World Blogger Championship Results

Yesterday (Sunday, June 18th) was the 2nd Annual World Blogger Championship on Pokerstars. The tournament started at 4:00pm, but I thought it started at 6:00pm. However, my buddy sent me a text at 4:30 asking how I was doing in the tournament, to which I replied "What tournament?".

After figuring out he was talking about the Blogger Tournament, I fired up my computer and logged on to PokerStars. I'm not sure what the starting stack size was, but I'm guessing it was 2,500 as my stack was down to about 1,950. The first had I was dealt was AA, an omen of good things to come.

I started off playing aggressive figuring I'd either get a decent stack to play with or bust out and hang out with the family. I was able to quickly get my stack up to around 3,500 with good cards and good flops. One hand that sticks out im my head was Q10 which I called a raise. I flopped an open ended straight draw and called a big bet by my only opponent (very clearly a really loose call!). The turn made me my straight and we got all the money in. My straight held up against his top 2 pair. This hand put me up to 8,500±.

From this point I kept catching cards and was able to run my stack up to 15,500±. Continuing my loose play, my stack dropped to 9,000, 7,000 and then to 3,000. I was all-in, and double up t0 7,000±. To say the least it was a yo-yo tournament for my stack. Fast forward, I was able to run my stack up to 25,000. Then a huge hand came up. The big stack at the table had just lost a big hand, and came in for a raise the very next hand. I was dealt A6 suited on the button and called the raise. The flop was perfect, giving me the nuts. The tilting player then pushed the rest of his stack (had me covered) and doubled me up with his QJ offsuit. I was now 9th in chips in the entire tournament with 58,000±.

As the blinds climbed, and I missed some flops, my stack was back down to 28,000 (about half the average stack) with 65 players left, the top 54 get prizes. I decided that I had a very minimal chance to go really deep (final table) and set my sites on "cashing". I was able to fold my way into the money (at one point folding AQ suited) and had about 17,000 as the bubble burst. With 48 players left I raised consecutive hands with Ax, winning the blinds and antes (about 11k each hand) increasing my stack to 36,000. A few hands later I pushed with QQ and was called by AK. My queens held up and I was up to my tournament high point of 85,000 and in 21st out of 41 players remaining.

A couple of ill timed bets/raises and I was back down to 38,000. With the blinds at 6,000-12,000 and a 200 ante, I was dealt AJ spades and pushed. I was dominated as I was called by AQ, but held some hope as I flopped a flush draw. However, my run ended as I bricked the turn and river. I went out in 28th place, good enough for a 4GB Ipod Nano (too bad I already have one).

Thats my (long) story, and I'm sticking to it.