Codd Brunson Challenge

Wow. Yesterday was awesome. I was too tired too update here what happened last night, but I'm doing it all first thing today.

I started off with 3 solid hours of Badugi. It was a 10/20 Limit table. The stakes were higher than I wanted to play, but there were no lower stake tables being played. Even 5/10, was higher than my bankroll allowed me to play yesterday, but once again it was the lowest stake with a table going.

I bought in for 3 dollars, fully intent to wait for good starting hands, and play those well. I ended up down to about 80 cents at one point. Only playing good starting hands, but either getting outdrawn, or drawing dead myself. I waited and waited for a hand. I ended winning, and climbed from there. My peak was $7.80 something, and I decided if I dropped below $7, I would get out. I played for a little while longer, didn't really get anywhere, played one last hand, dropped a little below 7, and cashed out.

That was a 3 hour session. Two of the greatest parts about it, other than cashing out almost 4 dollars up, was (A) I hit my biggest Badugi hand ever, of $4.01, and (B) I played some heads up Badugi and won at it. At one point, enough players had dropped off the table, that it turned into HU play. I had about 4.70 and the other guy had about 5.80. I thought about cashing out, not wanting to donk off my winnings, but I decided to cautiously try it out. I ended up dominating, and being about 1.50 up off my opponent before a 3rd player joined. Once again, I dominated in 3 way Badugi, and as more players joined, I sat back more and waited for great starting hands.

After the 3 hour Badugi session, my Thursday afternoon league game was due to start in 20 minutes. I was 5th in overall points in the league.

This was Event 4, and turned out to be the smallest event to date. There were only 4 people who entered. Two with higher point standings than me, and one new guy. I won Event 3, so there was a 5 dollar bounty for me.

We all started with 1500 in chips. I started out pulling ahead, and started playing bully, to try and win as many uncontested pots as possible. This can be dangerous, as you can run into a waiting monster. I did.

I was dealt K4o. Pretty standard hand at this point for me to bully with. KINGESKELETO min raised to 60. The blinds were 15/30. I believe I reraised and he called, but I'm not positive. The board flops a King. KING bets, I reraise, he calls. There's back and forth betting, the board never goes higher than King. The river goes 4. This gives me two pair. At this point, I am pretty sure KING has a King. I am a little weary of KQ, as there was a Q on the turn. There was no flush possible, and I'm pretty sure no straight possible. I am pretty confident my two pair is good. KING bets mostly all in. I think long and hard, I consider folding. I decide to call. There were several factors in my decision to call, one being my table image. Turns out KING had KK. I was dominated the whole way. KING was lucky the case King hit the flop, I was extremely unlucky. This left me with about 600 in chips, I am suddenly small stack.

This puts me on a tilt. I get dealt AJo the very next hand, and shove all in preflop. I get one caller, KING. He has AT or something, my hand holds and I am doubled up. I bullied a few hands uncontested and was back at about 1500.

I played another hand, where the guy on my left calls my bets all the way down to the river, where he reraises me. It wasn't much of a raise, but I couldn't call with crap. I fold.

This puts me on a tilt. I had just recovered to a safe stack, then threw a bunch of chips away on a misplayed hand. I angrily fold a few hands. Then I get dealt 89o. I decided to make a play on this hand. I had a feeling about it. I raise, new guy on my right calls. The flop goes BQ8, the Q and 8 both clubs. I shove all in. New guy thinks, then calls. He has 99. I am dominated. I mentally walk away. Then I spike an 8 on the river. Gross, I hit a 2 outer. That hand could have gone a lot of different ways. He could have bet it preflop, and I probably would've went away. I was trying to represent the Q, I don't know if he had me on a flush draw, the Q and thinking he could draw out or what part my 5 dollar bounty might have played in it all. All I know is I now had about 1300 in chips, new guy was now the small stack, and I got very lucky with my tournament life on the line.

Since I now had a second chance, if not a third, and had just narrowly escaped elimination by the skin of my teeth, I came back at this tournament with a renewed vigor. A little while later, I get dealt 66. I raise it big preflop, and get one caller, KING. The flop goes 869, two hearts. Dangerous board for me, but I have KING on a much better hand than can have a piece of this. I am quite sure I am winning. I pot it. KING calls. The next card is a heart. I ship 'em all in. KING calls. He has A7o. The ace is a heart. Damn. I need to dodge some cards. The river is a blank. I win. I am now chip leader, and KING has been crippled down to about 600.

I resume bully position. Once again trying to win as many uncontested pots as possible. At one point, I have 3K in chips and the rest of the table has less than 900. Then the new guy on my right makes a play with QQ. I had raised it up preflop, he shoved. With as big a bet I had already made, I was priced in. His hand holds and now he is back to about 1500. Another guy at the table, gains some more chips. I am still in the chip lead. I'm pretty sure the new guy doubles up KING, then I finish him off. Not sure, but the new guy was first to go, and we are now 3 handed.

The next biggest hand, I turn trip 6's, bet big, and guy on my right moves all in. I call. He has top pair aces. I win, and he is eliminated. Now it's heads up between me and KING.

I continue to bullying, trying to win the blinds and keep KING pinned back as much as possible. Then I bluffed a major hand. The flop goes J high crap. KING bets, I call. The turn goes Q. KING checks, I think then bet big. KING thinks, then folds. I show my bluff. KING's mad. He tells me he had me beat. I knew that.

Plays goes on a little more, then I get 44. I bet KING's exact amount of chips. One of my favorite bets. He calls with face. I flop a set of 4's. GAME OVER.

Here's me dominating the tournament:

Final Shot:

After that I went on to play the DD. My second hand, and first hand I played was KK. I raised it up a good amount, one caller. The flop goes BJK. I bet, call. The turn goes J. I check, he bets, I raise, he goes all in. He has KJ. I'm doubled up. I continue doing other stuff, and only play premo hands in the DD. I end up in the top 100 for awhile with like 30k. But, I continue sitting back and waiting for premium hands, and slowly everybody catches up to me.

Then I get 99. I'm on the button. The blinds are like 200/400. Everyone fold to the guy on my left. He limps. I pop it up to 2400. The blinds both fold, and dude shoves all in for 6K. I call. He has KQo. He gets a Q. What an idiot, he puts his entire tournament on the line preflop with KQo. Especially when he bets into the guy who was playing one out of every 15 or 20 so hands. He's lucky he sucked out. I had 36K going into that hand, but lost and was at 30K. I should've been at 45K.

I never really got passed 30K after that. Went down a bit, got back to 30K, then dwindled down. Even more. Got down to like 9K. Shoved with like AJ, got a call by AQ, sucked out, and doubled up. Sat back and waited. Hovered around 20K for a bit, there were like 500 people left, the blinds were getting really big and chip average was double what I had.

I made a stupid play with A2o on the button, and dude had K8s nut flush, he took me out. I could've done a little better, if not a lot better, but I didn't care at that point because I was nodding off. I had been at the computer for about 30 consecutive hours, with a break to shower and go to an appointment, and thats it. Oh well. I made a few bucks and had a good time before I had to pass out.

Here's my favorite hand of the DD yesterday, flopping Quads:

Second time that's happened in the last day or two. Pretty awesome.

All in all, was a pretty awesome day.

January 14th was a good day. I spent a good amount of time typing in the beginning, and decided to mostly stick to getting caught up on forum postings, freeroll hunting and playing Super Turbo BLT Sat's, which pop up, I quickly decide all in or fold, minimize, then go back to what I'm doing. I'm up about 8 bucks on those in the last 2 days.

I started getting worried at one point, that maybe I had not played enough poker and won enough money for the day. Just as I was starting to lean more towards the 'you wasted a poker day', a guy in the chat said he was gonna do a $10 trivia question. He had won 120 something dollars in a tournament. The question was, What was the first toy made? I said bouncy ball, and won. He transfered me $10. I would not have been able to get that 10 if I had been focused on poker games, instead of chatting and typing in forums. That 10, combined with what I won in Sat's to the BLT made it a pretty damn good day.

I decided to play the play the Ferguson. I was feeling pretty good about it.

My second hand dealt, and the first hand I played was KK. I raised it up pretty big, and got one caller. The flop went BJK. I bet, he called. The turn was a J. I got the left nut. I check. He bets, we both end up all in. He has KJ. Double up.

Went up, went down. Pretty much only played premium starting hands. Slowly started climbing in chips, then steadily climbed for awhile. Made it into the money, when we hit the money I was at about chip average 10K. Then the blinds were big enough that hands started to get crazy. All the smaller stacks were shoving. I saw a lot of crazy hands.

My AQ beat KK by catching a wheel on the river. All in preflop.

I beat QQ with KJ, when I spiked a King. All in preflop.

But I couldn't beat 66 with AK. All in preflop.

Then 88 vs AQ. They flopped a Q, but I caught an 8 on the river. All in preflop.

But the hand that finally finished me off, was AQ vs 55. Their 5's held. All in preflop.

All in all, I had a great time. Made my deepest Ferguson run to date, and ended up a few dollars up.

This thread sort of died down...