The night that I took first place, I can only recall one hand where I got really lucky. But he got lucky first. Then I got relucky when it counted. Of course I heard about it because we were stuck at 10 handed – two tables – for frigging ever. Two short stacked players kept managing to win the low, or the high, and hang on to a few chips, and we were hand for hand, I didn’t time it but I think that went on for an hour and a half. The whole thing took around 9 hours or so to play down and exhaustion was at an all time high for me since I get up early.

Right at the end – the end of the bubble – I went on one of those miraculous heaters where I picked up big cards and they were good…like A-J suited A-2, etc. Off and running, I went to busting people in a mad rush for first place and it worked. It’s been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since that happened to me and I admit I loved every second of it.

I played the following day in NLH and didn’t last a hoot and a hoop. But yesterday was the 8 game and I crawled steadily along. I never had a mass of chips or even was in contention for the lead, I struggled every step of the way to get to 13th place and was damned lucky to get there. There’s a WBCOOP Leaderboard now. It’s a pretty big deal since 1st place receives a nice bonus.  As I struggled through yesterday, I found out that I was in the running in the leaderboard.  This is where I think it gets funny.

Yes, I want to win but for a variety of my own reasons, not necessarily to take down the prize but the prize would be wonderful.  As I waded through the hours and the hands that kept me from doing anything other than hitting ‘fold,’ I became aware of  ‘md_joel’ since he and I were both tied with 100 points on the leaderboard.  Clearspine was sweating me and pointed out md_joel and his leaderboard position, etc.  As luck would have it, I couldn’t put a hand together and md_joel could and as the tables broke down, he landed at my table, to my right.

Silence for quite some time and then it went into over-drive.  md_joel told me he wanted me out of the tournament, I did a ‘no kidding,’ kind of thing and he said I should want him out too.  He went on to say that I was his only threat as he jammed every pot.  As the play progressed he told me he wanted me out before we got down to one table, we were moving towards that rapidly, and 8 game plays with 8 players so 9 players would still be two tables.  There was no stopping his raising and apparent rush and with no chips left, I finally pushed all-in in the LH round with Q-3 Diamonds and ran into his pocket 7s which were good.  He had around 250K in chips when I went busto in 13th place and was the chip leader by far.

I know I shouldn’t laugh but I can’t help it.  I wasn’t his only threat because Dramaturg was in the tournament too with 35 points.  Once md_joel and I got past 18 players, we both had 120 points which would tie us for 1st place.    I went to bed almost immediately after getting knocked out, just to find out today that md_joel finished in 9th place.  That alone has me laughing…sorry if you’re not sharing my humor here, but if I had 250K in chips with 12 players left, I can guarantee you I would’ve been a HUGE contender for 1st place.  But, to further skew it for md_joel, Dramaturg took 1st place and that gives him 135 points, md_joel has 125, and I have 120 – I believe that’s the way the leader board looks for 1-2-3 although it hasn’t been updated today.

I played today in the NLH and took an ugly beat – I think it’s ugly.  I had queens against jacks and got all of his chips in.  The board came 6-7-9 rainbow, 10 on the turn, 8 on the river.  Fuck shit!!!!  About 3 hands later I went all-in and same player had pocket jacks again.  I was out fairly early.

But on the high side, I picked up a $33 SCOOP ticket for 13th place in the 8 game.  Tomorrow is the WBCOOP Championship event and for sure, I’ll be there!  I love poker!!!!