WPBT Results

It was 6:40pm (MST). I had twenty minutes to go before the blogger tourney.

I cracked open a beer and began flipping through the music channels on my satellite, trying to decide what I want to hear playing in the background. Finally deciding on a rock station, I sat down at the couch, took a sip of my beer, and opened a $100/$200 game on Stars so I had something to watch while I waited. (No, I don’t play those limits!)

6:50pm. Tick tock tick tock. I get up, adjust the lighting in the room and sit back down. I shake the Chris Ferguson bobble head figure sitting on my monitor, (Christmas gift courtesy of my brother, Tactix) amusing myself for a few minutes.

I get impatient and fidgety while waiting for a tournament to start, so I decide to check my email quickly. Hmmm….I can’t seem to open a browser to bring up my email screen. Closing all the other programs on my computer, I return to PokerStars, only to find that it has frozen as well. Oh great, I think to myself. I am going to have to reboot my computer now.

Trying to be patient as my computer goes through the rebooting process, I glance at the clock. Tournament has started. Oh well, I will only miss the first couple of hands. After what seems like hours, I am up and running, and I open PokerStars. The words “establishing connection, please wait” sit on my screen. I tap my fingers on the table, my eyes darting between the computer and the clock. Five minutes into the tournament already.

Just as I crawl under the table to check the Ethernet and DSL modem, the phone rings. On the other line is my brother, wondering why I am not at my seat. I respond somewhere in between hysterics and anger, telling him that my f***ing Internet connection is not f***ing working. Wisely, he lets me go and I toss the phone across the room, returning to the tangle of cords and cables and such, desperately trying to determine the problem.

Crawling back up from under the computer, I try to open Internet Explorer again, but to no avail. I can’t get online at all. I have high speed DSL, so I know it isn’t the phone lines. I decide to release/renew my IP address. Nothing.

For twenty more minutes I frantically try to get my computer running. Finally, the Poker Gods must have smiled down at me, because I instantly have connection again. I open PokerStars, delight in how fast it connects, log in, and my table is instantly brought up.

31 minutes in, and T195 down in blinds, I begin my tournament.


For the first 10 minutes I try to just get my head back in the game. My mind is so frazzled that I all of a sudden can’t remember how to play. Do I raise that hand pre-flop, or just fold? Should I check/raise, bet….oh hell. My game is going to the toilet before I even start. I drop down another 300, and sit for the better part of a half hour mainly just folding everything that comes my way.

After the break, I am feeling a bit better about the game, and grind it out until I reach T2235. Then, the following hand came up, which it what saved the entire tournament for me:

*********** # 118 **************
PokerStars Game #1162089911: Tournament #4684031, Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2005/02/02 - 22:22:11 (ET)
Table '4684031 3' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: anisotropy (3720 in chips)
Seat 2: LanceyH (2155 in chips)
Seat 3: jerge88 (4898 in chips)
Seat 4: pochen (2275 in chips)
Seat 5: RevmodPoker (1660 in chips)
Seat 6: ZeRat11 (2690 in chips)
Seat 7: Joanne1111 (2235 in chips)
Seat 8: on_thg (3655 in chips)
Seat 9: Riddim Killa (9139 in chips)
RevmodPoker: posts small blind 100ZeRat11: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Joanne1111 [7c 7d]
Joanne1111: raises 200 to 400
on_thg: folds
Riddim Killa: calls 400
anisotropy: folds
LanceyH: folds
jerge88: folds
pochen: folds
RevmodPoker: folds
ZeRat11: folds
*** FLOP *** [3c 7h 4s]
Joanne1111: bets 600
Riddim Killa: calls 600
*** TURN *** [3c 7h 4s] [Ah]
Joanne1111: bets 600
Riddim Killa: raises 600 to 1200
Joanne1111: raises 35 to 1235 and is all-in
Riddim Killa: calls 35
*** RIVER *** [3c 7h 4s Ah] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Joanne1111: shows [7c 7d] (three of a kind, Sevens)
Riddim Killa: shows [3s 3h] (three of a kind, Threes)
Riddim Killa said, "lol... nh"
Joanne1111 collected 4770 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4770 Rake 0 Board [3c 7h 4s Ah 6s]
Seat 1: anisotropy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LanceyH folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: jerge88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: pochen (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: RevmodPoker (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: ZeRat11 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Joanne1111 showed [7c 7d] and won (4770) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 8: on_thg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Riddim Killa showed [3s 3h] and lost with three of a kind, Threes


After that I remained in the top 20 (or so) for the following hour. To make an extremely long story short, I ended up dropping down in chips considerably. It wasn’t due to bad beats or anything, just a lack of playable hands and not enough ammunition to cause any kind of threat. I watched as other player’s stacks grew, and managed to hold on just long enough to make the money. I finished 16th out of 151. After the terrible beginning, I was thrilled just to place. This was my second blogger tournament, and the last one I finished in 12th. Now if I can just get my act together on time, I may end up on the final table next time!

Thanks again to Iggy for hosting the tourney, and to everyone who makes this tournament what it is!