An Interesting Evening at the Bodonkey

Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do. - Baltasar Gracian

Maybe that’s why I prefer cash games so much more than tournaments. One may quit while one is ahead. You just can’t do that in tournaments. However, I couldn’t resist playing in the Bodonkey last night due to the huge overlay being offered. Not only was the standard T$600 added by Bodog but there was a T$270 bounty on $mokkee, too.

My starting table consisted of Colombo777, Gary Carson, Aposec72, and PokerPeaker, as well as, others. I folded a lot since I firmly believe, you can’t win a deepstack tourney in the early phases but you sure can lose one. Peaker got all in with his pocket Aces but lost to a guy holding pocket Kings when a third King came right out on the flop.
A bit later, I limped in with 7-7 from MP and it folded around to the big blind. He raises to 3xbb and I smooth call hoping to see a 7 on the flop. The flop comes 4-4-7. I check, he bets and I call. The turn is a blank and I bet a very small amount (about 1 fifth of the pot) hoping to seem weak and get raised. My opponent takes the bait and raises an amount roughly equal to the pot. I re-raise the minimum and he comes over the top to put me all in.
Of course, I call. He tables his A-A and when the river is not an Ace, I win a massive pot.

I was disappointed when $mokkee was not at my starting table but I was moved to his table shortly after the first break. I was looking to play a big hand with him and the first time he opened the betting pre-flop, I raised him and we took a rainbow flop that came down Q high. I had completely missed with my A-Ko but when he checked it to me, I moved in hoping for a call from a weaker ace. Of course, he folded. Even though we got him down to 4M, that would be my last chance to bust him since not long after that, two players had a similar idea and got all in with $mokkee, but holding A-K both times, he doubled through both of them to become the chip leader at the table. I am not sure what CEMfromMD was thinking when he raised $mokkee all in with A-8o. The other guy, Gary Carson, (at least) held A-Qo and might have had a reasonable expectation of winning. So, I play on for a while when I look down at 9-10s on the button. I decide if it is folded around to me, I am going to steal the blinds. So, when all the earlier players fold to me, I bet double the big blind. Gary Carson calls from the small blind and the big blind folds. We take a flop of A-10-7 with two hearts. I move in since I correctly figured Carson did not have an Ace and my 10 was good.
Being an unrepentant short-stacker, I prefer to win pots pre-flop or on the flop and I wanted to take this pot down now. My thinking was there was no way he would call without the Ace and I believe he would have re-raised me pre-flop if he held an Ace so I was not putting him on an Ace.
He freaking calls with 2-8s (hearts of course). Pairing his undercards won’t help him so he must make a flush to win. Of course, the turn is a 6 of hearts and I am knocked out in 19th place. While that sucked, I played well and got my money in good every time.
My reads had been spot on and I played much better than my last two attempts at the Bodonkey. At least Carson went on (with my chips) to make the final table.
Smokkee went on to win and claim his own unclaimed bounty. Yeah, I know, it sounds fishy to me too, but that’s online poker for you. Congrats to $mokkee on his TOC seat and a nice win.