The Ones You've Got to Win.

Been a while no?

Lots on my end, but I will start my foray back into the community with the first MTT I have played in about a week. I just have to get this off my chest because I woke up this morning and the wound is just as painful as last night. I am still on tilt. I checked and since I only post once a month, I am officially exempt from prohibitions on Tales From the Darkside. And on contemplation I don't think of this as a bad beat, just a lesson in the tincup sorrows of deep runs unfulfilled. Edit: Rav makes the good point I was mathematically behind post-flop so "bad-beat" is not even in play, but my point is just that this was a pivotal race [close enough] and on the way to a win this is where the rubber takes its wear.

50/50. 1000k+ runners. Down to 35. I am 11th; was as high as 6th but made a big laydown with JJ to a supertights minre-reraise [the hand I exited both the 19k and the FTOPS final tables on -AA>JJ both times - I am convinced FT thinks it's is my signature exit hand]. Look great, wide awake in America and feeling no pain at 2AM. My stack is 70k. UTG 3xs for 7200, CO smooth calls and I find AKd at the end of the circle. I can understand the reraise here, but after mulling I decide to call along and see if I secure the high ground before engaging. Flop runs JQK with two clubs. UTG has been a classic late game donkey, the kind you wonder how in the fuck did they get that stack and hold it this long. Range is wide open. My concern is the able LAG in the CO. My decision is made easier when UTG open-raises for 60% the pot and CO folds. Yes 9T is possible, AT less likely, and KJ and KQ are definitely a go, but this guy has not indicated the kind of style that would bet the set. Likeliest to me is he is betting his draw. I don't think I ever lay this down this late. I have been exceedingly patient for 4 hours, I think this is it. I jam.

T7c. OESD and flush draw. Fourteen outs twice, no? Any A (3 - I have one obv), Any 9 (4), any club (7 - already counted Ac and 9c). And I just cant dodge the shrapnel. A win there and I am at T162k and the chipleader with 34 left. This seems like where and when you want to get your stack in. I've written about this before: I am willing to gamble for a shot at the win now. Your thoughts as always welcome.

For those of you who play a lot of these and know how fucking mindnumbing it is to get this far to come with nothing (215 bucks or something like that) - you'll understand when I say I still want to put my face through this screen. Fuck. At one MTT a week (there's just no way around this reality, I am insanely busy in the EP lab, and we are moving into to the new place this week) it may be months before I get a chance like this again.

Yeesh.

Why do I play this game again?

Laytah.

POD! POD!.. aka The Fifty-Fifty and it's discontents.

Hoy laid claim to this title based on his work at Riverchasers...I would opine that blogger tournies are exempt from POD consideration given the entire field exists as a surreality that defies understanding or a categorization as straightforward as Donk. Lately, in the real world, I am staking at least a respectable claim to POD status. So look upon my works ye mighty and DESPAIR!

Damn I played good last night. Moneyed the 5050 again, with eyes wide shut by dreams of the final table.

Card cold whole time. How bad? AK twice; both which held up. QQ once very early; to cost me 2k. No bullets, cowboys, jakes, or whatever the fuck it is we call pocket Ts. In a 1000+ tournament where I run to the last 100. That's fucking cold.

99s three times late, each of which were shoved preflop and held uncontested amazingly. Someone remind me to dump my hands into PXF to measure the luck factor this MTT because it's striking me as an all time low. Considering I finished 16th a while back running superhot, it's good to know I can go deep[ish] when running supercold too.

Busted in the 70s [out of 1000+] when I shoved K5o in the SB into A5 in the BB. Instacall on his part for 3/4 of his stack. I don't love it, but don't exactly hate it either. Anyway considering what I had to play with for hours and hours this was bound to happen. Sometimes the rush just don't come.

Now the interesting here is that I had help. KOD was alive and kicking in this thing and I got his insights first hand both on how he plays it short and cold, wherein he made the point that epitomizes the 50/50: you almost always have time in this MTT to take it one doubleup at a time.

If you've never watched Chad play a low buy-in deep field MTT, I recommend it - even without knowing his hole-cards every hand you'll get a lesson in timed aggression. Most of us bloggers are smart enough to know the value of playing tight early, watching M etc...but very very few of us are willing or able to unleash the hell this guy does on his table deep in an MTT, with his open shoves from almost any position. Not that it's mindless: on the contrary, he makes his stack on people who can't appreciate the difference in risk in calling a button shove vs. calling an UTG shove. His advice on hands was an eye-opener late. It isn't the way I have played this stage and I think it's where the most room for improvement in my game exists. Anyway, I found it instructive, so danke to the King...and a strong recommendation that all of you who think you have game get playing the 5050...it is fucking full of play.

Laytah.

Dispatch from the Edge of Suburbia. And a quick hand for your consideration.

Happy belated Canada Day! I spent it like a true patriot - watching the Tragically Hip. Great show, but Gordo has a bad habit of oversinging their ballads live. No clue why, but it's a consistent leak in his game. Nonetheless, great great show. Tonight will be fireworks with my American offspring. Balance, balance, balance...

So the house is almost done. It's looking very good. It'll end up around 4400 sq ft with a yard thats under an acre and backs up onto a man-made pond. The neighbours seem ok, but the 11 or so houses that back onto this little lake have already dubbed this micro-community Hidden Pond, which is a little annoying, even to an incorrigible elitist. Ever watch the show Weeds? This isn't gated or anything, but I gotta say it's got some Aggrestic in it. Wonder what they'll make of my nude lawn mowing...

Still, it beats cramping 5 humans into this apartment though. I am reminded on a near daily basis that overcrowding is the strongest correlate for violent crime. It is good though to be a fam again, and these strange kids of mine remain pretty agreeable. They and I have discovered YouTube and I gotta say the people who make some of that stuff appear to be approximately 500 hundred times funnier than most TV writers. [Staffs of The Office and 30 Rock obviously excepted].

7 months I have lived downtown, and it's been a lot of fun at times, but I got bored by the end...and now I just want my ridiculous creature comforts, more living space than I am reasonably entitled to, and a King size Tempur-pedic bed to replace the wholly inadequate air mattress my jumbo-sized frame has been tossing and turning on.

On the pokah front, played the Stars 10+R yesterday and played a hand I'd like an opinion or two on:

Rebuy is over. I have 11k [avg is 8k, big stack is 60k - 1300 players left] before the second break, 100/200. I have 89o and limp in MP. guy behind me limps too, folds to BB who checks it. Flop is 79T with 2 clubs. BB with 6k checks. I check too with the intent to check/raise. Now as for image I have busted a couple of guys with big pairs, and a couple of others chasing draws based on implied odds [and been proven right when they paid me off after it was clear they were beat]. BB has been fairly tight and shown he will fold to pressure on the flop. The guy behind me was a bit of an unknown but a shorty with about 4k. He fires in position 700 at the pot. Not sure why, maybe the speed he did it, but it just seemed weak, like an attempt to take it down with overs. In response the BB reraises 2100 (about a third of his stack but by no means committed).

My move. I have two in action, but I am pretty sure that the guy behind me is just fucking around and has no intention of calling the reraise. Check/Raise all-in? Deeper in the tournament when it counts I do this a lot (yeah yeah I stole it from KOD about a year ago, so sue me). But with 60 BB and a better than average stack is it too soon? What hands that I'm behind can I fold out here (which would be the point of c/r no?). Wait and pick a better spot? Or C/R trying to win the 3500 in the pot?

Well I check/raised and was instacalled by 68d for the flopped bottom straight. Hit a 9 on the turn to open a bunch of outs but bricked the river. I would not do this sort of thing a year ago, and on principle I am happy with this move deeper in the run, but I think it was premature.

That's about it for now. I am going to let you in on a secret. I think the MWGB has a long coveted actual WIN coming my way. I am playing two MTTs a night these days and it's connecting nicely at times, although I could use a little more patience at times.

I am going deep. Just not tonight. Fireworks with wife and kids.

Happy 4th Folks.

Laytah.