Some awfully close guesses for Hand of the Week #15.

But no cigar, because my opponent inexplicably held K 7 when he called me down and my J kicker won. I fully did not expect to take this pot. Another reason to keep betting and showing strength. If I had checked and he bet, I would've folded the winner (and I would've folded, too -- how could I expect to win with King high?).

Rather than bump up this week's prize by $5, we'll double it because it's a particular doozy and because HoW is off next Monday for Labor Day. If scheduling works out, I'm shooting for a quick trip to Atlantic City next Monday to play in the Borgata WPT satellite on Tuesday.

I haven't really let up on the playing this week, only taking off perhaps a day and a half. My excuse? The PPM.

Okay, not a terribly great excuse, but there you go.

At the end of this week, I'll be playing the four 210+16 PPM semis for the cruise in March. My plan is to win two -- one for the cruise and one for the money. Not too lofty a goal, eh?

Party likes rewarding their volume players with extra chips in the bigger tourneys (PPM and the $1M tourneys), which I don't think is fair if everyone pays the same entry fee. Not wanting to be at a disadvantage, this means playing a heck of a lot this week in an effort to get those additional chips for the PPM, particularly if I'm playing all four of them. You can get up to 2000 chips per semi, so to collect 8000 extra chips I'll need 8000 raked hands.

So a raincheck for my break. I can always take a break when I sleep.

Fortunately, extra PPM chips are awarded for SnGs (100 chips for every win), so that's where the bulk of my table time has been and will be (all 50+5s, with the occasional 100+9). Though I do have one foot in the bad beat jackpot door (which they increased to quad 8s beaten, a 50 cent jackpot rake, and 2/4 table minimum... the greedy bastids)... with my gambling tendencies, how can I stay away from a potential jackpot of over $200K?

Onto this week's hand, worth considerably less than $200K...

(Debbiedimmit, I just checked and the extra chips deadline is Tuesday. I've already collected 3600 chips, but there's no way I can play 4400 raked hands or win 44 SnGs by Tuesday. I might have to play a bunch of the 10+1 SnGs to get them over with quickly. Ugh, is it worth it? I can only hope they don't seat me at a table where everyone else has the extra 2000 chips.)


Grubby's Hand of the Week #16
for Monday, August 30, 2004

Prize: $50

The first person to correctly guess my opponent's hand before the Monday after Labor Day wins. Suits may or may not matter. One guess per person, please. Winner will be declared here that Monday. If there's no winner, the prize will go to $30.

If you sign up to Nostalgia through that link, the prize is doubled for you. Yeah, it's a casino. But it's one with no wage requirements and a 100 percent match bonus (up to $300) which they give you to play with upfront. They will remove this bonus upon your first withdrawal, so be careful. The trick to playing this is to bet big (if you can afford it, bet your entire deposit + bonus) on one hand of baccarat, craps, or roulette and then cashout (your withdrawal will hit NETeller within minutes). The longer I play, the more I lose. I do, however, have success using this hit-and-run method at Nostalgia whenever they offer reload bonuses.

Leave your guess in the comments section below. You can be Anonymous without registering through Blogger, but do include your name so I know whose guess is whose.

If you don't include contact info and you're the winner, email me after the quiz is over.

Good luck and good skills,

---

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t800 (10 handed) converter

UTG (t15360)
UTG+1 (t13736)
UTG+2 (t7306)
MP1 (t3695)
MP2 (t6879)
grubby (t3853)
CO (t2118)
Button (t6860)
SB (t13490)
BB (t3088)

Preflop: grubby is MP3 with Q Q
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to t1600, MP1 raises to t3695 (All-In), 4 folds, SB calls t3295, BB calls t2288 (All-In), UTG+2 folds.

Flop: (t12078) 7 6 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t12078) J (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t12078) 6 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t12078
Main Pot: t10864 (t10864), between MP1, SB and BB.
Pot 2: t1214 (t1214), between MP1 and SB.


Sometimes you have to take risks in poker. I do so when I'm short-stacked or when in position. Doesn't really matter what cards you have in that case, if you've seen the players to your left are capable of folding and it's folded to you.

However, I'm less likely to call big raises than I am to make big raises.

This hand is still early in a 200+15 multi. Early in the sense that we still have a couple hundred players to go before cashing (I didn't).

One person raises 2x the BB and MP1 doubles that to all-in when it gets to me. An AK minimum out there, maybe even AA or KK. My ho's didn't stand a chance and I kicked 'em to the curb like Rebecca Romijn-Stamos-O'Connell.

Oh how I wish I were first to bet. I would've pushed without hesitation and not have to think.

I felt better about my decision once two people after me also called this raise. Although, this could have meant all the big cards were shared and QQ would've been free and clear. At the time I didn't think it was worth the risk. I didn't take into consideration that I was shortstacked with barely 5x the BB. It's pathetic that I didn't call.

The initial 2x meek raiser folded.

Three players (two all-ins) to a whopping 15BB pot. No splits; I'll tell you who won next time.

MP1 had A K.

SB had K J

What did BB have?