Runner-Runner-Rebuy

The BBTwo Tournament of Champions is over. Exhale. It was a long ride getting there, and a great final TOC, with lots of story lines to follow. We saw some great poker, had tons of r-a-i-l-b-i-r-d-s, witnessed lucksackery*, skillsackery, donksackery, pre-flop aggro maniacs, awesome comebacks, and ultimately, a Champion who truly deserved it.

In reverse order from the Title -

The Fugly: ricky424 vs. Fuel vs. dnasty13

Ricky calls Fuel's and dnasty13's all-in and re-raise all-in holding the all-powerful A5o (WTF!?!?). Fuel has JJ, dnasty has AK. An ace comes and FGH (Fuel goes home). Well, not exactly home, but to the rail where he justifiably berates ricky for 1/2 hour.

The Bad:

IGH before the second break. A half hour in, this hand happens -

Seat 1: actyper (3,900)
Seat 2: -o-LuckTruck-o- (3,085)
Seat 3: Mike_Maloney (3,495)
Seat 4: Budohorseman (3,460)
Seat 5: lucko21 (3,575)
Seat 6: VinNay (3,120)
Seat 7: summer_babe (1,610)
Seat 8: emptyman (3,125)
Seat 9: dnasty13 (1,630)
Budohorseman posts the small blind of 25
lucko21 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to VinNay [Kc Ks] w00t!
VinNay raises to 150 Thinking about a limp UTG to re-pop, but smarten up
summer_babe folds
emptyman folds
dnasty13 folds
actyper folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- folds
Mike_Maloney has 15 seconds left to act thinks about it
Mike_Maloney calls 150 calls....22-JJ? I think AA, AK, or QQ re-rasies, could be AQs, maybe AJs (but I doubt it).
Budohorseman folds
lucko21 folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 9d 5h] Great flop for me
VinNay bets 350
Mike_Maloney has 15 seconds left to act thinks about it
Mike_Maloney calls 350 hmmmmm.....could be bad, but prob thinks I have 2 overs and missed and he has under pair. Looking back, under pair thinking that would prob raise me up.
*** TURN *** [9s 9d 5h] [Jd] ok, he might think the J hit me hard, or course he might have JJ and I'm farked
VinNay bets 950 gotta do it
Mike_Maloney has 15 seconds left to act thinks about it
Mike_Maloney raises to 1,900 fuck.
VinNay has 15 seconds left to act thinks about it
VinNay has requested TIME a call here commits us both, and he knows this. ...based on the way this hand went, I put him on 99, 55, JJ, or maybe QQ. only one I can eat is QQ, which I doubt he has. Or, it is a master move.
VinNay folds I'll never know.
Uncalled bet of 950 returned to Mike_Maloney
Mike_Maloney mucks
Mike_Maloney wins the pot (2,975)

Mike later tells me he had 55. It makes sense, but I'm still not sure a laydown there is good. Folding left me with 20 BB, and I just hoped I could make a comeback with plenty of time left. I was wrong. I was f-ing card dead after that, and was moved to Daddy's right while he wielded the big stack. I couldn't get anything going and slowly lost my stack.

My all-in A6s vs. jjok's 77 send me home when I jump for joy on an Ace flop but then see the third 7 out there as well. I saw so many pairs make flop sets in the TOC, it was sick.

The Good:

Well, maybe my laydown was good and it should belong here, but this spot is reserved for Jec. This guy really deserved it. 2 TOC seat wins, overall points winner, and TOC Champion. His game has come a long way and as a true student of the game, has shown us all what it takes to win these blogger tourneys. He played great, rarely (if ever) needed to get lucky, waited patiently for the right cards/opportunities to exploit his opponents.

In my TOC roundup post, I wondered about him and if his recent success was because of patience and good reads, or just better cards. Well, the answer is obvious to me now, and I'm confident that Jec will represent us strongly down under. Congrats man, you own this shit.

I heard that Jec has no live/casino game experience, and likely no experience in large buy in events. Hoy's post today (looks like he's back on his meds) suggested people dropping some advice to Jec. This is a great idea, and as someone who plays more live than online, and has played in a number of large buy in events, I'll def be putting some things together for Jec that I think he can benefit from. I hope others with this experience do the same.

*I feel like most of my player analysis from the previous post turned out to be pretty accurate, with one glaring exception. Whiskigrl is no donk. Sorry 'bout that whiski.