Sunday, July 22, 2007

Holland13 in the End

Holland13 showed some marvelous play the whole night and it paid off in the end. He survived a major scare at the final table to post his first Holdem Affair victory.

As has become my custom – here is my tale.
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The word was yabbos and I was in the game. The Holdem Affair was on for Saturday night. It didn’t matter that Beckham was making his MLS debut on ESPN. – we were playing the Holdem Affair. But then we were playing and Beckham wasn’t, so let’s play.

GAME ON!!!!!

I want to apologize to all for last week. I wanted to play and was home in plenty of time. But my Internet connection crapped out on me Friday night and they couldn’t get a tech out until Tuesday. In his defense – the tech was great. He didn’t just give me a new modem but rewired my house out to the pole. My download speed doubled.

I’m in the game tonight along with 32 others. That’s a good field for the Holdem Affair, let’s have some fun.

Thirty minutes in and it looks like Papoorboy has taken the early lead but Holland13 and aktim are right behind.

Awww. Hand 49 and I just busted annieboom when she pushed her pocket jacks into my pair of ladies. She was short stacked thanks to Hazy Cat.

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In the 78th minute of the LOS Angeles Galaxy game vs. Chelsea – David Beckham just took the field. Will this be the beginning of a new chapter in US soccer history or just a boring footnote? We shall see.

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We made it to the first hour break and we still have twenty players at the tables. Jayzion is our leader. Here is your top 10:
Jayzion = 5590
Aktim = 5540
Holland13 = 4475
Hungry Guppy = 4365
DriveULoonie = 3030
Whrlingdrvish = 2835
PerfectsGirl = 2625
WhoHasMyLytr = 2570
Sunbob = 2550
Twocats = 2310


Hand 107 and I just took out Idblondee when my pocket jacks flopped a boat. G G Blondee.

Hand 109 and I have AK to an A T 4 flop. I bet out and aktim, the only stack close to mine at this table, raised me. I got it all in on the turn only to see aktim turn over A T. Oops. I’m short stacked. Hand 114 and I double up with KK. Back to 970 chips with the blinds 75/150.

It’s bubble time. We are down to 11. The panel says I’m in 10th place. Yech
Now it’s official – I’m in 11th place.

73o . . .94o. . . . All-in with pocket tens. WhoHasMyLytr called with Qx and turned a queen. I’m bubble boy this week.


We have our final table and Holland13 is our chip leader. Here is the board.
Holland13 = 15485
Kryptic = 7450
Aktim = 5365
Hungry guppy = 4500
Twocats = 4225
Hemi Henry = 4170
Jakeylove = 3375
WhoHasMyLytr = 2140
PerfectsGirl = 2080
Miss UB = 710


And now back to the action.

First hand and Miss UB is all-in with only 750 chips and AQ. Jakeylove called with A9 and caught a nine.

Hand 5 and Aktim is gone.

Hand 6 and Jakeylove took out Lytr when Lytr pushed into his pocket aces.

The action is so fast here that I’m missing it.
Okay, short stacks are basically gone and we can play some now. Blinds are 100/200.

Hand 28 and Hemi Henry is desperate. All-in with ace deuce but PerfectsGirl has pocket rockets. Henry is gone.

We are down to six and paying five tonight. And it now is a war.
All the way to hand 54 and the blinds are now 150/300. Holland13 is in solid control of the table but with hungry guppy the shortest stack at 4650, this is still anyone’s match.

Hand 61 and Holland13 rivered his flush to knock out Kryptic.

Hand 63 and Guppy doubled up off PerfectsGirl with AA. PG is in deep trouble. She doubled on the next hand and again on hand 65. She’s back in the game – WOW.

We made it to the break with Holland13 in a comfortable lead and now Hungry Guppy is in second place. Twocats is our short stack with 2320 coming back to post the big blind of 400.

Hand 74 and Twocats just doubled up off guppy when the JJ held up.

Hand 81 and PG pushed 88 only to be called by Jakeylove with 99. It was looking bad until the river 8 showed up. This is getting wild now.

Hand 88 and Twocats doubles up again to stay alive – this time KK.

Twocats is doing his Bee Gees revival – “Stayin Alive”.

Hand 104 and Holland13 is no longer in control. Jakeylove just took a big pot off him and we have a new leader.

Hand 115 and we had a classic race. Holland with AK and PerfectsGirl with TT. The K on the turn was the deciding factor. Two hands later and PerfectsGirl is gone.

Wow I stop to write and Hungry Guppy hits a set of eights to double up and we have a new sheriff in town.

Twocats is still alive. With 2 cats do you get 18 lives?

Okay, by hand 128, it looks like a match between Jakeylove and Hungry Guppy. Holland and Twocats are both desperately short now.

Hand 143 and our cat is done for the night. K5s doesn’t work against Ax when two more aces fall. Great game Twocats.

Down to 3 with the blinds 400/800. Hungry Guppy has the rest of the whole table covered.

Holland13 has climbed back into the game, and now is in second place.

Hand 160 and Holland13 just took out Jakeylove when his JT hit trip tens.

Heads up and it is almost even. Hungry Guppy has the advantage but it is small.

Back and forth they dance. No one will take the lead.

Hand 170 and Holland talked guppy out of a nice pot to steal the lead.

Guppy showed some power poker and it is a dead heat now

There’s more lead changes here than a hobby stock dirt track race.

Hand 194 was big. Guppy pushed 66 and Holland called with A9. Holland hit a nine and Guppy was mortally wounded.

Hungry Guppy pushed on the As 6s 8d flop the very next hand. Holland13 made the call and turned over 8s 5s. Hungry Guppy showed Td 6h. Holland had the better pair on the flop. That turned into the flush when the turn brought the 4s. But he wasn’t done. In an excellent Holdem Affair example of the poker equivalent to a walk off homer, Holland13 rivered the 7s for the straight flush and the win.

That was an amazing heads up match. Actually that whole final table was fun to watch.

Great game. Another fun night of poker with my friends.

Peace.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Papoorboy gets Number Five

It was a small group this week for the Holdem Affair. Only 18 players sat down to contest the oldest running private tournament on UB. This is the kind of field that the real strong thrive in and this week wasn’t an exception. Papoorboy bested the field and I see some names on the final table list that have proven their worth.

Papoorboy finished first with bugman22j his heads up victim. Slim Shady24 was third to complete the money table. Fatscotsman was fourth and our favorite south sea islander, Tai Pan was our fifth place finisher.

I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to be here tonight but I was playing in a home game. These guys keep asking me to come back even though I have finished in the money 5 out of the last six times I have played. Tonight was no exception as I finished second to a very good newcomer who out kicked me heads up when we both flopped top pair.

Jewelcard was there and says I have to share with you one hand where I got very lucky. I was in EP2 with As Qh and I limped. Tighty was MP2 and he hit me with a 3X BB raise. I knew if he was in the pot he had a hand. Two other calling stations were along for the ride. This was fairly early in the night so when it got back to me I just pushed with about 1200 chips of the 1400 starting stack. When tighty called I figured him for KK. My goal was to get heads up with one of them with the AQ and I was right. The two limpers bailed as they should. Tighty and I both showed AQo with Tighty showing Ah Qs. The flop came with the 8h and the 9h. tighty was calling for two more hearts for the flush. The Th came on the turn and everyone was standing and watching the river. The river was another heart giving Tighty the flush and what he thought was the win. But I interrupted and pointed out it was the Jh that had fallen on the river and I had the straight flush. That doubled me up and put me into position for the rest of the night. It also was good for the high hand side pot so I was assured of getting my buy in back for the night. That made it easy to play a little looser and more aggressively the rest of the night. As it ended up I was able to get down to the final two and just got unlucky in the heads up. I like this home game. They keep giving me their money and inviting me back.

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. I watched the fireworks from the roof of our store – right down on the river where they shoot off the fireworks. There are very few perks in my business but that is one of the best.

See you all next week.

Peace.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

DriveULoonie for Two


I missed the Holdem Affair this week as I wandered off “Into The Woods” with my wife and daughter. I made it back in time for the final table. We pick up the action on hand 76 and we are down to 7. I see that I have already missed Hazy Cat being eliminated in 10th and my old friend Jewelcard going down in ninth place. Big Lar8 made it to 8th place before he fell.

We started this week with 34. I’m looking at the list of names here that have been eliminated. Xgames in 34th, Jennifear in 31st, Marti in 26th. Why do I think I missed an interesting night at the tables?


Here is the action.

Oh no, hand 81 and Troiano27 is all-in with A Q and DriveULoonie calls with KK. Troiano27 is gone.

DriveULoonie is dominating this table. Heatquest2006 is in second place.

We have our money table now that we are down to five. VictorDave, Mr. Que, and bugman22j are distant followers.

Hand 96 and Heatquest just doubled up off Loonie.

Oops, but on the very next hand Loonie took out Mr Que.

Hand 98 and Victor Dave took out Bugman22j. Bugman pushed his pocket 99 but VictorDave turned an ace to pair up.

Hand 113 and HeatQuest2006 has a huge chip lead (27960) , Loonie has 18K and VictorDave about 4K.

Hand 114 - Dave is down to his last 1915 and has to push with Q7o. Loonie has A8o and VictorDave is gone.

Heads up and it is a dead heat now. DriveULoonie and Heatquest2006.

Loonie takes the early advantage.

By hand 130 he has double the stack of Heat Quest.

Loonie is pushing but Heatquest is staying alive.

On hand 140 Heatquest doubled up and we are back to near even.

Hand 146 and it is over. Heatquest pushed with A 7o but DriveULoonie held KK. The rulers held up and DriveULoonie takes his second Holdem Affair title.

Way to go folks. That was a good table to watch.

Peace.