And now for a third

And by that, I mean a third Mookie win, which should make Schaubs happy.


I'll put up a more thorough report on Friday afternoon, when I will have the spare time to look over the hand histories for anything interesting. An early highlight, which propelled me to the early chiplead with over 11K in chips, was where I proved to fellow Team Schaubs member LJ that presto was not gold (unless played by professionals):


As played, the hand was pretty nasty. LJ was the big stack at the table, but I had a sizeable stack of my own within 1200 of hers. Still, she defended her blind to my 3BB raise in the CO. Then, we get your standard set-over-set scenario on the flop. She check-raised my half-pot c-bet to 800 chips, and I smooth called with the intention of raising any turn with the possible exception of a king or eight (which would complete a straight; I thought her range was pretty polarized to PPs or just maybe, maybe QTs). On the turn she paused and bet out 1550; I paused and raised to 3200 with only about 1600 behind, signalling my willingness to stack off. She obliged by shipping it in with bottom set and I insta-called praying she didn't have JJ. I can't fault LJ for not folding a set in a bloggament ... but realistically my range has her crushed here. Fortunately, my image helps me get paid off in spots like this -- that and no-one willingly folds a set in a bloggament!

That allowed me to sail along, playing conservatively and protecting my big stack and selectively choosing spots to chip up with minimal risk. I suffered a setback here and there vs. short-stacks that sucked out on me but overall I maintained a top-5 stack as we made it to the final table.

NumbBono and I got involved in some pretty sick pots along the way and I was pretty worried as the final table began: he had been co-chipleader for a long period of time but in a sick run on the final table bubble he doubled up to 40K, which was double my stack (!). I patiently navigated the final table minefield, though, and when we got down to three-handed with the two of us and Smokkee I'd chipped up nicely and seized the chip lead. The three of us traded chips for a good while and I lost two big pots to come back to the pack. Ultimately NB busted out in third, but not before we traded sick beats: he cracked my pocket jacks when I slowplayed myself into oblivion and lost the maximum when he flopped 2pr. But I managed a key double through him when I needed it when I squeezed and he made a nice call with ace-high (which was good) and I flopped a pair.

I got pretty lucky vs. smokkee in our headsup battle. I donked him to take a commanding chip lead, then he won about four consecutive 60/40s, and then I finally won one to close it out. I nut-peddled a few times but he escaped; I let him re-steal light a few times and then caught him but he escaped some more; and then I finally got it in with the worst of it again and won.