SCOOP, MiniFTOPS, and BBT5 -- Crap, Crap, and a Wiener:

Sunday and the Glamorous Life of a Guy Who Dabbles in Online Poker

Sunday was a day reserved for online poker. I tend to play tournaments sparingly on Sundays, but this one was different with three big tournaments on my agenda. Unfortunately, I was also looking forward to watching game one of the Chicago Blackhawks - San Jose Sharks series and almost forgot that Sunday evening was the Survivor Heroes vs Villains finale. It looked like the day would be totally the laptop, the television, and me. I was depending on Mrs. lightning to keep me fed and keep the world away for the day.

I just never seemed to get on a roll in the SCOOP and MiniFTOPS tournaments. SCOOP was a total waste as I played crappy, uninspired poker. MiniFTOPS wasn't much better as I was never able to get a decent stack and finished 3793/14396. The BBT5 Invitational, however, was much different -- a victory!

I chipped up early on when I hit a set of 3's on the flop and rivered a full house against Columbo's overpair which improved to two pair. A crucial hand came after Waffles was moved to the table. He had pwned me in several hands and seemed to be having fun pushing me around. He slow played pocket rockets, hit a set on the flop, and a boat on the turn. Unfortunately, the river completed a straight for me, and I paid for it dearly. But revenge was to come ...

I have struggled in many of the BBT5 tournaments because I did not gather enough chips in the early and middle stages to withstand bad beats or coin flip losses. I was determined not to let that happen again. If I went out early, so be it. Thus, the following hand played out:

Full Tilt Poker Game #20896443770: BBT5 Invitational Event #5 (160557945), Table 15 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:13:28 ET - 2010/05/16
Seat 1: lightning36 (3,850)
Seat 2: veryjosie (7,206)
Seat 3: Troublecat (4,415)
Seat 4: heffmike (6,020)
Seat 5: ImNotYourFriend (1,950), is sitting out
Seat 6: Bone_Daddy84 (2,130), is sitting out
Seat 7: DDionysus (3,965)
Seat 8: babaghanoush (2,485)
Seat 9: Maniac57 (5,504)
Troublecat posts the small blind of 50
heffmike posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lightning36 [Qs As]
ImNotYourFriend folds
Bone_Daddy84 folds
DDionysus folds
babaghanoush folds
Maniac57 raises to 300
lightning36 has 15 seconds left to act
lightning36 raises to 700
veryjosie has 15 seconds left to act
veryjosie folds
Troublecat folds
heffmike folds
Maniac57 has 15 seconds left to act
Maniac57 raises to 5,504, and is all in
lightning36 calls 3,150, and is all in
Maniac57 shows [Jc Jh]
lightning36 shows [Qs As]
Uncalled bet of 1,654 returned to Maniac57
*** FLOP *** [Ac 5h 7c]
*** TURN *** [Ac 5h 7c] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 5h 7c Tc] [6h]
Maniac57: such a bad call
Maniac57 shows a pair of Jacks
lightning36 shows a pair of Aces
lightning36 wins the pot (7,850) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,850 Rake 0
Board: [Ac 5h 7c Tc 6h]
Seat 1: lightning36 showed [Qs As] and won (7,850) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: veryjosie (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Troublecat (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: heffmike (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: ImNotYourFriend didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Bone_Daddy84 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: DDionysus didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: babaghanoush didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Maniac57 showed [Jc Jh] and lost with a pair of Jacks

Needless to say, Waffles was not a happy camper. He got quite creative in chat. He even went off on a lightning rant on his blog. I am sincerely touched.

Shortly thereafter, I hit a set of 6's on the flop and pwned Very Josie's pocket rockets. These chips would form the basis for a deep run for me. I got luck when I needed it. Now I had to play smart.

After what seemed like forever, we got down to the final table -- and what a table it was:

Seat 1: DDionysus (40,918)
Seat 2: KimLovo (45,347)
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (30,945)
Seat 4: BamBamCan (26,856)
Seat 5: OtisDart (21,391)
Seat 6: babaghanoush (26,543)
Seat 7: lightning36 (54,019)
Seat 8: USAF_Trevor (23,336)
Seat 9: smokkee (66,645)

I didn't find out until after he busted that babaghanoush was none other than Short-Stacked Shamus. He had been kicking my butt at my first table.

After some spirited play (it seemed like Bam and I were continually butting heads), we got down to the final four:

Seat 1: DDionysus (25,368)
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (83,635)
Seat 7: lightning36 (109,516)
Seat 9: smokkee (117,481)

Four players, two TOC seats on the line. The bad part was, the other guys were all guys I like and respect. DDionysus had been a great supporter of mine some time ago when I was having trouble selling my house. He has been playing some wicked poker in the BBT5. I met Shabazz Jenkins last summer in Las Vegas. He is a great guy and a great tournament player. I finally met smokkee in Las Vegas in December. He's a nice guy and ranks near the top of my list of bloggers I respect. This was not going to have a good ending for two of us.

DDionysus fought hard as the short stack, but went out when his A-K could not pair against Shabazz Jenkins's 10-10. And then there were three.

According to Shabazz Jenkins, we played a total of 84 hands three-handed. I was the short stack for several hands, then started chipping up. I was finally able to put some distance between myself and the other two, but I was also aware that these guys are good and could topple my stack if I made a slip. I was hoping that if I treaded water long enough, the other two would finally have a hand where they faced off, either felting or crippling one of them. My goal was the TOC seat -- either first or second place. However, chips kept getting passed around and the faceoff never happened. The logjam was finally broken with this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #20901122708: BBT5 Invitational Event #5 (160557945), Table 2 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:53:29 ET - 2010/05/16
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (110,871)
Seat 7: lightning36 (150,428)
Seat 9: smokkee (74,701)
Shabazz Jenkins antes 600
lightning36 antes 600
smokkee antes 600
lightning36 posts the small blind of 2,500
smokkee posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lightning36 [Jc 4d]
Shabazz Jenkins folds
lightning36 calls 2,500
smokkee checks
*** FLOP *** [7s Td Jd]
lightning36 bets 10,000
smokkee raises to 69,101, and is all in
lightning36 calls 59,101
smokkee shows [6d 7d]
lightning36 shows [Jc 4d]
*** TURN *** [7s Td Jd] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [7s Td Jd Ts] [5h]
smokkee shows two pair, Tens and Sevens
lightning36 shows two pair, Jacks and Tens
lightning36 wins the pot (150,002) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 150,002 Rake 0
Board: [7s Td Jd Ts 5h]
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: lightning36 (small blind) showed [Jc 4d] and won (150,002) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Seat 9: smokkee (big blind) showed [6d 7d] and lost with two pair, Tens and Sevens

Great game, smokkee. It was a shame one of us had to miss the seat.

Shabazz and I played a few hands, but after almost ten hours of online poker today I was just ready to call it a day. Funny -- in Las Vegas ten hours of poker seems like nothing. We chopped and that was it.

So yeah -- I actually won a BBT competition this season. I had some near misses in the BBT 4 and BBT3 seasons but did win the big freeroll at the end of BBT3, which is why I have kept that logo on my blog. A huge thank you to AlCantHang and Full Tilt Poker for providing these opportunities.

As with any tournament, winning requires some great play, some sound decisions, some steel balls (at times!), and some luck. I had my share of all these tonight. It is nice when things actually work out.

After the tournament, how did I celebrate? I checked a light that was on in my basement and noticed that someone knocked over a new container of liquid laundry detergent. Unfortunately, about 1 1/2 gallons spilled on the laundry room floor. So yeah -- I cleaned it up and ended up all sticky and slimey. I finally was able to post this after cleaning up.

In five hours I will be taking my youngest daughter to the doctor's office to have three teeth pulled. Do you think that Peter Eastgate or Joe Hachem celebrate and party like me? Like I mentioned in the title to this post, I lead a glamorous life.