Poker Poker, It's all skill...: Nostradamus Who?

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?