Weeeeeeee

I had a blast at the Mookie last night, and I only finished in the upper-middle of the pack.
Practically everyone who's a who in the poker blogging world was there. I was honestly bummed I didn't get to say hi to most of them, even though they really don't know me very well. I swear at times I feel like I'm the kid running around the turf with a scorecard and a pen before baseball's all-star game.
Congrats to Miami Don for going back-to-back on Mookie titles. That's an amazing accomplishment, especially against such a tough field.
I didn't get many cards last night, and the hands I did play generally played wiffle ball. Three highlights:
• The second-place finisher in the Mookie, oossuuu754 (what's your blog?), tries to push me off with A,Q and I re-raise all in with A,K. Runner, runner two pair on the board and we chop it. If he loses that hand he's severely crippled. I point this out only to show the fascinating nature of these tournaments. A double up would have helped me a lot there and probably knocked him out early. Instead I had to play shortstack poker for most of the night, and oossuuu754 used his second chance to play excellent poker down the stretch and finish second in his first Mookie and one of the toughest fields ever. I can think of many times I've won a tournament or lost a tournament based on the outcome of one hand. When I won the Mookie, I won several coinflips that would have sent me home.
It's what makes the game so great, but it's also what keeps me humble. Those who think about how brilliant they are at tournament poker need to remember this.
• A shortie simply pushes with an M of 10 in late position. I'm in first position with a pair of 10s and I had limped. Many of you may disagree with this move, but I wanted to see what the rest of the table would do before I decided how far I wanted to push a semi-strong pair. I put the shortie, based on that action, on a small pair and I think my 10s are good. I call. She has JJ. Oops. Trash flop. I turn a 10. Bingo! She gets a J on the river.
That sucked but I had no right to complain so I didn't. I was behind to begin with, so a little justice was delievered there.
• I sucked out with K,Q on an all in versus K,A when a Q hits the flop. My suckout ratio improves to 9-1 against. Still, I felt bad, as I always hate it when that happens to me.
I went out when I pushed with A,J sooted in the cutoff. The button has QQ. I really hate A,J but my M was four and I was hoping they would fold when it was over to me. I had two of my suit on the turn but no luck.

Three questions:
• How often should I steal in the later portion of the matches, and what do you consider stealing hands, as I still prefer to have something in case I'm called.
• What's your range of all in pushes with an M of 5 or less? The problem with A,J is it might be dominated, where if you have 9,10 your cards are probably live. So do you prefer still pushing with something like a fairly strong A or something that has a greater chance of being live but may not hold up as the high card if no one hits?
• Is it possible to final table a tournament like the Mookie and be for the most part card dead? My game still relies on me getting good cards and hitting flops, even though I have learned to bluff and steal with regularity. How much does your game rely on getting good cards? And am I weak because of that?

I had an awesome time last night. It would be great to see a turnout like that again. Perhaps my personal highlight was talking metal with Bad Blood and AlCan'tHang. I would love, at some point, to play a poker match with those two and maybe Speaker and just talk about metal music. That sounds pretty dorky, I realize, but that's basically what our home game is like every month and I have a blast.
I went out in the second chance HORSE match when my 7 in razz lost to a 6 at the final table. Ugh. I had a much better starting hand but the guy got perfect, perfect, perfect while I was delivered a set of bricks.

P.S. Happy 200th post to me.