No Sweat-er

Two or three weeks before my trip back to Philippines, I decided to exchange my thousand-plus FPPs on stars for some of their merchandise. I number of them interested me, but what really caught my attention was the nice looking black sweater with their logo. I had seen a couple of players on TV wearing them to WSOP events and thought to myself, "this is probably the closest I am ever going to get to going there". Hehe. So I exchanged them and got them just last tuesday. Delivered by DHL express and it is friggin sweet.

Thanks stars. We'll always have a sweater to remember the good ol times. Hahaha.

The $26 satellite token I won last sunday was put into use the very next day. I got pretty deep into it. Just outside the money, I make it 3xbb with an ATo in cut-off seat. BB calls and flop is 9-3-10 rainbow. BB checks and I bet 2/3 pot. BB reraises me all in. Now I understand at around this time, people are making plays, stealing, re-stealing and all that jazz. Its almost like a dance to me at this point. I bet, someone raises, do you push back? do you fold? do you call? People could be reraising me with 8s or 7s or a straight draw, or overcards or whatever junk they call their "favorite hands". I reluctantly call and bb flips over 9s for a set. Turn and river no help and I am gone. At hindsight, I should have folded. He could have been playing jacks or queens the same way. Our stacks were almost the same, both average, and he wouldnt make a play that would damage his chances of making the money with some stupid steal play. Live and learn.

I bubbled out of an $11 tourney on tuesday when I pushed for 10-11xbb on a middle position raise with A7o when I was in the SB. Raiser of course flips over Queens and board does not provide assistance. I was the bubble boy. Not a good feeling. The table did thank me though for bubbling. Lol. Also, I got first in11fingers online tourney after delivering a bad beat to barb heads-up. I, apparently, had to beat her otherwise we would have to call the tourneys the barbiemanila online oker league according to adversary. Hehe

Last night, I decided to take another shot at the guaranteed tourneys at FTP and joined a 6.60 6-handed satellite. Like the 9-handed 4.40, 1st gets a token and 2nd gets $10. I was quite fortunate to hit flops quite hard early on and busted 2 players to get a commanding lead. Now, my tendency before was to just push the table around, since the blinds were still low and didnt hurt my stack each time I saw the flop, but I noticed that I lost bigger pots this way because I usually had the 2nd best hand. So I decided to continue playing TAG and won the token 30 min later. I also played a 5.50 sng and just made the money there. I signed up for another 5.50 tourney and while waiting, played a 3.30 MTT on Poker.com. After having a dismal 1st hour, I started catching some cards and got my stack way above the average. I found myself on the final table with a healthy stack and played ABC FT poker. Steal, re-steal, re-raises with big hands preflop. Finished at 3rd for a $45 payday.

The $5.50 MTT I joined had a few of the regular micro grinders and tourney experts. As usual, was not able to catch any cards early but made up for it. An interesting hand came up in the middle stages. I had gotten some good flops and was in the top 10 in chips. A middle position person raised 3xbb and I called on the button with 78 clubs. Flop came 4-5-10 with 2 spades. Middle position bet 50% of pot and I flat called my inside draw. Turn was a rag and he checks. I check as well. River is my gin card and hit my six to make a really deceptive straight. Weird thing is that the initial raiser pushes all-in. The river put a heart flush on board. That would have been a really funky way to play it. I could not put him on a backdoor flush and call. He shows pocket 7s and I double up. He just remarks, "omg". A couple of prelfop raises and steals later, I am overall chip leader and pick off middle stacks. I get resistance once in a while but not really hurt by them. I get outdrawn by a set on the turn in one hand near the bubble but thankfully lose the minimum as player was slowplaying them hoping I would raise. When I did make the money, I was in 3rd and fairly comfortable with around 30-40xbb. An hour later I make the FT. The first few hands were not kind to me and because of bad timing, my steals get picked off by really big hands and I am down to 6 of 8 in chips. Down to 6 players a little while later and just 10xbb with one limper, I push with A7o. Limper thinks a long time, as calling would mean almost 40% of his stack. He flips over 6s and we race. Flop is Q-K-Q. Not good at all. Turn is an 8 though, giving me more outs. Any K, 8, A or 7 wins me the pot. The river is a K for a sick beat which more than doubles me up and a message of "what a $%#$@%" from the limper. A couple hands later, I get the obligatory "nh" from the limper. Hehe. I am now 3rd in chips and poised to take it down. Unfortunately, my internet connection had other plans as my Full Tilt client froze and I got flashed the connection dialog. "Not now! Not fucking now!". When I did resume, I had just lost the blinds. On the button I make the standard raise with Q10o and BB calls. Flop is 10-10-x. BB checks, I bet like I normally do, BB raises, I reraise, BB re-reraises. Now normally I would flat call. But flat calling would indicate a very strong hand at this point and I dont think he'll be putting any more money in on the turn, even if he hits the flop. So I re-re-reraise (is that even a word?) and before his timer runs out, he folds. I show him my hand out of respect for him. He was a pretty solid player and did not want him to run me over anymore. Then the connection to FTP got cut again. I was able to surf online, but not connect. As a last resort, i restarted my machine. When I did connect, I was heads-up with CL who had a 100 to 1 chip advantage. LOL. Busted out a couple hands later in 2nd for a payday of $154. Chaching. Hehe. Not bad. I probably would have gotten less If I had actually played any of the hands when we were down to 4 players.

Hopefully my good run at MTTs wont end soon. Im really looking to cash in the $500++ ranges in the next couple of days.

For everyone watching High Stakes Poker Season 3, Ivey, Antonius, and Ferguson next week. Friggin sweet to watch. Finally get to see how those minds work in cash games.

Best of luck to everyone else.