Season 5 Tourney 4 - Game over?

With two players missing (SlimChance and StillNotFat), the night began with only 11 players. After three consecutive tournaments with 13, it definitely felt like we were short some dead money. C'mon boys, you're sitting dead last and second-to-dead last... if anyone needs the practice, it's you ;).

As we began the tournament, two players sat at the top of the leader board with quite a bit of distance separating 2nd and 3rd. Mini-Muth and CMoney (yours truly) have been on a run this season that's created the most intense league rivalry we've seen so far. The rest of the players were hoping to retire them early to give themselves a shot at the league championship.

The rebuy period passed in a blur. I was running over the green table in my now customary pattern of building a giant stack before the break. After a double up on the first hand against Motown (I showed down AJ on a J63 flop and Motown could only watch his first $20 in chips move to my stack when his K6 didn't improve), I was off to the races and built a healthy 26,000 stack before rebuys ended. On the red table there wasn't much action. All told we had 11 rebuys, of which I believe at least 8 came from the green table. Another hand of note - during the second round I looked down at 22. Mojo raised from early position and I pushed all in over the top, hoping for an easy $20. To my surprise, Mojo quickly called with AT. The board brought nothing but junk, and the deuces held up. It took 26 tournaments, but CMoney finally ended up with the DD bonus. More on that later.

It took a while for any real "fireworks" to erupt. Eventually it was DiceMan who decided to make a stand, pushing all in short-stacked with K5. Mojo made an easy call with JJ. A 5 came on the flop, but a J came to pretty much seal the deal. DiceMan out 11th.

Next to go was TheCanuck, who's had an up-and-down season. One of the few with a real chance to make a run at the leaders, he may have busted his way out of contention on this night. With relatively few chips in front of him, he pushed all in over the top of Motown's preflop raise with KT. Motown had him dominated with KQ and called. The board was a big fat brick and TheCanuck goes down in 10th. We combined tables, and Jodizzle marches to her 26th final table in 26 tournaments.

Continuing a pretty bad run of luck, HumpinHorses (after surviving a short stack desparation push with 85o) went all in with AT. Motown, who may need to be re-named "The Bustmaster" called quick with 55 and it held up. HumpinHorses out 9th.

History would be made on the next bust. Chuckles joined us this season and has had a somewhat rocky start to his DD career. He's fallen victim to Coopzilla multiple times, and now it was time to get some back. Coopzilla pushed all in with K7s and Chuckles really liked his A8s. With a 7 on the flop, it looked like another patented Coopzilla suckout - but an 8 also fell and it held up. Chuckles takes his first victim in his short history, and it was poetic that it was Coopzilla - out in 8th. Coopzilla is in the midst of his worst dry spell - eight consecutive tournaments without a cash. Not to worry, he still stands in 3rd on the all-time money list - a testament to his consistent success in prior seasons.

DoctorLove waited a long time to make a stand, and was finally forced to push his chips in with JT (a certain player from our past would argue that this is the best hand in poker! Don't believe it!). I was in the big blind and forced to call with any two cards - I happened to have him beat with K2 and it held up. DoctorLove out 7th. Also on quite a dry spell, the 'docta has gone six straight without a cash, and has played 24 tournaments without a win. He does have several top 3 finishes, however, and his time is coming.

In another coup of epic proportions, Mojo fell to Chuckles when his AJ couldn't compete with the KT and T on the flop. The second bust of the night for Chuckles, Mojo gone in 6th place.

The biggest hand of the night started innocently enough. From early position Motown popped the 1K-2K blinds to 5,500. Mini-Muth called in the big blind. The flop came down T98. Mini-Muth checked, and Motown led out with a 6K continuation bet. Mini-Muth called. The turn came 6, which was a money card for MM. As it turns out he was holding K7o and just hit his straight. The 6 was also a heart, putting three of them on the board. MM checked again, and Motown led out with another smallish bet. MM pushed over the top, all in, which ended up being another 9000 or so chips. The pot was huge at that point, and Motown still had around 40K chips in his stack. After some thought he called with QhQc. He was behind the straight, but had 12 outs (any heart, or any jack). Mini-Muth nervously watched as a fourth heart landed on the river. In a shocking turn of events, the 2nd man on the points leaderboard was out in 5th, leaving it wide open for CMoney.

With four left, CMoney and Jodizzle were short-stacked. Motown had 70% of the chips in play, and Chuckles had a healthy stack. Jodizzle dwindled down to nearly nothing after she pushed on my big blind a few hands earlier with A4 and I called with A8. From the big blind she pushed her last chips in, and it was only another 1000 on top of my big blind. I was forced to call with 82o. She showed 86s and had me dominated. She's had some pretty bad luck lately, and this night would be no different. A deuce landed on the flop and held up. Jodizzle out in 4th, on the bubble. That makes six bubble finishes and keeps her at the top of the all time bubble leaderboard.

We were officially in the money, and despite winning the last hand I was severely short stacked. I decided to wait it out a little, hoping for a ladder move to 2nd if Chuckles decided to continue playing loosely against Motown's giant stack. Eventually it happened, Chuckles pushed his last chips in with J7s and Motown smelled blood in the water and called him down with K5. Nothing eventful came and Chuckles went out in 3rd for $81, and his first cash in a league tournament.

As each person busted, Mini-Muth watched intently, realizing that I was putting that much more distance between us for the league championship. When we got heads up, my stack fluctuated and reached a low point of 16,500 chips.

Let's digress for a minute and figure out how many chips were in play. With 11 folks starting with 4,000 chips, 11 rebuys for 3,000 chips, and 11 addons for 6,000 chips. Don't forget the 22,000 additional chips added in the bounty cups:

(4000*11) + (3000*11) + (6000*11) + (22,000) = 165,000

Motown had a 9:1 chip advantage, holding 90% of the chips in play. He was running over me, playing the big stack well. I finally decided to call his aggression with Q9o. Unfortunately for me he had a monster, AJ. Nothing on the flop or turn, and it looked like this was over - until a Q dropped on the river to save me.

I should also note that as the reigning winner, the $50 bounty was on my head. With this double-up, I had a small amount of breathing room, but not much. Blinds were at a steep 2K-4K and I still had less than 10. After a few more hands I made another stand, but I can't recall the hand. A second double-up took me above 60K and suddenly it seemed like a comeback just might be possible.

With 71K in chips I was dealt A6 in the big blind. Motown decided to limp in and I checked behind attempting to disguise my strong hand. An ace on the flop gave me a stranglehold on the hand, and I decided it was time to take a chance and hope he'd continue his aggression. I checked, and he checked behind. A king landed on the turn, and I checked again quickly, hoping this card helped him. To my surprise, he checked again. A jack came on the river - a card I wasn't crazy about because it created a more coordinated board. I finally put some chips in the pot, betting 10K hoping to extract some value. Before I could even push my chips all the way into the pot, Motown says "all in".

Yikes. In the last tournament recall that I took Motown out when he thought a little too long about a bluff. I mentioned that I called because of the hesitation, and he's been obsessed with it since. What does this instant all in mean? Is he bluffing, but using previous behavior to confuse me? Is it a monster? Did I trap myself? There are so many hands I don't like here. My kicker isn't going to play. He could easily have two pair, or even worse, something like QT for a rivered straight. I finally decided to call, realizing that I played this hand probably about as bad as is possible. If I let him catch up because of a slowplay, so be it. I couldn't handle folding here and being shown a bluff. I called and he showed K5. He'd turned the K and decided to set me up on the river, never imagining for a second that I had an ace. I doubled up again, this time taking the big chip lead over with 142,000. Mini-Muth could only watch in horror.

I started bullying (hey, turnabout is fair play, suckas) Motown and he was visibly shaken by the big swing. He finally pushed all in with around 17,000 chips left and I called with 85s hoping to end it quick. He showed a very strong AJ. I saw an 8 on the flop, followed quickly by an ace. It looked like the heads up match was going to continue, but a 5 on the river to give me a cheap two pair finished off Motown in 2nd. He actually played well heads up and caught a run of bad luck - and took away $162.

As I counted the money out to pay Chuckles and Motown, it occurred to me that I just took down a 2nd victory in a row, and more importantly got my own bounty. Recall that earlier in the night I also took down the deuce deuce bonus. For the 2nd time in 26 tournaments, we have a triple crown winner (HumpinHorses did it in September of 2009).

With three victories and a 2nd place finish this season - CMoney is poised to defend the league championship and become the first two-time champ. So the question remains - will anyone step up and put a stop to this?