McJo's Poker League Chronicles

1st ($ 70 / 10pts): Martin "Rolling Stone" Galway
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Aaron "Accomplish My Destruction" Wanstrath
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray "Flop Flippin'" Flowers
4th ($0 / 2pts): Eric "Hand Holdin'" Hepburn
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 01:15 Endtime

MG here... was 1:15am really the end of that game? It seemed SO much later than that... it had to be the slowest game I've ever played... seemed like it was taking an eternity for the blinds to rise up, and it was only 2000-4000 at the end. Felt like it should have been a lot higher. Anyhow, what happened? My exhaustion at the night's play prevents me from remembering the exact events, so this could be a terribly inaccurate account, but I can recall a couple of good hands. Well, more than a couple. Like... getting two 7's on the flop to triple up with the one in my hand, and then the remaining 7 from the deck on the river as the cards came out... can't remember who that killed, but 7777 was fatal for somebody. I remember making Ken big early in the game, like within the first 5 hands or so - but I ended up knocking him out later. Seamus showed up late to the game, and I knocked him out, and when he rebought, I knocked him out again. (I typically apologise when I knock people out, and I was apologising a LOT that night) In one hand, I killed Adam and Mick in the same hand... the kind of whole-family massacre that's usually in the news. Dealer after dealer was sitting next to me as I was positioned next to the chair I really want to be in myself. (for comfort reasons, you understand...) More than once, my beautiful chip stack got wrecked by overzealous card-flicking. Or the fact that it was encroaching like a Caspian oil slick towards the dealer's position. My huge stack allowed a lot of 800lb gorilla work, but it didn't always pay off. By my own loose calling later, I caused Aaron to come back from "almost out" and basically financed his head-to-head ticket. I mostly only remember the gruelling nature of head-to-head... Eric and Ray dealt like champs but both Aaron and I were bleary-eyed and almost unable to keep up. The lead kept swinging back and forth, mostly due to my own moves... either big and dumb when Aaron grabbed chips, or sneaky and shrewd when it came back my way. Except for that hand when (with me on 25,000 and Aaron on about 180,000) I had Ace high over Aaron's King high, and went all-in, ready to end it (but hoping stupidly in the back of my mind for a suckout). Ray was able to deal Aaron another King on 4th Street, pairing his other. I was struck by a pang of sadness and despair, like a thousand chip-souls cried out for help and then were no more... (quoting Darth Joseph from earlier). But Ray PROMPTLY (wasn't it Ray?) flicked over the river and to all our surprise it was another Ace - the recovery I needed :) That allowed me to get my back away from the wall, against which it had previously been tightly pinned. Over the next few hands, I woke up or something, and was able to chip away a bit more at Aaron's mega-stack... to the point where I was in the lead again. The final hand: Aaron, who was clearly exasperated by what time it was, how soon it would be before he'd have to be back at his AMD desk, and how many times the chips had travelled the length of the table, ignited like a Barcelona CPU with no heatsink and blurted something to the effect of "Can't we just end this? What the F**k - I'm all-in blind!!!" - pushing in his reasonably-sized pile of chips. I wondered if this was some sort of bluff... hadn't been checking to see if he'd looked at his cards, but Eric and Ray seemed convinced. I looked down at my own... two sevens!! My reservoir of Poker Acting wasn't empty, but with those cards, and Aaron already all-in, there was no need to pretend. Hopefully, Hepburn's Propicious Pocket Pair Profitability Postulation would potently prove its powers, like some... oh never mind. I called him. Aaron by some miracle had off-suit King-Jack, pretty damn good for a blind all-in! But by the river, Aaron's needed face cards did not come and we were looking at two more sevens - and my second Quad Sevens on the same night. Aaron seemed relieved that it was all over. (I know Eric and Ray were) I was just glad I was able to hold out.