HugePoker

I’ve continued to plug away at triple-crown-worthy tournaments this week. Even though my show closed on Sunday afternoon, I’ve continued to have social obligations most evenings so have not been able to completely immerse myself in online poker like the little triple-crown-hungry poker-slut I so desperately want to be. I’ve had some success so far, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Statistics are in on last week’s near-miss triple crown attempt, which I’m calling “triple crown quest two” (or TCQ2 … TCQ1 was the successful quest back in September). In the week-long TCQ2, I played 19 TC tournaments, cashed in 8, with two near-FT finishes (12th and 18th), one 8th, one 2nd place finish (arggh) and two outright wins, all in fields 140-500 players deep. Overall net profit from those 19 tournaments: $8,622.04. No triple crown for all my troubles, but not exactly a shabby week, and as I’ve repeated enough times to make a dead horse cry “enough!”, 2.5 crowns out of 19 tournaments feels pretty damn good given that most triple crown winners play 100-200 tournaments in their triple crown week (plus they still live with their parents, can’t grow facial hair yet and have never known the love of a woman).

TCQ3 is just past the half-way point, with less than 72 hours left before the deadline. I’ve managed slightly higher volume so far, with 14 tournaments played in 4 days, and there’s been some excitement…

After the all-nighter win on Saturday night that marks the start of TCQ3, the next night I had a good run in a $50 sniper tournament on Ultimatebet, but stalled before the final table, finishing 15^th for a meager $145 … disappointing, but maybe cashing in the very first tournament of the quest would prove an auspicious warmup. It certainly seemed that way the following afternoon when I cruised to the final table of the $50-cubed on Pokerstars with a big chip lead, stayed in or near the lead as players busted out at the final table, but then got a severe haircut with 5 players left when I got an opponent all-in with 88 against my KK (with extra money in the pot from a third player who had reraised me but then folded after the guy with 88 4-bet-shoved and I 5-bet re-re-re-raised), and he nailed an ugly Eight on the flop to triple up and knock me down hard. If I win that hand I have the dominant chip lead with five players left. I fought my way back into contention, and we lost another player to get down to four, but then I came out on the wrong end of an exciting coin flip … chip leader raises, I reshove with Ace-Ten, chip leader calls with a pair of Sixes, and the flop comes King-Jack-Jack, giving me a crazy number of funky outs – Ace or Ten for a pair, Queen for a straight, King or any running pair higher than 66 to counterfeit him … Turn brick, river brick, and I’m out in 4^th place for $2,558.  A nice chunk of change, but sadly the length of my involvement with this tournament caused me to miss the spectacular roast chicken dinner Chez-yer-old-pal-Dan, and the spontaneous home poker game that erupted from said dinner gathering, but they were kind enough to let me come over afterwards and reheat some fabulous chicken and sit in the hot tub to soothe my poker-stiff upper back.  They were not kind enough to let me join the tournament late, but they had been watching my tournament on a laptop, and they did me the ultimate honor of actually pausing their tournament clock and stopping play in order to watch the hand when I got all-in with the pair of Kings … that makes me get all teary, almost.

The next day (yesterday) was dismal … seven tournaments, over a grand in buyins, not playing well, one min-cash in a $109 turbo, bubbled the $50-cubed when my KK was cracked in a three-way massive pot vs AK and 99 that would have bought me the chip lead. What’s with everyone cracking my Kings in big crucial pots??

And today seemed like more of the same crap … I took a shot at the $100-cubed on Stars, which usually feels a little rich for my blood and a little too tough in general – the $100-cubed and the $100-rebuy are where the big boys play, and right when I sat down I had three multi-6-figure-online-profit players on my left, including Tîmex, the young online and live poker phenom, who I played with in Aruba two years ago … poker instructor for CardRunners and sponsored pro at FullTilt … he 3-bet me the very first hand of the tournament and I folded. I had a pretty active ride in the tournament, but ended up losing to ANOTHER suckout when I got all-in with AK vs AJ and the Jack on the flop sealed my fate. And again – if I win that pot I’m one of the chip leaders and I get to start swinging hard with the bigshot cool kids, but instead, another $309 down the tubes.

Break from poker to go to the theatre (“Equivocation” at the Rep, which I recommend to my local readers, although if you go see that and didn’t make it to my own show that’s going to be a little awkward, don’t you think?), and then back home to make the chocolate-sambuca mousse for Thanksgiving, and then downstairs to my poker-man-cave for the 11:40PM $109 Stars turbo with 245 players. This tournament starts with only 2000 chips (others start with 3000), so things heat up pretty fast, and I was in nail-biting “should I shove here?” mode through much of the event, but I made it to the money, and to the final table, and to the final four before getting it all-in with KQs against the maniac chip leader’s ATo, flopping a flush draw and rivering my flush, but sadly the chip leader had already turned a full house, so I was out in 4^th for $2,082.50.

So … partial stats for TCQ3-in-progress: 14 tournaments, 5 cashes, 3 final tables (one win, two 4ths), $6,922.28 profit in four days. Again, not much actual progress towards the triple crown, but better than a sharp stick in the eye for sure. OK OK OK, you’re right, the last win on Saturday night is both the final bell from TCQ2 and the opening bell from TCQ3, so maybe it’s a *little* misleading to brag about two different profit numbers that each include the same prize. Fine! Subtract $3,757 from one of the numbers and get Arthur Anderson to audit me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’m certainly thankful for the run of luck, cards, and OK maybe a little skill, that I’ve been riding lately. And for the strange state of the world that allows me to earn a living by pushing cards and chips and mice and pixels around in a globe-spanning game. And I’m grateful for the funny little community of players, onlookers, friends and family I’ve cobbled around me to read my incessant ramblings about suckouts, triple crowns, fold equity, satellite bubbles, tournament travel and brainless opponents.

Enjoy your dinners, your families and your friends … I’ll see some of you in a few hours. Save room for the chocolate mousse.

-huge