Poker is a godless game, full of random pain

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of playing in the Tanner Benefit Tourney on Full Tilt.

Mookie has a great write-up about the tourney here. He did an awesome job hosting.

I played uncharacteristically tight-weak to begin with. I was a bit gun shy from some terrific beats lately. I had Dr. Pauly to my right. Mookie chimed in from another table and said that I was acting like Pauly's Beaaatch. I knew I was, and he helped me snap out of it. Pauly had to have picked up on it because was raising me out of every pot. I was growing tired of it, but Mookie woke me up. I needed it...

Because when Pauly got knocked out he was replaced by none other than Andy Bloch! Andy is a Full Tilt Pro. He was one of the MIT Crew that was kicking the crap out of Vegas in Blackjack - Bringing Down the House. I googled him during the Tourney and got 895,000 hits. He is responsible for the quote I copied as the title of this Blog.

Andy sat down and we played a few hands, I was the recipient of LUCK!!! Horsehoes, clovers, shamrocks, rabbit's feet, etc. we got Astin all-in before the flop, and checked the turn, then Andy bet big on the river, this was suspicious and I thought he was trying to isolate himself, so I called. In the first big hand between he and I, I got lucky when my 99 beat his 88. Astin was out and this moved me way up on the chipcount.



A few hand later I got real lucky... I got AA in middle position. Andy raised 3x. I raised the pot. Everyone else folded and Andy went all-in. I called and here is how it went down.



Andy was out - I was shocked, but no props to me, anyone would have played my AA exactly as I did. It was pure luck on my part and very unlucky for Andy.

At the break I was 2nd in chips. I was chipleader for a little while before the break.



I played on after the break and had a big hand against Iakaris. My A4 held against his KQ.



Later he got me all in with KT. He had AK. I caught a K on the flop, he had me outkicked until the river was a J to give me a straight. I should have been out at that point, but I got lucky.

This propelled me to the final table.

Later, at the final table, I had KQ on the button, I bet pretty big to steal, but NightRanger called. I repeated my bet, even though I didn't hit the low flop and NightRanger put me all in. I folded and he showed me JTo (he missed the flop too) and bluffed me off a really big pot. This took a big chunk out of me and I was .

I made a short stack move with A9 and was out in 6th. Overall I was pretty happy with my play. I was ecstatic to have taken Andy out (even though it was not with skill, but all luck). I was glad I could change gears and play better after Mookie slapped me around a little to wake me up.

Most of all I was glad to support the Evers family.

Looking forward to the next LIVE GAME benefit.



For my local Austin readers, let me know if you want to play and I'll hook you up with Mookie.