Beating the Home Game (Part 2), 10$ KO final table recap

Ahh, sweet victory. Last night was another addition of "Poker Night at Ken's" and we had our best turn out yet, filling the 10-seater table for the first time on the first 10$ game. There were a lot of intense moments, one of which included a fairly early 3-way all in with me holding TT on a 3-rag board with two diamonds up against an unimproved 66 and AdJd. I dodged all 3000 outs and was sitting on a massive stack early. I got myself in trouble later when I underestimated how much another guy at the table had an pushed him in when I raised K8 OTB and he called me in MP with 89. The flop was 892 and from how he'd been playing, I thought he was weak, but ended up selling him almost my entire stack. I then doubled up about 4 times and went on a tear in the final 3 and ended up winning when KJ > JT heads up all in preflop.

The second game we upped the stakes to 20 bucks. I took the lead in this one when I ended up rivering a flush in the BB with 5s2s vs a poorly played top pair of aces. He told me "if you go all in, I'll call", so what the heck, I have to figure my flush is good... Early double up. I rolled from there, beating K4 with KJ on a K-high flop for another big pot, and ended up heads up with a massive chip lead. The money went in preflop with A5 vs my AJ, and that was that.

Back to back titles for the first time since the first games (2 months ago) feels good. The game is definitely a hit. The attendance has gotten better every time, and the vibe from everyone is that they love it and would do it more often if they could, so I might have to move the game to weekly, or twice every three weeks, or something to that effect.


In my mega-tilt of online play the last 3 days, I've been reluctant to do the 10$ KO recap. So I hope you guys can forgive me for just doing a brief final table recap.

So when we got to the final table, I was among the chip leaders. Chips looked like this:
Seat 1: Mike Litt (57,388)
Seat 2: FiveTenPlayer (21,570)
Seat 3: brspuppy (35,433)
Seat 4: boozinbill (47,110)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (52,559)
Seat 6: TenPennyDub (14,410)
Seat 7: allyrchips (21,857)
Seat 8: Jason9 (10,968)
Seat 9: LeCharognard (8,705)

The first big hand for me came about 6 hands in, when I got dealt 8dTd OTB. And I get a gift from a limper with AK.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5314755355: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (40410650), Table 7 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Holdem - 2:24:28 ET - 2008/02/19
Seat 1: Mike Litt (30,855)
Seat 2: FiveTenPlayer (36,590)
Seat 3: brspuppy (71,366)
Seat 4: boozinbill (26,190)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (58,259)
Seat 6: TenPennyDub (10,860)
Seat 7: allyrchips (20,307)
Seat 8: Jason9 (3,113)
Seat 9: LeCharognard (12,460)
Mike Litt antes 250
FiveTenPlayer antes 250
brspuppy antes 250
boozinbill antes 250
CheckinMyAA antes 250
TenPennyDub antes 250
allyrchips antes 250
Jason9 antes 250
LeCharognard antes 250
TenPennyDub posts the small blind of 1,000
allyrchips posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [8d Td]
Jason9 folds
LeCharognard folds
Mike Litt folds
FiveTenPlayer folds
brspuppy calls 2,000
boozinbill folds
CheckinMyAA calls 2,000
I don't mind limping along with this hand... Horrible?
TenPennyDub folds
allyrchips checks
*** FLOP *** [5s 7c Tc]
More often than not, if you flop TP in these things, you've got the best hand.
Jason9 is feeling confused
Jason9 is feeling angry
allyrchips has 15 seconds left to act
allyrchips checks
brspuppy bets 8,000
CheckinMyAA calls 8,000
I don't think I want to raise...
allyrchips folds
*** TURN *** [5s 7c Tc] [8c]
brspuppy bets 12,000
CheckinMyAA calls 12,000
A couple draws get there .. but I make my 2nd pair .. I decide to go into station mode and hope for no 4th club on the river
*** RIVER *** [5s 7c Tc 8c] [4d]
brspuppy bets 16,000
CheckinMyAA calls 16,000
I wasn't thrilled making this call. With what I thought villain was playing, I thought he was going to check the river to me... Oh well, gotta call.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
brspuppy shows [Ks Ac] Ace King high Nice open limp, sir.
CheckinMyAA shows [8d Td] two pair, Tens and Eights
CheckinMyAA wins the pot (81,250) with two pair, Tens and Eights


Now the chips are:
Seat 1: Mike Litt (30,605)
Seat 2: FiveTenPlayer (36,340)
Seat 3: brspuppy (33,116)
Seat 4: boozinbill (25,940)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (101,259)
Seat 6: TenPennyDub (9,610)
Seat 7: allyrchips (18,057)
Seat 8: Jason9 (2,863)
Seat 9: LeCharognard (12,210)

Pretty good position.

A few hands later I get TT OTB and the CO shoves 15K into me behind a HJ limp. I reshove and flop top set and move up to 120K

Then I get frisky with 87 in late position and have to call when a shorty in the SB shoves for twice my raise. His AK holds up and I'm back down to 100K.

Then I shove QT in the SB into short BB's AT and I don't suck out. 75K

I squeeze in the BB a bit later with A5 and get one caller, but a cbet takes it down vs the SB. 95K

JQ loses a big pot when I raise UTG and end up vs BB on an Ace high flop. I cbet the flop, he calls. We check the turn, he bets the river and I let it go. It's possibly he was on a flush draw and missed (two spades on flop), but I doubt he hasn't paired. 62K

In the SB, I shove A9 into BB's A7. Good for a double up. 92K

What a frickin' rollercoaster. End up all in with 99 vs JJ (something that seems to be happening a lot to me lately) and I don't improve. Crippled at 28K (6BB). But since these things are turbos, the chip leader only has ~24BB.

For the 3rd time, I shove 8T from the SB into BB's QJ. I flop a ten, and he rivers a jack, but the jack completes my straight. Back up to 71K. If I wasn't so young I would probably have suffered at least 3 heart attacks by now.

I polish off the guy I just sucked out on with A3 vs his 9T. 86K

We're now 3 handed, and the chips look like this
Seat 2: FiveTenPlayer (59,274)
Seat 3: brspuppy (124,922)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (85,804)

At this point, brspuppy went into psycho aggro mode and pretty much open shoved every hand. FiveTen saw his tournament end when he got in with the best hand, 99 vs J9, but a J on the flop meant me and puppy were heads up. It lasted 3 hands.

Heads up chips:
Me: 114,354
Him: 155,646

The 2nd hand of heads up, I flop another shitty top pair and go to the house with it:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5314921192: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (40410650), Table 7 - 3000/6000 Ante 750 - No Limit Holdem - 2:47:08 ET - 2008/02/19
brspuppy: gg
Seat 3: brspuppy (155,646)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (114,354)
brspuppy antes 750
CheckinMyAA antes 750
brspuppy posts the small blind of 3,000
CheckinMyAA posts the big blind of 6,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [Tc 5d]
brspuppy calls 3,000
CheckinMyAA checks
*** FLOP *** [3s Td 6h]
CheckinMyAA bets 13,500
brspuppy raises to 148,896, and is all in
This could be just about anything with how he's been playing the last 10 hands.
CheckinMyAA calls 94,104, and is all in
brspuppy shows [6s Kh] 2nd pair isn't goooot??
CheckinMyAA shows [Tc 5d]
Uncalled bet of 41,292 returned to brspuppy
*** TURN *** [3s Td 6h] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [3s Td 6h 4s] [Qh]
brspuppy shows a pair of Sixes
CheckinMyAA shows a pair of Tens
CheckinMyAA wins the pot (228,708) with a pair of Tens
Boooom


The next hand was the last hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5314924061: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (40410650), Table 7 - 3000/6000 Ante 750 - No Limit Holdem - 2:47:33 ET - 2008/02/19
Seat 3: brspuppy (41,292)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (228,708)
brspuppy antes 750
CheckinMyAA antes 750
CheckinMyAA posts the small blind of 3,000
brspuppy posts the big blind of 6,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [6d Ad]
CheckinMyAA raises to 227,958, and is all in
brspuppy calls 34,542, and is all in
CheckinMyAA shows [6d Ad]
brspuppy shows [Th 4h]
Uncalled bet of 187,416 returned to CheckinMyAA
*** FLOP *** [8h 6s Kd]
*** TURN *** [8h 6s Kd] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [8h 6s Kd 3s] [Qh]
CheckinMyAA shows a pair of Sixes
brspuppy shows King Queen high
CheckinMyAA wins the pot (82,584) with a pair of Sixes
brspuppy stands up
CheckinMyAA stands up


So it took getting lucky a few times, and ending up heads up with the easiest player I could have hoped for. Getting lucky is something I could use more of this week (you hear that, poker gods?)


I also played a 60$ live tournament at one of the local casinos. The blinds went up reeeally fast, and I couldn't get much going. I ended up getting cripped with about 50 players left when 88 < KQs. I was all in the next hand with J6 and two players called, and the chip leader at the table showed a T with the board showing AKJ5Q and that was all she wrote. It was fun, but I don't think I'll do it again. It was faster than a pokerstars turbo, which is already too fast for me. Maybe I'll try to find a live tournament with slower blinds...

That's all for now! Thanks for reading.