Again, the story of my poker career repeats itself. I get a shot at a big break, at a big score, at a 6 figure day, and I don't run quite as good as I need to. Today I played the 25k HU tournament on ftp. First was $560k.

Today is the last day I'm here before I move to Vegas for 7 weeks. Since I'm moving out of one place and into a different place in Indy, I'm taking my personal stuff that I'm not taking to Vegas to random locations. I've spent a decent amount of time this week taking trips to a storage unit, to my place on campus, and throwing **** out and packing. I didn't get quite as much working out done as I wanted to, but hopefully I'll play basketball 4-5 times a week in Vegas. I ate pretty well and kept a nice update log in the health and fitness forum, and I'd be proud if I ate half that well (even just talking about clean foods and less sweets) in Vegas. Additionally, I've spent all week sleeping on an air mattress on the floor; one that seems to have a slow leak at that.

What I'm getting at with that life tidbit is that I was nervous about how well I'd play in the 25k. I was also a little sketched out about if I got to the final four, I'd have to delay my Vegas trip (but obviously, playing for a half million took precedent).

But I played fantastic. In fact, looking back at the entire tournament, I may just have played as well as I could have.

First, I played WLUStudent. I had no reads on him, but I got word that he had finished second in a tournament (Monte Carlo, maybe). I played very efficiently against him, and won in a fairly short amount of time. I faded a naked flush draw with top two.

For the second match, I played thecranium. I beat him fairly quickly as well (not instantly, but relative to the other matches they were quick). I think I coolered him flush over flush, and despite being down in chips early on, I never felt too threatened.

It was nice to get a good draw for the first two and be favorites in the first two matches (hidden random luck on my side!).

The third match I was probably also a slight favorite in, but probably not by anything too noticeable. I played mastrblastr, who, oddly enough, I had been talking to on AIM pretty much since the start of the tournament. We played a very back and forth match, and I made a questionable fold when I had a 3 to 1 chip lead. He fought back a little, and then he won this hand:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 170/340 Blinds, 25 Ante, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: 25,085
SB: 14,915

Pre-Flop: (560)
SB raises to 830, BB calls 490

Flop: (1,710) 8 T 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, SB bets 1,150, BB raises to 3,300, SB raises to 14,060 and is All-In, BB calls 10,760

Turn: (29,830) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (29,830) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 29,830 Pot
BB showed T Q (two pair, Queens and Tens) and LOST (-14,915 NET)
SB showed 9 J (a straight, Queen high) and WON 29,830 (+14,915 NET)

(It doesn't have my hole cards because I took it from the NVG thread and I can't find the HH on my computer)

Anyways, it's a 60-40 with him in the lead (admittedly, I thought it was closer to 50/50) apparently and I blanked the turn but he binked the river.

After that, I was decimated and couldn't really come back. I ended up getting coolered with 10 bbs.

It sucks really badly to play all that time so perfectly and lose to a hand like that. The match was weird because I didn't 3-bet him for about the first hour of it. I was card dead, never had anything better than AQ or 88, but nevertheless I just moved to 3-betting nothing (he 3-bet very rarely too). Kind of a weird dynamic the entire time.

Either way, I don't think I could have played much better.

Since I'm dealing with variance and randomness everyday, I'm pretty immune to things like this. A lot of people are very effected by losing in spots like this; I get a lot of sympathy wishes after I lose when I have a few hundred thousand in equity at some points in this tournament, but I'm not really bothered by it. What can I do to change history? Nothing.

The most amusing thing, perhaps, is the publics perception of results and history. They are so driven by Jesus Ferguson being a two time champion of some live heads up thing, which is certainly the product of him running fantastic. They are driven by sick hands which are no more than someone catching the top of their range against the bottom of someone else's range, or random variance driven calls. I suppose it's nearly impossible for people to not be fooled by randomness, and I don't want them to stop now. However, to be able to have the 'theoretically correct' perspective certainly gives some piece of mind.

I don't mind losing the 25k, since it's been out of my account for so long it's like it doesn't even exist. My two 5% pieces are playing right now and both down in their matches, but I'd really like if one of them made it to day 2 (tomorrow, the final four).

O well, I'm still very positive for the way I'm playing and the upcoming summer in Vegas. I think more than anything, I'm going to go back to my roots and concentrate on getting better at poker.

Be good.