It’s 3:30AM. I had a performance this evening and went out for drinks with the cast and friends afterwards, got home around 12:45AM, decided I wasn’t ready for sleep yet, and I knew there was a 1AM turbo tournament on Pokerstars so I took my contact lenses out, grabbed a doughnut and headed down into my poker man-cave.
I haven’t been playing a lot of online poker lately – the show takes up three nights a week plus the all-important Sunday afternoons, and then too it’s just difficult to split focus between theatre and poker. When I have played I don’t think I’ve played well – not focusing, being impatient, forcing the action, etc. But the nice little live score in Vegas on Tuesday perked me up a bit, and I’ve been wanting to get back into poker mode.
So tonight, or this morning I guess, I started off slowly in the $109 event, but then got a bit lucky on a semi-bluff: called a min-raise from the big blind with J7o, flopped a double-gutshot straight draw and checkraised the initial raiser all-in on a K-T-9 flop, caught the magic Queen on the turn and knocked out my inexplicable opponent with K-5-off (Dude! A min-raise with K-5? What are you trying to accomplish there?)
From that lucky springboard I was off and running. When I captured the chip lead I started emailing my poker cronies with quick updates … I’ll just copy the chain of messages, starting with the hand history that made me chip leader:
Subject: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
After this hand:
PokerStars Game #35378579117: Tournament #219010187, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit - Level XIX (600/1200) - 2009/11/15 2:38:54 PT [2009/11/15 5:38:54 ET]
Table ‘219010187 2′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: strike1 (33851 in chips)
Seat 2: danx420 (7165 in chips)
Seat 3: The Cyne (10523 in chips)
Seat 4: archjazz (7092 in chips)
Seat 5: Speedpokah (43762 in chips)
Seat 6: d.quang (26647 in chips)
Seat 8: SmArTeEeE (3905 in chips)
strike1: posts the ante 150
danx420: posts the ante 150
The Cyne: posts the ante 150
archjazz: posts the ante 150
Speedpokah: posts the ante 150
d.quang: posts the ante 150
SmArTeEeE: posts the ante 150
danx420: posts small blind 600
The Cyne: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to strike1 [Qh Ac]
archjazz: folds
Speedpokah: folds
d.quang: folds
SmArTeEeE: raises 2555 to 3755 and is all-in
strike1: raises 29946 to 33701 and is all-in
danx420: folds
The Cyne: calls 9173 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (23328) returned to strike1
*** FLOP *** [8h 5h 9h]
*** TURN *** [8h 5h 9h] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [8h 5h 9h Jd] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Cyne: shows [Qc Ad] (high card Ace)
strike1: shows [Qh Ac] (a flush, Queen high)
strike1 collected 13236 from side pot
SmArTeEeE: shows [As Qd] (high card Ace)
strike1 collected 12915 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 26151 Main pot 12915. Side pot 13236. | Rake 0
Board [8h 5h 9h Jd 3h]
Seat 1: strike1 (button) showed [Qh Ac] and won (26151) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 2: danx420 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: The Cyne (big blind) showed [Qc Ad] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 4: archjazz folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Speedpokah folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: d.quang folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: SmArTeEeE showed [As Qd] and lost with high card Ace
Subject: RE: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
Still leader with 10 players left, nearly 2:1 lead on 2nd place…
Subject: RE: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
Dropped a bit, now back to chip leader with 6 left…
Subject: RE: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
Heads-up. Other guy has 3:2 lead
Subject: RE: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
Now I’m 2:1 leader
Subject: RE: chip leader in 1AM $109 turbo on Stars
Ding. $3440 for 1st.
Yes it went from 6-handed to heads-up in 4 minutes. In fact we played 1 hand 9-handed, 3 hands 8-handed, 3 hands 7-handed, 5 hands 6-handed, 1 hand 5-handed, 3 hands 4-handed, zero hands 3-handed, and then a whopping 66 hands of heads-up, during which we were only all-in 3 times.
Now I have to play a bunch of tournaments to try to win another triple crown. So tiresome. Sigh.
————————————————————————————
So two months after my first triple crown I have a (distant) shot at another one (yeah, and $3440 in my pocket). It is, as always, a serious longshot even after winning the first tournament, but it’s definitely a fun quest, and if I could win a second triple crown so soon that would be a major, nay stunning, accomplishment.
I’m writing this 24 hours later, after the longest poker day I’ve had in a while, chasing crown number 2. I played several tournaments that would qualify, had good runs in three of them, and even made the final table in the last one, so had a legitimate shot at the elusive crown, but ran smack into Aces at the final table, finishing 8th out of 229 players for $665, pretty much leaving me at breakeven for the day. If my back’s not too sore I’ll go at it again tomorrow…
I’ll let you know if I make any progress in the quest. Visualize multiple Huge crowns…
visualizing.
rock ‘em sock ‘em mr. huge!
It is without effort. You breathe, you smell, you push buttons on your computer. No thinking. Only knowing. Breathe. Push buttons. The work is behind you. What’s left is the breathing. You see a thought and you brush it away with the push of a button. Your fingers live outside of your conscious mind. Your palms are open to receive the triple crown. Your heart is open. Your fingers are simple brushing away obstacles with each push, keeping the heart open. Breathe. Breathe. It is falling into your lap. You are holding it in your lap. Joy. Breathe. Joy. It has…jumped…into your lap. You hold it. You are holding it.
[...] extraordinaire, and poker player of entertaining demeanor and questionable judgment … it’s one of the funniest comments I’ve ever received, and helped get me through those long lonely poker nights without cramping up in the [...]
Score Card rocks! Softly.