A good night

As the start time of the MBJ season has been returned to 9pm EST, I'm trying to play it again. Last night I just missed the first tourney by about 3 minutes. I was pretty disappointed. I still felt like playing a tourney, so I signed up for a 3$ NLHE 6man. I also noticed an Omaha Satellite for one of the MSOP events. It was only 3$ also, so I signed up for that too. I wasn't really planning on playing in the MSOP Omaha event, but I figured I could use the T$.

Let me start by mentioning that I've played hardly any NLHE MTT's in the past year(maybe 12 at most) and only fool around with Omaha. I try to adapt my PLO8 play to it, sometimes it works, others it doesn't. I do want to start playing more of these small buyin events when I can, I think there is alot of dead money floating around and I feel I have pretty good equity and it increases when the fields are smaller. The satellites especially are worthwhile. Low quality of play with the larger standard payout is ideal for aggressive players. With T$ available now, I think it's a good bet.

About 45 minutes in, I was involved in a pivotal hand. I've posted it below and discussed my thinking after it.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6749901904: $3 + $0.30 Tournament (51204413), Table 52 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:30:59 ET - 2008/06/08
Seat 1: kindermyster7 (10,935)
Seat 2: someday278 (4,320)
Seat 3: lotca01 (2,985)
Seat 4: Lill D (4,470)
Seat 5: Ferndog22 (1,305)
Seat 6: Zophar (4,920)
Ferndog22 posts the small blind of 15
Zophar posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [6c 9c]
kindermyster7 raises to 90
someday278 folds
lotca01 folds
Lill D calls 90
Ferndog22 calls 75
Zophar calls 60
*** FLOP *** [7s 4c 2c]
Ferndog22 has 15 seconds left to act
Ferndog22 bets 1,215, and is all in
Zophar raises to 4,830, and is all in
kindermyster7 raises to 10,845, and is all in
Lill D folds
kindermyster7 shows [Kd Ks]
Ferndog22 shows [5c 7c]
Zophar shows [6c 9c]
Uncalled bet of 6,015 returned to kindermyster7
*** TURN *** [7s 4c 2c] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [7s 4c 2c 6d] [3c]
kindermyster7 shows a pair of Kings
Zophar shows a flush, Nine high
Zophar wins the side pot (7,230) with a flush, Nine high
Ferndog22 shows a flush, Seven high
Zophar wins the main pot (4,005) with a flush, Nine high
Ferndog22 stands up
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11,235 Main pot 4,005. Side pot 7,230. | Rake 0
Board: [7s 4c 2c 6d 3c]
Seat 1: kindermyster7 showed [Kd Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: someday278 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: lotca01 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Lill D (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Ferndog22 (small blind) showed [5c 7c] and lost with a flush, Seven high
Seat 6: Zophar (big blind) showed [6c 9c] and won (11,235) with a flush, Nine high

UTG had been at the table for just a couple of hands, but was playing the big stack. I felt after the SB shoved, I likely had the fold equity vs. UTG on that board. It gave me the proper odds on the flush draw HU vs. the SB. Unfortunately, I didn't have the fold equity at all and had 2 less outs!. Fortunately, I got lucky. I'm not 100% psyched on the play, but I do think it's justifiable.

This hand bumped me up to chip lead. A few minutes later in the Omaha tourney, I picked up this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6749966704: Satellite to MSOP Event #19 (51301559), Table 1 - 25/50 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 21:36:03 ET - 2008/06/08
Seat 1: bluezone1 (3,695)
Seat 2: Zophar (1,320)
Seat 3: IMASS (905)
Seat 4: BigJoeDunn (2,085)
Seat 5: nickp12 (1,645)
Seat 6: ogsincebirth (1,440)
Seat 7: x_Buddha_x (980)
Seat 8: copro (2,540)
Seat 9: thechampxxx (3,395)
IMASS posts the small blind of 25
BigJoeDunn posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Zophar [Js 8c Qs 9s]
nickp12 folds
ogsincebirth folds
x_Buddha_x calls 50
copro calls 50
thechampxxx folds
bluezone1 raises to 162
Zophar calls 162
IMASS folds
BigJoeDunn folds
x_Buddha_x calls 112
copro calls 112
*** FLOP *** [9d Tc 7h]
x_Buddha_x bets 723
copro calls 723
bluezone1 calls 723
Zophar raises to 1,158, and is all in
x_Buddha_x calls 95, and is all in
copro calls 435
bluezone1 calls 435
*** TURN *** [9d Tc 7h] [Jh]
copro checks
bluezone1 checks
*** RIVER *** [9d Tc 7h Jh] [6d]
copro checks
bluezone1 checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zophar shows [Js 8c Qs 9s] a straight, Queen high
copro mucks
bluezone1 mucks
Zophar wins the side pot (1,020) with a straight, Queen high
x_Buddha_x mucks
Zophar wins the main pot (3,995) with a straight, Queen high
x_Buddha_x stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,015 Main pot 3,995. Side pot 1,020. | Rake 0
Board: [9d Tc 7h Jh 6d]
Seat 1: bluezone1 mucked [Ac 4h As 4s] - a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Zophar (button) showed [Js 8c Qs 9s] and won (5,015) with a straight, Queen high
Seat 3: IMASS (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: BigJoeDunn (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: nickp12 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: ogsincebirth didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: x_Buddha_x mucked [4c 8h 9h 9c] - a straight, Jack high
Seat 8: copro mucked [Qh Qc Td 6s] - two pair, Tens and Sixes
Seat 9: thechampxxx didn't bet (folded)

Sweet. Next thing I know I was the chipleader at both tourneys! I don't think I've ever done that before.

The Omaha tourney was mostly a cake walk fom then on. I shortly was over 10K in chips at the final table, average stack 5K with 200/400 blinds. 6 won entry and 7th got $3. I wasn't planning on tangling, but next thing I knew, I was involved in a hand when down to 7 players that knocked me down to about 5K in chips. I was pretty pissed. Thankfully a short stack pushed, I called KKQ10, flopped a set and it was over.


It was my best play in a NLHE turney in a long time. I hovered around 3rd in chips until the bubble. I never got involved in many big pots, but I took down a ton of small pots with aggressive position play and a few timely reraises. Because I had no fear of the bubble, I was able to prey on those that were scared. After the bubble burst, I got involved with the tourney maniac and lost about 1/2 my stack AQ vs his 99. Next hand I picked up AA and redoubled back through him. About 10 minitues later I picked up KK vs his 66 and he was gone. From about 35 players(42 paid) to final 4 I was monster chip leader the majority of the time. Finally got to heads up and I was exhausted.

About even in chips I pretty much threw in the towel. I couldn't even see straight. Ended up getting it all in on with middle pair, which I would have easily folded an hour earlier, versus his top pair. No improvement and it was over. I ended up throwing away about $80, but it's alright. The money wasn't as much of the issue for me, I was just really happy with my play for the evening. Aside from that last hand, I really don't think I played any particular hand horribly. The hand above I don't think is great, and there were a few hands I maybe should have let go quicker/bet more on, etc., but I didn't do anything really stupid(shoving dry pots, etc) and I actually played some hands great. At one point, while three handed before the FT, I think I must have picked over 60% of the pots over a 100 hand period.

So for $6.60 I picked up $177, not a bad return for the evening. I'm looking forward to more.