Riding a HORSE to end a weekend

Played quite a bit this weekend. I have some bonuses to work off at a couple different sites. It is cold outside and I had a late night drinking Hacker Pschorr. In other words, all I need is a pc and some chips in front of me.

I played a rebuy satellite at PStars in the morning. Winner would go on to have a chance at a seat in the WSOP tourney that cost $33 to enter. That was a rebuy as well, though I wouldn't be rebuying in that one. I did rebuy once and popped the addon to finish in the top 194. That moved me on to the bigger tourney.

I then tried to play at Poker Mountain. As I have said before, the limit games (when going) are a good place to work off a bonus. But PM needs to get their act together. The software froze up on me. This has happened a couple of times. They barely have 100 people playing and they can't keep their site up. I think that is rather scary. I may have to just pull out and forget about them for a while until they get more stable. I played at Full Tilt last year when they were in their beta stage and rarely experienced that problem.

In the afternoon, I came back to PStars to play the tourney again. That didn't go well. One bad beat killed me. I had chipped up quite nicely before that. I started with A K suited but got nothing on the flop. Folded some hands, took down some pots. I was playing at Full Tilt at the same time with MrsCantHang and Drizztdj. I doubled through on a big mistake. I accidentally went all in with 9 5 off while switching between PStars and Full Tilt. I had hit the raise button when I went to look at my hand. Of course, the guy calls with A K spades. But a 5 hits the flop and I take down the pot. Funny how a screw up can be quite profitable. Of course the other play was pissed. But then again, it can come back to bite you in the ass. I was crippled when my pocket 10s ran into pocket 7s. I called his raise of 500. The flop comes 9 high. I bet he moves all in. I think he preflop bet was suspicious and the push seems weird as well. I feel great when I see the sevens. Until the river, that is. River 7

Speaking of Full Tilt, I popped some money back in there to play the blogger HORSE tournament last night. For whatever reason, the ring games here usually kill me. More specifically, the NL games kill me. Too many times I have been able to re-raise preflop with AA just to see the other play hit their set on the flop. Thus, I am sticking to the limit game there for now. I like the interface quite a bit but the cards just kill me. I played some limit on Saturday with the hope of making enough to buy into the 10 multi that started in the early evening. I was only playing .5/1.

I accomplished that mission with 10 minutes to go. The first 30 minutes of the tourney went well. I chipped up a bit but never got going anywhere big. That didn't concern me though. I was ready to be patient and when the blinds went up, I could shift gears into an aggressive mode and steal blinds. Somehow stealing blinds at FT is easier than other sites.

Only problem is the player to my right has decided to play every hand. And I do mean every hands. That shouldn't prevent my thievery but he does not fold to a big re-raise. No matter the cost, or the cards, he will see a flop. Case in point. I have A K suited in the big blind. Button and he limp. I raise it up to 6 times the blinds, knowing they will not go anywhere. Unfortunately, the flop sucks- 7 8 9 none of my suit. I bet the pot anyways. They both call. Huh? I check the turn and the button pushes. SB calls and I fold. Button has A 9 off and SB has J 8 suited. The nines stood up and he survives. I was amazed they called that raise but hey, it worked for them.

As the game progressed, Mr J8suited continues to play every hand. I am begging for cards to double through him. He is taking down pots only because the table is scared to bet. Flops came all suited and would be chekced around. He would min bet and take it down. This happened again and again.

Finally I tried to make my move against the other yahoo. In the big blind again, I have A K off. He raised from the button 4xs the blind. Mr J8suited calls. I think for a while about whether I want to call or push. I think of his bet and the last time he bet like that. That time he had 10s. I figure he has a middle pair or queens at best. I push. He calls with J J. It stood up and I was done. I thought the call was pretty bad at first (of course I did, it knocked me out!). If he folds, he still has around 1800 and can play at this table. I thought a push there would represent I had AA or KK. Still, my AK and the over cards had me feeling right about the call. I guess I gave him too much credit for thinking. After that, I really needed a beer and called it a night.

Later that night, I would have a dream about playing online. I was playing on Poker Mountain. I had quad 6s and the game froze up on me just when I was about to push all in for a monster pot. Funny how I woke up in a cold sweat.

So of course, I got up and signed up for the freeroll on Pokerroom. I play these just about every weekend. Mainly because I like the experience of playing a big tournament against 2200 people. The play sucks for the first hour. I watched one guy push all in a couple times with crap. He sucked out on every hand. I just hoped to catch and hand take my chances with him. I was able to double through on someone when I hit a flush on the turn. Funny how they called me with second pair. That must have been the catalyst as I then began to chip up nicely. I moved myself from the starting 1000 to 4500 quickly. Not bad in the first hour where you really just want to survive.

In the beginning of the second hour, I got a nice gift early. From the BB I had A J and just called all the limpers. A big stack had just moved in to my right and was rather aggressive. Flop came J J x. I decided to check raise and see what happens. The SB bet the pot and I pushed all in. They called quickly with A 6. That was a nice gift. It gives me enough chips to begin to bully the table a bit. Of course it doesn't hurt that I get some nice flops.

I proceed to do quite well, spending the majority of the time in the top 10. I bust A A with J 10 suited on a J 10 flop. I make some good calls and traps along the way. I am happy to see that Pokerroom finally changed their set up on the tournaments. When we approached the money, they went hand for hand. That eliminated the stalling. They switched HFH at every moment that they money was moving up. I was still in the top ten when we hit 20.

My goal was to hit the final table. It has been quite some time since I made a final table. I have come in the mid teens many times in the freeroll and other multis but I hadn't been able to crack that nut lately. Needless to say, if felt good to make it. Now I had to find a way to win. I folded quite a bit at first, stealing blinds to stay afloat. I parlayed pocket 8s when I flopped my set. This pushed me to 3. A couple of hands laters, with the help of AA and KK, I was the table leader with 5 left. Not a big lead but a lead.

But this isn't a victory story. I went out in 3rd. When we were down to 3, I was too aggressive and lost some close hands. My A 3 was beat by A 8 when he hit the 8 on the river. I overplayed K J and I was done. Received $60 for third.

From there, it was the HORSE tournament. I had gone to Hooters to properly prepare by stuffing my belly with wings and beer. I did ok, finishing the first session in 4th. I chipped up in Omaha and Stud. I folded to the hammer in the Hold em and pretty much sucked in Razz. Funny how I got a set of 10s and then K K A in Razz but nothing close to that in Stud. I went out in 40th when I tried to push a small stack out with A high. I tried to bully him but he made a full house and left me looking stupid. I later pushed with a pair of 9s in stud and was done in 40th. Needless to say, it was a great time. Played with some great bloggers. The only one I recognized based on the screen name was Dr. Pauly. I would find out later that Human head had dropped the Hammer on me in fine fashion.

Bottom line is the weekend was mildly profitable. Count in the blogger tourney and I feel I am way ahead.