The Dry Spell is OVER!!!

Got home from the Cabin today, Tuesday, around 3pm. Unloaded the car, checked the mail, email, and voicemail and then settled into an evening of poker.

Ahhh, poker, how I missed you so.

Played a few tourneys with no luck, then made a deposit onto PS and decided out of the blue to play the $150 NLHE event. Sure, it was 1/2 my deposit, but I figured, what the hell, why not??

So, I jumped in with 455 other players for a $68,400 prize pool. 5 hours and 8 mins later, it was finally over.

I played quite well and was chipleading or in the top three almost the whole way, until the final table. I struggled a bit there and ended up in 8-9th place with 9 people left. Kept going back and forth, up and down.

Some key hands on the final table:

I was playing a very tight game, yet selectively stealing blinds and was fluctuating between 5th and 9th place until there were 5 players left. The chip leader offered to talk a deal with us, but he wanted "15 dimes" Yeah, right. Even a chip chop count would not have given him that, so I said "No deal" and I was the short stack. LOL, he then made fun of me, but I got the last laugh when he went out in 4th. This was the first hand that got me back in the game:

Seat 1: misst74 (95208 in chips)
Seat 3: Verito (176811 in chips)
Seat 4: 4Closure (79494 in chips)
Seat 7: kilroy_11 (65053 in chips)
Seat 8: AppSt2004 (267434 in chips)

misst74: posts the ante 400
Verito: posts the ante 400
4Closure: posts the ante 400
kilroy_11: posts the ante 400
AppSt2004: posts the ante 400
kilroy_11: posts small blind 4000
AppSt2004: posts big blind 8000

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to misst74 [Js Ks]
misst74: raises 86808 to 94808 and is all-in
Verito: folds
4Closure: folds
kilroy_11: calls 60653 and is all-in
AppSt2004: folds

*** FLOP *** [4d 3d 8d]

*** TURN *** [4d 3d 8d] [8s]

*** RIVER *** [4d 3d 8d 8s] [Jh]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
kilroy_11: shows [6s 6d] (two pair, Eights and Sixes)
misst74: shows [Js Ks] (two pair, Jacks and Eights)
misst74 collected 139306 from pot

Yeah, so I sucked out on the river, what can I say?? It takes some luck to win poker tournaments.

Next hand, BIG hand, the hand that was played while the CL was trying to get us all agree to deal. I was ready to sit out, but there was one player, Verito, who wasn't responding, so when I saw Q,Q; I had to go with it.

Seat 1: misst74 (178661 in chips)
Seat 3: Verito (168011 in chips)
Seat 4: 4Closure (65094 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: AppSt2004 (272234 in chips)

misst74: posts the ante 400
Verito: posts the ante 400
4Closure: posts the ante 400
AppSt2004: posts the ante 400
Verito: posts small blind 4000
4Closure: posts big blind 8000

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to misst74 [Qh Qc]
AppSt2004: raises 263834 to 271834 and is all-in
misst74: calls 178261 and is all-in
Verito: folds
4Closure: folds

*** FLOP *** [2d 7d 2s]

*** TURN *** [2d 7d 2s] [Qs]

*** RIVER *** [2d 7d 2s Qs] [Th]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
AppSt2004: shows [Ah Kh] (a pair of Deuces)
misst74: shows [Qh Qc] (a full house, Queens full of Deuces)

misst74 collected 370122 from pot

A few hands later, I finished him off.

Seat 1: misst74 (411522 in chips)
Seat 3: Verito (149811 in chips)
Seat 4: 4Closure (48894 in chips)
Seat 8: AppSt2004 (73773 in chips)

misst74: posts the ante 600
Verito: posts the ante 600
4Closure: posts the ante 600
AppSt2004: posts the ante 600
Verito: posts small blind 6000
4Closure: posts big blind 12000

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to misst74 [8c 8s]
AppSt2004: raises 61173 to 73173 and is all-in
misst74: raises 61173 to 134346
Verito: folds
4Closure: folds

*** FLOP *** [Qs 5h Qd]

*** TURN *** [Qs 5h Qd] [5s]

*** RIVER *** [Qs 5h Qd 5s] [9c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
AppSt2004: shows [Ad Kd] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
misst74: shows [8c 8s] (two pair, Queens and Eights)

misst74 collected 166746 from pot.

Verito ended up taking out 4Closure, so it was heads up with me at 410K and him at 271K. I offered a chip chop deal, HostCarlos came in the room and gave us the figures. We both agreed and then played it out for TLB. Verito ended up winning 1st when he rivered me in two critical hands, and that was all she wrote.

So. 4 months of dryness. 4 months of wondering why I couldn't win a tourney.

I will state, for the record, that my previous post regarding AIM and tournaments ended up semi true. I played all the way to the final table with no one on AIM, but then had my best friend, Fellknight, in my AIM and giving some advise during the final table. Mostly just railtarding, but certainly helping me to stay calm and not turn into a donkey.

A very good night, my best win to date and once it reaches my account, NEW computer for Bill, which then means NEW computer for me!!! (His hand me down which is about 3000 times better then the new one I just got, woot!)

My stats:

You finished in 2nd place (eliminated at hand #3457437439).


479 hands played and saw flop:
- 16 times out of 101 while in small blind (15%)
- 20 times out of 101 while in big blind (19%)
- 29 times out of 277 in other positions (10%)
- a total of 65 times out of 479 (13%)


Pots won at showdown - 16 out of 23 (69%)
Pots won without showdown - 114

She's Baaaacccckkkk!!! (About damn time, too)