Season 3: All Quiet on the DDR Front

This post subtitled: How guys eventually get blinded down to pushing all in with crap, then watching a bigger stack stomp all over them.

With 1st place all but wrapped up, and 2nd place held in a 100+ point lead, the turnout for Season 3’s finale was well short of our lucky 13. Before the game began, we knew that 3 were going to be gone, but when the game started, 2 more decided to bail, leaving us with a whopping 8 players dueling for the final prize.

DoctorLove sat in the first spot, followed by StillNotFat, HumpinHorses, Jodizzle, CMoney, Coopzilla, yours truly (Mojo), and Motown. The tournament began with its normal fanfare, just a touch muted with the lack of folks.

The rebuy period was fairly lackluster in nature. Nobody was too willing to drop his/her chips on the major hands, excepting Mojo, who’s guaranteed Championship pre-funded his tournament. Mojo seemed inspired by the spirit of our Canadian pal, and proceeded to spend $100 in a $20 tournament, all on our garbage “funny hands.” 95 – the birthday, couldn’t do a thing, and K2, well… that was a crappy company, and proved to be a crappy hand. Mojo’s best play tended to be when he didn’t actually know what he was holding (he’d promised the assembled at least 2 “blind all-ins”, and achieved that goal within 2 blind rounds.)

All told though, Mojo’s 3 rebuys easily topped the night. Jodizzle had a single, and someone else had one… but I can’t recall who. Still, we had a whopping prize pool of $420, our lowest to date at the end of the re-buy period.

After the break, the chips seemed looser. The 6000 add-on seemed a welcome addition (as it always does), and the table started really opening up. It was at this point, that HumpinHorses seemed to go on an absolute chip-stealing rampage. The Kiwi seemed to trounce Coopzilla at every turn, the largest hit with a hidden set that doubled him through the Season 1 champ. A five-way flop came with a K84, and the action checked all the way around… the turn brought a J, and HumpinHorses decided that he’d bet $500, trying to bait the hook a little. Coopzilla fell into the trap, calling. The river K came, and Coop figured his K was good. In what seemed like a very complicated river, HumpinHorses bet out 1500… Coop immediately raised to 3K. Humpin thought for a while (probably cursing the one likely hand that could beat him, KJ…) before raising nearly all his stack, another 4K. Coopzilla thought for a very long time, but eventually decided to shove the rest of his stack in the middle, and HumpinHorses called off the rest of his chips, praying not to see KJ. Coopzilla happily showed K3 (hell, it IS better than K2…) but didn’t immediately see that HumpinHorses had the full boat.

HH set the stage for hitting huge hands, and getting paid with them. He took down a big chunk of StillNotFat’s stack with masterful play with Aces. StillNotFat had top pair (a Ten), with a damn fine kicker… proved willing to pay to see those aces.

All the while, Jodizzle remained, biding her time, chipping off via blinds and missed flops. She tried a raise from the small blind with AQ, and was rebuffed on a KJ4 flop. Eventually, she looked down, and saw QQ, and in an interesting “maybe she’s got deuces maneuver”, she pulled a massive overbet in the 200/400 round. Motown was the small blind, and DoctorLove had the big blind, and HumpinHorses had limped in. Since you can usually count on Motown for a blind defend, in hindsight, it seems like a pretty smart play. Yet Motown insta-folded, and instead DoctorLove looked down at his dwindling chipstack, and seeing a chance to double up, DoctorLove made the call with A4s. HH got out of the way (a skill we can definitely attribute to him), and DoctorLove was annoyed to see Dizzle’s ladies. Yet, the flop was so damn kind to him, and he caught the ace and another on the turn. Dizzle got no Queen on the river, and was left standing with less than 1200 chips.

Crippled, Dizzle decided to make a last stand with 98, and flopped well against both Mojo and Motown who called off <3BB to try to eject her. She flopped top pair, but Motown’s KQ caught a turn K, and Jodizzle ended the evening in dead last. In terms of points, the Season 3 finale was her worst finish by far.

Mojo decided that his last stand would be best made with the birthday hand. Fittingly, Coopzilla was the one to take him out. Mojo had 2700 and the small blind in front of him. There was nothing he could do but raise, and hope for the best with 95s… and Mojo did flop a nine. Unfortunately, Coopzilla had KQ, and flopped a King. Mojo, the Season 3 champ, the star, the phenomenon, ended out 7th of 8 with a tiny whimper, trying to finally make one of the DDR fun hands work. 4 times, Mojo ended up all in with the shitty funny hands, and 4 times, they all lost.

Immediately after Mojo’s exit, StillNotFat made his small stack stand. HH raised in early with KQ, and had it folded around to him in the 400/800 round, except SNF, who had ~3500 chips left, and walked square into it with QJo… The board finished with Ace high nuthin’… and HH’s nuthin’ was just a touch bigger. StillNotFat out in 6th.

5 player action solidified HH’s lead. Chips were passed around, and as frequently as he’d get them, Coopzilla would hand them off to the Kiwi again. Finally, Coopzilla seemed to calm down, eventually hitting a stride. Making an odd pre-flop call with AT in the button, Coopzilla got extremely lucky , and saw a 4 way flop with the two smaller stacks. Motown decided to bluff his way to the championship on a TT4 flop with A3… and was brutally rebuffed by a brilliant smooth call on the flop. The turn brought a 6, and Motown bluffed all his chips in… and Coopzilla insta-called, despite Motown’s warning that “if you have a ten, I’ll slap you …”

Yet, Coopzilla fought valiantly against the rapidly increasing blinds after taking out Motown, but they proved to be too much for him. When your stack is hovering around 20K, the 1K/2K levels are pretty painful. CMoney had recently started hitting some hands, and raised in early with QQ, and Coopzilla happened to look down at 99. With less than 10 big blinds, he had to go for it. The flop helped neither player, and the Queens held up. Still, by taking higher than 7th place, Coopzilla had locked his lead for 2nd place champion.
Down to three, DoctorLove woke up. Ending up all in at all the right times, he pushed back and forth against CMoney and HumpinHorses. Doctor Love got a cheap look from the small blind with KJ, and HumpinHorses checked his option. The flop came J86. Coolly, DoctorLove decided to try a trap, and checked. HH obliged, making the min bet. DoctorLove happily pushed all his chips in, and just as happily, HH called. HH showed J8, having flopped top 2, and DoctorLove ended up out in 3rd, caught in his own trap.

The final two: HumpinHorses and CMoney. CMoney, newly inspired with a lucky streak, seemed impervious to HumpinHorses big stack tactics. CMoney hit the coinflips he needed (a rather crucial A7 v 66 pre-flop all in), and had the best of it when he needed to (a QQ v 99, again.) Soon, HumpinHorses ended up on the wrong side of the all-in. HH was getting rocked, and decided to make a final stand with K6, and CMoney, once again getting the best of it with a big A. The flop came Q high, and the Ace was ahead, but the 6 came on the turn, saving HH’s bacon. Still, it wasn’t enough. Eventually, HH got a quality hand (KQ), but walked right into CMoney, again with the best of it with AJ. The flop came with an A, and the turn offered a T to give HH a gutshot draw, but the river blanked, and for the second time, CMoney walked away with the top spot.

Frankly, HumpinHorses dominated in this tournament, and if there was any justice in the world he’d have won it. But CMoney ducked and jived all over, and if you were careful watching him, you’d realized he never really was out of it. CMoney was all quiet until the final four, when he took over the tournament. Still, HH seems like an upcoming force; beware the Kiwi!

And so ended the third DDR season, with Mojo walking away with the championship, and our Season 1 champion, Coopzilla, taking the 2nd place honors.

On a personal note, this seemed like vindication for me, especially as Coopzilla squeaked past me to take over the championship from Season 1. Yet, there is a slight sting of anti-climax with the final tournament. 1st place was virtually locked… and yet, that’s when the poker gods decided to sting me with one of my worst card-dead runs I’ve ever had. Still, the crown and the trophy are mine, yet I have this feeling. I want more. I want to win it all again.
Season 4? An underground tournament? Or, as I’ve proposed to some folks already, a “DDR Champions” tournament (invite only to DDR tournament winners, 20K chips, no rebuys, $50 buy in, winner take all.) I don’t know what will happen yet… but I know I can’t just rest on my laurels. I will be a fighting champion. Be ready.