HugePoker

Some of you can probably guess what the title of this post means. Actually I’m a few days late in writing it, so take yourself back to the day after I wrote my last post, still chasing the 2nd part of a triple crown, on the heels of a disappointing 12th place finish, falling just short of the final table and the real money (not to mention any chance of the actual crown/victory). So I’m at it again the next night, actually swinging away in two tournaments that started two hours apart: $75 and $55 buyins, each with a little over 300 players. I ended up having good runs in both tournaments, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever finished as well in two cash tournaments I was playing simultaneously (I’ve won multiple simultaneous satellites, and two years ago I very nearly won two WSOP seats at the same time, but that’s a different beast). Again I’ll copy and paste the string of quick email messages I fired off to my inner circle of poker cronies while I was playing – sometimes some of them will tune in and watch the tournament on their own computers, though these messages started around 3AM so I was pretty sure I was on my own…

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Subject: double header action

I’m 6th in chips out of 16 remaining from 324 starters in the FullTilt $69+6

40th out of 95 from 343 starters in the FullTilt $50+5

Really should be able to win at least one of these

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Subject: RE: double header action

Final table 2nd in chips in the $69+6 – massive pot with AJ>AT on AJT flop

Still plodding along in the other one – 80 left, paying 36

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Subject: RE: double header action

Chip leader at the Final table … just barely … got to report it while it’s true

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Subject: RE: double header action

2nd in chips with 8 left, was solid chip leader but got rivered 2x in a row … now 7 left

Doubled up in the other one, 5th out of 53

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Subject: RE: double header action

Lost massive pot with KK < 44, now 5th of 7

3rd of 45 in the other one

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Subject: RE: double header action

3 left – 2nd in chips but we’re all close

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Subject: RE: double header action

Heads-up, 3:2 underdog

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Subject: RE: double header action

turned the tables on him … better than 2:1 lead

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Subject: RE: double header action

Blecch … JJ overpair loses on 9933x board, KK has to fold vs Ace on river … he has me 2:1 again

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Subject: RE: double header action

DAMN IT got it in with K9 vs KJ, caught 9 on the flop, counterfeited on the river 2nd for $2744 still in the 50+5 with 24 left but now under average after mostly ignoring it for the last hour

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Subject: RE: double header action

And the run is over … got all in in the 2nd tournament with a flush draw, pair and gutshot, called by better 2nd pair and gutshot, no help. That crippled me to 300 chips when we were at 1000-2000 / 250 ante … climbed back to 14,000, shoved with A3s and got called by T6s, flop 789, but the turn brings me a flush draw, and out in 18th for like $128.

Pretty exciting … never been that deep in two tournaments at once before. Really wish I could have closed out the second crown.

sigh
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So yeah, 2nd place … no crown … bummer, dude. But I can console myself with the $2744 for 2nd place. When we got down to heads-up and my opponent had a big chip lead over me, he offered to make a deal (the poker software allows you to click a button to discuss a deal in the chat window, and if both players agree they can enter the amounts they would agree to take and finish the tournament that way). But I told him I wanted to win the thing outright and wasn’t interested, which was sort of fun, even though in the end it probably cost me almost $1000. I guess I should have offered him a deal when I had the chip lead, since if he had accepted I probably would have been logged as the winner and nailed down the 2nd crown, but honestly it didn’t occur to me and at that point I really thought I could just finish him off.

It’s always tough to finish 2nd, especially when you’re going after a triple crown (but that’s not NEARLY as bad as when you’re playing in a winner-take-all satellite for a WSOP seat, which long-time HugePoker fans will remember has happened to me more than once … or twice … or thrice). I can’t complain or beat myself up too much – in the 6 heads-up matches I’ve reached in the past two months, I’ve won 4 of them, lost one, and suffered a nasty bad beat in one (live at the Wynn in Vegas) resulting in an even chop of the prize money, so I’m closing things out pretty well when I make it to heads-up, and I have to feel good/lucky about the fact that three of the wins came in the same week back in September to land me the first triple crown – if I had finished second in the last of those you’d probably still hear me whining.

In this week I’ve played in 18 triple-crown-qualifying tournaments (including the first one that I won on Saturday night to start it all off), plus one rebuy tournament that ended up with only a $9870 prize pool (it needs to be $10,000 to qualify for the triple crown – that would have SUCKED if I’d won that one!). I cashed in 6, final tabled 3 (plus one close-call 12th-place finish), and got heads-up in two of them, but in the end, only one crown on the mantle. And I’ve turned a profit of just under five grand, which ain’t nothing to sneeze at. On a less tangible front, I’ve rustled up some enthusiasm for multi-table cash tournaments, which was sagging a bit … perhaps I should start every week pretending that I’ve just won a tournament and I’m going after another triple crown.

As I’m writing this I’ve just busted out of the “turbo hundo” ($109 buyin) tournament on FullTilt. At this point it’s pretty much impossible that I’ll be successful in the current quest. I would have to win two tournaments in the next 24 hours, and the final evening performance of my show is tomorrow night (our actual final performance is a matinee on Sunday at 2PM, for which I can set you up with free tickets if you haven’t seen it yet, or if you have and would like to see it again), so I think I have to just put this one to bed. Thanks to everyone for the support, crossed fingers and held breath, and the comments in the blog (I direct everyone to the comment left by Matt “Scare Card” Smith, improviser, teacher and auctioneer 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 mouse-wrist).

I’ll let you know when another crown quest materializes…

-huge