I Cashed in FTOPS #1!!

Wednesday's are easily my favorite poker day of the week. You got the Mookie, Buddy Dank Radio, and lots of good tournaments going on. Add into that the start of Full Tilt's Online Poker Series Tournaments last night, and you got a great night of poker. I very rarely play in any of the big online tournaments. Mainly because I'm a cash game donk and that most of the big tournies start at dinner time on Sunday's. But with the $200 stating at 8 PM on a Wednesday night, I decided to give it a shot. I tried a few satellites last week, but never won my way in. So I decided to buy right into this thing. I've been running really well in the cash games, so I just figured that I satellited in through the 1/2 NL tables.

Things started out slow for the first hour, as I hovered around the starting stack. Then not too long after the first break, I went on a short card rush and won a few hands. Within six hands, I was dealt QQ three times, doubling up on two of those. That sent my stack into the top 30. First QQ hand I doubled up against 77. In the second QQ hand, there were two limpers, and I raised the 40/80 blinds up to 500 (about 10% of my stack). I got four callers! The flop was a beautiful AQ4. I got it all-in with the donk on the button who had AJ.

Short time after this, I busted one of the Full Tilt Pros, Ali Nejad. I don't know much about Ali, but apparently he is a High Stakes player and also a commentator for NBC on some of their poker shows. He was a short stack and I raised up ATs in late position. He pushed with A8, and I flopped the nuts. As a reward for busting a Full Tilt Pro, I won my buy-in back and a free T-Shirt!

And then for the next couple hours, I went completely card dead. I picked KK once, but only won the blinds. I stole every now and then, but my stack always hovered around the 10k - 17k area. To make a long story short, I made it into the money, and busted out in 533rd place when I pushed with 76s in late position with an M of 2.5 and got called by AQ. I flopped a flush draw, but none of my outs came. 533rd place payed out $308, so I won a whopping $93 for my efforts ($293 if you count the pro bounty)

I probably should have been more aggressive towards the end, but I just wasn't getting any cards to get aggressive with. In well over 250 hands, I did not see AA once. I got KK the one time where I won the blinds, and I got QQ only those three times (All within six hands of each other in hour 2). No JJ or TT, and 99 and 88 once. I only got AK and AQ twice each also.

In addition to FTOPS #1, I also cashed in the $24+2 28k guaranteed, busting out in 84th out of 1347. I didn't see AA in that tournament too. Yikes!

Cash games were also nice to me. +$500 for the night there, and that is even with two massive suckouts and one KK vs AA Blind vs Blind war. One of the massive suck outs saw another of my sets go down in flames to a rivered gutshot. The other was me flopping the nut straight with AK, and a donk going runner runner Royal Flush on me, LOL.

Before I get to the Sweet and Sour hands, here is a very interesting hand where we are 200 BBs deep. There were two major donks at the table, The CO and the BB. The CO was playing pretty much every hand, and he limps. The Button is a very good regular LAG, who I see at 2/4 NL a lot. He has been raising a lot to isolate the donks. Well, I pick up AKs and squeeze from the SB. But the Donk in the BB cold calls (his stats were 33/10 with low aggression factor). Flop comes a pretty coordinated KJ9 rainbow. He calls my flop bet. The turn is an 8, but I'm not too worried about that, as it doesn't help any draws. I bet again and he calls. Uh oh. A cold call of a 3-bet PF can definitely mean monster. Now I am really worried about AA here.

What do you do on the blank river?

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

BTN: $197
Hero (SB): $404.65
BB: $478.05
UTG: $383.35
MP: $200
CO: $428.90

Pre-Flop: Ah Kc dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, CO calls $2, BTN raises to $9, Hero raises to $33, BB calls $31, 2 folds

Flop: ($77) Jd 9c Ks (2 Players)
Hero bets $50, BB calls $50

Turn: ($177) 8h (2 Players)
Hero bets $120, BB calls $120

River: ($417) 2c (2 Players)
Hero ?????

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Here is today's Sweet Hand of the Day.

This guy was really loose and playing a lot of hands. I was little worried about the second Ten falling on the turn, but when the third one fell on the river, I knew i was good.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players

SB: $292
BB: $446.15
UTG: $347.40
Hero (BTN): $191

Pre-Flop: Ac As dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $7, SB folds, BB calls $5

Flop: ($15) Td 4s Qh (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $12, BB calls $12

Turn: ($39) Th (2 Players)
BB bets $14, Hero calls $14

River: ($67) Ts (2 Players)
BB bets $54, Hero raises to $158 and is All-In, BB calls $104

Results: $383 Pot ($2 Rake)
BB mucked Js Qd (a full house, Tens full of Queens) and LOST (-$191 NET)
Hero showed Ac As (a full house, Tens full of Aces) and WON $381 (+$190 NET)

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And today's Sour Hand of the Day.

Here is the previously mentioned runner runner Royal Flush hand with ATo. Villain was a donk with stats of 59/33. Thankfully I didn't pay him off (tried to get by cheap by throwing out a blocking bet).

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

UTG: $216.15
Hero (MP): $328.85
CO: $200
BTN: $345.50
SB: $365.30
BB: $214.95

Pre-Flop: As Kc dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $7, CO folds, BTN calls $7, SB calls $6, BB folds

Flop: ($23) Td Qh Jh (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $16, BTN calls $16, SB folds

Turn: ($55) Th (2 Players)
Hero bets $36, BTN calls $36

River: ($127) Kh (2 Players)
Hero bets $42, BTN raises to $100, Hero folds

Results: $211 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed Tc Ah (a Royal Flush) and WON (+$101 NET)

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February kicks butt. Please don't activate DoomSwitch!

Cheers!