Muskyboy survives near disaster

For many people being trapped in closed spaces can be a frightening ordeal. Muskyboy encountered and had to face personal demons in just such an experience. While driving home from the office Friday afternoon, Muskyboy took a detour to the local BP in order to get a car wash. If only he would have known what was about to occur. The trip started off normal enough for a December 45 degree afternoon. The line of cars was long but Musky had been give strict orders from Momma Musky, "Get the damned car washed or don't come home."

Well Musky being the obedient spousal unit attempted to comply with this direction, but the trip soon turned into what can only be described as a nightmare from hell. One of those experiences that makes a man look inwards to his soul and determine what he is made of. After waiting 30 minutes in line it was finally Musky's turn. The horror was about to begin.

Muskyboy drove Momma Muskys Honda Civic into the car wash pulling up far enough to engage the front left tire in the appropriate place and the car wash began. Suddenly the car wash stopped.

Musky waited.

Then without warning both doors shut trapping Musky in the car wash. Then the lights went out and only the sound of the near by vacuum could be heard. Musky began feverishly honking the Honda's horn....to no avail. On the verge of panic, Musky whipped out his cell phone and called Momma Musky and instructed her to call the BP, which she did.

10 minutes later a BP employee arrived looked in the car wash and walked away. 5 minutes later the BP employee returned and attempted to open the doors, but no luck. Service had to be called. Phone in hand, the BP employee worked the controls in an attempt to open the doors and free Muskyboy and his Honda. Finally the rear door of the car wash opened. Musky was almost home free. But wait the front doors would not open. The BP employee kicked at the door, uttering all types of obsenitites and walked to the rear of the car wash and attempted to get the line of cars to back up. Luckily a bystander quickly assessed the situation and suggested to the BP employee that instead of having all 12 cars back up that she have the first two cars exit the line by pulling into the parking lot.

Musky was then able to back out of the car wash and drive home..shaken but OK.

Whew, that was a close one.

Big Book of Magic & Gay Zebras

The MPT championship was won on Saturday. I don't know who won it, because I was soundly asleep at home, after being eliminated. However, the highlights were provided in the first tournament.

Evidence:

Squeaky proclaiming that Tabatha's kid-toy Zebra (from the Little People Noah's Ark set) was gay. We're not sure how Squeaky knows about the sexual proclivities of inanimate plastic animals, but it's kinda scary. He kept saying "look at him, he's flaunting that ass in my direction. BASTARD."

Also, Squeaky reminded me of the flight home from Vegas. A 19 year old girl (or so), was sitting across the aisle from him. She was wearing a very low cut top, and had some kind of sweater tied tightly under her chest, so as to lift and emphasize cleavage. Squeaky had a tough time making it through "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." At one point, he leaned over and said "thank god above for turbulence."

The other recurring theme of the night was my forthcoming book. Some chapters (and their inspirations):

• Chapter 1: If you can check or fold, checking is always the best option (Beginner's Luck)
• Chapter 8: If you slow play your three Ts, with two on the board (twice), don't whine about losing when your hand is beat after a second A falls. (Dead Money)
  
• Chapter 10: Don't try and bluff a guy who never folds (me)
• Chapter 16: Sometimes when you want action with AA, you're gonna get called by K3 and the board will come K3x. (Musky Boy).
• Chapter 19: Losers always bitch (Regulator, et al)

BTW - TAFKAUB is now going to be referred to (by me) as BIL-LY. I'm not going to support the other proposed nickname, even if it did elicit a chuckle. The one significant hand I recall from that tourney was against BILLY. I called with 89s, and he raised, as he had done with a wide variety of hands. I pushed all in for more than twice the pot. I was utterly horrified when he turned over his hand because it was Kojack, which is my death hand.

However, I pulled a straight on the river to double up. Which kept him complaining throughout the rest of the night. Serves him right for calling that bet with KJ.

The only other thing that happened of significance was Reg's (and other's) bitching about the blinds, and the levels and all that. I found it funny that it was a problem only after he was out. Personally, I'd like to see one tournament per night with 30 minute blinds. That helps remove the donkey factor a little.

In the championship, Musky Boy lose when his AA was cracked by BILLY's K3. I was taken out when I played a hand with KJ (appropriately enough).

Apparently, Dead Money "rode a wave of 4 and 2 outers to the championship." While he will always be Dead Money, we may have to appoint a secondary nickname. I am hereby suggesting "Energizer Donkey." I stole it from a Bill Rini post - you really need to see the graphic - here.

(* Edit: Full Disclosure: I myself Donked away half of my stack against DM, so it's not like I'm invulnerable to the Donkey virus that invades the MPT once a month).

What you've all been waiting for

This is nothing compared to the awe inspiring bracelet, but I am happy to announce that the MPT is adding a whopping $75 to the winner's payout.

And yes, this is the big announcement I teased the other day...

Major Announcement!

The MPT technical manager will be making a major announcement regarding the Saturday night yearly championship within the next day or two.

Stay tuned.

One Last Vegas post

I did really well in my first Vegas tournament. I was generally very happy with my performance. What was I thinking about for the next three hours? The one big mistake I made. The more I thought about it, the more irritated with myself I was.

I got impatient. I should have just pushed him around and let him fold unless he re-raised me. It would have taken longer, but he would have had to work a lot harder. And since he was about 80, he HAD to have been slowing down.

The one thing that I really came away with is that concentration is everything. It's not just paying attention to other players, their betting habits, etc, etc. It's about all the other things too. You make one mistake, and it can kill you.

Since Squeaky can't respond to email and has yet to comment, I'll post his two blunders here. Understand, (he says, tongue planted firmly in cheek) that my one success in Vegas makes me an expert.

Situation: It's about 2:30 into the Saturday tournament. Blinds were 300/600. Squeaky had ~7,000 in chips. The tourney started with 11 tables, and they were down to 7. Essentially, everyone rebought. So that meant that starting stack size was 3,500.

This hand comes up. A short stack goes all in. I'm not sure how he'd been playing, but he was being forced in, so I think it's safe to say that he would have done this with any A or any two in the paint. Goofy-ass goggle boy, who had been aggressive and somewhat loose re-raised all in. Folds around to Squeaky.

He looked at JJ, and called after thinking a little. SS had Ax, Goggle boy had KK. Squeaky was out.

What was his logic? Squeaky felt that he had to make move soon, since he was short stacked. He also thought that goggle boy's move was an attempt to isolate the SS with only a moderately strong hand.

I think he made several mistakes here. First, his 7,000 was above par for his place in the tournament. That is, he had more than an average stack. Even though he may have only had 12x BB, he still could have picked a different spot.

Goggle boy didn't have much more than Squeaky. Maybe had him covered by 3,000. He's not gonna risk his tournament on anything less than AA, KK, QQ, AK, or AQ. He had more people to act behind him, so risking his whole stack doesn't make any sense unless he has a hand.

Even if Goggle boy had something odd like KQ or AJ, the best Squeaky could hope for was a race type situation.

I don't think this was an easy fold, but I think it's a definite fold. So he played for 2:30, made one mistake and was out. That's how it goes.

Championship Preview

With the MPT Championship event coming up in a couple weeks, here is a look at the field.

Doc (3-1): Knows how to piss away a big stack better than anyone.

Sausage King (3-1): At one point won 3 in a row. Is his streak of luck over?

MuskyBoy (8-1): Reigning Champ. Hasn't won @ MPT since. Due.

Regulator (10-1): Best (and only) regular player never to win regulation MPT event.

Squeaky (15-1): If he can overcome his problem of thinking too much, he might be dangerous.

Flipper( 15-1): Lost his MPT Cherry recently. Due to lose his cool when someone hits their one outer against him. And we all know it's gonna happen.

Lucky PP (5-1): Best player on the MPT. Just ask him.

UndercoverBrother (??Don't remember his official nickname...8-1): Won recently, so I figure his luck is over.

Magic Man (off): recent success in Vegas is not in line with recent MPT events. The bookies have taken this line off.

Dead Money, Beginner's Luck (50-1): The nicknames say it all.

Tabatha (5-2): Due

Field (100-1)

Tearing up Vegas

This past weekend, two full time MPT'ers (Squeaky and myself) and one part timer (the Milk Man) went to Vegas for r&r. Being faithful MPT'ers (long live the 47o! amen!), we HAD to play some poker whilst out there.

We walked the town to find the best spot, and ended up at Sahara on Friday night for the $42 + $20 add-on. Let's just say it was nothing like the MPT. No calling down with any random paint on a board with four suited cards. No cheat sheets for the hand rankings.

I'll cover Squeaky's experience in the Friday night extravaganza first, since the summary will be short and sweet. Squeaky looked down at pocket Ts. The flop was T9x. He declined to bet the trips. A Q was on 4rth, and Squeaky took this opportunity to push all in, which was called immediately by two people who both went on to river a straight. He at least got to play in Vegas a couple hours.

I, however, ended up playing a tad longer. I had assumed that a $40 Vegas tourney was going to be a lot like a $20 MPT tourney. But to my shock, people respected my raises. I picked up small pots along the way, staying out of big confrontations.

I hit KK twice and they held up. Once a standard raise 'stole' the blinds. Another time, I took a decent pot. My favorite hand of the night was when I held 23o in the BB. No raises. Flop was 22x. One guy hit top pair, and I doubled up.

There were a fair amount of characters out there. One local we nick-named "Phil Vermouth." He had the beginning of a combover, and his glasses that he would pull down over his eyes any time he was bet into. He was fond of asking for stack counts, and agonized over several close situations. He folded TT only to see a T on the flop. That didn't make Phil happy. Incidentally, Phil was back on Saturday wearing the exact same pants and shirt. NICE.

There was a father and son - an older Mexican looking gentleman, and his kid. Two brothers played. And there were several "Bill Filmaff" wannabes with thier skull caps and glasses on and attitudes. It was pretty funny.

There was even an Iven clone (I'll call him Texas) who on Thursday threatened to beat up a guy who checked out of turn, only to re-raise when he was bet into.

I was generally around par or a little above by picking off pots here and there. I had been planning on changing styles and speeding up to take advantage of my table image, but opportunities never presented themselves. I stayed out of difficult decisions, made a couple good laydowns, got a little lucky.

I was the short stack with the blinds approaching when I looked down on rockets. Two guys got all in ahead of me, and I tripled up. The final table had a happy blonde, Texas, the older Mexican gentlemen, the two brothers, Phil Vermouth, a 22 year old kid, and a couple others.

One interesting hand came up when the older brother re-raised younger brother by pushing all in. The pot odds were like 10-1, so little brother had to call. But he hemmed and hawed, and big brother told him to fold. He ended up calling, but had he folded, I would have been pissed.

Anyway, it got down to Phil, Old guy, Texas and myself. I was again the short stack, but managed to pick up two huge pots in a row to become chip leader. Old guy took out Texas, and I took out Phil. Heads up I had a 2-1 chip lead. I started the heads up by raising every pot, no matter what 2 cards I held, and he folded 3-4 in a row.

Then I made a big mistake. I looked down at AJs, and pushed at his bb. In the moment, I thought maybe he'd be sick of folding and call with any decent hand. He turned over AQ and it held up. Had I just raised, I would have saved maybe $40,000 chips.

I made a comeback, but was still severely outchipped. With only a couple minutes left in the round, I was at push/fold time. Next round was BB=my stack. I saw 33 and pushed. He called with 55 and it was over.

There were 157 players, 140 rebuys, and I took second in my first live Vegas tourney. Pretty happy with the result.

(edit: The flop on my favorite hand was 22x, giving me trips)