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...And You Will Know Me By The Trail Of Dead
Monday, July 02, 2007

I had to use that title 'cause I was listening to that band with 18 players remaining in The Blogger Big Game and I rode them all the way to the win. Quite a fitting title when you win a tournament, I must say. I'd like to write more tonight, but my bed beckons. For anyone interested, I'll add more to this post about the tournament tomorrow - make that today - when I get a chance.

Thanks to everyone who railed, especially my brother, who also made the final table, but missed out on cashing.



*Update*

I gotta tell ya, there's nothing quite like the rush after winning a tournament. I was very calm as the pop-up, erm, popped up to let me know I had won the tournament. Of course, as usually happens when I win a decent size tournament, I say that I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I end up just lying there with a little bit too much secretion from ye ole adrenal medulla to the bloodstream (otherwise known as adrenaline).

As I mentioned in a recent previous post, I cashed out the bulk of my roll in prep for Okie-Vegas. I had rounded to the nearest $100, which left me with $13.00 in my account along with one $26 token. I hemmed and hawwed about what to do with the token as I really wanted to play a large guarantee tourney, but I also wanted to play the Blogger Big Game. Eventually I decided to play a token SNG to try and win the $75 seat.

While that SNG was playing out, I also played the cheap ass NL cash game tables with my $13 trying to get it up to $15. My thought was if I didn't win the token at the sng, I'd have one more chance at a token frenzy for a $75 token. Nothing like cashing out your roll to make you feel like a broke ass online poker player. To keep this post from never ending, I'll get to the point. I won my token sng on the 1st try and donked off the $13 all the way down to one penny remaining.

That's right, after buying into the Blogger Big Game last night, I had one penny remaining in my account. I recall this situation happening to Chad not too long ago and he went on a rush building his roll back up. I was hoping for the same, but knew it would be tough.

As for the tournament last night, I don't recall a whole lot of details. I hung around at or below the average for most of the first 2 hours. In fact, I recall when the average was around 7000+, I think I had about 2500 in chips. I knew it would be a tough road with the chip leader at 14,000 by that point, but I wasn't worried too much. I just needed one little rush to get me going. That rush came at the expense of Julius Goat. Sorry my friend.

As the blinds and antes started to build, I could see the steals beginning to increase at my table. I knew this was prime time to pick up some chips from folks unable to call with hands like AT or a small pocket pair, where it feels good to win a steal, but you just can't call an all-in from someone with chips. At that point I didn't have enough to re-steal with a raise that wasn't an all-in, but my pushing all-in was definitely enough to put players to tough decisions. I started to try and steal less, but resteal more. In particular, I had a couple of hands against Goat where I pushed him off his raises.

In one particular steal I pushed all-in with 7 9 hearts when he had raised it up. Not even an orbit later I pick up AA and try to mask my huge hand with another steal opportunity. I overbet by pushing all-in again and he called again with JJ. I believe he calls me with even a lesser hand based on the frustration factor of constantly being played back at.

From there I don't remember much. I recall a big hand against Hoy where I flopped a straight draw and turned a straight and flush draw. I pushed hoping to take the hand down there, but even if I got a call, I had quite a few outs. I think I had TJ with a board of Xs Q K Xs. I would have much rather made the play having KQ and the TJ be on the board, giving me overs as well, but as it were, I felt my push gave enough bang to get him out for a nice pot or win a huge pot if I spike the river. He called (don't remember with what, but I want to say a pair of 8's) and I spiked my spade on the river to take down the pot. I believe I showed more emotion on that hand than I did when I won the tournament.

From there it was a tough battle, especially when we got 3 handed. At one point or another we were all 3 chipleaders as well as the short stack. It was back and forth quite a bit. I got extremely lucky - in a weird way - to be the awkward stack during most of the 3 way action. What I mean by that is I was usually not the chippleader, or even 2nd place, but I had a chip count that both players knew I would probably push with any 3X raise. For this reason, I believe RakeFeeder gave me a lot of walks in the BB that otherwise I wouldn't have normally gotten. His passive play in those hands really kept me afloat without having to constantly push.

While I did play rather timid early on 3 handed, eventually I really ramped up the aggression. I was putting them both to decisions with very suspect hands hoping that I could keep that trend going when I woke up with a monster. I don't recall much of the action at that point, but when I ramped up the aggression, things didn't last much longer. When Hoy and I got heads-up I just had a good feeling about winning it all even though I was the shorter stack. Any time he raised it up, I pushed knowing if he didn't have a monster he would have a tough decision to make. That seemed to work as I think he became willing to race fairly quickly.

If we had more chips to work vs. the blinds and antes at that point, I think it could have been a long drawn out heads up match. However, with the situation at hand, I was not going to play it out that way. Luckily, on the last hand I had AT vs his KX and my hand held up for the win.

So kids, that's how you go from one penny in your FT account to quite a bit more.

Good times peoples. And thanks for all the comments.

I'm happy to grab some momentum going into the freeroll. I had missed my fair share of the BBT tourneys lately due to travel obligations, so I had seen my place slip from the teens to the twenties. With this win I was able to get back into the teens (no pun intended).

I'm bummed that my bro probably won't be playing in the freeroll. He only played 13 events, final tabling 5 of them, and cashing in I think 3 or 4, but it wasn't enough since he could only play in that many events due to his work schedule. Oh well, maybe next year, if there is a next year.

Until next time, may the felt be with you.

posted by TripJax @ 1:50 AM,

26 Comments:

At 3:54 AM, Blogger Chad C said...

Thank you for not letting call station win!

 
At 5:13 AM, Blogger smokkee said...

well done Trip, very nice cash.

 
At 7:26 AM, Blogger Ingoal said...

Nice!

 
At 8:46 AM, Blogger Julius_Goat said...

Nicely done, sir.

Also: Curse your eyes!!!

Ahem.

gg

 
At 10:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats on the win and on adding a nice chunk-o-change to your roll.

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger oossuuu754 said...

well done sir

 
At 10:30 AM, Blogger PokahDave said...

Saved the best for last I see....very nice....

 
At 10:36 AM, Blogger Dave said...

Grats on your Big Game take down. Real nice prize too.

 
At 11:13 AM, Blogger Matt Silverthorn said...

Congrats, Trip. Although I didn't see you at all during the game, it looks like you kicked some ass. Well done!

 
At 11:15 AM, Blogger Rake Feeder said...

The 3 way match was brutal. Nice job on the win!

 
At 12:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done Trip.

Great story too from one penny to $1250.

 
At 1:21 PM, Blogger Matt said...

Great band, great victory. Congrats!

 
At 1:43 PM, Blogger cmitch said...

Congrats!!! Nothing like a big win - especially this one!!

 
At 1:55 PM, Blogger Jordan said...

Very nice, Trip. I had a feeling you had a big win coming to you. Shweet!

 
At 2:02 PM, Blogger BadBlood said...

Please accept my standard blogger on blogger post-tourney win congratulations and all that. :)

 
At 2:20 PM, Blogger Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

Wtg Trip, your analysis of the end game is basically right on and you played it very well. Fun times and congrats to you for a well deserved win.

 
At 3:48 PM, Blogger KajaPoker said...

Well done Trip. It always helps to have pennies in your account. FTP likes that.

 
At 5:42 PM, Blogger CC said...

Sweet score; congrats!!

 
At 6:53 PM, Blogger surflexus said...

Well done!!!

 
At 10:25 PM, Blogger Heavy Critters said...

Nice score, Jizzy.

Way to show all those blogger donkeys who's the boss (that would be YOU and not Tony Danza).

Again, nyer.

 
At 9:45 AM, Blogger Littleacornman said...

Congrats on a fine score Trip!

 
At 7:21 PM, Blogger Pseudo_Doctor said...

congrats man..

 
At 4:00 AM, Blogger Brez said...

Well done Trip! How's that for a bankroll recovery :)

 
At 1:30 AM, Blogger jjok said...

very nice.....congrats man

 
At 1:29 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

You SO totally rock dude!

 
At 6:28 PM, Blogger WindBreak247 said...

I'm way behind on my reading, obviously, but I wanted to be sure to congratulate one of my favorite bloggers and all-around nice guy's on an impressive win. Hope Okie-Vegas is/was fun!

 

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