GC takes down a 180 player tourney for a cool $97 (DP original edited by GC)

Congrats to GC for taking down a $2.25 180-player tourney yesterday for a cool $97. After he described most of his day with the following 3 words "I'm on Tilt", it appears he regrouped valiantly and survived a minefield of donks to win the biggest single prize in MCFC2. I'm sure he'll posting some comments about his exploits.

It was a moving day for many of us. I've updated the scores unofficially using the numbers from OPR. A couple of players have fallen below the line, specifically Nick and David D. Neither are close to having to rebuy yet and there's still 25 days in the month so no need for either of them to fret.

GC and I have made some updates to the blog and added new sections. Let us know if you'd like to see some other some other sections.

DP
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Alright, let me add a description of my SNG luckbox skills.

I was absolutely running terrible at HU matches yesterday.
In one match, I CR'ed into a flopped straight with a monster hand ... top 2 pair is no good obviously.

The most frustrating hand was this one from another match:

Table 1 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:13:14 ET - 2009/04/04
Seat 1: gcmtl76 (1,360)
Seat 2: extra noodle (1,640)
gcmtl76 posts the small blind of 20
extra noodle posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to gcmtl76 [7h 9s] <--- I love this hand!

gcmtl76 raises to 120 <-- button raise is standard
extra noodle raises to 200 <-- min raise?
gcmtl76 raises to 555 <--- 1st 4 bet of the day to get him to define his hand extra noodle calls 355 <-- really? just flat? some mid pair or weak Ace hand

*** FLOP *** [9c 9d Td] <--- that's the nuts to me!

extra noodle checks
gcmtl76 bets 805, and is all in <-- I move in since I want my hand to look weak like AJ/AQ/33/44/55/66/77 ... that board misses so much of my range that it looks fishy and a shove on this board could get him to call off weak. Not to mention the drawy texture of the board and I'm happy to get it in now or win the pot immediately.

extra noodle calls 805 <--- INSTA CALL ... so definitely a pair, probably overpair. Sorry dude!

gcmtl76 shows [7h 9s]
extra noodle shows [9h 8s] <--- WHAT?!??! (I'm stunned ... speechless .. without speech)

*** TURN *** [9c 9d Td] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [9c 9d Td 8h] [2s]

gcmtl76 shows three of a kind, Nines
extra noodle shows a full house, Nines full of Eights

extra noodle wins the pot (2,720) with a full house, Nines full of Eights
gcmtl76 stands up
extra noodle stands up

I don't think calling a 4-bet OOP (Out Of Position) with 89o is the best play here especially since it was my first 4-bet of the session ... it's definitely spewy.

I think his options are push (if he thinks I'm weak) or fold. He's gonna miss the flop too often to continue on and put a large portion of his stack in the pot PF OOP.
I definitely thought I binked that flop and my hand is so disguised.
I NEVER NEVER NEVER expected to see him show up with a 9 in his hand.
I like my play (and dont like his) so I can't be pissed off and be results oriented ....

That put me on tilt but UNC's huge win got me excited (go heels!)
I was gonna watch SNL but decided to see some flops to keep me company.

Wow I'm such a baller young single male!
Nothing says player like sitting at home (unshowered none the less) in basketball shorts and UNC t-shirt watching SNL and playing online poker ... I kinda see where E says those gambling commercials remind him of me! :)
Anyways, this is a poker blog and not a commentary on my lack of "hot dates" as DP (and DP's wifey) put it.

The closest SNG to fill up was a low stakes $2 SNG so I decided to dig in and find my inner DC/Rowin. I also didn't want to risk too much of my dwindling roll in such a negative mindset. I signed up and based on my day I was expecting to be out by the time the show was over; at which point I'd head to bed and be on "MCFC tilt". I just wanted to make it "Weekend Update".

However, a funny thing happened ... I was playing well and getting some good results. I mostly played pot control poker (unless I had the nuts or close to it) and was winning pots. I never had to race for all my chips since these guys were willing to get their money is so bad I didn't have to flip for chips ... I didn't see the point.

Just short of the final table look at that "Showdown win Percentage"



When we made the Final Table (FT) I was 4th in chips but blinds were high relative to stack sizes so we were all kinda short .... it was gamble time!! I had a feeling I was gonna take it down ... my DC luckbox skills were about to show up big time!


I didn't get in involved much and was mostly card dead so I stayed afloat picking up blinds. In higher buyin MTTs I like to 3-bet steal chips since it's so profitable. However here it's so unlikely that people will fold once they open that I never did that unless I was willing to get it all in. I also raised the button a lot less since they NEVER gave that raise respect. A raise from MP/CO did the job nicely.

5 handed I gave someone a wicked ass bad beat !!!! Thanks to DC for lending me his skills for the night! :)

Check out the bottom right hand history and it was AIPF.
He raised the button and I shoved the SB ... he snap called.
Pretty standard given the hands but what a feeling to hit the JACK !!!
I'm usually on the other end ... it feels so good to deliver the bad beat once in a while.


I then took out the 3rd place finisher in a standard race format and was ready to pwn HU!!
I was like "all I need to do is get HU then it's mine ... I'm a monster HU".
Wow ... SNL has been over for a long time now and my mood has turned 180 degrees. I refuse to change the channel for fear of upsetting the poker gods ... so I'm now watching Entertainment Tonight Canada ... wow ... what a terrible show ... but I stick to it and refuse to change the channel.


A HU monster I was ... I just kept raising every button and grinding him down ... I got a 4-1 chip lead and eventually found the right spot to call his shove.

And "boom goes the dynamite" ... 180 man SNG pwnage!


And the time ... it was ... hmmm .... 4.44am !!!
I was up for a ridiculous 4+ hours playing a $2 SNG!!!
Note that anyone who calls me a degen doesn't understand the pride of winning the MCFC trophy !

That win vaulted me to the top of the MCFC leaderboard ... something I definitely needed. Once this month is over I need to have a similar run the Fifty-Fifty or 750K!!! :) Let's see if I can ride this momentum to build on my lead.

-GC