S6.T4. The championship all but wrapped up.

"Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more"
     - Shakespeare, Henry V

With a heavy heart, I (Mojo) begin this recount of the fourth tournament of season six, a season which once again, CMoney seems to walk away with everyone's cash. This tournament was a painful teaser, with CMoney buying in for an amazing $140, getting beat down over and over in the rebuy period, only to walk away the tournament winner. What's worse, Motown bought in for the exact same amount, and walked away in dead last. So begins this recount of a clear evening in February, where I begin to speak in the 3rd person, if only because I think it suits the writing style.

The evening began as it typically does, late, with CMoney bitching about SlimChance not telling him whether or not he'll show up. The black table included TheCanuck, Motown, CMoney, Cobalt, and Jodizzle, and the red had HumpinHorses, Chuckles, SlimChance (who showed up late), DiceMan, and Mojo. Diceman popped the rebuy cherry on the red table and (who else) Motown on the black. The black table seemed to be the hot table, and TheCanuck the hot hand of the evening, taking down every pot over and over. Chuckles was the man to beat on the red table, busting us 4 times without even sweating. After the break, it became obvious we'd had a pretty rebuy-heavy night, ending with a $700 prize pool. First place was taking down a hefty $319 for the evening, which ain't too shabby for a 10 player game. The rebuy period was over, and after the addons were taken, it appeared that TheCanuck was the absolute favorite to win. With most stacks in the 12K-14K range, his whopping 41K tower seemed destined for greatness.

It seems only natural now to write the following: "First out was Motown." For the second time in a row (which has only happened once, ever, in our history) Motown was 'the guy who joined the tables.' With his middle fingers raised in a salute to us all, Motown walked to the living room to watch a few minutes of basketball, and drown his sorrows in beer and pizza. The only remains, the AT laying wasted on a K high board against Jodizzle's QQ.

The tables merged, with SlimChance having taken a recent beating. He was low chip stack after another brush with Chuckles, and within about 5 hands, bowed out when he ran up against TheCanuck and his superstack. Trying to buy a cheap few blinds with A5, SlimChance ran squarely up against TheCandian, who called with QJ. The flop started well enough, giving Slim a 5 for his troubles, but both turn and river sealed the fate, with a running Q and J. Slimchance exits.

A quick aside: The first two exits came fairly quickly in the early-post rebuy rounds, it took nearly 3 rounds for the next player to leave. In that time, the following things happened. 1) CMoney complained, and 2) Jodizzle wasn't paying attention. Naturally, since this never happens, I thought I'd mention it.

Late in the 300-600 round, Mojo's 'fucking around for fucking around's sake' attitude with the chips got him 3 callers on his late position bullshit preflop raise to 2500 with T8o. The flop came T32, and both HumpinHorses and Diceman both check. Mojo fired another bullet into HumpinHorses and Diceman, betting near 6000, which appeared to pot commit both his opponents. HumpinHorses muttered something indicating a combonation of annoyance and disbelief, while Diceman quietly called, leaving himself only around 4000 chips remaining. The turn came a 4, and Diceman once again checked to Mojo. Mojo bet his remaining chips, and Diceman made the call with A4. The turn was no help, and Diceman was out 8th.

Chuckles was the next to go in an epic fashion. Chuckles raised early preflop with pocket QQ, getting called by 3 players. Chuckles has a pretty tight image, and doesn't commonly raise without a solid hand. The flop came damn near perfect for him. Q6c4c. With an understated initial bet, his eyes grew wider when CMoney raised after him, saying 'All In.' With a small hesitatition (which once can only assume was a query in his head like, 'what could CMoney go all in with here, I have the nuts... what else is there?') he called, showing over the huge hand. CMoney showed 7c5c.

Some folks might wonder why CMoney would raise all in here... so allow me to take this moment to explain a bit here. If you'd like to skip it, go about 3 paragraphs down. CMoney was obviously on a draw here, and raising so drastically on 'just a draw' can be tough to understand. With a little mental math and some strategy to consider, I hope to make it a little easier to understand.

The first thing to consider is the odds math at play here. With CMoney's 75c, he's got 15 cards that will improve his hand. 9 clubs will make a flush, the 3 remaining 8s will make the 8-high straight (remember, one of those eights is a club, and therefore will make a straight flush, which I counted as simply a flush above), and 3 remaining 4s will make the 7-high straight (the same straight flush scenario counts for the 4 of clubs.) Without even considering what Chuckles may have, he's seemingly got 15 outs to make a winner here. Since he's got 15 outs twice, it runs as (15/47) + (15/46), which is nearly a 60% chance to make a flush, a straight, or a straight flush. Against many hands, (say, both Red aces), he's a favorite to win! There are a few, very specific hands he's not a true 'favorite' against (including Chuckles QQ, where he's a 60/40 dog) but they're relatively few and far between. Interestingly, against CMoney's hand, the best hand to have would have been Qc8c, taking away his 'standard flush' outs, as well as one of his 'straight flush' outs, leaving him with the remaining 8s, and the 4s. (He comes a 75/25 dog in that case!)

So, in light of the fact that against many many hands he's a favorite, CMoney had to make some other considerations. The next thing to consider, stack sizes. In this particular situation both players had about 25-35 blinds to deal with (Chuckles having nearer 25, and CMoney closer to 35). The pot was raised, but not drastically so, so Chuckles initial bet probably put the pot around 12 big blind's worth. Now, if they both had hundreds of BBs in their hand to play around with, a raise all-in would be less prudent (it would be correct, but less prudent.) Since they both didn't have a lot of room in thier stacks, the allin bet there was realistically the only bet with potential to knock out a lot of betting hands.

So, if CMoney was the favorite to win, why would he want to knock out hands? Because, a lot of the hands he's not a true 'favorite' against, will consider folding against the strong bet. Take the example of Qc8c given above. Even though Q8c is WELL ahead of 7c5c, it'd be an extremely difficult call to make for all your chips against a crafty player. However, the hands that are likely to call an all in bet are EXACTLY the kinds of hands you want to call there. Say, for example, the two red Aces. Aces would often call in that situation, yet as indicated above, be behind.

So, in the end CMoney's bet chases out hands that are mathmatically more likely to win and seduces hands he's typically on par with. A fantastic example of strategy and execution. All told, it was an instructive hand, with an unfortunate outcome. The turn gave CMoney an 8, and the river 2 finalized Chuckle's evening.

After a few more rounds and mistakes (a horrible misread against HumpinHorses critically wounded him) Brown attempted some trickery against TheCanuck on a King high board. Brown check-raised with a flush draw, misreading TheCanuck to be weaker than he was, and was brutally rebuffed. Brown's 56h didn't pan out against TheCanuck's KT, and Brown sat with only the 'standings' sheet in his hand, writing down the final hand.

Cobalt was a great deal quieter this time around, but placed in a strong 5th, after surviving allin against 4 opponents when his AK held up, yet as the blinds went up Jodizzle took him down in a simple pair vs. overcards race. Cobalts 44 fell against Jodi's AJ, when she turned a 2nd Jack. Cobalt out 5th.

The honor of the bubble achievement goes to HumpinHorses, who's consistent good play is enough to make one sick. Humpin got into a tussle with TheCanuck, J4 vs J9, on a J92 board. Humpin thought top pair was good, and when the turn gave him the case Jack, he walked square into a wall. TheCanuck ate him alive and Humpin was left to ponder the hand and help Mojo deal.

The final 3 started with the Canuck in a fair chip lead (probably near 65K), followed by Jodizzle (around 35K) and CMoney close to 25, but 3 handed is where CMoney excels. To be fair, it's more a testament to his skill that he does so well in that particular arena than in a full table. Anybody can raise with AK... it takes some skill to raise just as forcefully with K6. Finally, the simple felt-experience CMoney simply outmatches almost anyone. CMoney can sit playing poker for hours, without losing an ounce of clarity of thought. Nearing midnight, both Jodizzle and TheCanuck were running close to empty.

Humpin and Mojo dealt quickly as the larger rounds went by. Over the 1,500 - 3,000 round, time was a blur, but one could see CMoney's stack slowly rising, and TheCanuck and Jodizzle's stack shrinking. It was no suprise that in the 2,000 - 4,000 round, Jodizzle made her stand with A4, and was taken out by CMoney with a pair of 8s. No ace on the flop, but an 8 on the turn finished out her night. Jodizzle with her 3rd place finish took down $87.

Watching TheCanuck against CMoney was painful. TheCanuck was fighting with every breath, but couldn't seem to make a stand. For every 5 hands, CMoney'd take 3 or 4 of them, and when blinds are reaching 3,000-6,-000 it just became a matter of time. TheCanuck's stack got smaller and smaller, when eventually TheCanuck made a disgusted stand with 53d against CMoney's raised KJ. The flop came out nice for the Canuck, 32Q. The turn, came an A, and the river T finished him. TheCanuck takes 2nd, in one of his first paid finishes in 7 tournaments.

CMoney, once again the victor, as seemingly is unstoppable for a 3-peat on his championship. He's not mathmatically ensured the win right yet, but we'd need two last place finishes (or simply no-shows) for him to not win. Still, second place seems up in the air, with only a hundred points seperating the top 6 contenders.
See you all again in March!