Thursday, April 29, 2010

All-nighter

I played in the Mookie last night. I had a hard time getting any traction, and was almost never at or above the average chip stack until very late into things. But then it all started going my way, and I got, first, to the final table, and then down to three, though I was the short stack. I was patient and waited for the big stack to make a big mistake, which he did, and it resulted in me having the biggest stack and being able to do some bullying. We got to heads up essentially tied in chips, and then I blew it, finishing second. I was feeling pretty down on myself because I thought that I was in a great position to win the thing, and with it a seat at the blogger tournament of champions, in which I just might be able to win a WSOP seat. This was probably my best chance at it, and I screwed it up.

I spent a couple of hours watching TV, reading a magazine, and doing a crossword puzzle, but couldn't get sleepy; I was too irritated with myself. So just before 4:00 a.m., I gave up trying to sleep and entered what I have discovered to be one of the softest online tournaments in existence: Doyle's Room $1000 guarantee at 4:00 a.m. Pacific time. This time 105 people entered, at $10 each, so there was no overlay as there has been other nights I have tried this.

This was a wild roller coaster ride. In the Mookie, not once--until the very last hand--did I get all in with the worst of it. But in the second tournament of my night, the suckouts came fast and furious, and I was on both ends of them. I was chip leader for a while, then way down in the standings, then way up, way down, and finally back to the top when it got down to the end.

Once again, I made it to the top two. My opponent was not a strong player, and within about half an hour I had gone from the 3:2 chip lead with which I started heads-up to a solid 5:1 lead. But then I encountered an awful stretch of card death--an endless string of 8-2, 9-3, etc. He caught up with me, winning nearly every pot for a period of about 20 hands.

We stayed even for a short time, and then this hand happened. As you can see below, he had the tiniest of chip leads at the time. I had K-K, he had 5-4 offsuit. He flopped an open-ended straight draw, and check-raised me. I shoved, he called, and he hit one of his eight outs on the river. Absent that, I would have had nearly every chip, and it would have been virtually impossible for him to recover.



I won $169.95 in the Mookie, and $173.25 in Doyles Room, each on a $10 + $1 investment, for a total of eight hours of play (3 1/2 for the first, 4 1/2 for the second). So objectively it was a good and successful night of work, given that I consider online tournments to be one of the weakest parts of my overall game. $40/hour is well above what my online tournament average return would be.

I suppose that I should feel proud of myself. By rational standards, entering two tournaments and finishing second in both is a reasonably commendable accomplishment. But because of how they happened, instead it feels like I had the win in my hand, and dropped it, two times in a row, like a stupid, incompetent screw-up. Does it feel like I beat 86 out of 87 and 104 out of 105 opponents? No. It just feels like losing.

I feel ill, like I've been punched in the gut--twice. Now I'm not sure I'll be any better able to sleep than I was after the first punch.


***

Does anybody know of a hand animator/replayer that works with Doyles Room (Cake network) hand histories? The one I usually use, at pokerhandreplays.com does not seem to accept the Cake format. I would post a few interesting hand from the tourney later if I can find a player. (I think they would be a lot less interesting as static hand histories.)

11 comments:

The Poker Meister said...

Big stack did make a big mistake. I'm finishing a post on the Mookie right now. Stupid misclicks...

Regardless, congratulations on your two second place finishes. The Mookie could have gone either way.

dbcooper said...

Congrats on your second place in the Mookie. Nice cash

bellatrix78 said...

if you would've beaten 104 out of 105 opponents, you would've finished first.

Memphis MOJO said...

I saw you finished 2nd in the Mookie and I know you're disappointed, but nice job anyway.

Rakewell said...

Excellent point, bellatrix. Obviously my math skills degrade after being up all night.

Microvillain said...

Nice job, I am sure you will get at least one more shot at the seat.

Microvillain said...

Nice job, I am sure you will get another shot at the seat.

lightning36 said...

Second in the Mookie always sucks, especially with a TOC seat up for grabs. These next BBT5 tournaments should be fun.

Rakewell said...

Big-O: See http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/bloggers-on-the-rail/profile-mookie

Microvillain said...

Don't know if I sent this already, but food for thought - If my stupid computer (was having problems all Wednesday) had switched screens quicker, I would not have folded and you probably would have ended this hand with only 150 chips left because of the set over set:

The Mookie (155589758), Table 3 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:28:27 ET - 2010/04/28
Seat 4: fmarra17 (3,345)
Seat 5: microvillain (2,150)
Seat 9: Rakewell (2,300)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to microvillain [Jh Jc]
Rakewell calls 50
fmarra17 raises to 250
microvillain has 15 seconds left to act
microvillain has timed out
microvillain folds
microvillain is sitting out
Rakewell calls 200
*** FLOP *** [3c 7c Jd]
Rakewell checks
fmarra17 bets 350
Rakewell calls 350
*** TURN *** [3c 7c Jd] [Ah]
Rakewell checks
fmarra17 bets 750
Rakewell has 15 seconds left to act
Rakewell raises to 1,700, and is all in
fmarra17 calls 950
Rakewell shows [7d 7s]
fmarra17 shows [Kc Ac]
*** RIVER *** [3c 7c Jd Ah] [Ks]
Rakewell shows three of a kind, Sevens
fmarra17 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
Rakewell wins the pot (4,675) with three of a kind, Sevens

Mark T said...

I find it interesting that you mention here that you find a Doyle's Room tournament among the softest online tournaments you've ever played.

I discovered that myself about six months back, though I usually play the evening bounties, from 5:30 pm Pacific though 8:30 pm Pacific. I find them very soft and easy, especially compared to Full Tilt, Stars, or Bodog, all of which I continue to frequent.

I'm not sure why that is (Cake attracts weaker players?). In fact, I don't care for the rebuy tournaments there precisely because there's so much shoving and rebuying that it can get expensive (and frustrating). On the other hand, the bounty ones just make the weaker players more likely to call you when you're strong, and since they can't rebuy you get through the field that much quicker.

You might want to try some earlier Doyles tourneys, especially the bounties. I predict you'll enjoy the ride.