Tuesday, September 19, 2006

New math

It did not look to be my Monday night. I doubled up early in the $22 Group tournament on Stars and then donked it all away in such embarrassing fashion that I refused to enter the $11. Instead, I made a crying call and parked a portion of my dwindling Stars roll in The MATH. I got a few chips early in that one and then watched them disappear as each continuation bet and trickery attempt failed miserably. Yet somehow, some way, this happened:














The real explanation is that variance, as its allegedly wont to do, swung my way for once. At T800 with blinds at 75/150, my push with pocket 4s held up against Iggy's K-J. Down to T1,356, I doubled up against Surf with pocket aces.

I'm not proud of what happened next, not by any means. But I'm not complaining either. I can't remember the last time I did this. At T1,800, I pushed with pocket 8s and unceremoniously cracked Iggy's aces, allowing me to limp into the final table. There will be no epic poems written aboout my performance from that point on. The only real strategery I employed there was a push-raise/semi-bluff against a slightly perplexed SoxLover.

The deck did the rest. With blinds at 100/200, lifesagrind opened for T600. Iakaris pondered and made it T1,500, committing about half his stack. Sitting on pocket aces, I pushed my last T5,300, content to get it heads-up. Grind called off the rest of his stack (A-K) and Iak, pot-commited with pocket queens, did the same. Lo and behold, the aces held up, putting me at over 12K.

What I did well at that point was not give away my chips. I pilfered a sufficient quantity of blinds and mixed it up enough to stay even while managing not to double anyone up. I got into the money when Our Inestimable Host bubbled and I knocked out My Arch Nemesis with ummmm ... pocket aces ... again. (New has been a blogger-tournament terror and has gotten into the nasty habit of beating the crap out of me whenever we're seated together.)

Sox immediately called for a deal: A split that preserved $50 for the winner. I agreed, not giving the math any thought. Kind of goofy, really. Because after 10 hands of heads-up play, I sent Sox the princely sum of $17 when my 6-4 flopped trips against his top pair. I don't think anyone will be hiring me to negotiate their next employment contract.

What the hell. All good clean fun. And not only was it my first MATH win, it was my first MATH cash. I'm quite happy to have it.

6 Comments:

Blogger jjok said...

well done sir. congrats!

12:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats !

3:50 PM  
Blogger NewinNov said...

My Arch Nemesis - nice. Congratulations on your win, super job. I'll have to keep an eye out for you next time.

1:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for playing in The Mookie last night.

4:02 PM  
Blogger Iakaris aka I.A.K. said...

beauty brotha...beauty.

10:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well done!

5:00 PM  

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