Feeling the Mouth's Pain

The King of the Coolers: Mike "The Mouth" Matusow

Been a while since I endured a night with sick beats, but was able to not kill anyone or destroy private property, lol.

Finished 11th in our league event Saturday, and considering the way I rode the elevator most of the night (low stack to bigger stack to low stack...up, down, up, down), I am very pleased with it. Gerraud (I think I have it spelled right), ended up winning, and played quite well in doing so, BUT...he doesn't get to the winners circle without putting one sick beat on me. And I had him too. HAD HIM DEAD!!! He was short stacked, and I just knew he was gonna shove at the sight of his first Ace-anything hand. Here's how it goes:

Gerraud in BB, I am in SB. I have 77. All fold to me, I complete the action, and he shoves all in for his remaining chips--something like 800 (may have been more, I can't remember). I call, knowing he has an Ace, but no pair--I was delighted when he flipped over A6 of spades. He has 1 live overcard to my hand. ONE. 3 outs.

He hits his Ace on the river. I wasn't out of the tournament, because I had him covered, but hitting that 3 outer kept him alive, and then he went on his merry way and won. I like Gerraud--great guy, and solid player. Just once I would have loved the best hand holding up!!! Seriously, congrats to the G-Man.

The hand that busted me was one I regretted the whole drive home (a nice short commute of about 40 minutes--plenty of time to swear at myself). In the BB with 8-5off, no raises, I of course check with those 2 rags.

FLOP:
10-8-7 all diamonds.

SB checks, I shove hoping its good enough, button (limped in pre-floop mind you), calls in a flash. He then says, I do not have a diamond in my hand. Do I have some hope?

Not when he flips over the 2 black aces.

HE LIMPED IN WITH AA!!!!

Some schools of thought say that is a great trap play, and I do see the logic in it. However, when your limped-in AA gets called by 3-4 other hands, you have left yourself open to a wide range of bad things that can crack those bullets. I hate, and I mean HATE limping with big pairs--I just can't bring myself to not protect that hand, and the guy that did the limping is such a good player--I told him later he played that hand like a donkey, but he told me why he did it. He was trying to set a trap for the player in the SB, and that I was simply caught up in the blast. That did soothe me a bit, because his strategy was very sound. The player in the SB on that particular hand, had re-raised him whenever he limped into a pot--happened like 3-4 times at the table we were at. the ONE TIME the SB DOESN'T come over the top, I have to connect on a flop that has me just destroyed. Oh well, shit happens.

My 11th place finish means my 13th place finish from earlier this season is still not in play--it is among my 3 drops. Meaning I have 29 points that do not count towards my total--that is a good thing. 2 events left, and I lead the "non-tourney winners" category in points, which has me in good shape to make our season ending Tournament of Champions. Nothing guaranteed, mind you, just good position.

We then decided to crank up a 6-handed game. Shorthanded tables are not my specialty, but with the 5 other players, I was hoping to just play well enough to make my money back. Well, that didn't happen, thanks to a crushing beat. I mean a crusher.

I am in BB with 10-10, when my boy Dealerman raises from the SB. I re-raise it 4x his raise. One early limper folds, and Dealerman puts me all in. He raised a ton in that game, and I was just waiting for a chance to take a chunk of his stack. I didn't think he had anything of substance--weak Ace, maybe small pair. I was delighted, again, when he flipped over 66.

Board pairs 4's, no six.

Until the river.

6 of clubs to be exact.

Now, mind you, I hadn't played back at him against ANY of his earlier raises--folding to all of them. Dealerman did also inform the table that he is working on his player reading skills....keep working Dealerman, lol.

I got steamed up, big, and went silent. For those that were there, I was steamed at that blasted river card, but not at anyone at the table. That was just my way of re-focusing and trying to get back into the tourney (after the rebuy rule that came into play, lol).

I did manage to work up a nice stack after the rebuy, but got mixed up in some stupid hands (like trying to connect on draws--I connected one draw all night, and that was in the side tourney against my pal Ballpark). Other than that, finishing 11th in the tourney was a minor miracle--I made no sets, had a low number of pkt pairs--77, 88. JJ (twice), and AA--that was it.

Vito has a game this weekend, so I will venture out there, and then I may put one together (small 1 table thing) the following weekend, as Klownboxer will have the weekend off. he called me from Daytona, and was in need of a poker fix. What's a friend to do???

~M