First Blood

Tonight's tournament line-up:

Full Tilt Daily Double A
Full Tilt Daily Double B
PokerStars $4.40 PLO-8

Things started off well when I doubled up on the fourth hand of the Daily Double A.



Then things went a bit backward when this guy shoved over my LP raise.



I couldn't get much going after that and ended up going busto in this blind versus blind confrontation.



So much for hitting both of the Daily Doubles.



I had a similar fast start in the Daily Double B.



Apparently presto is not gold when up against a straight draw / flush draw combo. There weren't really a lot of memorable hands after that. Just grinding, grinding, grinding away. I exited the tournament on a relatively standard flip after shoving over a MP raiser.



It wasn't all for naught, however, as I managed to make a small cash in the Daily Double B.



That's my first tournament score for The Challenge II. Sure, it's not astounding, but I'm on the board. $16.34 prize / 13.68% finish.

I managed to put together an even deeper run (3.48% finish) in the PLO $4.40 PLO-8 tournament, but for a slightly smaller prize $14.80.



My first big hand was when I nailed the flush portion of a flopped nut flush draw / OESD in a multi-way pot to take down the high half.



I had a bit of a set-back when this guy limp shoved with this gem of a hand.



The funniest part about omaha-8 is watching people betting into other players when all they really have is a low. Those antics got someone quartered in the following hand.



I got to "announce" StB's favorite words after this hand.



NUT NUT!

Things started to go a bit downhill after that hand, as I was missing flops or missing flopped draws while my stack was whittled away. A timely double, however, kept me in the game.



Although I flopped the nut flush draw and the low draw in the following hand, I ended up getting only half.



The following hand was pretty interesting because I open-shoved and got called in 4 spots. The villain in the SB potted the flop, pushing out the other two players. I will never know if one of the other two players held a 4, but if they did, thanks Itsinmyblood!



I was still relatively short at that point and finally took a stand with this hand.



I'm beginning to think the cheapie PLO-8 tournaments on PokerStars are going to be sweet spots for me as The Challenge II continues.