I'm Donkerific

After a rather trying day at work on Friday, I was definitely in the mood for some donkey poker. The blogger donkament on FT was just the ticket. I got my head into the right place by eating some leftover pizza while downing a few beers.

I'm not going to begin to talk about the play. There were some accusations that a few of the participants weren't exactly into the spirit of the whole donkament. I must admit I didn't wildly push with any two cards whenever the mood struck. I did that last time and ended up re-buying eleven times. This time I was a bit more careful, though still far more risk taking than normal. I ended up just doing the initial rebuy to build my stack and then the add-on at the break.

Two hours later it was down to jeciimd and me. I had a pretty big lead, but jeciimd was getting tired so we agreed to just start pushing until someone won. (There wasn't even close to enough money at stake to go find somebody to chop it.) I get 85s, but push as I promise. Jeciimd showed 44. I catch a 67 on the flop and a 9 on the turn to end the torture. Don't remember how much my big win was, but I don't think it covered the pizza and beer. And the pizza was a sunk cost.

Sunday night was WPBT 07 Event #7. Seems that interest in these has waned just a tad. Only ten runners in a $24 HORSE tournament.

Full Tilt outdid themselves in the card rack department tonight. I got quads four times (and was able to win something with them). I saw at least two other players with quads too. One of my quads was in Stud. I got dealt AAA. Naturally, I was pumping the pot from the beginning and was all-in on 5th street. My opponent had K's, caught a second pair on 6th street and a boat on 7th street, but I caught the 4th ace on 7th street to take down a pot I desperately needed. Pretty sick to fill the full house only to lose to quads filled on the same street.

Despite the good result above, I've decided I really don't like stud. After more years playing it than I care to admit, you'd think I'd feel some comfort with the game. But I feel completely out of my element. I'm okay with Hold'em and am feeling much more comfortable with O8 and Razz, but stud just doesn't feel right. I've decided my best tactic is to play really, really slow and hope to get through that round playing as few hands as possible.

Speaking of slow play, I swear some of these guys play slower than my grandmother, and she's been dead for ten years. Every stinking hand we're waiting on the same people. I'm sure some of them are playing multiple tournaments, but it's just plain rude, especially when it's an invitation-only event like this. If you can't give sufficient attention to the game, don't play. Okay, enough ranting.

iam23skidoo brought his chips to the final table in a wheel barrow. He had 2-1/2 times the stack of the next closest player. And he kept building it. It wasn't until we were down to just four players that a bit of a dent was made.

pvanharibo bubbled when iam23skidoo played big stack poker, calling her down with squat and getting lucky at the river.

Khanwoman, who had been hanging on by a thread for quite a while, was the next to go. She was dealt a pair of tens in Stud Hi, but I caught a third 7 on 4th street and put her all-in. She didn't improve and hit the rail with 3rd place money.

skidoo and I started heads up almost even in chips. I had him on the ropes after taking down a huge pot with quad fours. But skidoo fought back, taking the lead and eventually having me down 3-to-1 in chips.

A couple very good hands got me back in it. We traded the lead several times before I caught a couple good hands in O8 to get him down and finally put it away.

I will say I now understand why at the WSOP last year they switched the HORSE tournament to all Hold'em when they hit the final table. When you're down to just a few players, split games suck big time.

It feels good to have won one of these, even if there were only 10 runners.