I’ve finally figured online poker out!

Here is how you succeed at poker. First you take the worst two months of your life as far as beats are concerned….then, finally fed up with it, you blog about how miserable it has been.

Immediately after you blog, your luck changes. No one likes a whiner, and apparently if you whine the poker gods will hear your cries. Or….maybe its just random coincidence.

So, anyway I had some time Saturday afternoon and I went to Party, and played some Steps. I had been saving up a ‘Step 5’, and decided to play it. I won the Step 5, and was off to the races.

Then, I played in one of the wackiest MTT’s I have played in. It was the Saturday night $109 at UB, and it was a kooky experience. Here was the odd series of events that led to my, uh, ‘climb’ to second place. With 14 players left, I was 12th in chips. I had just taken one of my patented “AK versus A 10….doorcard is a 10” sort of beats for most of my money, and was ready to log off.

Four hands later, I won a coin flip with 66, and was 8th or 9th in chips with 13 left. So, 15 minutes later, and here is where I stand. I make the final table….9th in chips with one ultra shorty.

There was one guy who had about ½ the chips in play, and was looking to gamboool….So, here is how I got to second.

-Ultra shorty out. Down to nine.

Two of the larger stacks inexplicably decide to go four preflop raises with 55 vs AJ (but, it was sooted!). All the money goes in. Flush is flopped. Down to eight.

I limp in with 7 9 of spades from the Small Blind. Flop 4 6 8 with the six and eight of spades. I move in, and get called…..by A Q of hearts. Turn is an Ace….it is also a Spade….crippling my opponent. He goes out on the next hand. Down to seven.

Here is where it gets kooky. At this point, I would say it was about 200 k for huge stack, two or three guys at 50-75k, and me and another shorty at about 25 or 30k, tho I had more chips. Other shorty gets ground down, and now we are at six.

One of the mid level stacks puts it in with AK of hearts. Mr Big stack calls with A 4 offsuit (blinds were NOT that big yet….maybe 1,000/2,000) Flop 3 5 J, two hearts…..turn a deuce. Down to five.

Now the second biggest stack gets in a preflop raise war with Mr Big. All the money goes in preflop, second stack AA – Mr. Big – 77 Four blanks……river is a…….7. Down to four.
Next, Mr Big re-raises the next biggest stack with 6 8 of clubs (although, to be fair, he now has about 75% of the chips in play). All the money goes in pre flop. 2nd stack, QQ, Mr Big 6 8 (sooted). Flop J 8 8….just for punctuation…..river is the case 8. Down to Three.

Now, all of this happened in about 15 hands. I haven’t played a hand in 15 minutes, and have moved up six money places. Down to three, Mr Big (apparently) decides to push his tilt reset button, and we actually go 20 or 30 hands with very little action. Chip counts – Mr Big 350,000, other guy 60,000, me 30,000. I bait other guy, and double through him on a pot where I flopped top two pair. Two or three hands later, other guy thinks Mr Big is still in charity mood, and calls Mr Big’s re-raise with K 7 (but, it was sooted). Mr Big has 10 10…..good night. Down to two.

So, the chip counts are Mr Big 360,000 - your boy Schecky 50,000. Valiantly, our hero fights back to about 160,000 to 250,000 then runs out of steam when Mr Big hits his flush draw with most of my money in the middle.

Overall, a rally from nowhere to 2nd place feels just fine to me.

SUNDAY

I played in the EPT France qualifier on Sunday morning at 9am. It was typical Schecky….I never had a lot of chips…I would chip away, and manage to double up a couple times. I took a two outer about 2 ½ hours into the tournament when my KK ran into JJ on a J high flop. Luckily, I had about 10 Big Blinds left at the time….cause if I had five, I probably would have gifted them off to someone.

So, I am in the bottom 20% of chip stacks from about hour two through hour five of the tournament. A couple moves here, a nice flop there, and with about 25 left, I just survive (199 Entered the tournament - 10 go to France), and I’m about 17th or so in chips.

Then, I pick up AK sooted (clubs) on the button. MP player makes a standard raise, and I move in. He calls with A 10 (also sooted – hearts). Flop comes 10 7 6…..all clubs :)

That gets me to about average. Then, the key hand of the whole tournament for me. I have about 17,000 chips, average is 19,000. I open in middle position with 33. The button (a really good Swedish player named Anders Henrikkson, who just finished fifth a couple weeks ago at the WPT PokerStars Caribbean Event) takes a while….and I know I am in trouble - but he just calls the raise from the button….Small blind also calls. The flop comes 9 3 2. I check my set, and the button bets the pot, which is about 6,000. The small blind player smooth calls (??), and my butt begins to itch, but with 15,000 chips in my stack, and 15,000 dead money in the middle, obviously, I gotta push. I move in, and you can hear the cussing all the way from Stockholm, as the button calls (small blind guy folds) and turns over 10 10 for an over pair. Because of that extra call from the SB, I’m now at about 42,000 – 4th in chips. I am able to maintain that stack until the very end when the blinds get kooky, but my stack was enough, and I hold on to get top 10, and the ticket to the EPT French Open. I am leaving for Europe on Friday, and you will hear from me from France…..event if it is just a bad beat list to get my luck going again. Thanks for reading.