Half a Mook

I had a blast last night.

I started the evening playing WoW, but I ran into an asshole that turned me off on playing anymore. Just some inconsiderate dick that made the game not fun to play.

So my second choice was to play some poker. I logged on to Pstars and played some NL ring. My standard play here is to pick the 6-max table with the highest average $ per hand with an open spot. I found a doozie. Three players with more than double the starting stack, including one with 4x. The the 4x wanted EVERY POT. His method for getting it, the OVERBET. I felt like one of those cartoon characters that gets $$ for eyes. After doubling off another player, he was suddenly faced with me coming over the top of his overbets. He finally left to protect some of his profits when he was close to a starting stack.

At that point I noticed that I had about 40 seconds until the Mookie started. You're never concerned with how long it takes to open Full Tilt Poker's software until you have less than a minute to get into a tournament. I barely made it and got registered.

I really disliked the makeup of my first table, mostly because of a player I was familiar with "DontKnow" who I dislike and a player I didn't know called "snake" that was playing very erratically.

Erratic play troubles me, especially if I don't know the player, because you never know what they'll do. Sometimes erratic play is the sign of a very good player, but unpredictability can be trouble early in tournaments. Other players are just morons, and I hate watching a moron get lucky with his moron plays. It's disheartening.

I soon got reseated into a table of 7 unknowns and the host, Mookie himself. Nobody hosts a tourney like Mookie. The guy is pretty unflappable.

The rest of the tournament is pretty much a blur...I wasn't trying to play especially hard. Just pushing big hands and hoping they held up. I got lucky a lot. I bluffed with the hammer (Fuck all of you that think it's passé. I know sour grapes when I see them. Chicken shits.) I beat a flopped set of jacks with KT sooooted that runner-runnered a straight. In my defense I was desperately short in the BB, and the JJ limped UTG.

I know one play looked really donkalicious when I pushed from the SB with 86h. But I had folded a ton of blinds and never tried to steal from Zeem the entire game. I thought I had built up enough equity/image that he would have to put me on a hand. But he called anyway (He did have 10x my chips) with KTh. Luckily, the flop came 957. Bluff gone right.

Even Mookie called me a cockroach after that one...every time I got desperate, something went my way, bringing me to the final table in 8th position. I won about a half a dozen coin-flips at that final table. I made some good laydowns and played a nice rush (including cracking KK with AT on a board of 56789) that put me in first place.

When it was down to two players and the chips were almost exactly even Zeem offered a chop that I quickly accepted. He won the next hand when we both went all in, leaving me with less than a blind. Thankfully it was over two hands later, as it was already past midnight and I had to work early in the morning.

I've played four Mookies this year, and I've cashed in three of them. It's also my first tournament in the BBT Challenge, putting me in 90th place out of 259 players. Some of these players have played in more than a dozen of these events without cashing a dime. One person has played 24 without a cash! That's gotta be $300-$400 with no return. Scary. I'm in for $11. I should quit while I'm ahead.