Josie, again

Josie and I played some more Sunday afternoon. I told her I wasn't planning to post about the results--and it was the truth, I wasn't planning to. But I changed my mind. It was only a $5 single-table SNG, with nothing on the line between us for lasting longer except pride. But I played so well that, gosh darn it, I just have to crow a little itty bit.

Josie was hit by the deck early on, achieving the first knockout when her pocket jacks flopped a set. Meanwhile, I was going the opposite direction, with nothing working out right. She was one of the chip leaders through most of the tournament, while I was scratching and clawing to avoid elimination. It wasn't looking good for me to outlast somebody who usually had a stack several times the size of mine.

But I hung in there, didn't panic, let the big stacks get bigger as they knocked out the other shorties. I was still short on the bubble, and it wasn't clear I would cash. But then Josie knocked somebody out in 4th place and I was at least into the money.

The other guy with us in the end was a total donkey, and he spewed chips off to me so badly that I took over the chip lead for a while.

Did it annoy Josie that "Fatboy 137" (his screen name) was making me healthy again? You could say that. I think she won't mind me quoting this snippet of a rant from the chat we had going on the side:

I cannot FUCKING BELIEVE that you are the chip leader.
I dominated that game from the start
seriously
thats effing crazy
and that fat boy sucks at poker
no wonder hes givng you chips hand over fist

Heh heh heh!

But in spite of the unfairness of it all, Josie took out fatboy with this hand:

Game #56077281-118: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 200.00/400.00

Seat #3: fatboy137 (BB), $2307.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (D), $6906.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (SB), $3612.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 200.00

fatboy137 posts the big blind of 400.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ Ah 7d ]

VeryJosie raises with 800.00

Rakewell0 folds

fatboy137 goes all-in with 2307.00

VeryJosie calls 1907.00

fatboy137 shows [ 4d 4s ]

VeryJosie shows [ 6c 7c ]

*** Flop *** Pot: 5614

[ Qd 3c 9s ]

*** Turn *** Pot: 5614

[ Qd 3c 9s ] [ Ts ]

*** River *** Pot: 5614

[ Qd 3c 9s ] [ Ts ] [ 6d ]

fatboy137 is out

VeryJosie wins 5689.00

(Side note: I know that text hand histories are both difficult and mind-numbing to read. But I spent over an hour looking for a way to convert Merge Network hand histories to animation, and found none. If there's a better solution than this, let me know, because this sucks.)

So then we were heads-up, Josie having more than a 3:1 chip lead, me starting with less than eight big blinds. But I doubled up on the second hand:

Game #56077281-120: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 200.00/400.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (D SB), $9888.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (BB), $2962.00

*** Blinds ***

VeryJosie posts the small blind of 200.00

Rakewell0 posts the big blind of 400.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ Ac 4c ]

VeryJosie raises with 1037.00

Rakewell0 goes all-in with 2962.00

VeryJosie calls 2325.00

VeryJosie shows [ Qs Js ]

Rakewell0 shows [ Ac 4c ]

*** Flop *** Pot: 6924

[ 4h Ks As ]

*** Turn *** Pot: 6924

[ 4h Ks As ] [ Kc ]

*** River *** Pot: 6924

[ 4h Ks As ] [ Kc ] [ 3c ]

Rakewell0 wins 6774.00

That got us to basically even. Nine boring hands later, this happened:

Game #56077281-129: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 200.00/400.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (BB), $6751.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (D SB), $6099.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 200.00

VeryJosie posts the big blind of 400.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ Td 8h ]

Rakewell0 raises with 1000.00

VeryJosie calls 600.00

*** Flop *** Pot: 2200

[ Js 8c Jc ]

VeryJosie bets 1025.00

Rakewell0 calls 1025.00

*** Turn *** Pot: 4250

[ Js 8c Jc ] [ Ad ]

VeryJosie checks

Rakewell0 checks

*** River *** Pot: 4250

[ Js 8c Jc ] [ Ad ] [ 8d ]

VeryJosie checks

Rakewell0 bets 2250.00

VeryJosie folds

Rakewell0 shows [ Td 8h ]

Rakewell0 wins 6350.00

Now I was the one with the substantial chip lead. But Josie took a chunk of it back here:

Game #56077281-135: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 200.00/400.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (BB), $3876.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (D SB), $8974.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 200.00

VeryJosie posts the big blind of 400.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ Kc 7d ]

Rakewell0 raises with 1000.00

VeryJosie calls 600.00

*** Flop *** Pot: 2200

[ 8s 6h Ts ]

VeryJosie goes all-in with 3276.00

Rakewell0 folds

VeryJosie mucks [ ]

VeryJosie wins 5326.00

Which left me with a much smaller lead, until I got her to raise-fold twice by putting in all-in three-bets:

Game #56077281-138: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 200.00/400.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (D SB), $5301.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (BB), $7549.00

*** Blinds ***

VeryJosie posts the small blind of 200.00

Rakewell0 posts the big blind of 400.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ Ad 9s ]

VeryJosie raises with 1250.00

Rakewell0 goes all-in with 7549.00

VeryJosie folds

Rakewell0 mucks [ Ad 9s ]

Rakewell0 wins 9249.00

Game #56077281-150: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 300.00/600.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (D SB), $4576.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (BB), $7924.00

*** Blinds ***

VeryJosie posts the small blind of 300.00

Rakewell0 posts the big blind of 600.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ 5h 5s ]

VeryJosie raises with 1575.00

Rakewell0 goes all-in with 7924.00

VeryJosie folds

Rakewell0 mucks [ 5h 5s ]

Rakewell0 wins 10199.00

Now I had about 90% of the chips in play and could taste the win. Not so fast, pal, sez Josie. She shoved a bunch of times when I had such crappy cards I felt I couldn't take the risk. So my lead got whittled back down to about 2.5:1 when the next big chip movement occurred:

Game #56077281-155: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 300.00/600.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (BB), $3651.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (D SB), $8849.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 300.00

VeryJosie posts the big blind of 600.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ 8c As ]

Rakewell0 goes all-in with 8849.00

VeryJosie goes all-in with 3651.00

VeryJosie shows [ Ts Ad ]

Rakewell0 shows [ 8c As ]

*** Flop *** Pot: 13400

[ Qd Th 4c ]

*** Turn *** Pot: 13400

[ Qd Th 4c ] [ Qh ]

*** River *** Pot: 13400

[ Qd Th 4c ] [ Qh ] [ 3d ]

Rakewell0 wins 4898.00

VeryJosie wins 8602.00

Dammit! She won't die! And now I'm the one in jeopardy again! But I won't die easily, either:

Game #56077281-159: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 300.00/600.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (BB), $6302.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (D SB), $6198.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 300.00

VeryJosie posts the big blind of 600.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ 9s Jd ]

Rakewell0 calls 300.00

VeryJosie checks

*** Flop *** Pot: 1200

[ 9d 2d 5h ]

VeryJosie checks

Rakewell0 bets 800.00

VeryJosie calls 800.00

*** Turn *** Pot: 2800

[ 9d 2d 5h ] [ 8c ]

VeryJosie checks

Rakewell0 bets 2100.00

VeryJosie calls 2100.00

*** River *** Pot: 7000

[ 9d 2d 5h ] [ 8c ] [ Kd ]

VeryJosie checks

Rakewell0 checks

*** Showdown *** Pot: 7000

VeryJosie shows [ 2c 7h ]

Rakewell0 shows [ 9s Jd ]

Rakewell0 wins 7100.00

That put me back in the driver's seat, and set up the final showdown:

Game #56077281-161: Racoon Room - No Limit Holdem Tournament - 300.00/600.00

Seat #4: VeryJosie (BB), $3402.00

Seat #8: Rakewell0 (D SB), $9098.00

*** Blinds ***

Rakewell0 posts the small blind of 300.00

VeryJosie posts the big blind of 600.00

*** Pre-Flop ***

Rakewell0 got hole cards [ 4d 4s ]

Rakewell0 goes all-in with 9098.00

VeryJosie goes all-in with 3402.00

VeryJosie shows [ Kh Jc ]

Rakewell0 shows [ 4d 4s ]

*** Flop *** Pot: 13400

[ 7s 5h Tc ]

*** Turn *** Pot: 13400

[ 7s 5h Tc ] [ As ]

*** River *** Pot: 13400

[ 7s 5h Tc ] [ As ] [ 8s ]

VeryJosie is out

Rakewell0 is out

Rakewell0 wins 5396.00

Rakewell0 wins 8104.00

And that was all she wrote.

As I said, I was pretty pleased with myself for hanging in there so long, striking at pretty much all the right times (after the first few hands I played went bad), and getting fatboy to donate most of his stack to me.

Josie played well, too.* In fact, I think the only fair way to describe the overall story is that she crushed the game for the first 80% of it, then I rallied at the end just enough to snatch a W from her.

Things went less for both of us in the rematch. Josie was first out when her 9-9 ran into my A-A. I survived just long enough for the 3rd-place min-cash. Meh, but I'll take it.

Josie was much less trash-talky today than yesterday; she only called me a whore eight times (by actual count). Maybe it was her Sunday church-going good behavior. But she was actually very nice and complimentary to me (in between blasts of "WHORE!"), which made the whole thing a fun, enjoyable time, and would have been so even if the outcome had been different.

(EDIT: Josie's account of the game is here.)

*The only time I thought she made a clear mistake was when we were three-handed. She raised, I shoved, and she folded, but stack sizes were such that she really should have called with whatever she had. (To quote the great line from Joe Sebok's WSOP final table commentary when Darvin Moon made an eye-poppingly bad fold, she should have called even if all she was holding was "a Snickers wrapper and a tarot card.")