Well, the regular Monday night tourneys have been put on hold until after the holidays, but I managed to close out the year in style. I won the tourney with the hammer. You just have to love the look on peoples faces not only when you heads up with it, but when you win with it, it's a priceless moment. Usually requiring a very large round of drinks to be bought. I was pretty sweet, once we got to six handed, for some reason the other five felt compelled to give me all of their chips. The only time I gave some away was when I was in a blind and it would only cost me one more blind to two to finish them off.

By the time we reached heads up, I had Mike out chipped by around 7-8:1. He was in pretty much push or fold mode, if I did not bet at least 2/3 of his stack, he would push, and he was not really defending his blinds that strongly. Eventually, with the blinds a 10/20K and on the button I look down to see a beautiful 72o looking up at me. I made it a respectable 80K to go, and what does he do, he pushed for an additional 50K. What can I do but call his all in? The flop comes A 7 2 and everyone just starts going with the oh-my-god laughs as they see the almighty hammer pummel his 69o (in the battle of the suck-outs as Matt the dealer called it). The K 3 on the turn and river gave Mike no help and I took down yet another Monday night tourney with the hammer. I had done it last month too, so that made this one all the better.

For the record, this hand is being played around 12:30 AM, I have a 20 min drive home and have to get up for work around 5:30 (actually got up at 6:15...oops). That's the one thing about the Monday and Thursday night games, they just run so damn late for me. Oh well, what can you do when you need your fix?

So-So (not SoCo) Mookie

Had a so, so Mookie last night. Pretty much card dead the entire night, only a couple of big pocket pairs and some lucky draws. Think I went out in 16th if I remember correctly, and we were just shy of having enough people to pay 18. Oh well, with Full Tilt's fubar payment schedule at the crossover points I would have been getting paid $10.50 on my $11.00 buy-in. Full Tilt, please feel free to either change the number of people getting paid and/or the amounts being paid so the bottom tier can at least get their full buy-in back (assuming it's not a rebuy of course).

Oh, and it seems the not too much booze at the table actually helps. I was at work late last night so I did not have the time to stop by the store and replenish my Bacardi 8 stock. As a result, I only had two all night, one that started just before the game and the last I had during first break. As a result, the head was fairly clear all night long and helped me choose my spots to push when the chips got low. Of course, due to the sleeping pills I took with my first drink when the Mookie started, by the time third break rolled around I could barely keep my eyes open. By the time I busted out, the average chip stack had an M of around 9, so there was a fair amount of pushing going on. I think I got all my chips in on the flop (I had 77 with one club) and the flop gave me the chance for a straight and a flush, and (I think) were all below my 7 (though there may have been one that was over, maybe a 9, can't remember as I was almost asleep). My straight draw was pretty weak, gutshot I think. Anyways the person who called me (sorry don't remember, don't think we've played before) had KK, also with a club, thereby decimating my outs from 14 to 5. Ah well, at least I picked up a few more points, though probably not enough to make a difference.

I may make a run at the Big Game this week, but I'll need to score my token Sunday before the game. Have live games tonight, Friday and Saturday and the cash games that develop after the tourney are just so juicy. Nothing better than playing from 9 or 10 PM on a Saturday until bar close at 2 AM in a .50/1.00 game and have all your expenses (gas, food, bar tabs) for the week covered. One of these days I might just have to start up an official bankroll for these games as opposed to the entertainment budget. Heck, I at least have to put some aside for the annual 1/2 NLHE game on New Years Eve!