Wednesday Poker 10K

And we're back...

Calling this a "Marathon" over-stated my stamina a little bit. So, consider it revised. I can only hope it doesn't turn into a 400 meters.

I'm freshly shorn, freshly scrubbed and freshly filled. It's called a Farmer's Burger and it's two pounds of greasy goodness that no bun can hold. Two patties, cheese, guacamole, onions, lettuce, tomato, 1000 Island dressing and a miniature defibrilator.

Yum.

Anyway (back) on with the show.

12:53 p.m.: We're seven minutes away from the start of Tourney #3 in the drive for the WSOP Freeroll. It's now or never. Absent a result here, I think I'm out of it. Which probably won't preclude me from playing another tourney if I choke this one away early. Depending on the circumstances, of course.

12:56: "Top Gun" is on. the first time I saw this film I was pissed off. That's because I was only watching it (not really watching, more like drinking and playing Bong Darts) because the cable company fucked us all and we weren't getting the Leonard-Hagler fight we had ordered on pay-per-view. It finally came on in the 7th round. Only slightly before a house full of 40 drunken college students stormed the cable office with torches and empty kegs of Moosehead. Does anyone drink Moosehead any more?

1:00: And away they go...

1:01: 527 competitors, $10,540 prize pool, 54 places paid.

1:01: One hand and I'm moved. Too bad, had a pretty good read on the table.

1:03: Music: Nirvana Box Set, Disc 2.

1:04 Uh oh. We have a table prompter. A guy who just lost nearly his entire stack with Big Slick calling QQ's pre-flop push "questionable." Of course, he has "420" in his name, so he's probably a little high.

1:06: He's all-in with Big Slick again and falls to TT. "Walking Back to Houston." Where the pipe is, presumably.

1:14: Dropped 400 with AQo to short-stacked QJs. Crock. Of. Shit.

1:16: Got most of it back with KQs and flopping trip Queens. Flop raise is folded around. I don't think it's any coincidence this hand occurred just as my favorite song in the Box Set began. It's a cover of VU's "Here She Comes Now." I encourage everyone to hear it.

1:22: Speaking of Nirvana, anybody read the Sports Guys totally erroneous rendering of the great Nirvana-Pearl Jam debate? Just awful and factually incorrect.I get personal preference and if he thinks Vedder & Co. "surpassed" Nirvana prior to Cobain's suicide, he's entitled to his opinion. But to pass that off as everybody's preference at the time is provably wrong. I researched several Critic's Lists from 1993 and "In Utero" topped "Vs." in Every. Single. One. This is a subject about which I am admittedly obnoxious and unwavering in my belief, so I'll just leave it at that (to the relief of people who know me).

1:29: 400 meters, it is. I just flopped trip queens again with KQ. Got all-in vs. AQ. Unbelievable. T100 left. 2x the BB for those of you scoring at home.

1:31: Funny. AA and all get are the blinds. Up to T175, though!

1:34: Funny. AA and all I get are the blinds. T250!

1:37: Split pot with AQ and a blind steal and I'm up to T412. Not dead yet.

1:39: Jesus. JJ now. No callers.

1:40: This is considerably more action than I usually get in the first hour. The first two hours.

1:41: More blinds with AQ. This is silly. T562.

1:43: That's two AA's, two AQ's and a JJ in 12 minutes. And a flopped top pair in the BB w/Q4o. T662

1:43: AK now in the SB. I just completed. Flop missed me. Probably coulda stolen it with a big pre-flop raise. Limper and BB both had Jack-high. Tenative play there.

1:46: AQ again. We're all-in. AJs doubles us up. Lookee there! T1374. IT IS ALIVE!

1:50: I do not recall a rush of starting hands like that ever. I'd like to request I get them next time in the 4th hour of a tourney, not the first. Not that I'm complaining.

2:00: Survived the first hour, in the most literal sense. Blinded down to T1074, with me in the 150 BB to start hour two. Haven't seen a flop since the last all-in, which is a reasonable application of the law of averages based on all the big cards I had during Level 3. I did fold QJo when UTG, a hand which would have flopped top two. Of course, I would have lost the hand to AQ with the ace on the river.

2:05: Looking on the bright side of things, I'm used to playing with a relatively short stack at this stage of these tourneys, owing to my ultra-tight m.o. in the first hour. Was down to T450 on Monday night at Level 6 and finished 41st, so there is some precedent. Gotta find wake up with a hand to push here in an orbit or two, however.

2:08: How about KK? Good enough. Doubled up on 88. A little room to manuever now with 12x the BB.

2:11: For no other reason that to fill copy, the avatars at my table: Chappelle as Little Jon, a kick-me dog (Bichon frise or whatever they're called), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, an eagle, Elisha Cuthbert, AJ and three wholly uninteresting people without custom avatars.

2:12: Suited Big Slick takes the blinds.

2:16: Two callers to my 4x raise with AQ. Flop the ace and folds. Nice.

2:21: Solid score with 88 against unimproved AKs who check-called flop and turn bets. T4323, 67th of 166 remaining. Whudda thunk?

2:23: Current playlist is Chevelle. It also bears mentioning that I moved to my lucky chair prior to Level 5. It's far less comfortable than the couch, but I'm willing to sacrifice.

2:25: New avatar at the table. It's an anime-style chick. Or a very pretty boy. Um, moving on...

2:27: Elisha Cuthbert just tried a button steal with a Brunson, got re-raised by the short stack/Anime Girl-Boy in the BB with KQs, called and flopped two pair, but lost to runner-runner flush.

2:30: Big stack at the table (Eagle) is 2nd overall and gamb0000ling. Says one player, "(He's) looser than Jenny McCarthy."

2:32: Pretty loose table in general. Several all-ins on draws. Players dropping quickly. Avatar update: We've been joined by a Futuristic fighter Buy, a Camaro and Jacksonville's Fred Taylor. It's open season now on groin jokes.

2:35: Went for a late positioon steal with JTs (a hand I hate more than almost anyone I know) and the BB calls. Checks the ragged board and folds to my bet. Whew. Memo to self: Stealing on this table might be hazardous to your chip count.

2:39: Antes kickin' in. Time to steal. What? Oh yeah.

2:42: AQ costs me T600 when two kings flop and I run and hide lke the little girl that I am. Still have 15x the BB, but will have less than 10x at the next level. Nothing I haven't faced before and by "before" I mean "always."

2:48 A 4x raise with 77 UTG+1 gets the blinds and antes. I hate that play.

2:49: I hate this one more. Called a min. raise in the BB with A7s. Raise was from Big Stack, who, as I've mentioned is extremely loose. I flopped the 7 with only one overcard. Check-check. Hey, I might be good here. Turn is a 6 and I check-raise all-in. Oh good, he has AA. All of a sudden he's nuanced. 92nd place. That's 3 tourneys this week where I've gone out against slow-played AA. You'd think I might learn. In this case, I used his looseness as an excuse and never got around to running the slow-play possibility thru my head.

2:55: Up next, the $5 re-buy at 3:30. See you then.