Bringing Home the Silver

If I could pick a theme to properly describe last night it would probably be “A Night of Firsts” as I FINALLY managed to final table the Mookie, FINALLY managed to cash in it and was all but one suckout away from winning the whole thing.

Why the name Papi Justify? I created my Full Tilt account before the whole blogging thing came about. I believed it’s inspired by some character in the incredibly shitty movie “The Skeleton Key”. I contacted Full Till to have it changed but they seem frown on those type things since they would not want to upset the various notes that Poker players have on me. Whatever. I guess me CONTINUALLY bringing business to that Rock garden paying Rake (minus my 28% rake back) should not allow them to grant me this one favour?

As for the tourney, well, it was one of those nights where my bad plays were rewarded and I ended up going deep in the process. You’ll have those nights playing cash games too, making the wrong moves at the right time and Voilà. Case and point:

In the 2nd level, I make it 3.5X the BB from the button with KdJd. Zeem re-raises me from the SB. Since I have a decent hand for a button-SB battle + position, I decide to make the call. The flop is Kc-Xc-Xc and he immediately bets out. I pause for a bit and I simply can’t see him having a King and I won’t give him credit for a flush right away. I put him on Ac-X. His bet was not anything frightening so I decide to peel one off and move in on a safe card on the turn (I have him covered by a little bit). Said turn is a complete blank (although it gives me a gutshot straight draw) and he moves in for his last 550$. The pot is enormous at this point and I make the call with what could be the best hand, if not at least I have some outs. Well he didn’t have one ace, he had two. So I was a bit shocked to hit my gutshot on the river and send him packing.

Oops.

Well I put him on a hand and I stuck with it. So I deserve some credit for that, right? *Crickets chirp*

That hand put me near the top of the leader board but I then proceeded to lose every single hand I was involved in for a little while to knock me back down to the middle of the pack. I clawed my way back up by lifting a big one off of Waffles when he tried to move me off a hand on a complete bluff and I brilliantly outplayed Will Wonka in a battle of the blinds where I extracted maximum value with my flopped to top pair to his flopped middle pair + top kicker.

Iak’s arrival to our table was good for me, although dreadful for him. Seated two to my right, I knew he was going to take multiple stabs at my blinds. I successfully shot him down twice in his early attempts to slow him a down quite a bit. I think I had him on Tilt by the end since I got him to call off his entire stack with Second pair+ good picker when I was clearly representing top pair.

Breakdown of the hand: He makes it 3x the BB from the CO. Knowing his range is quite large, I make it 9X the big blind with As9s. He thinks for a bit and makes the call. Flop comes A-J-x. I immediately put him all-in and he thinks for quite a long time before making the call with Q-J. He blanks the turn and the river and I sit atop of the leader board.

I coasted to the final table from there. I don’t remember much of the details but the final table was brutal. My stack went up and down like a Yo-Yo since I was really aggressive. Better that than being blinded off I guess.

I made it all the way to end thanks to some @##$ hands holding up for once. You know all these tournaments where you kings get killed by AK yet your AK goes down in flames to 2-2? Well, last night was the opposite of that. I doubled up with pocket fives against A-5s to bring me back near the top and I burst the bubble when I knocked Will Wonka with AK versus his A7s (after a ridiculous re-suck by my part). Luck was also greatly on my side when I doubled up through PresDaveLee after I push from the button with 7-5o and he calls me with J-10s. His rivered jack also happened to give me a rivered one card flush. To add insult to injury, I knocked him out of the tourney when I ran my 8’s right into his 10’s but spiked an 8 on the turn to finish him off.

Finally, the good ol’ “If you live by the suckout, you die by the suckout” held true when I got all my chips in with 6’s against Duggle’s A5s on 235 board when he spiked another 5 on the turn to finish me of for good.

This tourney kicks ass!!


It seems a bulk of my playing time in October will be spent at Pokerroom.com as I work my way through their pretty nice 50% up to 500$ bonus. Give it a try if you can!