“I’m searchin Victory, she keeps eluding me. If only we could be together momentarily. We could make love and make history. Why won’t you visit me?” – Jay-Z – History

I decided I am going to start all my blog posts with a quote or a line that has a lot of meaning from a song of my choice. I guess I might use lines from the same songs on different days but I figured it would be interesting none the less. For anyone who knows me and talks to me on AIM, I have always used lines from songs in my away messages for years and years now, so I decided to incorporate it into my blog. Hopefully I don’t have to explain any quotes to everyone but some of them are pretty deep and have hidden meanings so I guess I’ll explain if needed.

Anyways, today’s post is actually going to be a hand I played last night in the $100 1Rebuy 1Addon Tournament on Full Tilt. It’s a pretty crazy hand and I might get some flack for it because I immediately got flack after the hand. Here’s the hand and I’ll explain.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8944346342: $33,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) (67523634), Table 12 – 400/800 Ante 100 – No Limit Hold’em – 23:05:48 ET – 2008/11/12
Seat 1: charder30 (16,030)
Seat 2: McNallyville (16,831)
Seat 3: pokerarg (48,835)
Seat 4: sampson724 (20,901)
Seat 5: tedsfishfry (36,311)
Seat 6: Cre8ive (64,880)
Seat 7: Sleepy_Hippo (27,487)
Seat 8: zestfulyclean (18,850)
Seat 9: kenaw (18,758)
charder30 antes 100
McNallyville antes 100
pokerarg antes 100
sampson724 antes 100
tedsfishfry antes 100
Cre8ive antes 100
Sleepy_Hippo antes 100
zestfulyclean antes 100
kenaw antes 100
Sleepy_Hippo posts the small blind of 400
zestfulyclean posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [Kh 8c]
kenaw folds
charder30 folds
McNallyville folds
pokerarg has 15 seconds left to act
pokerarg folds
sampson724 folds
tedsfishfry raises to 2,000
Cre8ive raises to 5,950
Sleepy_Hippo folds
zestfulyclean folds
tedsfishfry raises to 36,211, and is all in
Cre8ive calls 30,261
tedsfishfry shows [Tc Jc]
Cre8ive shows [Kh 8c]
*** FLOP *** [5d Jd 9h]
*** TURN *** [5d Jd 9h] [As]
*** RIVER *** [5d Jd 9h As] [7h]
tedsfishfry shows a pair of Jacks
Cre8ive shows Ace King high
tedsfishfry wins the pot (74,522) with a pair of Jacks
tedsfishfry: sick call
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 74,522 | Rake 0
Board: [5d Jd 9h As 7h]
Seat 1: charder30 folded before the Flop
Seat 2: McNallyville folded before the Flop
Seat 3: pokerarg folded before the Flop
Seat 4: sampson724 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: tedsfishfry showed [Tc Jc] and won (74,522) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 6: Cre8ive (button) showed [Kh 8c] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 7: Sleepy_Hippo (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: zestfulyclean (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: kenaw folded before the Flop

Let me give you some background information before you immediately look at this hand and think I’m an idiot or a monkey or just lucky he had JT suited and not had me dominated. I had played this tournament very good up until this point. I gained chips by waiting for good hands and taking advantage of position and players when I got my stack. I just got moved to this table 2-3 hands prior. I know tedfishfry is Shaun Deeb and I know how Shaun Deeb plays. I also know that with me coming to a new table with chips, people automatically assume I’m going to put pressure on them. Since I was to the immediate left of Shaun Deeb, I knew he would think the same. I have seen Shaun Deeb shove really light in this spot before. I have a pretty good memory so I realized when he led out his raise. He had raise one of the first couple hands I was at the table so I knew he was being aggressive as well. He opens to 2k (we are about 20-30 away from the money and I’m top 3 in chips probably) and I look down at K8o. He’s on the cutoff and I’m on the button. I reminded myself about the earlier statement where I know he’s most likely going to shove if I reraise and I told myself that if I do 3bet him I know he will shove lighter than K8 so I am going to call him. I know it’s probably bad to automatically dictate what you are going to do in a hand before the action happens but I had reasoning behind it. I make it 5950 and he thinks about it for a second and shoves. With the timing and everything of his shove I was pretty sure that this was his 4bet reshove move and I snap called. He turns over JT and he wins the pot.

After the board ran out and the hand had played he said “sick call” as you can see in the chat but I think it was more sarcasm than anything. People at the table assumed I misclick called and then tried to take credit for making a call where I was ahead (I wont say good call — but I was ahead lol.) I wouldn’t ever do that. If I misclicked I would have said I misclicked, but I already knew what he was going to do before he did it and therefore called. There was some discussion after the hand and people kept saying I misclicked, blah blah blah, and then Shaun stated that his range for reshoving there isn’t as light as I tried to make out. He said I beat 4 hands and race with 7 others and dominated by everything else (he said something like that.) But I figure his range is more open than that.

So what I want to talk about here is stubborn poker. I am a stubborn person, and sometimes a stubborn poker player. This is what case of when push comes to shove and I am going to shove you right back. He opens light, I reraise light, and he thinks I am re-raising light so he 4bet shoves light. Since I know that he knows this I decide to call his shove light with my hand (K8) because I assume that it is ahead of the hands he is going to shove on me. I normally don’t play 100bb flip at this stage in the tournament (flip as in how this hand played out) but like I said, if people are going to start playing poker where they 4bet shove light, then sometimes you’re going to have to take a stand and call light. I’m not scared to call with K high if I think I am right. I know I might be crazy for playing a pot like this and thinking “yeah I am ahead and I am going to combat 4bet light shoving with calling with marginal hands that I think beat their range” but I might have to sometimes.

Learn this lesson. I finally am. Poker is always evolving and you can’t be scared to try to do different things or be the person that is doing something everyone is not doing. If I was going to play poker like everyone else then what would set me apart from the rest of the world? How would I beat players if we play identical? I wouldn’t. It would come down to who wins the coin flip or is on the right side of the cooler or runs better every time. I don’t want to have to base my livelihood off of winning a coin flip. I am going to keep experimenting with my game and keep adjusting to how others play and try to make drastic jumps ahead of the pack. So call me stupid, call me an idiot, and call me a misclicker (lol)… But if this is what poker will come to we better watch out =)

Now for some more evidence… To back up everything I said. This hand was about one hour after the hand with me and Deeb. Same exact scenario. We are now in the money and down to 2 tables. We have just gotten to the new tables and Deeb has a stack on his immediate left again. Here’s the hand history.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8945353332: $33,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) (67523634), Table 3 – 1200/2400 Ante 300 – No Limit Hold’em – 0:11:03 ET – 2008/11/13
Seat 1: blizair (99,876)
Seat 2: dswdo (43,230)
Seat 3: 9InchRich (32,502)
Seat 4: thatcher1979 (68,753)
Seat 6: a_zuzolo (70,741)
Seat 7: tedsfishfry (117,069)
Seat 8: paddiewaddie (123,135)
Seat 9: LURCH PAPA (45,708)
blizair antes 300
dswdo antes 300
9InchRich antes 300
thatcher1979 antes 300
a_zuzolo antes 300
tedsfishfry antes 300
paddiewaddie antes 300
LURCH PAPA antes 300
blizair posts the small blind of 1,200
dswdo posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
9InchRich folds
thatcher1979 folds
a_zuzolo has 15 seconds left to act
a_zuzolo folds
tedsfishfry raises to 5,555
paddiewaddie has 15 seconds left to act
paddiewaddie raises to 15,555
LURCH PAPA folds
blizair folds
dswdo folds
tedsfishfry has 15 seconds left to act
tedsfishfry raises to 116,769, and is all in
paddiewaddie has 15 seconds left to act
paddiewaddie folds
Uncalled bet of 101,214 returned to tedsfishfry
tedsfishfry shows [Jd Qh] Queen Jack high
tedsfishfry wins the pot (37,110)
9InchRich stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 37,110 | Rake 0
Seat 1: blizair (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: dswdo (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: 9InchRich folded before the Flop
Seat 4: thatcher1979 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: a_zuzolo folded before the Flop
Seat 7: tedsfishfry collected (37,110)
Seat 8: paddiewaddie folded before the Flop
Seat 9: LURCH PAPA (button) folded before the Flop

Look familiar?

So many I’m not as crazy as I think after all. I did end up coming back from the 100bb pot loss and losing a big flip on the bubble of the final table and finished in 9th when I was last in chips going into the final table. At least I outlasted tedfishfry, lol. =)