Bmore's Brawl #11: Title goes to Cali

Thanks to all those who came out for Brawl #10. We had two new Brawlers this week as we welcomed OMRounder and Full Tilt Pro Chris Klecz. 30 Brawlers came out last week, and we just made the minimum for getting the FTP t-shirt and full buy-in back to whomever could KO the pro. mind27 got his 2nd Pro KO, and I'm sure we'll see the 2nd t-shirt on Ebay...

On to the action:

Amstel34 had another strong showing in the Brawl, but his luck ran out when he pushed on this hand against AltronIV:

hslaw06 got a double-cash this week, finishing runner-up to yours truly in The Horsey Ride, and this 6th place finish in the Brawl below:

Along with his FTP Pro KO, mind27 had a good night making the money, and going out in 5th on this hand:

It looked like blowpar68 was going to make another run at a title, but his run ended when his nut flush draw bricked out on 4th and 5th:

AltronIV cashed in his third straight Brawl, but the title eluded him for at least one more week when he ran into AK on this hand:

That left us with jmlabrie18 looking for his third Brawl title, and MikeB82. This was a classic battle as it brought two old school Owings Mills Brawlers together at the same table even though they were 3,000 miles apart. For a moment, it seemed like MikeB82 had never moved to Cali and they were duking it out in jmlabrie18's apartment. I was pretty happy to see this match, as one of my main reasons for putting these Brawls together was to link up old school (and new school) players who don't get to meet up as often as they would like to take some flops.

Well, the grudge-match picked up right where it left off. MikeB82 made some sick bluffs and traded the chip lead with jmlabrie18 until the final hand developed. In the end, jmlabrie18 ran into a better hand and was unable to come away with his 3rd Brawl title:

MikeB82 takes down Brawl #11 and sends the title to the West coast for a week. Final lobby is below:

Congrats to MikeB82 for taking down Brawl #11. He's been the bubble boy a couple of times, and it was nice to see him get a cash and the title.


Brawl #12 is this Wednesday. Brawlers- we've got the bring the title back to Maryland!

See you Wednesday!


Damn Donkeys,


Bmore

Omaha Donkey

I figured that I put this one up here considering I'm the biggest Omaha donkey in the world. Boys and girls, the lesson is that you don't necessarily know how to play a game to win a tourney. Just close your eyes and raise!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Bmore's Brawl # 10: Tourney Recap

Thanks to all the Brawlers who came out for Brawl #10. We had 35 participants, tying the attendance record, and welcomed aslightdog and OMRounder as first time Brawlers. This was the first week in five that I was unable to lock up an FTP pro. I had one trying to register at the last minute, but he missed the cut-off. Hopefully, I will lock one up for us next week. On to the action:

seager06 got his first Brawl cash last week. Here he is going out in 7th:

Congrats seager06, glad to see you get a cash under your belt. Next out was AltronIV in 6th:

surfnRRT had another strong showing this week finishing 5th:

adultswimmer had a nice run, but his night ended on this hand when he went out in 4th:

saveparmk72 has been one of the more consistent Brawlers thus far. Here he is with another deep finish going out 3rd:

And that left two-time Brawl champion roccav and kibl battling it out for the title. kibl was determined to win as he started to dominate the heads-up action. roccav had to make a move, and kibl got this flop when they got it in:

Congrats to kibl for taking down a well deserved title this week. Final lobby is below:

I hope everyone had a great time at the Brawl last week. I will see you all Wednesday when we battle it out again!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Brawl KO Leaderboard Updated

The KO Leaderboard has been updated through Brawl #10.

39 of 54 Brawlers have registered a KO in the first ten Brawls. If you're not part of this 72%, I hope you get your first KO this week.

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Brawl Money Leaderboard Updated

The Money Leaderboard has been updated to include Brawl #10. roccav has taken over the top spot from jmlabrie18.

Here's an interesting note. Through the first ten Brawls, we've had 54 different participants. Out of those 54 Brawlers, 26 have cashed. Pretty interesting that the line was right at 50%. If you're a Brawler who hasn't cashed yet, is this your week to join the club?

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Profile: Mike Matusow

The Brawl was happy to welcome Mike Matusow as it's fourth guest appearance of a Full Tilt Pro.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow needs no introduction. For as long as most of the Brawlers have been following poker, The Mouth has been in the spotlight. He won his first bracelet in 1999, and got another in 2002. He was the first player to two million dollar tournament cashes within the same year, final tabling the 2005 WSOP Main Event and taking down the TOC a few weeks later.

The Mouth has had some ups and down, but no one can dispute that his name belongs with the greats playing the circuit today.

The Brawlers, once again, thank Mike Matusow for coming out and taking some flops with us...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Bmore's Brawl #9 - Tourney Recap

Thanks to all those who came out to the Brawl last week. We had 35 Brawlers battling it out for the title and a chance to KO Mike Matusow, who was kind enough to take some flops with us as a guest Brawler. In addition to the Mouth, the Brawl welcomed grannysmiff, rattycat, permanuts1, thirdlegoflamb and Mr.Piccalino as first time Brawlers. On to the action:

hslaw06 was the first Brawler to cash in 7th place. His QQ ran into a monster below:

momX2 was the lucky Brawler who KOd Mike Matusow when her flopped set held up. For the KO, she received her full buy-in back plus a t-shirt from Full Tilt. It was a good night for her all around, as she managed cash in 6th place as well. Here's her final hand getting KOd by hubby AltronIV:

que31dawg was out next in 5th when blowpar68 spiked a set on the flop and it was all but over:

After that set, blowpar68 went on a tear. When purplerain05 pushed in with As8s, he was dominated by blowpar68's...um....A...8...off:

Guys? Aren't we supposed to chop that? Anyways, that would be the last beat of the night. Next out was saveparmk72 when he pushed AA against...um...A...8...off:

Um, yeah...Moving along, heads up was a nice battle between AltronIV and blowpar68. They traded the chip lead a couple of times, and then a pivotal hand. AltronIV was able to get his money in good, but blowpar68 had a flush draw:

Oh yeah, and a straight draw! AltronIV couldn't recover from that one, and the final hand came below:

Congrats to all Brawlers who cashed. Final lobby below:

Congrats to blowpar68 for capturing his first Brawl title. Sure, it helped to get lucky along the way, but blowpar68 played a solid game and had the chips to gamble when the opportunity presented itself.

See you all this Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Can someone please explain this call?

As you probably know, Danny "THE_D_RY" Ryan is one of my favorite players. So, I'm railing him in a $200/$400 PLO Hi game when this guy donates to my boy:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5678104548: Table Brookview (6 max) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 21:52:40 ET - 2008/03/17
Seat 1: guaranteed376 ($41,089)
Seat 2: THE__D__RY ($8,000)
Seat 4: David Benyamine ($76,390.50)
Seat 5: CHUFTY ($5,098)
Seat 6: trex313 ($28,496)
guaranteed376 posts the small blind of $200
THE__D__RY posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
David Benyamine raises to $900
CHUFTY calls $900
trex313 folds
guaranteed376 folds
THE__D__RY raises to $3,800
David Benyamine calls $2,900
CHUFTY calls $2,900
*** FLOP *** [Ah 4c Jd]
THE__D__RY bets $4,200, and is all in
David Benyamine has 15 seconds left to act
David Benyamine has requested TIME
David Benyamine folds
CHUFTY calls $1,298, and is all in
THE__D__RY shows [Th Jc Ks Kh]
CHUFTY shows [9c 3d 6h 7h]
Uncalled bet of $2,902 returned to THE__D__RY
*** TURN *** [Ah 4c Jd] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 4c Jd Qs] [Qc]
THE__D__RY shows a straight, Ace high
CHUFTY shows a pair of Queens
THE__D__RY wins the pot ($14,194) with a straight, Ace high
CHUFTY is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $14,196 Rake $2
Board: [Ah 4c Jd Qs Qc]
Seat 1: guaranteed376 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: THE__D__RY (big blind) showed [Th Jc Ks Kh] and won ($14,194) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 4: David Benyamine folded on the Flop
Seat 5: CHUFTY showed [9c 3d 6h 7h] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 6: trex313 (button) didn't bet (folded)

Why the call preflop? Am I missing something?

Are there really fish at the $200/$400 game? Lord, please let me build a roll to sit in a game like this....

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Bmore's Brawl KO Leaderboard Update

The Bmore's Brawl KO Leaderboard has been updated to include results though Brawl #9.

Note: The KO Board is about 95% accurate. I've missed a couple of KOs along the way, but Full Tilt should be sending me a report on all of the KOs since we started, and once I receive it, I'll make any corrections. Please refrain from telling me any errors now. Once I get the reports from FTP, I'll post an update, and if at that point you have a question, let me know and I can forward the reports to you for review.

roccav continues to hold top spot on the KO board, but there are a lot of Brawlers that could take the lead with one good tourney...

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Bmore's Brawl Money Leaderboard Updated

The Bmore's Brawl Money Leaderboard has been updated to include all results through Brawl #9. jmlabrie18 still holds the top spot on the board, but there are a lot of Brawlers hot on his trail.

The Money Leaderboard should be 100% accurate. I'm working on the KO Leaderboard as we speak. It will be about 95% accurate, but I know I've missed a couple of KOs along the way.

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Brawl Champions to Date

I'm still waiting for a response from Full Tilt to update the Brawl Leaderboards with accurate numbers (I had to leave Brawl #8 for a family emergency), but it seems they are pretty busy lately. So, I think I'm going to go ahead and update the Leaderboards as best I can tonight, and then once I get the reports from FTP, I'll correct any mistakes.

In the meantime, I thought it would be good to put out a post on Brawl Champions to date. All of these Brawlers deserve a big round of applause for navigating through the tough competition. They are:

Brawl #1 - thebmorekid (ship that sherbet!)
Brawl #2 - jmlabrie18 (luckbox)
Brawl #3 - roccav (how did he get a win?)
Brawl #4 - jmlabrie18 (please see Brawl #2 note above)
Brawl #5 - heydaynow (forgotten about that one-outer yet?)
Brawl #6 - roccav (how did he get another win?)
Brawl #7 - Serious4 (we all have been officially punished)
Brawl #8 - NELKO (ehh...too nice a guy to poke fun at)
Brawl #9 - blowpar68 (ehhh....a lawyer so too easy to poke fun at)

Congratulations to all of our Champions to date.
Who's going to be #10?

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Profile: Stuart Paterson

The Brawl was happy to welcome Stuart Paterson as it's third guest appearance of a Full Tilt Pro.

Stuart "The Donator" Paterson has been around the game for a number of years. He started out in sports betting, and after a good session, decided to try his luck at the poker table. Like most of us, sitting down once was all it took, and he was hooked.

Wanting to take his game to the next level, he befriended poker pros like Michael Mizrachi and Josh Arieh. With their mentoring, he was able to complete transform his game. You can now see Stuart in some of the largest high-stakes cash games played on Full Tilt.

The Brawlers, once again, thank Stuart Paterson for coming out and taking some flops with us...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Can't Lock up a win at Razz

I've final tabled the nightly Razz tourney back to back nights, but a victory eludes me. I got 6th place on Friday, and this close last night:

AHHHHHHHHHH!

Why does 2nd place sting so much in a tournament? AltronIV went through the same thing in the Brawl last week. We might seem like cry-babies, but aside from the money, I'd rather finish 5th or 6th than 2nd. You're too close to victory. You can smell it. They always say that, in a poker tournament, only one person walks away truly happy. And I think the only person that can truly understand this statement, is the runner-up.

I've got to give some credit to thatslife1969. I haven't seen him at the Razz ring games, so I don't really have an indication of his game other than his performance at the final table last night. When we got three-handed, he relentlessly completed every bet if he didn't have paint showing. I felt like he was stealing a lot of "my pots" because I'd be sandwiched in-between him and the bring in holding (K,Q) 6 and have to fold.

At one point, I pokerdb'd him and saw that he had over $5k in Razz cashes, so I decided to back off and let him take out the short stack in third place. They battled back and forth a bit, but eventually he was able to felt him.

We got heads-up with pretty even stacks, and I was feeling confident that I could take the tourney down. thatslife1969 seemed to not be able to switch gears once we got heads-up, and would complete with hands like (X,X) 10 against my (A, 2) K. I'd smooth call, and then check raise when I improved on 4th, knowing he was firing 100% of the time. This got me into a lot of situations where I was drawing better heading into 5th. We traded the chip lead back and forth for a good 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, we got into a raising war when I made a 7 low on 5th against his (X, X) A, 5, 6. We both bricked 6th, and I really thought I was taking down the pot, but he tabled a 6 low, which I believe he made on 5th right along with me. It's possible he was drawing to it heading to 7th, but based on the action through the hand, I think we both were made on 5th. In any case, it was an awesome heads-up battle, and I owe thatslife1969 credit and a thank you for giving me some good heads-up experience in tournament Razz.

So here I am...a nice MTT day for me, but no victory to enjoy.


Damn Donkeys,


Bmore

Brawl Money Leaderboard Updated

The Bmore's Brawl Money Leaderboard has been updated and includes up through Brawl #8. The Money Leaderboard should be 100% accurate. I am still working on the KO Leaderboard, which will be a little tougher to get 100% correct due to the fact that I had to exit the Brawl early last week for a family emergency. I am working on getting a semi-update on the KO board posted soon, and I will verify everybody's KO count with Full Tilt once they send me the data.

See you tonight!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Omaha sucks- How would you play this?

I'll be the first one to admit that my knowledge of Omaha is limited. Nonetheless, I feel that it is adequate enough to compete in small buy-in tournaments with decent expectation. A hand in one of the Battle of the Bloggers 3 events had me questioning my understanding of basic principles. Here's a screenshot of of me going busto on, what I'm thinking, was a bad beat:

So here's the situation. It folds around to the SB, who pops me in the BB. With the double suited aces, I'm not folding. I considered calling, but I decided on a re-pop based on the value of my hand and my position if he can make the call. I've read a couple of different passages that say you must push the action with aces. Considering I was double suited, and with the above-mentioned thoughts, I re-pop the pot.

And he re-pops me to about 10,000. I don't like the raise, but I can't see laying the hand for the following reasons:

1. the value of my hand (which I may be off base with)

2. the size of the pot (getting my money in and winning gives me the chip lead)

3. I'm trying to calculate his range quickly and I can't see a lot of hands that are ahead of me (part of this thought was that the chance of him being double suited with the aces as well seemed to me like the chances of AA vs. AA in hold-em- does that make sense?) I ended up ranging him on AAxx, KKxx, double-suited broadway cards...that's about it. So, looking at my equity, I concluded:

AAxx- should be ahead of most of these because of my hand being double suited
KKxx- should be crushing these hands
double suited broadway cards- worried me a bit, but guessed that I should have decent equity against these hands (also thought that he could be sharing suits with me on some of these hands)

Okay, with seven seconds, I put this together as much as I can and come over the top. The board runs out as seen in the screenshot above and I'm out. So, my questions are:

1. Did I over play this hand?
2. What are arguments for alternative decisions?
3. If, as me, you smooth called the preflop raise, what would you do on the flop? Against a check? Against a bet? Against a check-raise?

Here's the hand history if it helps with the questions:

Full Tilt Poker Game #5599835419: Skill Series (40521358), Table 10 - 200/400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 23:30:20 ET - 2008/03/11
Seat 1: Virge (18,375)
Seat 2: thebmorekid (14,757)
Seat 3: SirFWALGMan (6,031)
Seat 4: BamBamCan (3,070)
Seat 5: Jestocost (48,434)
Seat 6: jmlabrie18 (4,136)
Seat 7: KngofKngs (10,915)
Seat 8: bayne_s (4,393)
Seat 9: KillinKegz (24,665)
Virge posts the small blind of 200
thebmorekid posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to thebmorekid [As 5s Jd Ad]
SirFWALGMan folds
BamBamCan folds
Jestocost folds
jmlabrie18 folds
KngofKngs folds
bayne_s has 15 seconds left to act
bayne_s folds
KillinKegz folds
Virge raises to 1,200
thebmorekid raises to 3,600
Virge raises to 10,800
thebmorekid raises to 14,757, and is all in
Virge calls 3,957
thebmorekid shows [As 5s Jd Ad]
Virge shows [Ac Ah 4c 3s]
*** FLOP *** [9h 8d Jc]
*** TURN *** [9h 8d Jc] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [9h 8d Jc 8c] [9c]
thebmorekid shows two pair, Aces and Nines
Virge shows a flush, Ace high
Virge wins the pot (29,514) with a flush, Ace high
thebmorekid stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 29,514 Rake 0
Board: [9h 8d Jc 8c 9c]
Seat 1: Virge (small blind) showed [Ac Ah 4c 3s] and won (29,514) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: thebmorekid (big blind) showed [As 5s Jd Ad] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines


Any comments would be greatly appreciated...


Damn Donkeys,


Bmore

Bmore's Brawl #8 Tourney Recap

Thanks to all who attend Brawl #8. I didn't get a chance to send out email reminders this past week, and combining that with a few Brawlers being up in AC for the Ceasars WSOP events, we had a relatively small turn out of 23 participants. A special welcome to HarleyFund and Stuart Paterson for making their first appearances. On to the highlights:

I believe this was the first straight flush in Brawler history:

Talk about beginner's luck!


Harleyfund would continue his good fortune in his first Brawl and get to the money. Congrats to Stuart Paterson, Harleyfund, Amstel34, xojones and NELKO for making it past the bubble. Stuart Paterson would be the first out when Amstel34 tripled up below:

Harleyfund was next to go when AK couldn't hit again:


Next out was Amstel34 when couldn't out run xojones:

This brought us to a heads-up battle between xojones and NELKO. The chip lead changed hands a couple of times, but a nice catch by NELKO on the river ended the Brawl:

Congrats to NELKO for his first victory in the Brawl. Final lobby is below:

As you may or may not know, I had to exit the Brawl early for a family emergency. A special thanks goes out to AltronIV for stepping in and documenting the rest of the Brawl for me.

This week should be fun, as we'll have some first time Brawlers getting their feet wet...

See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

New Brawler Blog

Adultswimmer has started a blog....check it out...should be an entertaining one as time goes on...

See everyone Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Profile: Keith Sexton

The Brawl was happy to welcome Keith Sexton as it's second guest appearance of a Full Tilt Pro.
Keith has been playing poker for over 30 years in Vegas. He is best known for his stud game, but has multiple WSOP cashes across all forms of the game.


Like Beth Shak last week, Keith comes from a poker playing family. All of his sons play, including Paul Sexton, who has developed into a formidable tournament player as well.


The Brawlers, once again, thank Keith Sexton for coming out and taking some flops with us...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Bmore's Brawl #7 - Brawlers Meet the Punisher

Thanks to everyone who came out last Wednesday for Brawl #7. A special thanks to xNoIdeax, Amstel34 and Keith Sexton for attending their first brawls. With the appearance of Keith Sexton, we again had special $11 KO bounty on a pro. mind27 KO'd Keith and got his full buy in back, as well as an FTP t-shirt. Congrats!

We shattered the attendance record again with 35 participants. It was a hard fought battle, but seven Brawlers made the money this week. Congrats to momX2, NELKO, adultswimmer, roccav, Amstel34, purplerain05 and Serious4. Let's recap the action...

After the money bubble burst, momX2 was the first to be eliminated when her set ran into the punishment of Serious4:

Did anyone not see that one coming?

Next out was NELKO when his AJ ran into the dominating AK of purplerain05:

adultswimmer had a nice run in the Brawl, but his tourney came to the end when Serious4 pushed the punishment button:

Shortly after that, roccav got punished when he pushed with A10s:

Amstel34 borrowed $11 to get into the Brawl from your truly. To return the favor, he cooled me with AA when I pushed with KK to bust me. After that, he made a strong showing, but went out in 3rd when Serious4 turned the punishment meter up a notch:

This left purplerain05 and Serious4 to duke it out for the title. Congrats to both of these guys, as Brawl #7 would be their first cashes, and nice ones at that. purplerain05 never had a chance though. As we all know from Thursday late nights, once the punisher is in the building, he doesn't leave until he has all the cheese and crackers. Here's the final hand:

Congrats to Serious4 for dominating the final table action and picking up his first Bmore's Brawl title. Final lobby below:



Money and KO Leaderboards are updated over on the left. I hope everyone had a good time at the Brawl. Next week should be just as exciting. See you Wednesday!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore