Ain't no F'n ball park either... Maybe your definition of foot massages differ from mine...

Long week with lots of stuff going on. Wifey had a lot of places to be so I pretty much had the kids most of both days. Which left for a few hours of online poker. :) Snakster has been running super bad as of late which I'm sure you will read about in his upcoming post, if it isn't posted already.

Anyway, sat night him and another friend of ours were playing, and complaining, so I suggested that we get into the next $5 mtt and I would pay either of them $20 if they outlasted me.

Now, these tournaments are crazy. There were 599 runners. I had a meager chip stack for most of the tourny, and all told I saw 23 flops out of 300+. There were two hands of consequence for me that took me into the the final table. The first one, I had been folding for quite a while. I realized that stealing was of no use when I saw on three different occasions money go in pre with 3 callers and the best hand was K9o. Not one pair or Ace out of the bunch. People were calling off hands with some very wierd stuff.

So, sitting on 2200 in chips, holding A5s and 6 callers of the 240 blind level, and having already outlasted my two competitors, I shoved. Being short and wanting to gamble, I shoved. and got 4 callers. The flop came 3 2 3. I wrote in IM to snak that I needed a 4. The turn was a 6 and the river was a 4. All 4 mucked and the pot ships to me. Snak askes me what they had. I looked and was flabbergasted. I was surprised to see that I didnt even need the straight. A high was good. The holding of the other 4? Q9o, 89, 78, and J7. I go up to over 10k with that hand and coast into the money playing maybe 2 more hands.

Now I get into another table where Poker Enthusiast sits 2 to my left. We say hi and talk for a bit, and Surf pops in as an observer railing us. Good Times.

I blind down to about 290 and pick up about 30k after a few winning hands, and stealing some blinds. It seemed everyone was willing to lay down a little easier once we got into the top 30. Then, at about 20k, I pick up AA in the Big. The utg chip leader open raises 10k, and next to act with 50k in chips, and top 10 in chips, shoves. All of it. With K 10. I insta call with the Aces and utg shows 77. 10 hits the flop, I collect 73k and the chip leader is crippled. I go into the final table the shorty. one goes out, I open shove AQ and bb has KK. GG me.

My point is this... I lucked my way into the final table. Plain and simple. I did nothing extraordinary other than wait for premium hands, and put up a hail mary in a situation where I knew I could more than triple when I was on my last legs. I got super lucky with AA in the big blind by having two retards shove the way they did, AND have my aces hold up. Mtt strategy at its finest.

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Al invited me to play the Brit Blogger tourny on stars yesterday. 25 runners. I win that tourny. Ship the trophy across the pond Al says. I must say the play was pretty bad. I got heads up with a guy whose name reminded Al of bukakee, as he stated many times in the chat. He had me 2 to 1 in chips, and I played my standard heads up match. Raising every small blind, folding to aggression with rags, and pretty much not commited to the BB unless I had a hand. But raising everytime in the small is very important. Especially against lesser players. You'll win more blinds then they can make up for, and you eventually chip your way to a sizeable lead. Of course the better the player, the more you adjust... So,

This guy played fairly well in the sense that he continued to raise and reraise me every hand. Every hand. he played very very aggressive. Seldom did we see flops. I had no hands coming my way so when I picked up AJ in the bb and he raised from the small, I reraised him. Only it wasn't all in. but it was after looking, more than half my stack. I wasn't paying attention when I made the bet being involved in another hand on Full Tilt, so when he shoved, I tanked. and then called. He had AK, but I spiked a J on the flop and scoop the pot.

He asked why I called with AJ, to which I said, you've been raising and reraising me everytime, I got a choose a spot somewhere. He said, yeah but not for all of my money. He made a few more comments then stated, its ok, not what I would do, but thanks for trying to give me your chips.

I wrote, "don't be that guy". Then I wrote, if you're going to continue to reraise me, you can't expect me to not call you with anything less than the nuts.

The final blow came when he limped and I checked with K 5. Flop came a King high. I decided to check raise, and he didn't dissappoint. I put it all in and he showed bottom two. King hits the turn and I win. Very funny stuff.

Congrats to the , (gulp), Giants for winning the superbowl. now we have to listen all about Eli Manning for the next 8 months. What a joke. I'll write a little synopsis of my thoughts on the whole thing later tonight or tomorrow.