I Love Me Some Mo

...as in Momentum. The finals of my poker league were last night, with 14 of us freerolling for over $1,000. Oz didn't make the top 15 in the points standings, so he was the only one that had cough up a hundo to play. Someone from the top 15 was a no-show...not one of our regulars, and Luke even texted him earlier in the day, so too bad/so sad for him.

I played poorly in the first hour...very lazy, not paying attention, lots of limping pre-flop and checking/calling post-flop. The lowlight came when a couple people limped in front of me, and I decided to limp with 9s-8s. The blinds came along, and we saw a K-xs-xs flop. Lucky bet close to the pot, I think someone else called, and I called. Turn was a blank, Lucky fired a 2/3 pot bet, and I was the only one to call. I was pretty sure he had K-x. The river missed me but paired the board (sixes?), and Lucky quickly checked.

I thought for a while, playing with my chips while I thought: a) could I get Lucky off his King and b) how much would it take? I decided not to give up on the hand and bet 3/4 pot...he quickly called and I said "You win," as he was asking me if I had a King. Indeed, he showed K-2 and I was pretty disappointed with myself for spewing a third of my chips. Lucky and a couple others agreed that I took too long to bet; I was mad at myself for not being more aggressive earlier in the hand. Could've raised pre-flop and probably taken it down with a continuation bet (Lucky probably folds pre-flop). Could've raised his c-bet and probably taken it down on the turn with a decent bet. My river bet looked exactly like someone bluffing a busted flush draw...I know better than that.

Luckily I managed to not suck the rest of the hour, got Calling Station Pops to give me some chips when I was dealt Queens, and made it to break close to my 10k starting stack. I resolved to play better poker from that point on. Pay attention. Play smart. Apply pressure.

Early in the second hour I played a hand with pocket threes much better than I would've in the first hour. I started by raising pre-flop, and was called by just Oz in the big blind. The flop was a scary Qd-Jd-8d (neither three was a diamond), and we both checked. The turn brought a non-diamond 7, and Oz checked again. I thought about what he could have. He probably would've bet by now if he had the Ad or Kd, a Queen, T-9, 8-8, or Q-J. I decided that I could probably bet him off his hand, so I bet a little over half pot, and he called. After a very non-scary 5x hit the river, Oz checked again. No way he's checking a big hand there, so I made another half pot bet...and he folded fairly quickly. I was very happy with my aggression and hand-reading on that one...pretty sure I got him to fold something marginally better than my threes.

I managed to make the final table, but card-deadness and escalating blinds kept me at about 10k and one of the shorter stacks. I quickly doubled up when my A-J won a race against Evil Vinny's pocket eights. Blinds were now up to 500/1k, so there wasn't much room to make plays...it was going to be a shove-fest from here on out. But most of the others at the final table tightened way up; they were hoping to hang on and make the top 4 ($500/300/200/75). I took advantage of this and open-shoved many, many times...and didn't get a single call. I broke the money bubble when I busted the short stack to my left...he had let his top-3 stack dwindle down to 1 1/2 big blinds by employing the "hang on and make the money" strategy of Fold/Fold/Fold. Didn't work.

Evil Vinny (who's actually the total opposite of evil, probably the most soft-spoken, kindest guy of the bunch) knocked out Lucky in 4th and Billy in 3rd place, so he had a huge lead on me when we started heads-up. We took turns raising each other's big blinds until he raised my 7k blind to 21k. I peeked at an Ace and shoved for just 18k more...he thought for a couple minutes before folding. Must've had something like 7-6 where he couldn't stomach losing the chip lead if I had him killed. Sure enough, I peeked at my other card before mucking: I had Ah-Qh. That was my shot at taking the lead.

The Not So Evil One had a slight lead when I shoved 50k with the sexy 6-9 (blinds were 4k/8k), and he called with pocket sevens. I didn't flop any draws and blanked the turn and river...but was now $300 richer. Glad it was Vinny I lost to...he was gracious as usual (win or lose), and probably one of the top 3 players in the league. He was the first to win both the points title and the finals, so good job Vinny!

I'm satisfied with the recent positive cashflow to my poker bankroll, despite losing about $100 at NL100 online this weekend. I don't think I played badly online, outside of one hand where I cost myself about $40-50 by not betting the river in a big hand against a fish with over $1,100 (at NL100?!?!). I'm pretty sure if I bet that much with A-K on a A-K-x-x-x board, he would've called with his A-T. But I checked hoping he'd shove, and he just checked back instead. Short stack who shoved the turn with a set of nines took down the $110 pot, blech. I need to break my habit of trying to induce bluffs/bets by worse hands, and need to mix it up with more value betting.

But I'm glad that I got my head on straight after the first hour of the league finals...I realized that I need to play more focused than I have over the past week. I was paying much more attention during my 500 hand stretch than I have since, must get back to that discipline.

Which reminds me, I gotta get my ass back to the gym...tomorrow after work!

And the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Poker Tournament Goes to...

My weekly poker league ended last night, as 16 of us played in the finals. There was just over $1,800 in the pot, with 5 spots paid ($800/500/300/200/160). I experienced the full range of starting hands and tough situations, coin flips and bad beats (both given and received).

After playing 3-handed for about half an hour with blinds so high that none of us had more than 10 big blinds left, we decided to each take $500 and play it out for the extra hundo and coveted championship trophy (minus the hockey sticks).

I got to heads-up against Andy, crippled him when my A-6 outdrew his Q-Q, and took it down shortly after. Obviously the suckout was the main reason I won, but there were two hands earlier in the night that I'm especially proud of. Both ended up being big pots, and I won them both, enabling me to make it to the final 3 and get lucky for the win...

With blinds at 100-200, I opened from the cutoff with 9-5. I hadn't seen many good cards or played many hands, and I needed to start growing my stack, so I figured my raise could get some respect from the button & blinds. Roy and Mike did fold, but Bill thought for a few seconds and called. Luckily, the flop came a raggedy 9-high with 2 suits...but Bill bet out 900, leaving him with only 1,200 behind.

This would normally be a tough spot for me, but over the course of the league, I had seen Bill bet a good portion of his stack...only to have someone else come over the top and get him to fold. As soon as he made the bet, I pushed in my stack and waited. I had Bill covered, and he started agonizing over his dilemma. He asked, "So you have Jacks? Queens?" I knew at that moment Bill had pocket tens...I had to get him to fold.

He asked if I'd show my cards if he folded, and I told him I could show him one. That was a huge mistake on my part; if I indeed had a big pair, showing him just one card wouldn't prove anything. Showing one card indicated that I probably hit a pair on the flop, meaning his overpair was way ahead. So as he kept looking at me, I camly told him twice that I "have a hand," and tried to act as 'normal' as possible. I must've projected just enough perceived strength; after another minute or so of waffling, Bill finally mucked his cards, and I flashed the nine. "Did you have tens?" He nodded quite painfully. Whewwwwwwwwww.

At the next level, Mark min-raised the 400 blind to 800. I peeked down at an ace...squeeeeeze...another ace! Of course I'm looking for action, so I made a smallish re-raise to 2,000. Hoping to isolate and get heads-up with Mark, that's just what happened, and we saw another raggedy flop, this time Queen-high. Mark checked, and I asked him how much he had left: the count was 2,700. "Okay, I bet 2,700." I tried to say it with a twinge of doubt in my voice, hoping to raise some suspicion on his part. My read on Mark is that he usually doesn't believe that others have him beat, so I wanted to induce a heroic call. First I started fidgeting a little, putting my hand over my mouth, trying to look uncomfortable. Finally, after another 30 seconds of waiting on Mark, I went for the final false tell...I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms on top of my remote control cradle (a.k.a. my belly). I'm not sure if was due to my perceived weakness, but Mark made the call with just A-K, and he was drawing dead after the turn.

Now who knows if all my acting and posturing actually factored in my opponents' decision-making, but the bottom line was I accomplished the two biggest goals when playing poker: getting a better hand to fold, and getting a worse hand to call.