Remember this - we call it a R-E-C-A-P: Mookie Style

Have you noticed, around the blogasphere, people are writing the death tome of the blogger tourneys? Hoy recently weighed in his opinion of the state of the blogger tournaments. His yadda, yadda, yadda and woe, woe, woe sounded like an old man, yearning for the days when the grass was greener, people worked harder, the Kaiser was crushed by the good ol' boys and the wheel had just been invented. Dude...you sound like AN OLD MAN whining in the barber shop.

You know, the Mookie doesn't draw like it use to and have you noticed who isn't there??? I mean besides Mookie. Just about everyone that's complaining that the blogger tournaments are dying. If these tournaments are to be missed and I'm supposed to feel your pain for their passing, at least show up at the hospital and say good bye. Geez.

I haven't been playing the Mookie much at all. Why? Mostly time. My kids are older, they go to bed later (and for the love of all things holy, this doesn't mean I'll play it if it's later...I'm old and need to go to bed before dawn) and as I just mentioned...I'm old. I like going to bed a little earlier then I used to but that doesn't mean I haven't had interest.

One thing I know for a FACT that's really been missing from the blogger tournaments that used to be the highlight of my Thursday morning, and I mean that, was the Mookie recaps everyone USED to write. Remember when we used to play poker and write about it? Hm. Wonder what went wrong...

So here it is. My Mookie recap from last night: (you ready for this...it's been a while. I think I'm rusty :-D )

My wife was working late last night and by some miracle, the kids were in bed, on time and no little feet were running about needing a stern holler, "For the last time, lay down and GO TO SLEEP!" I even managed to crank out and check off every damn thing on OhCoutness' honey-do list. With time to spare, I realized, holy crap! It's Wednesday, 8:30 PM (CDT)...I can play the Mookie!

I had just completed the Take Two promotion from Full Tilt and with that extra $50 about to hit my bankroll, I figured it was time to dust off a Hamilton and a Washington and play me some deep stack Mookie (Every Wednesday, 9pm central time on Full Tilt Poker. Private tournament $10 + $1 - Password: vegas1) action. I missed it.

Participation was light, which I figured might help me since it would be far few donkeys to wade through on the way to my second Mookie victory. I'm pretty much just good at playing sngs, so this is more or less what I'm used to. I didn't do a screen grab of the starting table because I'm lazy and woefully out of practice at this. Lightning36 on my left, with (as I remember) Mike Maloney on his, and some others at the table (which I could probably dig up from the hand history of it weren't for the laziness and the woefully out of practiceness).

For some stupid reason, I tend to change my play at the Mookie from what I normally play when I'm making money playing sngs. Which of course is stupid cause when it's ain't broke you aren't supposed to fix it, which I do every time I play the Mookie because for some stupid reason I'm trying to impress you people. Anywho. I steal some blinds to start a little above the 3000 chip starting stack. See, normally in a sng, I'll just sit there folding for the first hour and not show any signs of aggression, but this isn't my plan right now. Remember...dusting of a Hamilton and a Washington.

Things are chugging along nicely, I even stole some chips with AQo (for those of you that are new, it's the hand of the devil and should never be played because it's evil and can't possibly win). Of course there are no screen grabs because I'm lazy and way out of practice at doing these.

I'm pretty sure we were in the second blind level when I was dealt JJ in the BB. I remember this hand precisely because, well, you'll see. I think 25 people limped ahead of me, so, to disguise the strength of my hand, I just checked. (See, I'm being sneaky) The flop comes 2,3,4 rainbow (rainbow means one of each suit...kay?) I check. Here's where the details get fuzzy because some how, Lightning36 (remember - under the gun[UTG]) had limped and now bet pot.

Hindsight is a lovely 20/20.

It folds back to me. Do these people know something I don't? I think this through almost carefully in my head. I came to the conclusion that there is no way, he limps UTG with 56 or A5. Those hands are way to weak for his range to limp UTG. Right? I'm thinking he's got a medium pair or something like A6. Avoiding thinking about some other details that I should have, I get into a pot raising fight and we end up all-in.

I figure he's got no idea I've got a hand as big and powerful as I do and he'll lay down his draw/pair and oh, crap, he's got A5h. DAMN IT!

See moments earlier, he had said, "Damn, it's a bit nitty here." Which I promptly made some wise crack about the other tables guessing the sex positions that Jo and Buddy were doing on their honeymoon. Lightning36 is a damn good tournament poker player and I really should have read that as, "Damn, I should be limping more with a wider range of hands because no one is offering to show any aggression right now."

Next hand, I'm all-in because Lightning36 either didn't have the balls (which I'm sure he doesn't after spending the last few months with the White Sox kicking them) or he didn't have the chips to cover me, but this donkey went home on the next hand with King high and one Hamilton and one Washington lighter in the bankroll (which of course I just promptly turned around, played a $5 sng and got back)

Poop. (I know, doesn't count, but I don't really like Bud Light either)

So, there you have it. A blogger recap of the Mookie. This was actually really fun to write! Maybe you should try one. Let me know if you start recapping the blogger games again and we can have some fun listening to each other stories of playing poker together and laughing and teasing and laughing some more. I miss that.