yay for patience & points racing, but lucko pwns.

what an odd night in Riverchasers.... besides the fact I never had

1) a hand, and
2) someone to give me action, and
3) a good flop

all at the same time during the first hour.... it was kind of hard to make any coin...

had a couple of odd moments where people had me absolutely crushed and let me off easy... as in, they didn't raise the turn or bet the river with two pair, and I properly didn't try to blow them off a hand with a busted draw, because the spidey sense was tingling... then I managed to chip back up to around 2600 right before the break, where I have KK under the gun and raise for the third straight hand, figuring I get action... and a short-stacked NumbBono wakes up with AA.

So I go to the break with 1250 and tread water in shortstack ninja style during hour two.

Qpen shove a few times, ship QQ UTG, get called by NYRamblers's AT in the SB and hold..

Somehow make it to the ante levels, where open shoving actually makes some bank... open shove 55 UTG and get a walk.

Next hand I hold KQo in the big blind. Since sophie2002 in the small blind barely has me covered, and I have less than 10BB, I already make up my mind to get it all in preflop if it folds around to her no matter what she does. She shoves and I monkey call... and of course, she has me beat with A8.

Flop AT5. boo
Turn 3d, so I back door a floosh draw along with the gutterball
River J. Bink. That figures, my one big suckout gets me going as usual....

After that, Lucko gets moved to my table in her seat and is on my direct right - which is good and bad..

Good, because I can pick him off as needed.
Bad, because he plays a very high variance game and wants to force you to play two-card poker, allin preflop a LOT.
I'm still mulling over the best way to deal with that approach... but holding nice cards helps.

Example, I have A2o in the big blind at 150/300/25 and a 4500 chip stack, lucko ships 8800 in from the small blind with Q8o, I instacall (I probably at least think about it against anyone else) and hold on a A8x flop.

More fun at 300/600/75 six handed. Smokkee, Lucko and I all have 17K in chips
Smokkee raises UTG+1 to 1600 , lucko threebets to 4800, I fourball shove with AKo. Smokkee folds, Lucko tanks and folds what I assume is either JJ/TT or total air, I show.

But, on the bubble, I actually fold a hand..

same blinds, eight handed. Breeze81 shoves for 6K UTG. Smokkee reshoves for 14K from the button. I sit there with AKo and 23K, but I don't feel like flipping for it.
I fold.
Smokkee, AKo.
Breeze81, A8s.
Eight on the turn, obviously, and it holds. Pat myself on the back for being a nit.

After the bubble pops, I shove AJs over smokkee's UTG 10BB shove with 77 and get there, so I chip up to 34K and the chip lead as we're in the points and the mobney with two tables to go...

And it all goes away in five hands....

First, I opensteal in MP with A7o for 2500 at 400/800/100. Bone_Daddy84 reships for 5900 total, I have to call getting over 2-1 and get to see A8o.
Board comes T382T and I'm down to 29K. Not awful, but annoying. That'll happen.

Then we run into the "this is why it's hard to play Lucko" portion of the tournament..

Next hand, Lucko opens to 2000 with 10K more behind. I have 66, and though his raise size screams strength, his range can be so freaking wide I feel like I probably have the best hand, so I reraise to 8K to isolate.
All fold, he shoves, I call, he shows AKo. He flops an Ace and turns another one. I'm down to 17k now.

I'm not sure about this one. I could just call for set value and not play his game, but that doesn't seem right either, because he's not deep enough and I doubt I can get him to fold the flop no matter what comes (prolly because he donk-shoves the flop before I get the chance to do anything, as he should), so it's not like that's a great line either.. thoughts?

I fold two hands until I pick up JJ in the big blind. we're up to 500/1000/125 now, so I figure lucko's openshoving from the small blind with any two cards given stack sizes..
Sure enough, he does with Q6s. I instacall, flop KK3, turn Q, river blank, I go home in 12th...

See, even when you're right, and pick him off every time with the best hand... you can't hold often enough to keep up.
He's so good at stealing chips from everyone it's like trying to kill Wolverine - you think you've got his stack chopped down, and an orbit later there it is back up to snuff again and a threat.

Oh yeah, he runs goot too. I have the inferior ruckbox, obviously. But hey, you make your own ruck... it's not like he's calling off his stack light, he shoves and forces you to make a decision.

So while I'm happy to get deep and play fairly well, the one guy ahead of me on the leaderboard, Bone_Daddy84, was points racing even better than I was and outlasted me like a cockroach, so I'm not even making up any ground there...

At least he bounced in 8th - thx lucko, 44>AK..... so it's not that bad... but man, this was a shot to put another final table in my pocket and more...

Twice now I've gotten all in preflop as a 70/30 deep in BBTs when people shove into me (KK vs AK, JJ vs Q6) and not held..

Granted, I've spiked a lot of fortunate cards to get to those points to begin with, so I have no room to bitch at all... but man, what could have been. That'll happen..

Ok, and of course Lucko wins because he pwns....

PLO tomorrow? Either I'm out in 15 minutes or make the final two tables, I'll bet.