Win Ratio 33.3% :-P

I hear there's gonna be a on my head next week in the bloggerment ! Which will no doubt make life more difficult for me :o)

Here's my shameless ego-boosting summary of the bloggerment this weekend :

Early doors and I start off with my usual policy of raising any hand with potential that I feel like playing, I win a few small pots early without too much resistance. Then I'm fortunate enough to get dealt KK in the big blind which as you can see got Rosie to fold a decent hand (though we don't know how decent) and allowed me to knock out pokermuk3y who was first to go, no shame in that though, I would have played the hand exactly the same as he did.

The next person I saw go out from our table was Al Eleven, who hadn't been up for long after drinking late the previous night, his Hooks were taken down by coutryk's Hilton Sisters

I tangled with Cloud next and lost some chips when I maybe didn't need to, you can see the hand here I raise preflop from middle position and Cloud, who I know is a tight player calls my raise on the button. The flop has straight and flush draws and with no piece of it I put out a weak bet of half the pot. This, I think, is going to have the following effect, if Cloud has draw I expect a flat call, if he has a hand already I expect a reraise to stop me drawing and if he has nothing I think he'll fold. He just calls, so I think ok he's drawing to the flush, straight or possibly both. The turn is a blank, so I bet half of Clouds stack, thinking he's still on the draw, but he quickly pushes the rest in. Now, I have to stop and think here. Over the last 8 tournaments we've played I have seen Cloud play quite a few hands and he is not the type to say "what the hell" and push a lost cause hoping to get lucky, so I have to ditch the theory that he's on a draw. Any hands like overpairs/two pair I think he'd have pushed on the flop. So I'm left with a flopped straight + having the flush draw or trips. Either way I have to fold, since i am dead in the hand even though it's only 545 chips into a 1975 pot, which if my read on the flop had been correct would be a mandatory call.

I know I had no hand here, but that's not the point. You might be thinking I'm a donkey who can't put AQ down, but the point is that I didn't think I needed a hand to win the pot, until I got information telling me otherwise, and then I had to change the whole approach to this hand that's why I enjoyed the exchange.

Couple of hands later and I win most of the chips I lost on that hand back by taking a slightly risky approach with AQ and coming over the top of Juice's raise with 99.

Rosie was next to bust out from our table when her AQ couldn't improve against CadMonkey's hooks. Memorable action and subsequent abuse followed that 7 hands later when I got involved with newcomer 23rd Paradox, who I think just joined because he found the password and thought it would be an easy cheap tourney. I'm dealt Jh9h UTG, (this is usually a fold by the way) however the Jh is my lucky card so I raise 3xBB. 23rdP pushes allin - now this bit is important - on the previous 5 hands 23rdP has pushed allin, getting his AT beaten by KQ in the process and chatting about what a terrible call it was. So I made the call anyway, doubting his hand is particularly good, his pocket 8's were better than I expected him to have but anyway I hit the 9 on the flop and busted him, to which he said

23rd Paradox [observer] "i love the terrible play/players in the privates though... its nice"

Well mate I dunno if you'll come again but try recognising why players made the moves they have against you before you start accusing them of poor play. Realising that you were in a 50/50 race would be a good start too.

Final Table -

BurnleyMik was first to feel the pressure when his 99 couldn't improve on counryk's QQ. I then had a major suckout when my AQ held up against Kennl's 27, I hadn't read Kennl's blog at this point so didn't realise how many tourneys he was winning recently ! Kat was next to fall from our company when my TT flopped trips to beat her forced A3 push.

I bluffed at a pot with Kennl mostly cause I thought he thought I was bluffing so I figured a reraise would tell him I wasn't bluffing. I guess he really did have JT since there was no reason for him to lie in the chat, so I was lucky he layed it down.

Zagga doubled up the very next hand when his Hilton Sisters held up against Juice's A9.

Cloud finished next in 7th place, his A8 couldn't hold up when Juice found some help on the flop for his KQ. Then countryk doubled up with Aces vs Kennl's KT.

Juice stole the blinds with the Hammer, as did Zagga on the very next hand , Kennl and I both went to war with AJ on a rag flop and split the pot and I managed to bluff Juice out of this hand where I think he had A high and I played it like I'd made something more.

Juice got them chips back though when I couldnt get my AJ to suckout on his TT. A few hands later I won a similar race when my A9 did suckout against Zagga's 55, sending him home in 6th place.

Kennl doubled up when his AJ held against my KQ. Then coutryk was out 5th when his pocket 7's were unlucky to run into my pocket tens.

Bubble Boy Cadmunkey was out next when his A7 didn't improve vs my pocket 7's. Juice finished 3rd when his A9 ran into my KK and I picked up a $5 for knocking him out.

After a few hands of give and take heads up it came to this, Kennl allin with TT vs my QJ, well I had the Jack of hearts so felt pretty good about my chances ! Jacks on the flop and the turn sealed the deal and an extra $10 for good measure !

192 hands played and saw flop:
- 5 times out of 32 while in small blind (15%)
- 17 times out of 32 while in big blind (53%)
- 24 times out of 128 in other positions (18%)
- a total of 46 times out of 192 (23%)

Pots won at showdown - 10 out of 15 (66%)
Pots won without showdown - 39

Ok, essay over, how vain am I ? (don't answer that!). Good game everyone, another fun evening regardless of the outcome !