mookie99

Congratulations to Lucko21 for winning the first Mookie of 2009 a couple of weeks back and adding title #4 to his collection.  You can find his past profiles on The Mookie Winners page.  Here is his latest profile…

Champion: Lucko21

Blog: Luckownage

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Q: What would you do with all your extra time if online poker was suddenly made illegal and there were no work arounds to play? (Submitted by cmitch)

Lucko: Probably find a new hobby and get addicted to that.  Before poker I used to play a ton of pool.  Now, I barely ever pick up a stick even tho I have a pool table in my living room.  Maybe Madden, I still love that game.

Q: Besides Hold’em, what is your favorite poker game and can it or any other game be featured on television? (Submitted by OhCaptain)

Lucko: High Low Roll Your Own.  It’s def my favorite poker game and would love to see sites offer it.  It’s a stud hilo game where you get to decide which cards are your up cards.  It’s a super fun game with lots of strategy and lots of action.  I doubt it would ever do well on TV tho.

Q: Other than on the bubble in a satellite, have you ever folded KK or QQ preflop? (Submitted by NumbBono)

Lucko: Not counting hands where I timed out in the bathroom or something, I haven’t folded KK and probably won’t be anytime soon.  I have definitely folded QQ preflop, but it’s not something I do a lot of.  I probably should have in the $500 FTP Million this past Sunday, but didn’t.  I ended up in a decent spot, 3 way all-in vs AKs and Jacks.

Q: How/why did you get started blogging and playing these tournaments? (Submitted by pvanharibo)

Lucko: I got started blogging as a way to track how I was doing.  I started reading Pauly’s blog before I even knew what the word blog meant.  Pauly, Change and a few others that I was reading back then were pimping the WBPT and I decided to play a few.  I won the POY my first year, which was a big deal in the blogger community before the BBT existed.

Q: Live or online, when put to the test for all your chips, what percentage of your choice is “poker knowledge/experience”, and what percentage is “intuition/read”? (Submitted by emptyman)

Lucko: Probably 95% poker knowledge/experience and 5% intuition/read.   I am not a soul reader and don’t really try to be.  If I do have a strong read or feel one way or the other, I will follow it.  Mostly, I just play each situation how I think it should be played best if I was in that same spot 100 times.

Q: If you could change one thing for the better in the poker industry — whether it be a tournament rule, a business practice, media coverage, player etiquette, or anything else — what would you choose and why? (Submitted by PirateLawyer)

Lucko: It would have to be legalizing and regulating on line poker in the US.  What happened with UB and AP should never happen.  And them 100% getting away with it is a joke. I really think less of everyone who still plays on these sites.

Q: Describe the best played hand of your poker career. (Submitted by Loretta8)

Lucko: There are a couple I could put I guess, but there is one from the 2007 WSOP that was a fun hand.  With blinds 100-200, a woman in early position limped and I looked down and JTs and raised it up.  She was terrible and I was looking to play some pots in position vs her since we were both deep.  A solid played called on the button, which I wasn’t happy about.  The limper also called.  I started the hand with about 27k, limper had about 20k and button covered.

Flop came a very nice JJ3r.  The limper checked and I bet about 1600 into a 2400 chip pot.  The button raised it small to about 3500 and the limper folded, which put me in an interesting spot.   I had to think about the button’s range.  He definitely could have me beat with a better Jack or pocket 3s.  He could have hand like TT-55 and think it’s good.  He could have air and is trying to take it away from me on this XXY flop.  So If I raise I would be in a world of hurt if I am beat and if I am good, he is folding almost everything except maybe J9s if that is even in his range.  So I called.

The turn was a fantastic Ten, which now gave me the nuts.  I checked it to the button and he bet 5,000.  Now I wasn’t worried anymore about having the second best hand, I was only trying to figure out the best way to get max value.   I had about 18,000 behind and wanted to double.  So I went through his range again in my head.  If he has AJ or 33, I can play it anyway I want and probably get doubled.  If I he has KJ or QJ, shoving or raising here might give him a chance to make some jedi-like fold.  If he has 99-55, I probably can’t get any more out of him anyway.  If he has air, I might be able to get him to bluff the river.

So, I figured calling and checking the river was the best line.  All the hands that might call my raise on the turn definitely would value bet the river when checked too, pretty much committing them to the hand as well.  And if he had air or a smaller pair, it was really my only shot at value anyway.  So I tanked and tanked and tanked.  I took about 5 minutes before I called.  I definitely wanted him betting the river, so I wanted to look as weak as I could.

River was a brick, and I checked.  He bet 7,000 and I took about 20 seconds and shoved all-in.  He pretty much insta-called me and said “You have Jack Ten, don’t you?” and I showed him the nuts and won a HUGE pot.  He tabled pocket 3’s for a massive cooler.  I was in the top 5 in chips in the room and had crippled one of the few solid players at my table.  Just an awesome hand for me.  I think I get doubled no matter how I play it, but I definitely liked my line and thought process throughout the hand.

Q: If you were to write a book about poker, what would it be about specifically and what would the title be? (Submitted by surflexus)

Lucko: “Poker is Easy”, Sucko’s guide to running better.

Q: How much did you have to drink during your Mookie Win and of what? (Submitted by Breeze81)

Lucko: Probably about 6 or 7 drinks.  I wasn’t buzzed.  I am giving the Mookie my attention this year, at least for awhile.  Go team Shaubs!  I really want to lead the BW for 2009.

Q:  What was your biggest “aha” moment (think epiphany) in your poker playing career? (Submitted by  Twoblackaces)

Lucko: Poker just isn’t like that.  Work hard on your game and over time your game will get better and better.  There is no super secret trick to it.

Q: Do you think the November Nine “experiment” was a success and should it be repeated in ‘09? (Submitted by Nzgreen)

Lucko: I liked it for the most part.  The one major exception is that they didn’t show the final table live.  Not having the PPV for the die hard fans like myself was just terrible.  I was so tilted the night they were playing and I couldn’t watch.  The other issue I had was how their goal was to have people know the players better, but as soon as the final hand was over, the episode ended.  Give the winner 10-15 minutes of screen time after its over.  He earned at least that much.

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Congrats again to Lucko and thanks for participating in this profile.

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