4th in the MATH

My first final table and cash in the MATH. Good times.
It was an interesting night. I was busto so I had to make a deposit into FT to even get into the MATH last night. I started by playing in the token frenzy and got knocked out early. Then I played in a $8 two table token game and again busted out. About this time I was figuring I should have just not planned on playing in the MATH since I had never done well in it anyways. But I wasted some time at a low limit cash game and made some quick cash against a guy slow playing his rockets.(Does that ever work?)

So I buy into the MATH and was seated at a very entertaining table. FT seems to want to put Smokkee and Waffles at the same table in every tourney. Sure enough they were on opposite sides of the table and then it happened. Jordan took out Waffles on the river on a 10 outer. Everyone knows Waffles and how he loves to rant but the man would not let it go. I'm sure you've all seen it on someones blog already so no need for me to go into the conversation.
I chipped up early and then gave them away and then did the same thing a couple more times. After I donked off a good amount of chips to Smokkee when I didn't believe that he could possibly have been dealt an ace in the BB. I had a pocket nines and bet into an ace high flop. He raised back and I called him off. Then he made a comment that just stuck with me. Something along the lines of 'Everyone knows Buddy can't lay down a pair.' Now I was in no way insulted by this because that has been a problem of mine for some time. And even though I acknowledged this issue a long time ago, it doesn't stop me from continuing to make these calls. But what it did do was make me reevaluate my playing style right then and there and think about who I am up against in this game. I tightened it up, won some races and got to the final table.
Now that I was at the final table I made a few more adjustments to my game because only 6 were paid. Astin was on my right and he was playing very aggressively. And there were actually 3 or 4 more people who were doing this as well. This was a good thing for me. Sure enough we had a lot of action a soon after we were down to 7. This took quite awhile to burst the bubble but I laid down some great hands just trying to make the money. After winning a big pot I was dealt AK UTG+1 and was still jittery from the last hand so I chucked them. The next hand UTG I was again dealt AK and figured I'm just being stupid throwing these choice hands away. I make the raise and everyone folds. Shortly after that I threw away jacks preflop to a big raise.
But all in all I felt I was playing fairly well. I even tried to take out a short stack with snowmen but he calls with Q8o and sure enough he gets the four flush on the river, with the 8 no less. After the bubble burst, play opened up a bit and we got rid of another. Right after that I get AQo and push after a raise from Astin and he calls with K8s. The board comes KKx with an ace on the turn to tease me but the river is no help.
I had a good time playing and am glad to finally getting some points again for the BBT. When it all started I was out of the gate quick and sitting in 3rd for awhile but recently dropped down to 8th place. This finish only puts me up to 7th but at least it keeps me in the running.


In other news. I've been toying with the idea of helping out Mookie with his live blogging on Wednesdays. But I want to take it a step further and do streaming broadcast coverage of the game. Not sure it will all work out of be of interest to anyone but I'm going to give it a shot. If not this Wednesday then most likely the next.