Tonight I took on HeffMike UPDATED

 

I will break U Heff - Just not tonight.

Tonight was my Heads Up Challenge with Heff Mike.  We hooked up about 9pm and the plan was for me to join a game and he'd follow.  Well as soon as I joined a game, someone else named Claudia did too.  So I had to play him/her first.  Luckily she sucked.  I kept raising and she kept folding, and 10 minutes into it I had my first win under my belt.  Onto Heff Mike!

Heff Mike has a great (and factual recap) on his post which I just stole and copied below.  Please enjoy!

Cliffs: Very Josie HU challenge ends up 2-2. Best results for a challenger so far, sounds good to me.

Game 1 - back and forth for about 50 hands, I limp KQo at 20/40 down a bit, we see a 987 all spade flop, I have the Ks, and I check/call a pot bet. Turn's a blank, I check/shove into Josie's T6s, no spade - only the flopped second nut straight. I do not get there on the river. Down 0-1.
Game 2 - much quicker, four hands in, I raise AA to 2.5xBB, Josie 3x's that, I flat. Flop comes J77, she checks, I lead, she raises, I wonder, for realz? - and go ahead and shove. Josie calls with AJs, and I hold. Three hands later I manage to get her last 40 chips and even things up.



Game 3 - another quick one, Josie raises her button, I repop with ATo, she calls. Flop 987 with two spades, I check and it checks through. Turn 5c, I check, Josie pots it, and I make an ill-advised jam... right into Ts8s for the flopped straight flush draw with middle pair. I whiff the river again. Down 1-2..
Game 4 - This was the marathon - over 120 hands.. early on I raise JJ and Josie jams, I decide to flip and hold vs. AQo - so I've got her down to 180 chips and this should be OVAR, right...?
Well, I decide to be careful and not double her up too easily - eventually I minraise AKo, get her to shove A3o for 12BB and get fourflushed on the river - and after that, I get into the worst carddead stretch ever. I don't even hold bluffcatchers, I can't make a hand, and she starts climbing back... first to even, and then I'm down 3-1.
To be honest, I'm not sure what I could have done about it. Put it this way, I was fairly sure I was getting outplayed and outflopped. But, maybe I'm starting to learn some patience and not force the issue when things aren't going my way. I waited, waited, and finally got it in good preflop with TT vs. A4s and 77 vs. A8o and held both times to finally even things up at 2-2.
Since things were running so long (it took an hour to play 4 matches) we left things at that, dead even - which is probably for the best... I felt very evenly matched. I didn't even mind losing the two games the way I did, b/c I probably would have tried to get it in on the flop if I was playing more aggressively anyway.
I did change up how I usually play HU, and I noticed Josie changing gears at times as well. Mad, silly credit to her for cockroaching in the last game from T180 to a 3-1 lead. I wouldn't mind doing it again to break the tie - but to be honest, we both should probably be playing other people HU a lot more than each other.

My version (without the facts)

Nothing too exciting to report.  I won the first game, but it was quite a battle.  2nd game I lost fairly quickly when I flopped Jxx and was holding ace jack.  Unfortunately Heff was holding AA and it was gg josie.  Then after another good battle I won the 3rd game so I was  up a game....and we started the 4th game.

It lasted for almost an hour and for about 10 minutes into the Mookie.  I was down to about 160 chips and scratched and clawed my way back to over 2k.  I really wanted the win and played good heads up poker till I made one donkey move.  Calling his all in with A-4.  Why?  Truly I do not know, but I doubled him up and it brought me down to about 500 chips and I just kinda gave up.  Blah.

So we have 2 wins each, but I really felt like Heff didn't win that so much as I lost it.  Blah.  He played well but I played better.  Honest to God.  Even steven kinds sucks when your up in the beginning, and doesn't truly depict the awesomeness of my play BUT, if he isn't too scared, I'd like a rematch.  Any time. 

And Heff was right - I did keep changing up my play but it wasn't quite enough to beat him. The other thing I did was trash talk ALOT, but it didn't phase him.  Cool as a cucumber.  Now remember guys, when I trash talk during a game, I really don't mean it.  :)

So who's up next in the Heads Up Challenge Queue?  Well XKM is a guy who gave me most of his chips tonight during the mookie and we were chatting about a little heads up match.  Well X?  Whaddaya think?

If there is anyone else with any balls and poker skills (I find that combo to be extremely rare in men) just leave me a comment. You can try your luck (you're going to need it) against Very Josie.

But before you start commenting here is the history:

Lightning - kicked his ass

Waffles - kicked his little ass

Claudia - kicked her/his ass

HeffMike - 2 for 2 (I cannot wait to change this status to an ass kicking)

So really no one has beaten me yet.  Can you?  Or will you be another name added to my list?

On the Mookie front.  SUCK

I was playing awesomely and hurt XKM when I flopped the nut flush, while he flopped the Q high flush.  Not pretty.  Anyway i kept adding to my stack and became the chip leader at the final table.  Down to 7 and Jordan raises my blind.  I have A-9 (yes, ace rag, I KNOW) and call.  The flop is A-9-4 rainbow.  Bet, raise, reraise all in, instacall.  Jordan turns over A-A.  Fuck me.  I was talking to the laptop saying "He has trips" but damn I didn't think he had trip aces!

Frigging Jordan.  He doesn't even have me on his blog roll.  :P  Reminds me of a little story.  Do you have a minute?

When I started blogging (so fresh faced and innocent) I had a bit of a run in with Jordan.  :) It all worked out in the end and I asked him to put me on his blog roll.  He sent me a very nice email explaining that he doesn't put just anyone on his blog roll (I am paraphrasing) so he couldn't now but would revisit the decision in a few months.

Okay.......

Fast forward to about a month ago.  Jordan sends me an email saying (and I am paraphrasing) that he's opening his blog roll to a wider range of people, like letting more in and was thinking of me specifically - did I want to link swap now?

I dunno why, but that bothered me.  Never gave him a real yes or no.  It seemed like my blog didn't cut the mustard then.  I suppose I shouldn't have let my ego get in the way, yet I did.

Hmmmm

Play smart.

Josie