I almost regret it.....

But in my heart of hearts.....I am pretty proud!!! It is bittersweet. At the risk of sounding like an idiot I feel kind of bad saying I took out DoubleAs with the hammer. He is my "online poker hero" and being such, I almost feel like I disrespected him by using the hammer to deliver the killing blow. Frankly, I would have been happy with myself for going 119 hands with this successful mid stakes NL player.

The match I had most anticipated went down like this:

I signed on and saw DoubleAs and DNasty13 playing games already. I sat down to try my hand at some .50/1.00 NL and was promptly stuck for $25. I hung around for awhile, but did not improve much. I checked to see if DNasty was still on and noticed he was in a SNG. DoubleAs was in the same one.....coincidence? I think not!! I fired up their table to railbird and when I came in, D was at a serious disadvantage. He never caught up and DoubleAs took it home. We agreed to play next.

I did not really have time to be nervous. I have been running very strong at the HU matches and feel that I have found a winning style with these. I enjoy them very much and I feel that for low stakes, it is the closest to the high stakes games you will get as far as real strategy. You can actually think, not just play the premium hands. I honestly feel that HU is the strongest part of my game right now, I need to find a way to parlay that into success in bigger games. But I digress... this was the match that I was looking forward too the entire challenge. Even if I was slaughtered, I would have been happy to have played with DoubleAs. Outside of a tournament, this is the only game that my bankroll can afford to get into with DoubleAs. All of this was going through my mind up until the "Ding, Ding, Ding".

The game was good. We settled into a good match with an amazing frequency of split pots with the same hand. We had the same hand at showdown at least three times and split several more pots. Despite my aggressive efforts, DoubleAs took a pretty commanding chip lead. I was worried he might have some sort supernatural read on me, but I was able to bluff him off a few pots and got back close to even. The battle raged on. Around hand 100, I came back and took a small lead. I don't think I was ever more than 400 chips ahead, but I was proud that I had come back from around 600 chips to even. Then it happened.

Hand #7952280-119 at SnG-0005k (No Limit Hold'em Sit and Go)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 25/Aug/05 22:00:39

DoubleAs is at seat 0 with 1310.
steelerjosh is at seat 1 with 1690.
The button is at seat 0.

DoubleAs posts the small blind of 30.
steelerjosh posts the big blind of 60.

DoubleAs: -- --
steelerjosh: 2d 7h (what's this, the hammer?!?!)

Pre-flop:
DoubleAs calls. steelerjosh checks. (free flop with the hammer, fo sho)

Flop (board: Kd 7c Qs): (Wouldn't it be sweet if a duece dropped on the turn?)

steelerjosh checks. DoubleAs checks.

Turn (board: Kd 7c Qs 2c): (Sweet mother of god....)

steelerjosh checks. DoubleAs bets 120. steelerjosh
raises to 480. DoubleAs goes all-in for 1250.
steelerjosh calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

DoubleAs shows Kh 4s. (This is my moment, he had exactly what I wanted him to have. If a 4 drops on the river, I will probably cry.)
steelerjosh shows 2d 7h.


River (board: Kd 7c Qs 2c Tc):

Showdown:

DoubleAs has Kh Kd 7c Qs Tc: a pair of kings.
steelerjosh has 2d 7h Kd 7c 2c: THE HAMMER!


Hand #7952280-119 Summary:
steelerjosh wins 2620 with two pair, sevens and deuces.

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Thank you DoubleAs and HighOnPoker for making all this possible, I will recall this hand fondly for quite awhile. It was a rare event (like a Browns victory) and it must be savored and retold. Thank you bloggers for introducing me to the hammer. Ironically, it was a link off of DoubleAs blog to www.72off.cjb.net that convinced me of the power of the Best Damn Hand in Poker!!