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#480 – Same Story, Ending Yet Unwritten – Part II – FTOPS and the Allure of the Home Game
I was also thinking that maybe I’ve thrown off my FTOPS jinx, though that was a very new feeling. My first event, the $200 + $16 NLHE, started like most opening FTOPS events: I didn’t get cards, I lost a hunk when a crappy hand in the blind turned into something good but someone else made better, and then got my last chips in with a good hand, but ran into a better one. It seems every opening event starts with me never having a chance.
Then my second event, the $200 + $16 NLHE 6-handed shootout, when just like a lot of my second events have gone. I made it through my first table fast and easily, then got heads-up at my second table against Crazy Marco, a successful online player. He had a big chip lead, though I erased almost all of that. I felt I was playing well and was just one player – a skilled one, but one I was going to beat – from making the money, the final 36, and a shot at the Really Big Dough. We went at it heads-up for awhile but in the end I went out with J-9 when there were two nines on the flop. Marco had the case nine, and he had an ace to go with it. Jinxed, like always.
By the way, these events were SMOKIN’. They pegged the first event, on a Wednesday night, for 5,000 entries and easily exceeded it. Event #3, that shootout, had a maximum of 1,296 entries. It filled up eons before, ended up with a waiting list in the hundreds, and spawned a last-minute “Not FTOPS Event #3″ $100 + $9 shootout that got over 500 entries. (I finished in the money in that one, and was cruising toward the final table when I lost in the REVERSE of the situation in the FTOPS shoutout. I had 7-4 in the big blind of an unraised pot and hit 7-4-3 on the flop. I bet the flop and, after making top-full-house with another seven, the turn. My opponent, who had limped with 8-7o, hit an eight on the river to make a higher full house and bust me.)
For some reason, I was in a good mood for my fourth event, $200 + $16 Stud. So good that I started goofing around with two excellent players at my table, gobboboy (Jimmy Fricke) and ckingusc (Carter King). On the very first hand, I had rolled up aces and Fricke had enough of a hand to call all the way.
Dealer: Michael Craig shows [As Ah Ad 3c Js Kd 9c] three of a kind, Aces
Dealer: Michael Craig wins the pot (525)
gobboboy: just rolled up? that’s all?
Michael Craig: hey, it’s rigged, right?
gobboboy: crazy red pros
A few minutes in, I asked Jimmy, who I really don’t know (other than by reputation and sitting next to him at a WSOP-Europe event), if he was going to London again.
Michael Craig: jimmy, you going to be in London again this year?
gobboboy: original plans said yes but I dunno at this point
Michael Craig: you were seated to left on Day 1 of the HORSE last year.
gobboboy: london is so expensive
gobboboy: yeah I remember
gobboboy: that tournament was so fun
gobboboy: I want to play it again
gobboboy: really badly
Michael Craig: i think you especially killed me in stud … so i guess now we’re even [referring to my opening hand of rolled-up aces]
gobboboy: lol
gobboboy: I’m sorry I clowned you. I was so raw in those games
gobboboy: but I really doubt it was in stud hi
gobboboy: I was ridiculously carddead in stud hi that whole tournament
gobboboy: I think I played like two hands
Michael Craig: i think you played them against me.
gobboboy: haha
gobboboy: might have
gobboboy: that table was the one with marco traniello right?
Michael Craig: either yes or he got moved to it.
gobboboy: I really liked that tournament. I’d certainly like to play it again this year since I’ve practiced the games so much more. But I dunno if it’s worth it.
Michael Craig: i don’t think we played together this WSOP … though i heard your name a lot going deep
gobboboy: I had a few good runs but nothing amazing
Michael Craig: I had a few good runs, most of which ended before the money
I even used my favorite line when I’m at a table of good players.
Michael Craig: hey, you know I’m looking around this table and I can’t find the sucker.
Michael Craig: you know what i think that means?
Michael Craig: this could be one of those rare sucker-free tables!
gobboboy: <—————-
gobboboy: you missed the hardest one to miss
ckingusc: <—- def the sucker
gobboboy: ya but I’m already stuck 450
Michael Craig: oh c’mon, the amount i’ve won in FTOPS is a rounding error to you two.
ckingusc: lol
ckingusc: but im a holdem donk so all good
Michael Craig: whew, can’t wait until we switch games
Michael Craig: oh … never mind
In the first hand I played with Carter King, I had hidden jacks and managed to hit two MORE jacks on fifth and sixth streets.
Michael Craig: rolled up aces and quads in the first 15 minutes. I think i’m peaking way too early
gobboboy: Easy game.
Michael Craig: gobbo, cking – i’ll make you guys a REVERSE last longer bet if you want?
gobboboy: A last shorter bet?
gobboboy: hmm
Michael Craig: yes
gobboboy: I’ll pass. =P
Michael Craig: that’s how much confidence i have in you kids.
ckingusc: very misplaced 
ckingusc: as the last few hands have shown
We were having a grand time. Well, thanks to getting run over by the deck, at least I was. Fortuitously, I put both these excellent players out of the tournament, built up a lot of chips, made it into the money, played one hand stupid, then got very unlucky. I finished 39th, worth $627. Granted, I’d have needed to finished first or second to erase nine FTOPS worth of losses, and I was still twenty bucks underwater for this FTOPS. Minus-twenty-bucks is thousands of dollars better than I’ve ever concluded an FTOPS.
But when I joined the $12,500 Guarantee on Saturday morning, I was feeling mighty pleased with myself. For 5 1/2 hours, with no shoes, no shirt, having not taken a shower, I sat there in my messy offices, with a desperate memo from my accountant telling my if I didn’t get him the information by Monday, there was no way my 2007 taxes could be filed, I ran roughshod over a field of 232. I was among the chip leaders for the last three hours, had more than twice the chips of anyone else when we were six-handed, and destroyed my heads-up opponent.
So this is my conundrum: where else can I make $6,000 in a day, inside my own house, without taking a shower or putting on shoes or a shirt? I think I’m stuck in poker for at least a little while longer, though I keep looking around ….
