No bananas

I played in the SCOOP $215 HORSE event today. The first two hours were dismal, but then I ran into one of the most incredible streaks of good luck I've ever had. By that I don't mean getting my money in bad and getting saved by miracles, but rather having good starting hands hold up and get paid off by slightly worse hands, over and over and over again. (See below for a couple of examples.) I climbed all the way into first place and stayed there for 20 or 30 minutes. I even allowed myself to start thinking about what I might do with the $31,000 first prize.

But that Variance, she can be a beeyotch. She turned around and slapped me silly thereafter. My status fell and fell and fell. I don't think I played badly; I certainly wasn't feeling panicked or tilty. It's just that suddenly I was the one with the second-best hands, and unable to hit good draws.

The end was excruciating. We were close to the money, but with about 15 more needing to be eliminated, not close enough that I could fold my way in, being one of the shortest stacks left. So I went for it with an Omaha 8 hand: AAT3 double-suited. I flopped top set, but my only opponent, who had called my raise with 5322, had flopped a baby flush. I lost enough there to be down to less than one big bet.

But then it was dinner break, and I had to wait 15 long minutes to play my last hand! Painful! Got it in with JTT9, and rivered a ten to make a full house and stay alive, after the board had paired.

We still were about 10 spots to the money, so I resorted to a tactic that not only have I never used before, but one which I usually condemn: Stalling. I used up my time bank, plus the full 12 seconds for every turn. I survived once more raising with a strong starting razz hand, just picking up the bring-in. I was immediately dealt another good one, stalled as much as I could, but then raised and got one caller. We ended up getting it all in on 5th street, at which point I was an 86%/14% favorite:



Even after he caught good on 6th street and I paired, I was a 2:1 favorite. But the river killed me, and that was the end of that. Out in 108th, four places short of the money (which would have been about $350 minimum).




It was pretty depressing to have such a dramatic fall from the heights. But, on the other hand, it's nice to have the memory of soaring for a while in the highest buy-in online tournament I've ever played, so it doesn't feel like a complete waste of six hours.

I noticed that Barry Greenstein went out just a few seconds after I did. Obviously, he was just holding on until I went out, so that he could collect on the $100,000 last-longer bet that we have every time we play a tourney together. The weasel.




***********

Here's a prime example of the kind of hand that catapulted me to the top, before my Icarian downfall. In razz, my 6-5-3-2-A just edged out an opponent's 6-5-4-3-A, for a huge pot. Sorry I don't have any means other than the text file to show you how it went down.

PokerStars Game #44149493922: Tournament #2010050362, $200+$15 USD HORSE (Razz Limit) - Level XVIII (300/600) - 2010/05/15 20:25:37 ET
Table '2010050362 91' 8-max
Seat 1: clucky9999 (17520 in chips)
Seat 2: abusaif47 (1878 in chips)
Seat 3: badbehrooz (10546 in chips)
Seat 4: EvitaPeron (5374 in chips)
Seat 5: gordo16 (10883 in chips)
Seat 6: GreyEyes (4717 in chips)
Seat 7: Rakewell1 (10712 in chips)
Seat 8: kap104 (11140 in chips)
Rakewell1: posts the ante 60
kap104: posts the ante 60
clucky9999: posts the ante 60
abusaif47: posts the ante 60
badbehrooz: posts the ante 60
EvitaPeron: posts the ante 60
gordo16: posts the ante 60
GreyEyes: posts the ante 60
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to clucky9999 [4c]
Dealt to abusaif47 [9h]
Dealt to badbehrooz [7d]
Dealt to EvitaPeron [4s]
Dealt to gordo16 [2d]
Dealt to GreyEyes [Jh]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [Ac 5d 2c]
Dealt to kap104 [9s]
GreyEyes: brings in for 90
Rakewell1: raises 210 to 300
kap104: folds
clucky9999: folds
abusaif47: folds
badbehrooz: folds
EvitaPeron: raises 300 to 600
gordo16: folds
GreyEyes: folds
Rakewell1: raises 300 to 900
EvitaPeron: calls 300
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to EvitaPeron [4s] [3c]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [Ac 5d 2c] [3d]
Rakewell1: bets 300
EvitaPeron: raises 300 to 600
Rakewell1: raises 300 to 900
EvitaPeron: calls 300
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to EvitaPeron [4s 3c] [Qd]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [Ac 5d 2c 3d] [Js]
Rakewell1: bets 600
EvitaPeron: calls 600
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to EvitaPeron [4s 3c Qd] [6h]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [Ac 5d 2c 3d Js] [Qh]
EvitaPeron: bets 600
Rakewell1: calls 600
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to Rakewell1 [Ac 5d 2c 3d Js Qh] [6c]
EvitaPeron: bets 600
Rakewell1: raises 600 to 1200
EvitaPeron: calls 600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rakewell1: shows [Ac 5d 2c 3d Js Qh 6c] (Lo: 6,5,3,2,A)
EvitaPeron: mucks hand
Rakewell1 collected 8970 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8970 Rake 0
Seat 1: clucky9999 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 2: abusaif47 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 3: badbehrooz folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 4: EvitaPeron mucked [Ah 5c 4s 3c Qd 6h 8c]
Seat 5: gordo16 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 6: GreyEyes folded on the 3rd Street
Seat 7: Rakewell1 showed [Ac 5d 2c 3d Js Qh 6c] and won (8970) with Lo: 6,5,3,2,A
Seat 8: kap104 folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)



And here's another such example--hitting crubs on 5th street to beat my opponent's aces up:




Rolled-up jacks didn't hurt, either: