Friday, August 19, 2005

168 Hand marathon

Whew. My brain is swollen right now, please forgive any typo/grammatical errors. I just played the best HU match of my challenge so far, 168 hands with Mourn. It was up and down for both of us with each over 2k in chips a couple times. There was a spectacular suckout, multiple hammer drops (hallmark of a good blogger match), and almost a thrilling comeback. I think that Mirimax just called me for the rights, I am smelling a mini series on ESPN called "Heads Up" with the Matador and the Buckeye....

Recap. It started slowly with each competitor taking a few jabs, probing the opponent's defenses. It never escalated out of control, just a controlled pounding like two well matched heavyweights. I am not promoting myself to the level of skill of Mourn, but for this game, for tonight, we were equals. I took an early chip lead, but just about the point I started feeling comfortable, it swung the other way. I slowly chipped back up and had a comfortable lead again when Mourn pushed with all in. I had him well covered, a loss would still leave me over 1500. I looked at 55 and called. He flipped 22 and I was relieved. I had earlier predicted my win with a diamond flush, and was alarmed a little when the flop contained 2 diamonds and the turn was a diamond. Funny how the poker gods like to feed you your own words. I got that uh oh feeling, but the river was not the dreaded diamond... it was a 2. Doh! Mourn apologized (unnecessarily, he risked all his chips) and I soldiered on, a little stunned. We hung around the 1500 mark until well over hand 100. At hand 157 I got a big chunk of Mourn with pocket 77 and a 7 on the flop. He had 87 and was betting into me. He called my all in bet and was not happy to see my set. The board paired on the river giving me the salt in the wound full house.

Getting winded near the end of the marathon, Mourn almost made a stunning comeback. He went all in with ~100 chips and doubled up against my A high. Next hand, same result. Back up to almost 400 chips, I was concerned. Eventually, it ended. Almost anti-climatically... so much that I don't even remember the last hand.

Thanks for the best poker yet Mourn, that match will be up in my all time favorites and I can only hope for as good a match against DoubleAs.

3 comments:

Mourn said...

You outplayed me start to finish. You actually have a style that really bothers me, but is employed by very few people. Yet nearly everytime I run into it, it hoses me. I'm not even going to explain it because I don't want anyone else picking up on it before this is over.

You played a great match, I was lucky it lasted as long as it did.

Jordan said...

Steel, I'm going to make an effort to be online at 9pm tonight to play against you in the HUC. Hopefully you can make it.

Jordan said...

You can't hide from me, Steel. I'm going to be online again tonight. Find me, if you dare.