Season 3, tournament 1: First Blood

It was a cold evening in January as the season began. The beers were out in full force, though with our Season 2 comrades (Muth and Manwhore) gone, to me the beer seemed a little flatter. So I brought Scotch instead. The game goes on.

The tournament was lively, and the competition as fierce as can be expected.

2nd Hand, 3 way preflop all-in action between TheCanuck, Motown, and CMoney. In a hand that can best be described as "guys fucking with each other, but less gay", CMoney decides to screw around and goes all in after much re-raising between TheCanuck and Motown. Both call (hell, it WAS the rebuy period), and both show little pocket pairs (TheCanuck, 33. Motown, 77.) Yet the flop contained a 9, and CMoney rode his birthday hand (suited, of course) all the way home.

DoctorLove took down the Deuce Deuce bonus during the rebuy period with a dubious limp-reraise maneuver against Jodizzle, (so dubious in fact, Dizzle was able to call out what he'd done, even before the cards were shown.) Ending up all in-preflop, Dizzle was a heavy favorite with QQ, but the ladies were not kind to her. A baby flop containing a 2 left her on the wrong side of the probabilities, and she had to rebuy.

There were a lot of rebuys this time around (10 total.) TheCanuck took a massive hit, losing to CMoney twice, ending out buying in a total of 5 times, and taking the addon. Just to come out even, he'd need a 3rd place finish with the bounty. By taking the $20 deuce deuce bonus, DoctorLove ended up down only $20 for his eventual 4th place finish (with no rebuys, and only taking the addon.)

CMoney ended up having a great showing during the rebuy period, taking 4 "scalps," and showing as one of the big stacks. Motown was the secondary big stack, and SunshinesBitch wasn't far behind them.

After the rebuy period.

Lady luck was not kind to TheCanuck. After a horrible showing during the rebuy period, he just couldn't catch a break. In the second round, hemming and hawing with a bare AT over a 9922 board, Motown put him all in, confident his QQ would hold up. It did. TheCanuck, our 2nd place champion last season, out 10th.

Mojo had a fair amount of luck work in his favor. After giving up on a bluff that failed, Mojo found himself in the 150/300 blind round with 3050 in chips. He was on the way out, going all in with 77 preflop, getting called by two big stacks DoctorLove (ATo) and Jodizzle (KJo), and flop came pretty. Board ended up reading: 99663. With a triple up + blinds, he was back to where he started the non-rebuy round.

SunshinesBitch hit a few hands, but ended up taking a beating by Motown. Kattaclysm in his smooth stylin' ways decided to finish the job in a KK (Kattaclysm) vs JJ (SunshinesBitch) finish.

After the rebuy period, CMoney was like the Wicked Witch going swimming, melting down and losing damn near every hand he had. 4 hands straight, he went in with the best hand (usually at least a 2-1 favorite), but left the hand with a few less chips.

Coopzilla laid a the worst beat on him: Preflop, CMoney had limped in early (he does this a lot... he thinks he's so much better than everyone that position rules don't apply to him, haha) with 87 suited. Coopzilla (who really doesn't know too much about position, pot odds, or whether or not he's playing Hearts) raised out of the blind with an ATs. Coopzilla had a average/smallish stack, and CMoney was in a good stack position to take him out, so CMoney called. The flop came 336, and Coopzilla checked. CMoney checked behind. Turn came a 7, and Coopzilla checked again. CMoney had to figure that his 7 was good, and fired out a slightly less than pot-sized bet (which was around 20% of Coopzilla's stack.) Immediately, Coopzilla raises all-in, and CMoney goes into the tank, trying to put a read on him.

Could Coopzilla have had it the whole time? Why would he check twice if he had the goods? CMoney stared at his own chips, counting them out, and asking a few questions aloud, to try to rattle Coop into giving away some information. After much thought, CMoney makes the greatest call he can make.

The 7 is miles ahead, and only an A or T can save Coop. The bounty ($58) is practically lining CMoney's wallet already. The Ace of Spades rivers. Coopzilla raises his hands to thank the Lord for rewarding his clean-living lifestyle, but CMoney gets rattled. We tried to make him feel better for the brilliant call, but the poker gods do sort of hate him, so we can only do so much for him.

However, it goes to note that CMoney by going into the tank (staring down at his chips, looking off towards the door), couldn't easily see Coopzilla. Had he been able to actually SEE Coopzilla turn beet-red after making his bet, he'd have made the call much quicker. Just about everyone who was looking at him would have made that call with any made hand.

CMoney was rattled after that hit, eventually getting into a tussle with Mojo. Mojo made a standard bullshit raise to 2000, in the 400/800 blind rounds (after building his stack a bit, and gaining a little confidence) with J9o. CMoney was in the small blind with AQo, and called the raise. The flop came QT5, and CMoney decided to lay a trap. Mojo walked right into it, semi-blufffing his whole stack with his open ender. CMoney called immediately, and was brutally rebuffed by the poker gods once again, with an 8 on the turn. CMoney (with a stack of ~10K), out 8th.

So began the era of Mojo, the Destroyer. With a powerful stroke, Mojo took out each of the remaining DDR revolvers (except for Motown, who took 3rd place thanks to Dizzle.) StillNotFat, in his quiet nice-guy way, did his best to carve some chips out of the table, but his stack kept dwindling. Eventually making his stand with AQ off-suit in the 400/800 round, he raised all in preflop to 5500. Mojo, a large stack by then, called with 65s, flopped a 6 and had it hold. StillNotFat, out 7th.

6 way action took a full round to crack. Stacks moved around slowly, but the table got a more tentative feel to it. Motown wasn't hitting hands. Mojo had room to wait, DoctorLove hadn't seen a playable hand in 3 blinds. Eventually, the game opened up, as Coopzilla dwindled further and further down into the depths. Making another miracle save of his stack wasn't enough, as in the 1000 / 2000 rounds, he was down to a stack around ~5600. Motown was in the big blind, and two away, Mojo decided to raise it to 6000. Coop calls off his chips, and Motown comes along for the ride. The main pot would give Coop a playable stack (although a short one), but the side pot become the action center.

Flop came Q63. Motown checks to Mojo, and after thinking about it, Mojo lets a free card come off. 2 on the turn. Motown checks again, and Mojo decides to put Motown to the test, pushing all in.

Motown tanks. He doesn't put Mojo on a good hand at all, but he can't be sure. He was the preflop raiser. Does he have a pair? Does he have a huge hand? Not helping matters was the fact that Coopzilla had the bounty on his head, and folding now would be effectively giving up the bounty right then and there.

Eventually, good sense got to Motown (the words "live to fight another day" ring quite true), and he laid down his AKs. Mojo popped over his 44, and Coopzilla showed 97s. Mojo's 4s held up, and Coopzilla was out 6th. The bounty was taken.

As the blinds got larger, it took us till the 1500/3000 rounds before Kattaclysm made his motions to get going. As 5th place is typically Kattaclysm's domain we just assumed he'd leave gracefully, but he decided to do otherwise.

His stack was varying wildly, and eventually he walked into a girl trap when Jodizzle pulled the "I'm tired, I wanna go to bed" thing on a QJ7 flop, check-raising all-in over Kattaclysm's initial bet. Kyle walks right into it with AQ, and she shows Q7. Her two pair hold up (eventually turning in to another full boat), and she gets Katt into a "4 blind situation." Mojo mops up, making a raise with JJ, and Kataclysm calls off all his chips with A3s. The Ace doesn't come, and Kattaclysm, once again, is out in 5th.

The final four went fairly quickly. DoctorLove survived one all-in attempt against Mojo (going in with ATs against Mojo's T8s), but not a second, as his A7o proved to be no match against Mojo's AKo.

The money spots would be between Motown, Jodizzle, and Mojo. Mojo has come from a huge deficit to be the chip leader. Jodizzle is always smarter than you put her on, and Motown... sheeit...

In a quick battle, Motown goes all-in with a bare ace, against Jodizzle who called with KQ offsuit. Flop contains a Q, and Motown exits $70 richer.

Finally, we have the last two DDR warriors. Nearing 12:30AM, Dizzle and Mojo go head to head. Mojo started the heads up match as a 2-1 chip favorite over Dizzle, and really never left that spot. Dizzle showed great fortitude, but little final three experience, and within 10 hands, she was up with a bare ace against Mojo's QQ. Once again, the Ace doesn't hit, and Jodizzle finishes the evening with $140.

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First Blood goes to Mojo, who had a great bit of luck to take down the first tournament. The J9o was lucky... the 65s to take out StillNotFat was sick, but the systematic annihilation of 60% of the players was damned impressive.

Jodizzle gets some props as well, as her 2nd place finish is the highest finish she's had in the league.

A heartfelt "aww..." goes to TheCanuck, who left penniless. Maybe next time buddy.

Well, it was a great start to the seaon. We're expecting two new members for Season 3, tourney 2, and it will be nice to welcome them to the fray. Next tournament is Feb 19th, and Mojo will be our bounty. Good luck in the next tournament... suckas.