Islands of Clarity, Sounds of Frustration...aka the oceanic topography of Success and her Sister

Exit in tilt.

Not over the 10+1. Thanks to MATH, WWdN was a freeroll. Just surprised (what hubris!) to find myself bounced FOURTH, despite starting with 99, KK and AA. Care to guess which held up?

Too easy, right? And that likely because she was folded to preflop after I raised 7BB to a table of limps. The bad mojo of this experience is holding up nicely because Microsoft PP just ate the 4 slides I wanted to show and talk about. I'll work from memory, and anyone involved who thinks my memory is playing falsely is probably well justified to posit as such. Okay, I took a little more time and actually looked at the hand histories, broke out the calculator and mulled a bit. But what is the point of mining your defeats? To with old woes new wail my dear time's waste?

Fuhsuck That.

No, the only utility to would be to achieve in measured autopsy that which every rigourous physician seeks after the death of a patient; insight.

Would you care for a hand history disclaimer? I assure you said beast is nigh upon us. But are you routinely in the habit of telling your host you don't like their curtains? Or that their tea is too milky? If so, PFO. Or chill out. Your call.

I think I have learned a lesson on this one. But it may not be the one some of you think I should have learned, so if you have time, feel free to share your take.

Level 1 (ah...when will the significance of that sink in?) KcKd on the button. Folded around. Raise 3BB (my very standard raise - no originality and I am tinkering with this, but truthfully I wanted a caller here, a reraiser even). Both Blinds (Shadow and Puff the Magic Dragon) feel unthreatened enough to take a gander. Yeah that didn't make me happy but too late now.

4c 8c 6d = A Dilemna (offsuit).

I have seen Smokkee brilliantly stack better players than me by spelunking cheaply and hitting gold. That said, this board looks attackable to me. What was I hoping for - KhKsAx? Well yeah, but this should do. The pot was 180, and I bet it to find out who's interested. Yeah I am the button, my range could be wide, but I make two assumptions here, neither of which served me well.

1. As of late, I am perceived as Tight (we'll leave the Weak v. Aggressive debate for another day - Mankind cannot stand too much reality, T.S. Elliot shrewdly deduced).
2. Betting more than the pot will be perceived as a bluff (I know I get suspicious when it's done to me).

I was trying to convincingly convey that unless you flopped a set or slowplayed AA, you likely want out of the way. In retrospect, knowing the hands we held looking at this flop; Shadow with Qh8h and Smokkee with 9cTh, I was in fact well ahead, if vulnerable. I attempted to make it believably unprofitable to call a draw. I continue to rethink this bet and would really be interested in hearing how else it could have been played and why. My problem was apparent immediately: Shadow liked his TPGK and called quickly, giving Smokkee 180 for a chance at 540 (3:1) with his gutshot and three flush. All three riders take the turn.

Ever get that inexorable feeling something very wicked indeed was headed your way? That nightmare-quality intransigence that freezes you totally, leaves you unable to simply step clear?
Me too. Tarot Position 6 is the Queen of Coins - in our case diamonds, and after mulling it over I feel pretty good about her too. QQ preflop no re-raise? Don't know Shadow well enough yet, but would be surprised if Smokkee played them that way. I have to believe there's a set out there that is slowplaying or both of these guys are drawing to straights or flushes. 5 7 is a possibility, but no reraising to squeeze at least one of the other two? Pot is 720 (aka a HammerPot) and I bet out 350, trying to state I've got the goods. No luck - Shadow instacalls. I swear I state aloud in my study, surrounded by a wall full of degrees and 2 Board Certifications that attest to the fact I am not a total mouth-breather: "Cowboys ofiicially killed." Smokkee mulls it over but now he's getting 1400 for 350 and likes those odds too. 7d up and two different ways this once mighty hand is SOL.

Smokkee bets 600 and its to me. Here is the one part I spent the evening mulling over. I call believing I am dead, but at least I understand why. I was harbouring an unarticulated belief that I was perceived as too weak to call a river raise. No one had actually said anything of the like, and it may or may not be true, but the insight was that I was motivated to over-rule my own analysis of what had happened in this hand not by better information, but an emotional desire to show I could call the raise. Ridiculous but true.

Smokkee gave me better than 3:1 to see the flop, and I bit knowing one of these guys had hit his straight. Shadow bit too, which salvaged the hand in a way, because I got definitive knowledge of what both played. Turned out I was screwed at the turn. Shadow hit his second pair with that relatively inocuous queen. So I wonder: would you have bet bigger at the flop? Do I want a caller? Smokkee opined that he was sure one of us was slowplaying a monster. That surprised me a little because I felt I bet the hand I had pretty aggressively. I just didn't realize I was dead at the turn until I got called.

Kings dispatched. But at least one lesson learned, and learned relatively cheaply because I was still alive. And I knew that the beauty of trying to move early was that as long as you had something to work with you could mount a comeback.

At this point, WWdN decides to make her dislike of me patently clear. AA in MP. Yummy, and the folds begin. Again, I am under the assumption I want action here, ideally a reraise preflop, so I shoot out my reliable 3BB present-and-accounted for raise. One caller; Hollywood writer, actor, blogger of repute, Shane Nickerson - perhaps standing in for the WW in WWdN. We see Qc 6h Jc, and I am not making the same mistake again. With the pot at 120, I Hoy Shane (not sure he's aware of what a Hoy is yet, but I need all the mojo I can get) unaware he holds 4c3c. That's 289 to him for a crack at 409. Here's another spot where I think I am making a sound move. Isn't that a 1.4 to 1 call for a 1.9 to 1 shot for him? I'm not being facile here, remember some of us are new to the art of working this shit out. At the time I was briefly elated he called that bet with a four flush, but Stars had one last joke for me - sending Ac to give me a set and Shane the flush. I know I like my Push - 1, but is Shane's call a mistake? I ask because I've called in that exact situation, but would now like to move deeper. For that reward is the call worth it assuming he puts me on any pocket pair better than 22? And no, I am not calling the man who gave us Hawesome out - I am using my space to try to improve my game...that's not so unreasonable is it?

Is anyone still reading this?!?

Well I am an optimist at my core so I will end with something positive. After starting out by donking down a third of my chips at MATH in the ill advised conviction that my paired 9 with a T kicker could somehow win the day, I regrouped and got requisitely lucky. I survived another ill advised call with A rag that was dominated by an ever so slightly better rag, when we split a board that liked neither of us particularly much. After that I buckled down, and started playing better. Given the opus I just put down consisting of 10 hands approx, with 3 premium pairs that resulted in my early exit - it makes sense the time I went deep at the Hoy I never saw AK, AQ or any pair higher than JJ. It forces you to be patient and then aggressive when you do see something workable.

A couple of things that made me laugh:
1. Telling Kat her 4BB raise smelled of a Hammer Play, which I briefly contemplated calling with 79o before reminding myself what a tool move this would be if I was wrong... only to have her show me AA. I was still laughing out loud at how dumb I looked 5 minutes later...keep terrible reads to self...

2. Attempting to Hoy Hoy himself, forgetting about the bet already out there and coming up with one of the most donkulous-looking bets I have ever seen. The ridiculous look of the thing (and visible proof of my inability to subtract) literally tilted me...

Some things that made me happy about the work I am putting into this exercise in self-loathing and unrelenting masochism:

1. I know that I can fold TPGK if I have too. I just deleted the fucking slide to demonstrate this, but I let go of AJ with an A high, all diamond flop when Raz came way over top of me...bluff? maybe, but I felt I could afford to wait, and had the ability to pull back from the siren charms of AJ. That's new to me.

2. I am no longer afraid to put my stack - 1 in early, and put pressure on others in later rounds.

3. I learned I can steal blinds as much as the next guy, when the blinds and my stack request it politely.

4. I can reraise when I feel strong or sense weakness [Kat and her Hammer-Smelling Aces notwithstanding]. I will state I hated putting out Poker Jones (PJ) , my fellow Clevelander and master of the Blogger World Championship (FIFTEENTH...that is SICK). My man called with KJ and had to deal with the consequences...but he checked down the Hoy which is stylish anyway ya look at it.

5. On the bubble, I stayed pretty damn patient. This after having blown the large chip lead Guin bequeathed me when he lost a coinflip on his called Hoy semi-bluff [shed no tears: he was down to the last 2 at WWdN when last I saw him!]. I did try to get in the mix and make things happen, but when I saw it wasn't going to work I just got out of the way. Hoy got roughly used by the board, then Raz (one of the best table talkers I've evah met) was dominated and paired out of my way. The hand below is how cc took out Raz, who played A8o I think. I credit the host himself in his numerous MTT posts for curing me of the habit of calling all-ins with A-rag. Three-handed it felt like this had to be dominated. And it was by both! Is that too results oriented? Felt like a good fold. So dark the con of man...

And that was that...I wanted a crack at Raz, to put me in position to try to compete with cc, but it wasn't to be. FWIW I got in ahead by a little on second called push, but a Turn Q made my Flop 8 look a little underdressed. No complaints at all. The Hoy is the toughest out of these three blogger-go-rounds that I play. The payouts are fewer, the buy-in is a little steeper, and it changes the play, no doubt. So this was unexpected, but cool.

For anyone keeping score, that's three final tables in three weeks...my blog also recently cured a leper, raised the dead [me, see the last post] and turned the glass of water I was drinking in here into Grey Goose...Beatification will likely be short-tracked.

Yep, the Magical Wish Granting Blog is now just arbitrarily picking final tables for me, without even waiting for a request...SUNDAY MILLIONS....SUNDAY MILLIONS...

Since we're all friends, I admit its been wrong of me to hoarde her. Send me your requests and the MWGB will get to them in short order.

You Are Welcome.

Later.

P.S. Wes, thanks man, for the kind words.