If
such things were possible, I'd say Charlie Tuttle probably enjoyed the ringing
of Thor's Hammer in the tournament played in his honor this eve. There were
at least three notable one's I'm aware of - two from yours truly.
I witnessed a particular brutal one exacted against Al - I let him tell that tale.
And then there was my semi-hammer suckout against Shelley. I say "semi" 'cause I didn't raise it up pre-flop, thus putting it outside the definition of a true hammer play. In fact this should be a lesson to limpers everywhere - I was in the big blind and had the pot been raised pre-flop, I would have been outta there. The flop - [3h Qs 4c] - was checked. The turn brought an ace - giving me a straight draw. But I decided to semi-bluff to try to steal the pot - Shelley raised 3x my bet. I called - which was a terrible move! Now had the raise been bigger - I'm certain I would have mucked. There was T-5900 in the pot and I called a T-1700 bet. I do believe the pot was not offering me the right amount to make that call - - lol. The river brought me the miracle [5h ] for the rivered straight.
Now I played it from the angle of extracting what I could and bet out T-5000. Shelley pushed and I knocked her out. She'd had [As Js]. I really didn't feel good about that one. I got lucky on a badly played hand and sucked out. Sorry, Shell. A good opponent deserves a better exit than that.
The third hammer was, again, mine. At the final table I'd been crippled by a few lost races and bested hands. With only about 5K remaining of my stack, I received the hammer when under the gun. I nearly mucked, when I thought - there's no better way to go out in this particular tournament. I pushed and got two callers - Decker got all the chips and I was out in 5th.
Congratulations to Sarahbellum - a piece of Maudie goes to you - check the post below and select the photograph you would like to have. E-mail me at maudie DOT b AT gmail DOT com with your address and I'll ship it ASAP.
I had fun - and played mostly good poker... it was an honor to reach the final table in a event played for a such worthy cause and I believe a fitting send off for our lost comrade.
