bb) - I get a walk - Stack 830
13) 8d 6s(sb) - Fold

14) 4d 9h - The levels were about to go up so I stole the blinds. - Stack 890

Level - 25/50

15) Kh 3s - Fold
16) 3h 7h - Fold
17) 4h Jh - Fold
18) Ac Th(bb) - I get a walk - Stack 935
19) Ad 2d(sb) - Fold - Stack 915
20) Qh Td - Fold
21) Td 9s - Fold

Level - 30/60

22) 4s 6h - Fold
23) 5c 5d - Fold - Raise in front of me and I don't have odds nor the stack to call.
24) 4d 7s - Fold

25) 2d 7d(bb) - Ok utg limps and utg+1 goes all in for 105 total. The sb folds and I have to call 45 with 255 in the pot, which is an easy call. Hopefully I'll catch something or I'll check it down. We did indeed check it down and the board bricked and utg+1 triples up. Stack 810.

26) Ad 3s(sb) - This was an extremely marginal spot. I have 13x the bb and have A3s. If I raise and fold to a shove I would be in push/shove mode. I just decided to shove and pick up the pot here as I only had to get through the bb. Stack 870.

27) 5s 7c - Fold
28) Jc 6s - Fold
29) 2d 4d - Fold
30) 9c 8c - Fold

Level 40/80

Ok, now is where we start need to be making some moves. We have less than 10x the blind and need to be finding spots to shove and pick up some blinds or double up ...or go home. There is no limping, no raising AT ALL. It's all in or fold.

31) 9s 5h(bb) - Fold to a raise. *Reminder* when shoving be the first one into the pot. Unless you have a monster you don't want to be going over top of anyone or calling off your chips. If I was in the sb with this hand and it was folded to me, I would have shoved.

32) 3c 4d(sb) - Fold to a raise - Stack 750
33) 5d Th - Fold

34) Qs Kh - Folded to me and I shove. We get called by ATs and we hit 2 pair to double up. Stack - 1580.

35) 6c 6d - Raise and take the blinds. Stack - 1700

36) 5s 6s - Fold
37) Ad Th(bb) - I get a Walk
38) 2s Tc(sb) - Fold
39) Kh 6h - The bb has 120 chips total and I min raise on the button to put him all in and eliminate him with K6 vs 26. Stack - 1820.

Now we're 5 handed and approaching that bubble. You must know how to play this like the back of your hand.

40) Kd 2h - Fold
41) Ah Ts - Fold
42) 4d 4c - Fold
43) 2c 8s(bb) - Fold
44) Kd Ks(sb) - Raise and take the bb. - Stack - 1820
45) Js 9d - Fold
46) 6h 3d - Fold

Level - 50/100

47) Kh 4c - Fold
48) 2h 7s(bb) - I get a walk - Stack 1870

49) Td 8d(sb) - I try to steal and get 3 bet. I'm still able to try and steal as I have 18 bb's, and am able to fold to a shove. - Stack - 1620

50) 2d 3h - Fold
51) Ts 7d - Fold
52) 2d 7h - Fold

53) Kc 9d(bb) - Ok so here the sb limps and I make it 300. From previous hands, hes done this with a huge range, and I thought I could take it pre-flop. Only he calls. The flop comes

9s 3s Kh

It couldn't be any better of a flop. He leads into me for 400 into the 600 pot. Easy decision to go all in here for 1320 chips. He calls and shows Kd 5c and will need running 5s. He bricks and I double up to 3240.

54) 7c 6h(sb) - Fold
55) 3d Jh - Fold

56) Kh Kd - I raise it up to 300 and get called from the button who I have covered by about 85 chips. The clop comes

6d 5s 4d

This is just an atrocious flop for my hand. I fire out 300 into the 750 pot and he min-raises to 600. I really thought I had run into a set here. Then I changed my mine and thought he was trying to buy a card for the river. I decided to shove all in and he insta-calls with 99. The board bricks and I now have the chip lead with T6445.

Now is where the fun really begins. We are 4 handed and the short stack is to my right with 845 chips. The other 2 guys have 3760 and 2450 respectively. I can now pretty much shove on those 2 guys with any 2 and they HAVE to fold. There are no if's or but's about it. Unless they have AA they gotta muck. The ss wanted to cash really bad and just kept folding and folding and folding. This was great for me as I was able to chip up extremely easily.

Stack - 6445

*BUBBLE*

57) Qc Th - Raise to 350 and steal.
58) Ks 5h(bb) - I get a walk
59) Jh 6c(sb) - Shove on bb who folds.
60) Jh 4h - Shove and take the blinds
61) Qs Qd - Just shove and take the blinds

Level 60/120

62) Ah Ts(bb) - I get a walk
63) 7c Jd(sb) - Shove and take the bb
64) 8s 6h - Shove and take the blinds

65) Qd Jd - I shove and the short stack blinds down to 245 chips before he takes a stand with the monster 10-2. He bricks and we are in the money and with a commanding chip lead.

Stack - 8000

So as you can see I pretty much can do what I please with the other 2 guys while that guy is sitting there with 200 chips. Add to that I picked up 1600 in chips on the bubble. The stacks look like this now

Me - 8k
Player 1 - 3430
Player 2 - 2070

66) Qh 6h(bb) - I get a walk
67) Kh 4h(sb) - Fold - Now that we're in the money we want to play well again.
68) 5d 5c - Raise and take blinds
69) Jd 3d(bb) - I get a walk
70) 9c Th(sb) - I raise and get 3 bet so I fold
71) Kc 3c - Fold
72) Kh Js(bb) - I get a walk
73) 2h 9h(sb) - Raise and take blinds
74) 2c 3c - Fold
75) Ac 2h(bb) - I get a walk
76) 6c 7h(sb) - I raise and get 3 bet so I fold
77) 6d Jd - Fold
78) 2d 9s(bb) - Fold
79) Ah 5h(sb) - I change it up here and limp, he raises and I 3 bet all in and he folds.
80) Qd 3s - Fold
81) Tc Td(bb) - Raise and take blinds
82) 8c 5h(sb) - I raise and get 3 bet so I fold
83) Qs 8h - I raise and get 3 bet so I fold
84) Qh Kh(bb) - I get a walk
85) Kh Jh(sb) - I raise and take the blinds
86) 5d 4c - Fold
87) Kd 3d(bb) - I get a walk
88) Qc Tc(sb) - I raise and take the blidns

Blinds 80/160

89) Ah 6d - I get it all in with the ss and we chop.

90) Kd Th(bb) - After flopping top pair I get it in with the ss and he rivers a straight lol. Stack - 6410

91) 6c Js(sb) - Fold
92) 3c 7s - Fold
93) 2h 9d(bb) - I get a walk
94) 6h Ts(sb) - Fold
95) 4c 9h - Fold
96) 7d 4d(bb) - I get a walk
97) Js 7c(sb) - I raise and take the blinds
98) 5d 6c - I raise and get 3 bet so I fold
99) 7c 7d(bb) I raise and take the sb

100) 2s 8h(sb) - Fold - The ss plays AK the worst you can and busts. We're now heads up.

Stacks

Me - 6330
Villain - 7070

Heads up play is more about playing the man than the cards. I gave away some chips but learned about him as a player at the same time.

101) Qc 3s - He folds.
102) As Th - I raise, he folds
103) As 3d - He raises, I fold
104) Ac 7c - I raise, he folds.
105) Qs Th - He folds.
106) Kh 4c - I raise, he folds

107) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1339310 - Played this one weird, I thought I had the best of it.

Stacks

Villain - 8430
Me - 5070

108) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1339311 - Another bad hand by myself. He did the check/call lead here and I had to fold. If i had 2nd pair I prob would have jammed.

Stacks

Villain - 9550
Me - 3950

109) 9d Tc - He folds
110) Ks 2c - I fold
111) 2d 3h - He folds

Level 100/200

112) Ah Kd - I raise and he folds
113) Ac Kc - He folds
114) 5s 9c - I mis click and re raise, but take it down with a c bet.
115) Ad 7d - I raise, he folds

116) 4s 4d - I raise and he 3 bets to 1800. I jam and he thinks for a little and calls with A2. Somehow I hold and double up.

Stacks

Villain - 3920
Me - 9580

117) 6c 5d - He folds
118) 4h 5c - I fold
119) 3s 3d - He raises, I shove and he folds
120) 7c Th - I raise, he shoves and I fold
121) 4c Th - Very funn hand lol http://www.pokerhand.org/?1339327
122) Qs Qd - I raise to 600 and he cold calls. The flop comes

Tc 2c 4h

I bet 600 again for half the pot and he cold calls

Ks on the turn and he leads for 600, I shove and he flips over 6c 9c for a flush draw. He bricks and I win the tournament. I definitely didn't play perfect, but you dont have to, to win at this level. I hope you all learned something, and I'll see ya at the tables.

Another First Time Winner

Coming into the Final Table, Mike was hovering around the average stack even maybe a little below it. He picked spots well and managed to triple his stack and put himself in a dominant position 5 hands into that FT. It was clear sailing to the Final 3 where he called an all in with 36..suiiiiiiiiited. He got rivered, but it was a risk worth taking. After hitting his flush to knock out Utter, he eliminated myself when he rivered a straight against me. Congrats on the first "official" win as far as being recorded on the blog.

Saturday night seemed like the deck and Mac slept together 2 hours before the tournament started. I've never seen an improbable run of boats quite like he was getting. I can't blame it on him rigging the deck because he cant shuffle as it is lol. After going into heads up play with a commanding 225k to 55k chip lead against myself, I wittled him down without being all in one time. Thus denying him of his first bracelet. We even chopped after Barry was about to pass out dealing. Nice try Mac, maybe next time.