Let's Rock !

Another awesome evening, beer, rock and poker. I walked round to R&R's tonight for dinner and discovered that along with their new Sony Bravia they'd bought Guitar Hero 2 & 3. If you haven't played this before (like me) you're really missing out ! Such an excellent game and wicked fun with duelling players, as demonstrated by the guys in this youtube clip.

When we were all rocked out I wandered the 5 minutes back home and logged on to look up the start time for the BoDonkey, at 2:05 GMT it was a mere 30 minutes away so I figured I could stay awake that long at least. I'd had a late night previously after staying up till 3 so I could play in the MATH anyway, even though I didn't last that long in it so was still asleep by 4am.

29 runners showed up for the BoDonkey, as far as I know I was the only brit and may be the first international listener to the awesome live BuddyDank radio that accompanies the tourney. Tragedy and Buddy did a great running commentary of proceedings and LoveElf was special guest providing insights to relationship questions sent in by listeners. It's excellent stuff and kept me entertained and laughing when I really needed it to stay awake.

Lucky for me the deck really smacked me round the head early on, which made it easy to get into a rhythm and chip up a bit. When the momentum's with you everything seems a little easier and my bluffs were coming off and I seemed to be making good folds at other times. It really helps when you get dealt KK back-to-back in the middle stages too.

When we arrived at the final table I had a monster stack and bled a few chips off to a couple of players early, then continued to run goot and bust a few others. When my A9 flopped a 9 to beat Numenor80's 66 it meant JoeRaggs and I were heads up. It was just shy of 5am and I was feeling ragged, however Smokkee had suggested me earlier on as his pick to win the thing, so I had so extra incentive to carry on the fight. There was just one more problem, we each had over 30BB's and Joe was still playing TAG. It wasn't going to be over quickly unless we both hit monsters.

Strategy time. How to beat a player who only raises good starting hands 90% of the time and only puts money into the pot post-flop when he's made some kind of hand? It was a combination of attrition to win the blinds more often than he did and then whenever I'd taken about a 2-1 chip lead I'd take the worst of it on flops he'd hit, trying to hit my gutshots and flushes. This resulted in a half-hour back and forth where I kept grinding ahead and then Joe's hands kept holding up to bring him back level with me on chips. It must have been pretty boring to watch, it was hard work for me and I was playing every hand !

Finally at 25 past 5 we finished it with this, the jack of hearts is still my lucky card :)

TanOrpheus Jh 6c $52,172.00
JoeRaggs 8d 7h $34,828.00

TanOrpheus Ante $ 200.00
JoeRaggs Ante $ 200.00
TanOrpheus Set dealer/Bring in spot 1
TanOrpheus Ante/Small blind $ 1,000.00
JoeRaggs Big blind/Bring in $ 2,000.00

I raise it up to $6000, and Joe calls.
Flop is 6s 4h 6d
Joe checks, and like I have done every other time I C-bet 8k on the flop, only difference is this time I've hit. Joe pushes his gutshot with 2 overs and I call, turning the jack of clubs to seal the deal. GG all, well played.



Excellent game and the radio made it twice as good to play in. Just wish I was able to stay up and do this more often. So I have some new links to sort out on my sidebar which I'll try and get around to tonight. But for now I've gotta go out and get that chistmas shopping done !