Third Place in Tonight's Mookie

I missed The Mookie last week and frankly had not been doing much in it since my victory late last year. It seemed like I could never catch cards at Full Tilt, and I was rivered waaay too many times.

Tonight I was dealt some small pocket pairs and suited connectors early in the tournament. However, every flop seemed to miss me and I was soon down to what my real life poker buddy Tom calls "single stack mode." I was down to about 640 chips and just waiting for my chance to pounce. I finally caught some cards and slowly built the stack up to where it looked like I might make the final table. I eventually got as high as second, but most often I hovered between third and eighth.

Amazingly, almost all my hands held up at showdown. I took a few chances and caught some good flops. My one luckbox play came when the eventual champ, NumbBono, had a pair of 6's up against my K-Qos. I thought that he was out stealing blinds. Luckily, I spiked a Queen on the river to more than double up.

I thought that I was out when photojenn's A-Kd was up against my Q-Jd. However, I had about 4,500 chips left and went all in a few times to build my stack.

When down to three and my stack much smaller than the other players, I went all in with 4-4. NumbBono had 9-9, and that was all she wrote.

I wish I could take back the call against photojenn. Just a bad read and play on my part. However, I will take the third place finish. Doing that well against the primo competition that was in this Mookie is not too shabby.