Ditto Left said he played like a Pro, and finished in the money at this very tough tourney. Congrats to MS. CP
He's good! Monkey has one of the best minds in the BJ tournament world at present. Last hand in the semis his only competitor tried to outsmart him. DIDN'T WORK! (not degrading the other guy as he is a good player also) Billy C
Curt's Revenge I don't remember the exact bankrolls, but the size of the lead was critical and I remember that. Bet range 50-500 in increments of 10. Starting bankrolls 2,000. No surrender, except early surrender against dealer ace only. No insurance offered. 2:1 BJ. Face down orientation. Power chip available, but cannot be used to replace cards in the starting hand. You can peek at your double down card without spending your power chip. Last hand. One Advance. Tough Player still had power chip. I didn't have mine. Tough Player had been using a minimum bet strategy most of the round, until he needed to make different bets. He played strong. =>Tough Player 2,120 bet 390, tucked starting hand (quickly) Me 2,000 bet 260, cards 9,7 ? Dealer 2 After thinking about it for what seemed like an eternity I decided to tuck instead of doubling down. There was nothing mathematical at all about my reasoning. I decided the odds of a dealer deuce beating Tough Player's quickly tucked hand was better than the odds of my hard 16 double down beating a deuce. I was pretty sure Tough Player had a good hand, but the double down looked pretty weak. Pure guesswork. Dealer turned a 10 then hit it with a 5 (which would have locked it for me if I had doubled!) Tough Player had hard 12. Just a few hands before that I was down to just a little over 1,000 and Tough Player had about 2,000. A third player still had a few chips. I decided with the button to my left to bet 500 and use my power chip in a double down. Got hard 14, doubled practically all-in, peeked at a useless 10, and replaced it, spending my power chip. Dealer got 20, but then turned my double down card and it was the miracle 7! It's better to be lucky than good.
Luck is Good! And the cheering section went wild! Congratulations MS. It was nice seeing everyone again. Pill
The crowd around that semi-final table was definitely pro-Monkey and I think that played a role in Strong Player's decision to insta-tuck his hard 12 on the final hand. I'd have probably done the same thing, although his position in seat 1 would have made it possible to check his cards while keeping them covered. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for him to think that one of us might see his cards, somehow signal that to our hero, and give an unfair advantage. He tucked so fast that none of us saw what he had. Of course, we wouldn't have done anything like that because it's cheating, but I can see how he might have been worried about it. Monkeysystem played like the BJT Assassin that he is, it was only the avalanche of horrible cards which relegated him to 7th place at the final table. It was really quite excellent to see everyone again! On Sunday evening, after the BJT was over, there was a highly boisterous crowd of BJT.com friends monopolizing a 25-cent roulette table - and monopolizing the waitress' time as well. Everyone was thoroughly enjoying those wicked 24-ounce beers, except for Monkeysystem.... and ask him about "blueberry beer" sometime. One local lady swooped in to put $10 on the nose on one number and we all piled right on top of her bet. When it actually came in (!), I think they heard the whoopin' and hollerin' all the way into the hotel lobby. What a riot!!! Deb and I hadn't made our decision on the Meskwaki/Ignace question before this past weekend, but we have now. Some things happened outside of the tournament itself that tipped the scale in favor of the longer drive to Iowa in October.
A job well done Monkey. That semi-final round was well played by all. On the last hand you posted the perfect bet and made all of the right decisions possible to advance to the final table! And of course... a little help from the dealer was timed perfect for you as well. Congrats!
