A little bit of everything in this blog

The race for the nomination of President of the United States of America is really starting to heat up. Super Tuesday is just around the corner and John McCain has emerged as the clear front-runner on the Republican side. Rudy just dropped out of the race. This is no surprise to me. I knew this guy had 0 chance since the beginning and have been telling people that since I heard he was running. I actually thought he was a Democratic about 5 years ago because of how his policies were actually pretty liberal-moderate in New York City. Of course, you can't really being a staunch conservative the Republican party is looking for. What has actually surprised me in this race is that McCain is one of the more historically moderate Republicans in the Congress. Next to Senator Richard Lugar from Indiana, he's one of my favorite Republicans. I do hate his stance on poker/online poker and that's a big deal to me (enough to make me not vote for him), but I can tolerate him. To me, the initial Republican races are a referendum against the current President and his policies and an admission to a failure in the past 8 years by Republicans. McCain is a moderate Republican and every Republican knows this. He has a history of being a uniter and every Republican knows this. The other candidates are polarizers. Republicans are admitting right away in this primary that they want someone that is different from Bush. It's a great step for that party.

On the Democratic side, we have a tight race between Hillary and Obama with Obama pulling off an impressive victory in the South. I'm worried about some of the racism that will take place in this primary after I saw a few stats. The breakdown of age in South Carolina had Obama an impressive winner in every category except voters over the age of 65. Unless there is something I'm missing about the political platforms of these candidates to seniors, it appears the elephant in the room here is race. The breakdown further showed that black candidates over 65 staunchly supporting Obama. This breakdown told me a lot, but I really have hope and promise in the youth of our nation. I don't want to call out seniors for being racist or not voting for someone because of their race, but I don't see any other reason here. I'm pulling for Obama in this race and his endorsements keep piling up while many others in America seem to be getting sick and tired of the Bill and Hillary show.


A Little Poker

I bounced back in poker yesterday with a final table in the Ultimate Bounty that I won the week before. I finished with a 5th place though after an interesting situation came up. A player had been visibly sitting out and he was on the big blind while I was on the small blind. I was in last place with chips and A7 on the small blind. The button raised it up and in this situation, it just appears that it is a steal and I almost have to play it as a blind vs blind battle here. Well I shove and he shows KK and I fail to improve, so it just seemed like an unfortunate situation at the time because if the other guy was sitting out, there is a good chance I just fold and wait to open a pot myself.

LOST (spoiler alert)

The best show on network television returns on Thursday and I couldn't be more excited. I reviewed many of the episodes from Season 2 and 3 and really think Season 4 has a lot in store. Now before I get into any of the details, if you haven't watched this show, go rent and watch the first 8 episodes. If you really hate it at that point, then quit, but I assure you that this show is worth it. The only thing is that you pretty much have to avoid any LOST commercial if you haven't watched it because it will spoil things. Anyway here are some of my predictions for this season:

1. The boat coming to the island will be representatives of the DHARMA initiative or an entity related. I believe that they are trying to take the island over again.

2. Locke will take over some leadership role to fight this boat and control the island.

3. Characters will encounter Michael in the flash forwards. It's common knowledge that Michael will be back on this show and I'm looking forward to see what happened to them when they left the island.

4. Who is in the coffin? I have a logical prediction about the coffin and that is John Locke with everyone else that has already predicted it. It's known on Lostpedia that the newspaper clipping with the obituary that Jack reads in the Season 3 finale has the letters Jo as the initial first name. It also tries to break down the article, but I really don't buy into that because it seems to easy. I do believe though that he could be a character that loses his mind if he leaves the island because of what it has done for him. Since the funeral home appears to be in an inner city urban neighborhood with every single person show including the funeral director being black though, this throws me for a loop. My sleeper pick for the coffin though is Juliet.

5. Mobisodes. This isn't a prediction at all, but I thought the Mobisode 13 that was put out in the offseason was very interesting. You can watch it below. It refers to the very beginning of the series.


Mobisode 13


That clip is so unbelievable I don't even know what to say, but I'm sure it stirs up a lot of questions. I believe it's possible that Jacob could manifest himself as many of the different dead people on the island (Boone, Yemi, Jack's Dad), but that's about as far as I go. "He has work to do" is just a great line and something that Walt also says to John Locke in the Season 3 finale.

Lebron vs. Kobe

You may make the argument for Kobe Bryant to be a better player, but Lebron owns him. 4-1 in the last five contests for the Cavs and Lebron draining a jumper in Kobe's face near the end of the game really made my Sunday aside from the horrible poker day.


Questions

I only saw one question in the comments section, so I encourage people to ask if you have anything you want to be answered in the blog.

Mike Z. asked who are the top 5 poker players both online and live in the world right now?

Great question because it has to be interpreted and then hundreds of qualified players have to be sorted through to really come up with a good answer. Now as a general statement, I believe the quality of play in a live tournament is much lower on average than a buy in of the same level in an online tournament. I've played both and it doesn't even compete. That being said though, I do believe that the top 5 is littered with people you consider primarily live players even though these players also play online a little.

1. Phil Ivey--Arguably the most successful player in the biggest game in the world, but it's impossible to tell who wins the most at that game. He is the best all around player in the game since the passing of Chip Reese has ruled him out. Ivey has 5 WSOP bracelets at age 31 in all games that aren't hold em. On top of that, he has made 7 WPT final tables. He would probably break every tournament record in the book if he cared enough about the victories. What most people don't understand is that he has had all this success playing much fewer tournaments because he wins so much money in cash games that it's almost not worth the day after day grind of tournaments. If there is one player you don't want to be heads up for all the money against, it is Phil Ivey.

2. Daniel Negreanu--His resume speaks for itself here. 3 WSOP bracelets, 2 WPT titles would be enough for any player in his career. That on top of being skilled all around in every poker game and his unbelievable reading abilities make Daniel an easy top 5 candidate. I think his style is one of a kind as well and he can change gears better than anyone. In my only WSOP main event, I remember that after the first day Daniel said that he played almost every hand preflop in order to amass chips. This is not optimal poker strategy by any book, but for that day it really was and he was good enough to recognize it. He has such an edge on everyone post-flop, it's unbelievable. If I ever played him heads up, I would try to do everything I could to get into a race situation.

3. Isaac "WestMenloAA" Baron --This is the best player that you haven't heard of...yet. That's because Isaac isn't 21 yet and can't play in all the events that everyone you see can play in. His online record is simply unreal. Every time I look deep in the Sunday tournaments, he appears to be there. He has a Pro Poll ranking of 1 on Pocket Fives, an online poker ranking. That means that all the top rated players online voted him 1. He seems to go deep in nearly everything and he wins consistently in big cash games. I was not so thrilled to be at his table in Aruba, but I'm glad I got to meet the future of poker there and look forward to hanging with this kid again.

4. Phil Hellmuth--I don't understand his poker style lots of times. It's unconventional, but it works and he uses it perfectly. 11 WSOP bracelets itself, the record should say enough about what this guy does. He is consistently deep in events at every single WSOP. In my opinion, however, he does think that he is better than he really is, but at his best, I believe he is as good as anyone in the world.

5. Chad "lilholdem954" Batista--I got to meet Chad in Indiana and I was impressed. The kid knows what he is talking about when it comes to poker. The reason you don't hear about him is that he rarely plays live. He has won and final tabled several live events though including a WSOP Circuit title in Indiana and a 4th in the 1000 Rebuy WSOP event last summer. On top of that, he is the most profitable multi-table tournament player in the world online. He consistently beats and wins the 100 rebuy on Pokerstars. The 100 rebuy on Pokerstars is the toughest field in any single 300 person tournament in poker. It is the best of the best and the toughest tournament to win online. Chad seems to win this thing every month. His style is different and he always seems to know what he's doing.


There were several other honorable mentions for me including:
1. Roy "The Oracle" Winston--WPT champ at Borgata, seems to cash in every big buy in event he plays. Cashed 4 times at Bellagio WPT NAPC in Dec including a tournament victory. He seems to be playing better than anyone right now.

2. Antonio Esfandiari--He impresses me every single time I see him on TV with his abilities, but I can't reach him into the top 5.

3. Scott "BigRiskky" Clements--2 WSOP bracelets in PL Omaha, A WPT title and winner of the Sunday Million on Pokerstars. I think in 10 years there is a very good chance he has many more major titles.

4. Barry Greenstein--WPT titles and a consistent player in the big game. 2 WSOP bracelets and a WPT title. I think he is up there for sure.




That is all for now. Hope you all enjoyed and keep those questions coming.

One of the worst days in poker ever

I'm cutting the day short because if I don't, I will likely be swinging for the fences at the 200/400 NL game. I have not cashed in any of the big no limit hold em tournaments on a Sunday in over a month. I did do well in the HORSE tournament a few weeks ago, but that doesn't count. Sundays have become very costly and the worst day of the week for me by far. It's the same old story every single week and it's the most frustrating thing ever. I once again lost in the money match of the heads up tournament to a guy that played awful and just luckboxed his way to victory. Every single big Sunday tournament I either seem to run QQ or JJ into a higher pair fairly early or a lower pair that hits a set when I have AA or KK. I can't win a race in any single tournament when I get there. I try to be patient and wait for opportunities in the Sunday Million every week, but it just comes to down me running card dead. This is seriously the most I've hated poker in probably the entire existence of time I've played it. I can't keep putting in these Sundays where I get nothing coming out of everything. I know that part of the mess is that I have to be doing something wrong in the larger field events. I don't know what I'm doing, but when you play 15 tournaments in one day and you can't get an ounce of luck and you play bad and you run big hands into big hands, it leads to poker disaster. I have had a great January so far with so many things going well for me and a much higher cash rate than I've had in probably 5 months in tournaments, but when it comes to Sundays, I just can't get it done. Sundays used to be the best day of the week because I would always seem to have something brewing and going deep in these tourneys leads to a ton of fun. It's what most players love doing. I may just be making a huge vent over terrible luck over a day, but I can't keep doing this on Sundays. It's draining my mentality and I don't even want to play for another month after I deal with this frustration. If it wasn't for the HORSE tournament, I would have 0 Sunday cashes. I'm quitting for the day and I won't be at the tables until my head stops spinning and I stop wanted to break my new mouse.

Cavs follow up and another victory

There were plenty of great comments in response to the Cavs blog a few days back from Adam B., Dave, and Brendan. I think what a GM like Phil Savage does compared to Danny Ferry is that he is much more candid with what needs to be done. Furthermore, he understands synergies on a team and what is actually going to work. I can't say I've seen that with Danny Ferry, and maybe it's because I've never heard the man address needs of the team or what their goals are as management. I've heard plenty of press conferences where Savage outlines what he wants to do. It's been apparent that he wants the Browns to be a traditional Cleveland team with strong offensive and defensive lines. It's no secret what our goal in the offseason will be because we all know. Furthermore, when we sign a player like Jamal Lewis last year and draft a franchise player like Thomas, while I'm sure many fans wanted a more flashy player, Savage gave us reasons (and got the flashy player in the later round). Ferry rarely addresses what the goals of this team are. Furthermore, we can never understand what the hell the guys upstairs were thinking when they were trading a draft pick for Jiri Welsch. Again, just another forced move that we don't get any rationale for. I don't want to get down on the Cavs in the short term. As Adam B. says, the Cavs are a hot 8-1 to start the year with a top 2 player in the NBA, but I think we all want to see the potential that Lebron has. He's made plenty of bums around him look like stars, so I want to see what happens when another star is around him.

Dave I like your comments and your hopes for the Browns, but I think the fate of the franchise is going to be in the hands of how the QB situation is handled over the next 1-2 years. I have no doubts we will do what is necessary in the offseason to improve the defense, but the QB situation is what will define the media's questions until Brady Quinn is the starter or Anderson starts playing better than Tom Brady. It's just what happens when you give up a first rounder for a player that doesn't even play more than a series in a game that has no meaning (SF game).

Brendan, I didn't realize some of your points about trading players the year before, so I think we can all anxiously await the day and hope Ferry pulls the trigger.


I appreciate all of the comments and and I want to take an idea from my buddy Keith at www.keithjaranovic.com .
Keith takes questions about anything and everything and answers them in a blog at some point. Since I'm covering a lot of topics, I would love to look through comments now and then and answer questions. Whether they be about poker, my life, sports, politics, whatever, if they are good questions, they are likely to show up in a blog.


Now, I added tournament victory number 2 for the year last night winning the Ultimate Bet bounty tournament for a little over 6k. I love bounty tournaments when I actually do well in them because along the way I think I knocked out about 15 players at 20 bucks a pop, so it adds to your prize pool. I'm working on getting the hand history for this one because this site doesn't do a great job with that. If I get it I will rehash it, but this tournament was a lot different from my last win. I was chip leader pretty much from 87 people left until the final table. There were never any huge suck outs on my part just a lot of races I won and a lot of big hands holding up.

I'm watching the Monte Carlo smoke up like crazy right now out my window, so that's kind of weird.

The Dream

I woke up this morning in shock and confused about what had happened. Here is the dream I had.

I was at the final table of the World Series of Poker main event. The winner was set to win 10 million dollars and I felt pretty confident about my chances. I had John Juanda to my right and everyone else seemed like they had no idea how to play. They ranged in all ages and they were all men. I looked down in a limped pot at 10 11, yeah that's right my card said 11. I have no idea why. There were two players in front of me and the flop came down 9 7 2 with two diamonds. It checked to me at which point the dealer put down the 6 of spades. I said whoa whoa whoa whoa wait. I wanted to bet. They let me do the betting and I fired out 500. The first position guy CHECK RAISED ME. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? Then the guy behind him called his raise. I decided to push all in at which point a guy behind me not in the hand at all calls instantly and tables 22. I get up and scream "THIS GUY ISN'T EVEN IN THE HAND!!!!!" I call for the floor. The floor guy laughs at me and says, well obviously he is as he has you crushed. I fail to improve. I somehow left the room, but I come back into the room grab my stack of chips and just start throwing them around the room. At that point, I woke up in the nightmare and was startled by it all day. Maybe that is why I didn't play particularly well during the day. I've been staying afloat though because of cash games and a few cashes in tournaments when I've been playing. I do feel like I need a break at some point and maybe I'll take one tomorrow. I just don't know how to take a break when every morning I wake up and can't wait to get into the next tournament. I love the challenge, love the game and want to get better every minute.

Some Cavaliers Basketballllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got to watch my second Cavs game in a row on the West Coast. The MOJO channel gets to do justice every once in a while and national TV is always good. I decided during the Cavs game that the Cleveland Cavaliers are probably the most frustrating waste of talent team in Cleveland. Does any team have the potential in Cleveland that the Cavaliers do? The answer is no. Sure, the Cleveland Indians have a lot of talent and a great farm system that will never keep them down for too long. We witnesses this cycle over the past 10 years. The Indians went from World Series contender to fighting for the cellar of the AL Central to one game away from arguably a World Series title. All the real talent though will realistically get snagged by a team with a higher payroll that is willing to pay for big time players. The Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton type players of the 90's all left to go elsewhere and I'm not saying that those moves were in any means bad. They lay the foundation for the future of the franchise in the farm system and with other prospects. Sabathia, Carmona, Sizemore will be the future types of those players. Then they will rebuild again and it's how it has to work in a small market. Almost all the time, you win your games out of players trying to prove to the rest of the league that they deserve to make the Yankees or the Red Sox. My point with that whole Tribe rant is that team will consistently be a contender and if they aren't, they will be rebuilding for contention.

The Browns could snake the argument for the most frustrating team, but that time is past us and we have a GM that knows what he is doing and players that are young, hungry and improving. On top of that, we have one of the best offensive lines in football, something that lacked for ever since I have watched the Browns.

The Cleveland Cavs though are one of the most incompetent organizations I've ever witnessed. This team would win right around 15 games if they did not have Lebron James. What if, blah blah blah, I know, but this I went to a website today that made me want to simply puke.

It lists all the Cleveland players salaries for the next 4 years.

Let's run down the list of notables that will cripple this franchise and send Lebron James to a professional organization.

1. First and foremost, Larry Hughes. He's making $12,000,000 to $13,655,000 over the next 3 years. He doesn't deserve to be a starter in the NBA. At best, he should be a bench player brought in for defense on the Bobcats or something. Yet we decided to sign this guy to a 6 year contract to build the base of our team. This website I found basically tells it all. It is also extremely funny and I will be frequenting this site.

http://heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com/

2. On the home page for the salaries, we reveal the Cavs have the fourth highest payroll in the league. Can't blame them for not spending money. When there is a problem in this country, we know the best way to handle it is to throw money at it from the right, left and center. (The last line is also a definition of why Democrats will probably lose the election because that's how we act. Although, I must say the Republicans have done a great job spending lots of money lately and cutting taxes. See definition of Budget constrain in an economics book.

G = b(g) + t
t = taxes
G= government expenditures
b(g)= debt

If G increases, t must either go up to keep the equation in tact or b(g) must increase. Those are government bonds. At least democrats don't vote to lower t.

My point is that throwing money at the problem is not a great way to things in America. What problem did Larry Hughes solve with $12 million? How to spend the prize of the biggest main event in the World Series of Poker history on a player that makes the Cavs worse. If you didn't cheer quietly inside your head last year in the finals when Hughes was hurt, you aren't a real fan. The only other person I can remember Cleveland fans cheering for an injury is Tim Couch. Good company for Hughes.

3. Our fourth highest paid player is Eric Snow. (6.7 and 7.3 mill in the next two years). In the words of Bill Simmons, "if I had to bet my life on any NBA player to miss a 10 foot jumper, I would put up Eric Snow." That probably isn't a direct quote, but he altered my mailbag a little for literary effect.

4. Donyell Marshall is the sixth highest paid with $5.5-$6 mill over the next two years each. He's our third power forward if you aren't counting.

5. I'm really fine with the rest of the salaries except, I do not see a need to resign Damon Jones at another $4 million a year. The problem with our salaries is that they are so inflated everywhere else that I just shrug off $4 million for a guard that hasn't been able to shoot until the last 5 games and still is the biggest defensive liability on the team. But hey, at least he made the game winning shot two years ago against Washington. You can't say that for Larry Hughes who actually did miss a wide open 3 foot jumper in game 2 versus Detroit last year that almost got me grounded by my mom for swearing in my house. (I no longer live at home with my parents)

6. Daniel Gibson is getting paid $600,000. Please resign him to a 6 year contract. We need to make a statement that we actually like good players that can shoot. He did it on the biggest stage too. If we let him go, then we can kiss Lebron James officially good bye. I'm just worried that we aren't going to have that much room in our cap to give him a fair price. I mean if I was making less money than Larry Hughes and I actually made shots, I would start missing them to see if they would pay me more.

7. It really appears that we have salaries locked up hard until at least next year. I don't expect any big moves because no one wants our overpaid old players like Snow and Marshall and no one wants Larry Hughes for even .10 on the dollar.

The future looks bleak. Unless we make a splash in the free agent market or Ferry pulls some miracle move that creates some sort of neat trade, I'm afraid we are stuck with Lebron without a strong supporting cast. I know we made the finals last year, but we then pulled the most embarrassing performance of any finals team in history. I don't want that to happen because the future greatest player to ever have lived deserves better than that. My prediction is that after he picks up his player option in 4 years, he rides it high all the way to some other team that has management actually fit for a King.

Until then, enjoy moments like this.

I made the mailbag wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Second blog of the day, but I was real happy to get my letter to Bill Simmon's mailbag included in his column this week. You can check it out here.
It's halfway down the page "Kevin from Cleveland" and it's a gray sidebar box. Anyway, this is the second mailbag I've made.

1/1442

The title of this blog refers to my finish in the $55 daily on Pokerstars. First place out of 1442 people for a little over $15k. This is my first tournament victory since around Thanksgiving and my first five figure score since sometime in June I believe. It is also the largest field that I have ever beaten in a poker tournament and quite frankly I was both super lucky and opportunistic to win this one. I haven't been able to follow up with a good Sunday as I'm about to go 0 for the century again on Sunday, but I did have a decent Saturday because of a wonderful cash game. I want to devote some of this blog to poker and some of the key hands that occurred, so if you don't want to read about them and some of my narration, then just skip. The hand histories are a little difficult to understand, but I'll point out some things in them that will help understand them better if you want to read through them.


So let's start from the first big hand.

POKERSTARS GAME #14648213232: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL I (10/20 (This amount is the stakes we are at with (small blind/big blind)) - 2008/01/18 - 15:05:45 (ET)
Table '73433652 95' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: creepdogxxx (3040 in chips)
Seat 2: bestpoker03 (2900 in chips)
Seat 3: roorkee1 (3300 in chips)
Seat 4: RhodeML (2720 in chips)
Seat 5: ARPHIL3090 (3090 in chips)
Seat 6: tobyone (2970 in chips)
Seat 7: Steelsen (2970 in chips)
Seat 8: iacog4 (2780 in chips) <---------CHIP COUNT for my name on here
Seat 9: JazzyCFC (3230 in chips)
iacog4: posts small blind 10<---this will tell if I was a blind or not, here I am sb
JazzyCFC: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [7d Ah] <--These are my hole cards, the d, h signify the suit diamond and hearts respectively. (s for spades, c for clubs)
creepdogxxx: folds
bestpoker03: folds
roorkee1: folds
RhodeML: folds
ARPHIL3090: calls 20<----Everything here in blue is the preflop betting
tobyone: calls 20
Steelsen: folds
iacog4: calls 10
JazzyCFC: checks
*** FLOP *** [7s Ac Qs]<--This is the flop, the first 3 community cards
iacog4: bets 60
JazzyCFC: folds
ARPHIL3090: raises 60 to 120
tobyone: folds
iacog4: raises 380 to 500<<<---------This next purple text is the action after the flop
ARPHIL3090: raises 380 to 880
iacog4: raises 1880 to 2760 and is all-in
ARPHIL3090: calls 1880
*** TURN *** [7s Ac Qs] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [7s Ac Qs Js] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [7d Ah] (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
ARPHIL3090: shows [7c Qd] (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
iacog4 collected 5600 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5600 | Rake 0
Board [7s Ac Qs Js 5d]
Seat 1: creepdogxxx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: bestpoker03 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: roorkee1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: RhodeML folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: ARPHIL3090 showed [7c Qd] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sevens
Seat 6: tobyone folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Steelsen (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: iacog4 (small blind) showed [7d Ah] and won (5600) with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Seat 9: JazzyCFC (big blind) folded on the Flop


OK, the rest of the hand history is pretty self explanatory if I didn't highlight it. A couple more things. TURN signifies the fourth community card that is being shown. RIVER is the last community card. If there was betting action after either of those rounds, it would appear right under the line with ***TURN*** or ***RIVER***. In this hand specifically, there was no action because all the chips went in after the flop. Ok, now that some of that is explained, I'm going to go into what I'm thinking and what happened, etc.

In this hand, I pick up A7 off suit and I'm not ready to go crazy with this hand at all, but in the SB and only 10 more chips to call, I do call. I'm lucky enough to flop two pair here on the AQ7 flop. With a flush draw possible out there, when I am raised I'm either thinking a few things about his possible hands AA and QQ is pretty much rule out here. 77, A7, AQ are possible, but I'm not too concerned. In a tournament like this with a field of so many different skill levels, I feel pretty comfortable getting all the money in here. We get it all in and I double up early against a Q7 for a lower two pair. I really can't ask for anything more than this.

POKERSTARS GAME #14648511147: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL II (15/30) - 2008/01/18 - 15:18:39 (ET)
Table '73433652 95' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: creepdogxxx (1680 in chips)
Seat 2: bestpoker03 (2825 in chips)
Seat 3: roorkee1 (4180 in chips)
Seat 4: RhodeML (3035 in chips)
Seat 5: shg18 (3890 in chips)
Seat 6: tobyone (2600 in chips)
Seat 7: Steelsen (3980 in chips)
Seat 8: iacog4 (5760 in chips)
roorkee1: posts small blind 15
RhodeML: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Tc 9c]
shg18: folds
snoman315 is connected
tobyone: raises 90 to 120
Steelsen: folds
iacog4: calls 120
creepdogxxx: folds
bestpoker03: folds
roorkee1: folds
RhodeML: folds
*** FLOP *** [8c 7c Kc]
tobyone: checks
iacog4: bets 150
tobyone: calls 150
*** TURN *** [8c 7c Kc] [5d]
tobyone: checks
iacog4: bets 660
tobyone: calls 660
*** RIVER *** [8c 7c Kc 5d] [9d]
tobyone: checks
iacog4: bets 1350
tobyone: calls 1350
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Tc 9c] (a flush, King high)
tobyone: mucks hand
iacog4 collected 4605 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4605 | Rake 0
Board [8c 7c Kc 5d 9d]
Seat 1: creepdogxxx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: bestpoker03 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: roorkee1 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: RhodeML (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: shg18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tobyone mucked [Jh Jc]
Seat 7: Steelsen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: iacog4 showed [Tc 9c] and won (4605) with a flush, King high


I call here with a suited connector from the early raiser because I basically have chips to play some pots with. I have a dream flop with a made flush and a straight flush draw. I lead right at the pot and pretty much bet hard for value. I didn't figure him for that big of a hand and really just thought he might have missed the ace high flush. I didn't expect to get called on the river, but he did miss his Jack high flush draw as he had the J of clubs and just couldn't give up. I won a nice pot here.


POKERSTARS GAME #14649883238: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL V (75/150) - 2008/01/18 - 16:19:41 (ET)
Table '73433652 120' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: BestBoy24 (1348 in chips)
Seat 2: Twingo_ES (8777 in chips)
Seat 3: QuasiFiction (14225 in chips)
Seat 4: dropkick84 (3435 in chips)
Seat 5: Benjamin134 (5655 in chips)
Seat 6: iacog4 (7025 in chips)
Seat 7: AquaFish (7320 in chips)
Seat 8: igotdanutz (795 in chips)
Seat 9: MrDutchGuy (12430 in chips)
BestBoy24: posts small blind 75
Twingo_ES: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Ks Ac]
QuasiFiction: raises 300 to 450
dropkick84: folds
Benjamin134: folds
iacog4: calls 450
AquaFish: folds
igotdanutz: folds
MrDutchGuy: calls 450
BestBoy24: folds
Twingo_ES: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kc 2h 2s]
QuasiFiction: checks
iacog4: checks
MrDutchGuy: bets 450
QuasiFiction: folds
iacog4: calls 450
*** TURN *** [Kc 2h 2s] [Td]
iacog4: checks
MrDutchGuy: bets 750
iacog4: calls 750
*** RIVER *** [Kc 2h 2s Td] [2c]
iacog4: bets 5375 and is all-in
MrDutchGuy: folds
iacog4 collected 3975 from pot
iacog4: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3975 | Rake 0
Board [Kc 2h 2s Td 2c]
Seat 1: BestBoy24 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Twingo_ES (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: QuasiFiction folded on the Flop
Seat 4: dropkick84 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Benjamin134 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: iacog4 collected (3975)
Seat 7: AquaFish folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: igotdanutz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: MrDutchGuy (button) folded on the River

This is an interesting hand because I have one of the strongest hands in hold em AK. First position raises 3x the BB. Usually I would reraise this, but I have position on the guy and I'm a little concerned about the under the gun raise (under the gun refers to the first position to act preflop). Another guy calls behind. The flop is a good one for me K 2 2. The only hand that really gets all my money is AA or KK which is rare or 2 2, but I'm doubting that. I check because I feel my hand is disguised well here and I'm going to let someone else fire at it. The 3rd guy in the pot does and I call him after the other guy folds. I decide to check again on the turn because it gives him a chance to bluff at it still. He bets again. I don't really like my play on the river here. The river comes a 2 basically ruling out a 2 in his hand, but I have a full house. I expect to split the pot here, so I probably should have just checked again and let him bluff. I played the hand awkward that I bet this river bet really looked strong and I doubt I get paid off by anything.

POKERSTARS GAME #14650100591: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL VI (100/200) - 2008/01/18 - 16:29:18 (ET)
Table '73433652 79' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Pyas (4660 in chips)
Seat 2: jjj77777 (5247 in chips)
Seat 3: CAPTAINPATCH (5801 in chips)
Seat 4: vegas008 (8633 in chips)
Seat 5: AFCA JJ (11444 in chips)
Seat 6: TrulyRaNd0m (3894 in chips)
Seat 7: tapout1111 (4495 in chips)
Seat 8: tako1010 (3910 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (8445 in chips)
tako1010: posts small blind 100
iacog4: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [7d 7c]
Pyas: folds
jjj77777: folds
CAPTAINPATCH: folds
vegas008: folds
AFCA JJ: folds
TrulyRaNd0m: raises 400 to 600
tapout1111: folds
tako1010: folds
iacog4: raises 7845 to 8445 and is all-in
TrulyRaNd0m: calls 3294 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Kh 5d 7h]
*** TURN *** [Kh 5d 7h] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 5d 7h 2d] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [7d 7c] (three of a kind, Sevens)
TrulyRaNd0m: shows [Kd 3d] (a pair of Kings)
iacog4 collected 7888 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7888 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 5d 7h 2d 8h]
Seat 1: Pyas folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jjj77777 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: CAPTAINPATCH folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: vegas008 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: AFCA JJ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: TrulyRaNd0m showed [Kd 3d] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 7: tapout1111 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: tako1010 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: iacog4 (big blind) showed [7d 7c] and won (7888) with three of a kind, Sevens

Here a late position raiser makes a raise preflop. He had been aggressive so I just pushed him all in expecting to take the pot or have the best hand. He makes a pretty loose call and I have him crushed. My hand holds up.


CRAZY HAND
POKERSTARS GAME #14650241576: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL VI (100/200) - 2008/01/18 - 16:35:41 (ET)
Table '73433652 79' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Pyas (4660 in chips)
Seat 2: jjj77777 (4347 in chips)
Seat 3: CAPTAINPATCH (6501 in chips)
Seat 4: vegas008 (10333 in chips)
Seat 5: AFCA JJ (10644 in chips)
Seat 6: takemeonboy (1490 in chips)
Seat 7: tapout1111 (4295 in chips)
Seat 8: tako1010 (4110 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (12639 in chips)
takemeonboy: posts small blind 100
tapout1111: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Qh Qd]
tako1010: folds
iacog4: raises 400 to 600
Pyas: raises 1200 to 1800
jjj77777: folds
CAPTAINPATCH: folds
vegas008: folds
AFCA JJ: folds
takemeonboy: folds
tapout1111: folds
iacog4: raises 6800 to 8600
Pyas: calls 2860 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9h Qc Kc]
*** TURN *** [9h Qc Kc] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [9h Qc Kc Qs] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Qh Qd] (four of a kind, Queens)
Pyas: shows [Ac As] (a full house, Aces full of Queens)
iacog4 collected 9620 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9620 | Rake 0
Board [9h Qc Kc Qs Ad]
Seat 1: Pyas showed [Ac As] and lost with a full house, Aces full of Queens
Seat 2: jjj77777 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: CAPTAINPATCH folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: vegas008 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: AFCA JJ (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: takemeonboy (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: tapout1111 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: tako1010 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: iacog4 showed [Qh Qd] and won (9620) with four of a kind, Queens

I raise here and get reraised by I shortstack. I'm almost never folding QQ here. I get lucky to hit a queen and I make sure I hit four of a kind on the turn just so when he hits that Ace on the river I'm still winning. Have to get lucky to win.

POKERSTARS GAME #14651386611: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IX (300/600) - 2008/01/18 - 17:28:07 (ET)
Table '73433652 24' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Refilplz (23074 in chips)
Seat 2: minifres (13324 in chips)
Seat 3: ioalou (16930 in chips)
Seat 4: SweetSwe (28346 in chips)
Seat 5: Clairvoyant (4665 in chips)
Seat 6: iacog4 (11979 in chips)
Seat 7: ultra radi (12140 in chips)
Seat 8: maurino71 (26774 in chips)
Seat 9: BuLL3t_bG (19412 in chips)
Refilplz: posts the ante 60
minifres: posts the ante 60
ioalou: posts the ante 60
SweetSwe: posts the ante 60
Clairvoyant: posts the ante 60
iacog4: posts the ante 60
ultra radi: posts the ante 60
maurino71: posts the ante 60
BuLL3t_bG: posts the ante 60
Clairvoyant: posts small blind 300
iacog4: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [7c 7h]
ultra radi: folds
maurino71: folds
BuLL3t_bG: folds
Refilplz: folds
minifres: folds
ioalou: folds
SweetSwe: raises 1200 to 1800
Clairvoyant: raises 2805 to 4605 and is all-in
iacog4: raises 7314 to 11919 and is all-in
SweetSwe: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qs 2c Td]
*** TURN *** [Qs 2c Td] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 2c Td Kc] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Clairvoyant: shows [4s Ah] (a pair of Tens)
iacog4: shows [7c 7h] (two pair, Tens and Sevens)
iacog4 collected 11550 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11550 | Rake 0
Board [Qs 2c Td Kc Th]
Seat 1: Refilplz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: minifres folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ioalou folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: SweetSwe (button) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Clairvoyant (small blind) showed [4s Ah] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 6: iacog4 (big blind) showed [7c 7h] and won (11550) with two pair, Tens and Sevens
Seat 7: ultra radi folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: maurino71 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: BuLL3t_bG folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Here the button (last position to act) raises preflop. A short stack goes all in on the small blind. I'm on the big blind with 7 7. I just think I'm ahead of the button and small blind's range of hands here and the button had been aggressive. I isolate by pushing all in and I'm right in that I'm ahead big time again A4 and it holds up.

For the next few levels I just stayed patient picking up blinds and no big pots occurred until this one.

POKERSTARS GAME #14652876373: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XIII (800/1600) - 2008/01/18 - 18:35:02 (ET)
Table '73433652 181' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: stosh101 (58180 in chips)
Seat 2: Miklan300 (112500 in chips)
Seat 3: STAM1NA (59227 in chips)
Seat 4: Aryamehr (121647 in chips)
Seat 5: MrDutchGuy (20336 in chips)
Seat 6: GripDsNutz (35243 in chips)
Seat 7: iacog4 (24104 in chips)
Seat 9: mariosi (51496 in chips)
stosh101: posts the ante 160
Miklan300: posts the ante 160
STAM1NA: posts the ante 160
Aryamehr: posts the ante 160
MrDutchGuy: posts the ante 160
GripDsNutz: posts the ante 160
iacog4: posts the ante 160
mariosi: posts the ante 160
Miklan300: posts small blind 800
STAM1NA: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [9h 9s]
Miklan300 said, "i folded aq"
Aryamehr: folds
MrDutchGuy: folds
GripDsNutz: folds
mariosi said, "good fold had AK"
iacog4: raises 2700 to 4300
mariosi: folds
stosh101: folds
Miklan300: folds
STAM1NA: raises 54767 to 59067 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 19644 and is all-in
mariosi said, "2nd time"
*** FLOP *** [5h 9c 2d]
mariosi said, "first time had nothing"
*** TURN *** [5h 9c 2d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [5h 9c 2d 8s] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
STAM1NA: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
iacog4: shows [9h 9s] (a full house, Nines full of Eights)
iacog4 collected 49968 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 49968 | Rake 0
Board [5h 9c 2d 8s 8h]
Seat 1: stosh101 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Miklan300 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: STAM1NA (big blind) showed [Ad Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Eights
Seat 4: Aryamehr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: MrDutchGuy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: GripDsNutz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: iacog4 showed [9h 9s] and won (49968) with a full house, Nines full of Eights
Seat 9: mariosi folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Again I get miraculously lucky and beat AA. I think my reraise here is probably a bad play with the raiser being the first position raiser. I'm not sure why I decided to reraise here and I can make a case for all three options fold, call and raise. I think the result of the hand is the same no matter what (unless I fold) because I would probably call and still double up when I hit my set. This is just a part of a tournament you need to get lucky. It would have looked better though if I just call and put all the chips in when I'm ahead.

POKERSTARS GAME #14653051317: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XIV (1000/2000) - 2008/01/18 - 18:43:04 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: GURUrabBIT (69336 in chips)
Seat 2: Madcityb (57440 in chips)
Seat 3: MrDima (33391 in chips)
Seat 4: iacog4 (46768 in chips)
Seat 5: Tutnik (15720 in chips)
Seat 6: fabsoul (12974 in chips)
Seat 7: mikpen13 (52258 in chips)
Seat 8: mrLando (49601 in chips)
Seat 9: RockfAce10 (98204 in chips)
GURUrabBIT: posts the ante 200
Madcityb: posts the ante 200
MrDima: posts the ante 200
iacog4: posts the ante 200
Tutnik: posts the ante 200
fabsoul: posts the ante 200
mikpen13: posts the ante 200
mrLando: posts the ante 200
RockfAce10: posts the ante 200
iacog4: posts small blind 1000
Tutnik: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Ac Js]
fabsoul: raises 6000 to 8000
mikpen13: folds
mrLando: folds
RockfAce10: folds
GURUrabBIT: folds
Madcityb: folds
MrDima: folds
iacog4: raises 6000 to 14000
Tutnik: folds
fabsoul: calls 4774 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9c 7h 3c]
*** TURN *** [9c 7h 3c] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [9c 7h 3c 5d] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Ac Js] (high card Ace)
fabsoul: shows [Ad Ts] (high card Ace - lower kicker)
iacog4 collected 29348 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 29348 | Rake 0
Board [9c 7h 3c 5d 6c]
Seat 1: GURUrabBIT folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Madcityb folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: MrDima (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: iacog4 (small blind) showed [Ac Js] and won (29348) with high card Ace
Seat 5: Tutnik (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: fabsoul showed [Ad Ts] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 7: mikpen13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: mrLando folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: RockfAce10 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Here I have AJ on the small blind and the short stack first to act basically puts himself all in. I am basically saying that he is desperate to double up and I'm probably beating most of the hands he does this with. I'm right and he has A10 and my hand holds up.

Table '73433652 142' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: MrDutchGuy (41652 in chips)
Seat 3: Aryamehr (44208 in chips)
Seat 4: Miraculixx (117204 in chips)
Seat 5: SweetSwe (75012 in chips)
Seat 6: Latuz (118883 in chips)
Seat 7: iacog4 (58042 in chips)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (207340 in chips)
Seat 9: jake784 (156228 in chips)
MrDutchGuy: posts the ante 400
Aryamehr: posts the ante 400
Miraculixx: posts the ante 400
SweetSwe: posts the ante 400
Latuz: posts the ante 400
iacog4: posts the ante 400
Funkymonk21: posts the ante 400
jake784: posts the ante 400
MrDutchGuy: posts small blind 2000
Aryamehr: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Ks As]
Miraculixx: folds
SweetSwe: folds
Latuz: folds
iacog4: raises 6980 to 10980
Latuz said, "might have been the best hand there"
Funkymonk21: folds
jake784: folds
MrDutchGuy: raises 30272 to 41252 and is all-in
Aryamehr: folds
iacog4: calls 30272
*** FLOP *** [6h 3d 9s]
*** TURN *** [6h 3d 9s] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [6h 3d 9s 7s] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrDutchGuy: shows [4h 4d] (a pair of Fours)
iacog4: shows [Ks As] (a pair of Aces)
iacog4 collected 89704 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 89704 | Rake 0
Board [6h 3d 9s 7s Ad]
Seat 1: MrDutchGuy (small blind) showed [4h 4d] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 3: Aryamehr (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Miraculixx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: SweetSwe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Latuz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: iacog4 showed [Ks As] and won (89704) with a pair of Aces
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: jake784 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Here is a standard play with a strong hand like AK and I'm lucky to win the race. I'm not a big fan of that push with 44 though.

DISASTER

POKERSTARS GAME #14653607558: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XVI (2000/4000) - 2008/01/18 - 19:08:47 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: neblogas (55686 in chips)
Seat 2: madchad13 (16580 in chips)
Seat 3: shg18 (137548 in chips)
Seat 4: matichou (104126 in chips)
Seat 5: Lepakkopes (85610 in chips)
Seat 6: keanesixteen (111288 in chips)
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (32202 in chips)
Seat 8: senh266 (46322 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (105294 in chips)
neblogas: posts the ante 400
madchad13: posts the ante 400
shg18: posts the ante 400
matichou: posts the ante 400
Lepakkopes: posts the ante 400
keanesixteen: posts the ante 400
Mr Thorne: posts the ante 400
senh266: posts the ante 400
iacog4: posts the ante 400
senh266: posts small blind 2000
iacog4: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Ad Qd]
neblogas: folds
madchad13: folds
shg18: folds
matichou: folds
Lepakkopes: raises 8000 to 12000
keanesixteen: folds
Mr Thorne: calls 12000
senh266: folds
iacog4: raises 92894 to 104894 and is all-in
Lepakkopes: calls 73210 and is all-in
Mr Thorne: calls 19802 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [8s 9c Ts]
*** TURN *** [8s 9c Ts] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [8s 9c Ts 2d] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Ad Qd] (high card Ace)
Lepakkopes: shows [Jd Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
Lepakkopes collected 106816 from side pot
Mr Thorne: shows [Ac As] (a pair of Aces)
Mr Thorne collected 101006 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 207822 Main pot 101006. Side pot 106816. | Rake 0
Board [8s 9c Ts 2d 4d]
Seat 1: neblogas folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: madchad13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: shg18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: matichou folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Lepakkopes showed [Jd Jh] and won (106816) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 6: keanesixteen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (button) showed [Ac As] and won (101006) with a pair of Aces
Seat 8: senh266 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: iacog4 (big blind) showed [Ad Qd] and lost with high card Ace

I credit this hand to the great play by Mr. Thorne on the button here. He flat calls the raise making me believe that he is fairly weak. I believe the raiser with JJ was being pretty aggressive, so I just attempt a squeeze play here with a fairly good hand AQ of diamonds. I get called in both spots and I'm pretty much dead in the water. I'm down to virtually no chips after this hand and I thought I blew my tournament here. I really could have avoided this situation by maybe just calling with the big chip stacks these guys have. I just don't like doing that out of position here. Well played Mr Thorne.

I play the short stack very well. It is one of my strong points and I just stayed patient picked up blinds here and there until this hand.

POKERSTARS GAME #14654433657: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XVIII (3000/6000) - 2008/01/18 - 19:46:48 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Madcityb (86000 in chips)
Seat 2: madchad13 (109520 in chips)
Seat 3: shg18 (143886 in chips)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker (318878 in chips)
Seat 6: allsam (179704 in chips)
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (134267 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (35568 in chips)
Madcityb: posts the ante 600
madchad13: posts the ante 600
shg18: posts the ante 600
th0mas-poker: posts the ante 600
allsam: posts the ante 600
Mr Thorne: posts the ante 600
iacog4: posts the ante 600
Mr Thorne: posts small blind 3000
iacog4: posts big blind 6000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Kd 9s]
Madcityb: folds
madchad13: folds
shg18: folds
th0mas-poker: folds
allsam: raises 6000 to 12000
Mr Thorne: folds
iacog4: raises 22968 to 34968 and is all-in
allsam: calls 22968
*** FLOP *** [Tc 4d 7c]
*** TURN *** [Tc 4d 7c] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 4d 7c 2h] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Kd 9s] (a pair of Deuces)
allsam: shows [Qs Jh] (a pair of Deuces - lower kicker)
iacog4 collected 77136 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 77136 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 4d 7c 2h 2c]
Seat 1: Madcityb folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: madchad13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: shg18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: allsam (button) showed [Qs Jh] and lost with a pair of Deuces
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: iacog4 (big blind) showed [Kd 9s] and won (77136) with a pair of Deuces


I have a K9 here. The button min raises which could be a steal, but I just decide it's as good a spot as any to push here. I'm actually ahead and I win. I usually wouldn't do this play in retrospect because I want to have fold equity. Fold equity is just having enough chips that you can win the pot without facing a showdown. Anytime you face a showdown, you risk being knocked out. I just decided to risk it here because I was so shortstacked that I had to get back in and being isolated with one player that I felt wasn't that strong was good enough for me. Luckily I was right and luckily I win the 60/40 (term for 60% to 40%).

After this hand, I had enough of a chip stack that I was able to make some good moves preflop and I also picked up some very good hands along the way to allow me to build my stack up.

POKERSTARS GAME #14654676640: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XIX (4000/8000) - 2008/01/18 - 19:57:47 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: jofey (178124 in chips)
Seat 2: madchad13 (81920 in chips)
Seat 3: shg18 (223885 in chips)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker (364478 in chips)
Seat 5: xTheWall (102376 in chips)
Seat 6: allsam (130336 in chips)
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (117312 in chips)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (120014 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (97092 in chips)
jofey: posts the ante 800
madchad13: posts the ante 800
shg18: posts the ante 800
th0mas-poker: posts the ante 800
xTheWall: posts the ante 800
allsam: posts the ante 800
Mr Thorne: posts the ante 800
Funkymonk21: posts the ante 800
iacog4: posts the ante 800
Funkymonk21: posts small blind 4000
iacog4: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [9h 9d]
jofey: folds
madchad13: folds
shg18: folds
th0mas-poker: folds
xTheWall: folds
allsam: raises 121536 to 129536 and is all-in
Mr Thorne: folds
Funkymonk21: folds
iacog4: calls 88292 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [8c 3d Qs]
*** TURN *** [8c 3d Qs] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [8c 3d Qs Ks] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [9h 9d] (a pair of Nines)
allsam: shows [Jc Ac] (high card Ace)
iacog4 collected 203784 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 203784 | Rake 0
Board [8c 3d Qs Ks 2c]
Seat 1: jofey folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: madchad13 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: shg18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: xTheWall folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: allsam showed [Jc Ac] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 7: Mr Thorne (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: iacog4 (big blind) showed [9h 9d] and won (203784) with a pair of Nines


This hand had some history behind it. This player made all in or fold his only move preflop. This usually tells me that 99 is beating that range. Most players just don't push monster hands that hard. In this situation, he's pushing almost 15 big blinds any time he enters the pot. He had done this a bunch of times, so I decided to roll the dice with 99 here hoping he had some lower pair or I was in a race and ahead. I was in a race and I won another one.

POKERSTARS GAME #14655162623: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XX (5000/10000) - 2008/01/18 - 20:20:08 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: p0cket00 (258212 in chips)
Seat 3: shg18 (345662 in chips)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker (241412 in chips)
Seat 5: seaanchor (209954 in chips)
Seat 6: matichou (230840 in chips)
Seat 7: FaceMeNow (480358 in chips)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (192947 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (238784 in chips)
p0cket00: posts the ante 1000
shg18: posts the ante 1000
th0mas-poker: posts the ante 1000
seaanchor: posts the ante 1000
matichou: posts the ante 1000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 1000
Funkymonk21: posts the ante 1000
iacog4: posts the ante 1000
seaanchor: posts small blind 5000
matichou: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Js Jc]
FaceMeNow: folds
Funkymonk21: raises 18000 to 28000
iacog4: raises 52000 to 80000
p0cket00: folds
shg18: folds
th0mas-poker: folds
seaanchor: folds
matichou: folds
Funkymonk21: raises 111947 to 191947 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 111947
*** FLOP *** [As 2c 9s]
*** TURN *** [As 2c 9s] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [As 2c 9s 2d] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Funkymonk21: shows [Ad Kh] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
iacog4: shows [Js Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
Funkymonk21 collected 406894 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 406894 | Rake 0
Board [As 2c 9s 2d Td]
Seat 1: p0cket00 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: shg18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: seaanchor (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: matichou (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: FaceMeNow folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 showed [Ad Kh] and won (406894) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 9: iacog4 showed [Js Jc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Deuces


Here I 3 bet preflop with JJ and get into a big race. Unfortunately, I lose this one and once again I'm in dead last. This was around 16 players left and I thought my tournament would be over. I again stayed ready as a short stack to find a spot. I soon doubled up from my short stack with A5 vs 66.

Then this hand occurred.

POKERSTARS GAME #14655229558: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XX (5000/10000) - 2008/01/18 - 20:23:11 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: p0cket00 (194212 in chips)
Seat 3: shg18 (341662 in chips)
Seat 4: th0mas-poker (150000 in chips)
Seat 5: seaanchor (200954 in chips)
Seat 6: matichou (339664 in chips)
Seat 7: FaceMeNow (501521 in chips)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (371482 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (98674 in chips)
p0cket00: posts the ante 1000
shg18: posts the ante 1000
th0mas-poker: posts the ante 1000
seaanchor: posts the ante 1000
matichou: posts the ante 1000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 1000
Funkymonk21: posts the ante 1000
iacog4: posts the ante 1000
iacog4: posts small blind 5000
p0cket00: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Qh Ac]
shg18: raises 14555 to 24555
th0mas-poker: folds
seaanchor: folds
matichou: folds
FaceMeNow: folds
Funkymonk21: folds
iacog4: raises 73119 to 97674 and is all-in
p0cket00: folds
shg18: calls 73119
*** FLOP *** [7c Ad 7s]
*** TURN *** [7c Ad 7s] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [7c Ad 7s Td] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Qh Ac] (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
shg18: shows [Kh Qd] (a pair of Sevens)
iacog4 collected 213348 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 213348 | Rake 0
Board [7c Ad 7s Td 6s]
Seat 1: p0cket00 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: shg18 showed [Kh Qd] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 4: th0mas-poker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: seaanchor folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: matichou folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: FaceMeNow folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Funkymonk21 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: iacog4 (small blind) showed [Qh Ac] and won (213348) with two pair, Aces and Sevens

On this hand, I actually covered up his hole cards and pinched the first one to see a K. I thought it was either KK or AK, so when I saw the flop, I was pretty sure once again it was tournament over. I was thrilled to reveal a Q, QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ. I was so happy to be back in this tournament after this hand.

POKERSTARS GAME #14655667379: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXI (7500/15000) - 2008/01/18 - 20:43:33 (ET)
Table '73433652 92' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: SWE_CS (241716 in chips)
Seat 5: seaanchor (385908 in chips)
Seat 6: matichou (226164 in chips)
Seat 7: FaceMeNow (1107749 in chips)
Seat 9: iacog4 (496848 in chips)
SWE_CS: posts the ante 1500
seaanchor: posts the ante 1500
matichou: posts the ante 1500
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 1500
iacog4: posts the ante 1500
FaceMeNow: posts small blind 7500
iacog4: posts big blind 15000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Kh Kd]
SWE_CS: raises 30000 to 45000
seaanchor: calls 45000
matichou: raises 179664 to 224664 and is all-in
FaceMeNow: folds
iacog4: raises 270684 to 495348 and is all-in
SWE_CS: folds
seaanchor: folds
*** FLOP *** [5s 2s 7s]
*** TURN *** [5s 2s 7s] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [5s 2s 7s 5d] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [Kh Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
matichou: shows [As Qh] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
iacog4 collected 554328 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 554328 | Rake 0
Board [5s 2s 7s 5d 2h]
Seat 2: SWE_CS folded before Flop
Seat 5: seaanchor folded before Flop
Seat 6: matichou (button) showed [As Qh] and lost with two pair, Fives and Deuces
Seat 7: FaceMeNow (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: iacog4 (big blind) showed [Kh Kd] and won (554328) with two pair, Kings and Fives

This is a dream. We are now shorthanded and I picked up tons of good hands to steal blinds. As you can see my stack was built up to almost 500,000 at this point all the way from the 41,000 I was left with just a few hands ago. Everyone goes crazy here and I pick up KK and it holds to give me a very nice chip stack.

The rest of shorthanded play did not go so well. I played aggressively, but missed some flops and made a couple of bad calls to have my chip stack down to the amount in this hand.

POKERSTARS GAME #14656072883: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXIII (15000/30000) - 2008/01/18 - 21:02:25 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Mr Thorne (234488 in chips)
Seat 2: nahpets1 (496946 in chips)
Seat 3: stosh101 (109146 in chips)
Seat 4: Latuz (115209 in chips)
Seat 5: iacog4 (451796 in chips)
Seat 6: keanesixteen (435809 in chips)
Seat 7: seaanchor (434908 in chips)
Seat 8: SweetSwe (857949 in chips)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (1189749 in chips)
Mr Thorne: posts the ante 3000
nahpets1: posts the ante 3000
stosh101: posts the ante 3000
Latuz: posts the ante 3000
iacog4: posts the ante 3000
keanesixteen: posts the ante 3000
seaanchor: posts the ante 3000
SweetSwe: posts the ante 3000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 3000
keanesixteen: posts small blind 15000
seaanchor: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Kh Qd]
SweetSwe: folds
FaceMeNow: folds
Mr Thorne: folds
nahpets1: folds
stosh101: folds
Latuz: folds
iacog4: raises 50000 to 80000
keanesixteen: folds
seaanchor: raises 351908 to 431908 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 351908
*** FLOP *** [Qs 5d 8h]
*** TURN *** [Qs 5d 8h] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 5d 8h 4c] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
seaanchor: shows [Kd 3s] (high card King)
iacog4: shows [Kh Qd] (a pair of Queens)
iacog4 collected 905816 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 905816 | Rake 0
Board [Qs 5d 8h 4c 7c]
Seat 1: Mr Thorne folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: nahpets1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: stosh101 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Latuz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: iacog4 (button) showed [Kh Qd] and won (905816) with a pair of Queens
Seat 6: keanesixteen (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: seaanchor (big blind) showed [Kd 3s] and lost with high card King
Seat 8: SweetSwe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow folded before Flop (didn't bet)


This hand has big history behind it. seaanchor always seems to play like this against me. He pushes me back very light to resteal my button raises. I had a note on this. This call takes courage and is what I really felt won me the tournament. I had a read and went with it. I know that I was lucky to see him show up with K3 here and to have him dominated. He could easily have done this with any A and I would be behind, but I knew his range to be very large against me on the big blind here. I was thrilled to see the result here. Something finally seemed to go right at a final table.

POKERSTARS GAME #14656093687: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXIII (15000/30000) - 2008/01/18 - 21:03:24 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Mr Thorne (231488 in chips)
Seat 2: nahpets1 (493946 in chips)
Seat 3: stosh101 (106146 in chips)
Seat 4: Latuz (112209 in chips)
Seat 5: iacog4 (922704 in chips)
Seat 6: keanesixteen (417809 in chips)
Seat 8: SweetSwe (854949 in chips)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (1186749 in chips)
Mr Thorne: posts the ante 3000
nahpets1: posts the ante 3000
stosh101: posts the ante 3000
Latuz: posts the ante 3000
iacog4: posts the ante 3000
keanesixteen: posts the ante 3000
SweetSwe: posts the ante 3000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 3000
SweetSwe: posts small blind 15000
FaceMeNow: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Ac Ah]
Mr Thorne: folds
nahpets1: folds
stosh101: folds
Latuz: folds
iacog4: raises 50000 to 80000
keanesixteen: folds
SweetSwe: calls 65000
FaceMeNow: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h Qc 4c]
SweetSwe: bets 90000
iacog4: calls 90000
*** TURN *** [4h Qc 4c] [Td]
SweetSwe: bets 90000
iacog4: calls 90000
*** RIVER *** [4h Qc 4c Td] [2c]
SweetSwe: bets 90000
iacog4: calls 90000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SweetSwe: shows [8c 8s] (two pair, Eights and Fours)
iacog4: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
iacog4 collected 754000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 754000 | Rake 0
Board [4h Qc 4c Td 2c]
Seat 1: Mr Thorne folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: nahpets1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: stosh101 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Latuz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: iacog4 showed [Ac Ah] and won (754000) with two pair, Aces and Fours
Seat 6: keanesixteen (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: SweetSwe (small blind) showed [8c 8s] and lost with two pair, Eights and Fours
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (big blind) folded before Flop


This is an interesting hand that occurred almost right after the previous hand. I pick up a monster hand and get called by the big blind. The flop is pretty harmless Q 4 4. If he has QQ, then I'll accept the set up like a man. I really am hoping here that he has AQ and feels the need to push the hand hard. He bets a fairly nice sized bet here. I decide to just call here because I don't want to lose the other hands he could have including any pair or weaker hands that have a Q in it. He bets a very small 90,000 bet into almost a 400,000 pot on the turn. At this point, I change my perspective on his hand. I'm almost certain that he has a hand weaker than a Q or even a flush draw. I decide not to raise here because my hand looks weak to him and if he misses his flush draw he may still fire at the pot with a lot of money in there. The river card is a complete blank. He bets way too small on the river another 90,000. It's a blocker bet, one designed so he doesn't have to call anymore if he checks to me. It's a good one too because I do not raise. He shows 88 and I win the hand. I think I played this hand pretty well. A lot of players would just shove this flop and lose the player, shove the turn and lose the player or make a river raise that will only get called if it's beat. I think I had a great idea of where he was at in the hand at the time and I played it pretty well. I would have liked to get more from him, but I don't know if that was possible here.

After this hand, the big stack at the table pretty much ran over everyone. He knocked out most of the other players and the other pots I was in were pretty small. I just stayed patient and we finally got heads up after I won this hand.

POKERSTARS GAME #14656443350: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXIV (20000/40000) - 2008/01/18 - 21:19:47 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: nahpets1 (882782 in chips)
Seat 5: iacog4 (775495 in chips)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (2667723 in chips)
nahpets1: posts the ante 4000
iacog4: posts the ante 4000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 4000
nahpets1: posts small blind 20000
iacog4: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [As Td]
FaceMeNow: folds
nahpets1: raises 838782 to 878782 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 731495 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [8c 6d Ac]
FaceMeNow said, "gh"
*** TURN *** [8c 6d Ac] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [8c 6d Ac 5c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nahpets1: shows [Ts Jh] (high card Ace)
iacog4: shows [As Td] (a pair of Aces)
iacog4 collected 1554990 from pot
iacog4 said, "ty"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1554990 | Rake 0
Board [8c 6d Ac 5c 4h]
Seat 2: nahpets1 (small blind) showed [Ts Jh] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 5: iacog4 (big blind) showed [As Td] and won (1554990) with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Here I basically just put my hand ahead of his range and I was right and my hand held up.

We were now 1 on 1 FOR ALL THE MARBLES BABYYYYY!!!!!

The difference between 1st and 2nd was around eight thousand, so it was a pretty high stakes heads up match. He really did a great job of taking me out of my comfort zone. He basically played pretty aggressive, but he pushed all in, folded or just called. There was no other raise he made besides all in. I was then just at a point where I had to decide how long I was going to dwindle. I believe we started heads up at 1.6mill to 2.7 mill. I was down to about 1.4 mill which is almost a 2 to 1 disadvantage. Judging by how he was playing, I basically took a risk again.

POKERSTARS GAME #14656655112: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXIV (20000/40000) - 2008/01/18 - 21:29:47 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 5: iacog4 (1418277 in chips)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (2907723 in chips)
iacog4: posts the ante 4000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 4000
FaceMeNow: posts small blind 20000
iacog4: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [4c Ac]
FaceMeNow: raises 2863723 to 2903723 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 1374277 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Td 6h 6d]
*** TURN *** [Td 6h 6d] [As]
*** RIVER *** [Td 6h 6d As] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
iacog4: shows [4c Ac] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
FaceMeNow: shows [8c Kh] (a pair of Sixes)
FaceMeNow said, "gh"
iacog4 said, "ty"
iacog4 collected 2836554 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2836554 | Rake 0
Board [Td 6h 6d As 4s]
Seat 5: iacog4 (big blind) showed [4c Ac] and won (2836554) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (button) (small blind) showed [8c Kh] and lost with a pair of Sixes

Here I pick up A4 of clubs and decide to finally make a stand against his all in. He was making the all in enough that it was not possible for it to be just hands that are beating A4. I was probably a little behind where I wanted to make a stand here. I would rather have A9 or higher probably, but I really felt that it was time. He had the momentum heads up for sure at this point and my strong suit was neutralized by him. I knew if we didn't play all in poker, I would probably have the advantage, but he took that out of my hands. I don't want to sound cocky here, but I'm very confident in my heads up play. I've played thousands of hands in the last couple weeks heads up and I have many more 1st place finishes in tournaments than 2nd places.

After that, I caught crabs, and not the parasitic venereal disease.

POKERSTARS GAME #14656694131: TOURNAMENT #73433652, $50+$5 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL XXIV (20000/40000) - 2008/01/18 - 21:31:39 (ET)
Table '73433652 90' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 5: iacog4 (2902554 in chips)
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (1423446 in chips)
iacog4: posts the ante 4000
FaceMeNow: posts the ante 4000
iacog4: posts small blind 20000
FaceMeNow: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [3d 3s]
iacog4: raises 50000 to 90000
FaceMeNow: raises 1329446 to 1419446 and is all-in
iacog4: calls 1329446
*** FLOP *** [Ks 6d 8d]
*** TURN *** [Ks 6d 8d] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Ks 6d 8d 5s] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FaceMeNow: shows [4c Ac] (high card Ace)
iacog4: shows [3d 3s] (a pair of Threes)
FaceMeNow said, "gg"
iacog4 collected 2846892 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2846892 | Rake 0
Board [Ks 6d 8d 5s Jc]
Seat 5: iacog4 (button) (small blind) showed [3d 3s] and won (2846892) with a pair of Threes
Seat 9: FaceMeNow (big blind) showed [4c Ac] and lost with high card Ace


I went here with the idea that Dan Harrington's books often put into my head. A pair heads up is a very strong hand. A pair here is almost guaranteed to be in a race situation and with my chip lead, I was willing to gamble. I knew he would have it no other way. In retrospect, I probably could have waited, but I'm a luckbox and I run great so I win the race and the tournament.



I know that was a lot of poker talk, but hopefully it gives some insight into how I was thinking about this tournament. It felt great to be deep and consistently get my money in ahead because I can't always say that I do late in tournaments.



A special thanks to my boy Keith who writes at keithjaranovic.com

Keith gave me a special shout out and I want to make it come true. He anticipates a big year and I know that I have flaws in my tournament game that need to get worked out, but I have won some big tournaments in the past and I know I can be a very profitable player if I do these things the right way. There have been streaks where I haven't played great poker and I want to fix that. No matter what happens with the luck, I always want to play great. That's what I'm striving for.


Goal Update for 2008

Final Tables= 5 Goal 100
Wins = 1 Goal 15

Great Weekend

I love to title blog posts so positively because I haven't been able to say this about an entire weekend. I won every day from Friday to Sunday. Friday it was all from 1/2 NL heads up as I had planned. On Saturday, I took 3rd in the 55 Rebuy on Stars. This tournament I played well and was extremely patient and was rewarded with crucial races at times. I entered the final table in 6th place, so when you can come out with third you can't be too bad even though I really felt I had a strong skill advantage on the guy who came in second. The winner was a guy I have played before and respect. Essentially, he had a monster chip lead when we got 3 handed with 1.2 mill to my 200,000 and the other guys 400,000. I doubled up once, but failed to improve when we got it all in shortly after, I had A10 vs his AQ. I played 5 tournaments on Saturday and cashed in every single tournament which hasn't happened in a while for me. That tells me that I'm doing something right. On Sunday, I almost reached a goal of mine that I set a few days ago to win the H.O.R.S.E. tournament on Full Tilt. I took 3rd out of the 180+ to save a Sunday that had 0 cashes up to that point. I really felt like I carried the tournament momentum forward from Saturday, but I can't get going in the Sunday Million on Stars. Every week, I feel like I get my chips in way ahead and come out behind in that tournament. That being said, I was extremely lucky to survive to as far as I did as I was short early on. There are 7,000 people in that tournament and tons of people that really have very little internet tournament poker experience. The other Sunday tournaments, I ran into tough spots early when I would have big pairs run into sets twice. I almost feel like I should start going into complete defense mode with the big hands early because they usually just lead to big trouble. Either way it was a great weekend.

The one tournament I was really looking forward to was the heads up matches on Pokerstars. This is a 256 bracket style tournament where if you win you go on, but you play 1 on 1. I love the format and felt that all the heads up NL I had been playing this week would really help me. Well it did when my first opponent failed to show up for the tournament he had registered for and he blinded out. Obviously, he had been watching me play all week and was just too scared to click the mouse. (I'm kidding, but I'm well aware there is no sarcasm detector online, so I just want to make sure people know I'm actually pretty humble). I won my second match when I got trapped by a guy with K 10 on a K 9 5 x board. I shoved the turn when he checked to me with A 5 and hit the Pokerstars river card A that always finds a way to come. So in two matches, one guy was just too tired to play and fell asleep on the keyboard and the other guy got the money in pretty good. Don't worry, in the money match (what I call the 3rd match because if you win you are guaranteed to be in the money and then you are just playing heads up tournaments for big pay jumps), I got completely steamrolled by GB2005, a very well known good online player. The funny thing about this match was I made a very tough fold early on with A 7 on a Q 7 3 two diamond board. I had put about 400 of my 1500 chips in the middle and almost just went with it hoping he had a draw. I essentially ruled him out of having a medium hand. I didn't believe he would jam me in with just any Q. I thought he either had me crushed with a set or two pair already or had a diamond draw. The hard part was knowing that if I folded I was down 2 to 1 in chips against a very good player. It actually seems like an easy fold in retrospect. The funny thing about this match was that I had to have had a super wild image to him, yet when I picked up AA twice and 10 10 once in a short span when I was first to act preflop, he just folded. It seemed like every other time he could see I had garbage. Sometimes in heads up matches whether it be at the end of a tournament or in these things, you just have no clue what happened. That's how I felt after this match. I just felt steamrolled. Give credit to him and he's a class act, so I can't say much else about that.


I was planning on playing at Caesar's on Saturday for my last blog, but then I remembered that my gender is male and the NFL playoffs are on. This is the entire reason I didn't go skiing with my Cousin. I seriously love NFL football. It doesn't matter who is playing or when they are playing, but I love it. I'm not sure why since I never played a down of a real game of football in my life. It's just one of those things I won't ever be able to explain. If I had to venture an explanation, I would have to say that in football you can almost feel the intensity and emotion from watching. It's the same feeling I get when I watch an event like the World Cup. It's very tough to describe in that way because I don't think people really care that much about the World Cup in the US. There just seems to be so much at stake in the NFL playoffs. If you think about it though, most players never get a chance to play in the big game. There is only one per year out of the 30+ NFL teams. I'm not sure the exact number but 55 players apprx. and 15 coaches apprx. 70 people across 30 teams, 2100 people and only 140 get to go to game each year. That's not even counting the tens of thousands that never even made it in the NFL.

Anyway, my picks this week, SD was good even though I thought the Colts would still win. They decided to show up as the least deserving team ever. They lost to a SD team with the biggest weapon in the NFL out of the game, a QB that is still so immature that he taunts fans, and a tight end playing on one good foot because a toe injury limits a player big time. I broke my toe my senior year in soccer and was never the same for the rest of the year. While I played a lot of games still, ever collision and step I had to gut through and that was a PINKY toe. This was the guys big toe. I can't believe SD won this game. Too many commercials Peyton.

Green Bay looked too good to be true. At that rate, they should steamroll the Giants, so that pick is also good. Anyone else catch Brett Favre tearing up in his post game interview? You have to love this guy for how he competes.

New England won, but did not cover. I think you can hand them the Super Bowl at this point. SD will not beat this team full strength.

New York Giants continued their rampage and proved that if you have a tough front 7 in the NFL, you are going to wear on a team. Romo couldn't do anything in the second half because those guys just keep coming at you. If I want a front 7 for the Browns like any other team, let it be the Giants. T.O. crying? This weekend might be a dream the way I've been playing.......

I went 2-2, which is why I don't bet sports.

I kind of feel like this kid right now even though I'm kind of crushed about now winning the H.O.R.S.E. tournament.

Winning feels good, 2008 Goals

1/2 NL hold em 1 on 1, heads up, mono y mono has given me a whole lot lately. In addition to a decent bankroll, it has given me a real good sense of reads on people when I'm playing heads up in any situation. I plan to keep on playing this game each day and take shots at tournaments each night when I play online. I think on Saturday I'm headed to Caesars to play a live tournament $320 because I haven't won on a Saturday playing 8 tournaments at a time or doing whatever I do on Saturdays in a long time. The fact is really that tournaments are extremely tough to play and win consistently every day, especially with the large fields on most of the sites. I have really been studying hard though and working on my tournament game because it's where I believe talent shows a lot of profitability. On top of that, it is one of the greatest strategy and complex challenges I can attempt to face. That being said I have some goals for 2008.

I want to put out some goals for 2008 tournaments, so I can go through some progress throughout the year and that I have something to strive for. So here it is:

1. Win 15 multi table tournaments online.
2. Win a 100 Rebuy on Pokerstars.
3. 100 Final tables in multi table tournaments.
4. Live tournament win.
5. WPT prelim event win
6. WSOP event final table
7. 10 Live final tables.
8. Final table Sunday Million on Pokerstars.
9. Win the Sunday Night HORSE tournament on Full Tilt.


On that note, I believe these goals are attainable for me and in a game where luck is an important factor along with skill, I didn't want to set goals like "Win the Main Event of the WSOP" where I have one crack at it and that's it, but this gives me something to strive for in that arena.


I made a final table last night on Pokerstars and took 8th. I made a bad play to get knocked out of the tournament with 88. I had folded nearly every hand at the final table and made the raise from mid position. I was pushed all in by the SB. Tournament life is just so important and I need to realize that. I called and he showed JJ for a disappointing finish. I do feel like I'm playing solid though, but I have had some tough spots that I have made the wrong decision. To be great, the right decision needs to be made in these tough spots.


So there is a poker blog and some real strong goals for this year that I plan to achieve. I'm ready for this new year and my new mentality is really going to prevail.

Why I quit caring too much about politics

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton won in New Hampshire. A state that carries 4 electoral votes. 4 electoral votes total in the final process. CNN covered it like it was the biggest thing in the world. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here because I've deleted this sentence 8 times already. In a nutshell though, I watched the last race very closely because I felt it was very important. I felt the 2004 Presidential race was a referendum on George W. Bush and his decision to go to war in Iraq despite about half of the population being against it. I wanted the USA to say that they did not approve of decisions that placed troops in danger without truth to the public. I pretty much declared our democracy dead after that election. Our nation is just too big. Half of the people don't even vote, but just flutter around in this country not caring about our leadership because their vote really doesn't matter. In the case of the primary, you don't matter unless you live in New Hampshire and Iowa. That is disturbing. Let's be honest. Last race, Howard Dean ran a brilliant campaign mobilizing so many disgruntled, apathetic Americans only to lose one race in Iowa that led to this