Self-inflicted bad beats

“Self-inflicted bad beats.” Are these terns mutually exclusive or is that an oxymoron? Could be both. You’d have to know you were beat for the former which doesn’t qualify as a bad beat. But you do need a moron. And I sure was one yesterday.

I had it all going again yesterday, made a sat into the $100+9 $60,000 challenge with 767 participants. After 2 hours and 110 hands or so, I was only treading water about the middle of the pack. And then I caught a few pots that rocketed me up to 25th place with 169 to go. I started feeling pretty good about this one, not only being good enough to cash, but I was set up to go deep on this one.

And then this hand happens. Important to know I have no reads on anyone at this table, I had been moved here 5 hands ago, not even a full orbit. Right after I got involved with this hand, wife hands me a overdue cable bill. It was just enough to get me distracted from the hand. Not her fault at all, I'm the moron pushing the chips. Yes, I’m pushing all my chips and I’m crippled. Dumb, dumb, dumb. This was my tournament to win and I took my eye off the ball long enough to have a self-inflicted bad beat.

FullTiltPoker Game #5008520822: $60,000 Guarantee (37138767), Table 53 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:46:24 ET - 2008/01/26
Seat 1: hibster1 (23,913)
Seat 3: serrie (22,386)
Seat 4: kakazinho (15,240)
Seat 5: SnottsdaleJerry (14,621)
Seat 6: Lil Laggy (17,835)
Seat 7: WinnerAccount (25,240)
Seat 8: thanbai602 (21,328)
Seat 9: GrinderMJ (4,861)
hibster1 antes 50
serrie antes 50
kakazinho antes 50
SnottsdaleJerry antes 50
Lil Laggy antes 50
WinnerAccount antes 50
thanbai602 antes 50
GrinderMJ antes 50
serrie posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to serrie [As Qd]
kakazinho folds
SnottsdaleJerry folds
Lil Laggy folds
WinnerAccount folds
thanbai602 raises to 1,200
MiamiDon sits down
MiamiDon adds 11,190
GrinderMJ folds
hibster1 folds
serrie calls 800
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4s Th]
serrie bets 1,600
thanbai602 raises to 7,600
serrie has 15 seconds left to act
serrie calls 6,000
*** TURN *** [Kh 4s Th] [3d]
serrie bets 13,536, and is all in
thanbai602 calls 12,478, and is all in
serrie shows [As Qd]
thanbai602 shows [Ah Kc]
Uncalled bet of 1,058 returned to serrie
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4s Th 3d] [Ad]
serrie shows a pair of Aces
thanbai602 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
thanbai602 wins the pot (42,956) with two pair, Aces and Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 42,956 Rake 0
Board: [Kh 4s Th 3d Ad]
Seat 1: hibster1 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: serrie (big blind) showed [As Qd] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: kakazinho folded before the Flop
Seat 5: SnottsdaleJerry folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Lil Laggy folded before the Flop
Seat 7: WinnerAccount folded before the Flop
Seat 8: thanbai602 showed [Ah Kc] and won (42,956) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 9: GrinderMJ folded before the Flop

P.s. The guy that doubled on me went on to finish 9th in this tournament for about $1300.

Hello again, it looks like I'm going to Dublin

I haven’t been a good blogger for awhile, but I need to get started again. I’ve not played as much live tournaments as I have online tournaments. Today I won a $26 tournament token using a $8 entry fee. I used that $26 token to get an entry in a $200+26 qualifier for the Irish Poker Open 2008. Well, I’m pleased to blog that after 327 hands, 4 hours, and 32 minutes of very solid poker, I tied for first place in this qualifier, worth about $9000. So this means I have secured an entry in my first big live tournament and my largest single win to date. Total outlay: $8.

As I look at the web site for the tournament that I’m about to enter, I see that last year this tournament included Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Mike Sexton, Dan Harrington, Andy Black, Carlos Mortensen, and David Benyamine.

Should be fun. Oh, and I did manage a royal flush early on in the qualifier.

More in a bit.