1st Place

Took 1st at Dave's last night, woo hoo. Here's a shot of the final hand. I had 8-9 in the first hand of heads-up and Ryan Thoms called of course. I'll post a couple of hands and more details sometime soon.

That's it...no more fifty cent games

Played at Ken's last night. Lost $150. I just cant win at the fifty cent game. Uncle Bob pulled a boat out of his ass with 4-6 off. I had J-6 of spades in the SB in an unraised pot. Flop was 66x...he called me all the way until the river when I pushed...he caught his 4. I cant lose at $1-2, and cant win at $.50-1.00

Gibran showed up...hadn't seen him in months. TK was also there, along with Felix. No Gross/Caveman/Ryan/Paoli combo. Charlie actually played low stakes.

Poker update

Let's see...it's been a while since I've updated...Tuesday before last I went to Ken's and lost. I just cant seem to win at $.50-1.00. I dont think I play any different.

The following Friday I decided to check out Nautica's indoor complex in the Flats. It's right across the hall from The Improv, where the arcade used to be. I dont know how many tables were available, but about 1/3 of them were full at 6pm on a Friday. Just before I sat down, I learned a friend of mine, the network admin for Avon, had been killed in an accident. He got hit by a car on his scooter that he'd bought to save $$ on gas. Bummer. We weren't best friends or anything but me, him and Fish have lunch together at least once a month, and used to do it a couple times a week. He had a wife and 2 kids and was a great dad. RIP...

So, I sit down with a min buy-in of $300 at the $1-3 NL. 2nd hand I get an 8-9 or 6-7 suited, make a small raise, get 2 callers, and flop the nut straight. There is a bet of $40, a fold, and I put $100 on top, and get called. There is not flush draw or pair on the board and I have the total nuts. Turn puts out a brink but a 2nd club, and I push all-in for about $175-ish. CALL!! We flip our cards, and this guy had a gutshot for a lower straight, and 4 clubs. Who wants to guess the river? Yes, I lost the hand. AAAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!

I re-bought, played for a couple hours and lost another $150. Just nothing happening. I paid a total of $50 for 2.5 hrs in the seat, which is completely stupid. If that hand had held up, I think I would have played out another hour and got out, but since I was stuck, I tried to get it back. Oh, well, lesson learned. The place would be a gold mine if you can hit some hands.

I took the following Tuesday off because I shelled out $800 to Ken W to fix my Sebring, which my wife drives. It needed brakes all around (pretty much all the hardware), tie rods, bearings, tires, an alignment, and an oil change. Ken did it all except the tires, which I'll wait on until next month. He did a great job, and it would have cost double anywhere else. It's like having a new car. Hopefully we'll get a chance to put the top down again once more this fall. I think in the spring I'll get a new ragtop installed. The current one leaks.

So, Saturday at Dave's. Had a decent tourney. Took out Julie and Bill D after I caught AA in early position and just limped. They each pushed pre-flop and my hands held up. Actually, I made A's full both times, and once in the cash game with them as well. I had a huge stack going into the final table, but couldnt catch anything. I ended up in 3rd after a 2-man bust-out. Puts me in 3rd place for the "POY race" thast Theo is keeping track of. I wish now that I'd attended all the tourneys. I'll definitely be at the more expensive ones, as well as the bounty tourney coming up.

The cash game was cool, but I gave back a bunch of my winnings. Some new guy named Jamie just couldn't miss. He sucked out on Colin a few times, who'd already been smacked by the 2nd place tourney finisher. Colin flopped the nuts/nut straight, and he hit runner-runner flush with his AK. I had just remarked that he was still in tourney mode after he raised big. I put him on AQ. Close enough. Sick suckout. It was just one of those nights for me. I got back above even at one point, and my little man started screaming to get my $$ off the table and be happy with a $25 win, but NOOOOO....gotta start listening!!! I have an uncanny instinct about knowing when I've hit my high mark for the night, but often igonore it. Kinda like TK in Vegas. "You think I'm ever leaving this table?"

I also managed to snap a shot of some female asscrack. She came with a guy at my table, so I didn't want to be too obvious.

Me, Mailman, Matt G, Theo, and RR Dave went to breakfast at 5am. Colin was supposed to join us but never showed. Matt was supposed to go to Mountaineer with Doc Donator at like 8 am. Not sure of he made it, but he'd had a shitload to drink. I couldn't have done it, so if you made it Matt, I salute you.

Oh, and by the way....fuck the Browns.

This is a test

Testing a new blogger app on my iPhone...

BBJ Tourney hands

I had the high hand for the entire tourney, although there were 2 sets of quads where there was no call on the river. I had A's full of 8's and nearly stacked the player to my right (John??). He had an A. It's a freaking miracle! Risk your whole stack on top pair. I flopped the set of A's and bet hard all the way, going all-in on the river and doubling up. TY sir.

The next interesting hand, I called a 3.5x raise by Ken Walker. I put him on a big A and I had 55. I figured he push on the flop regardless of whether he hit or not, so all I needed was a low flop. Well, I got what I wanted. Flop was 9-3-2, rainbow. Ken goes all-in and I pretty much insta-call. I flip my pocket pair and Ken semi-slow rolls me, not showing his set of 3's until the turn card. River is a 5...ship it!!! Ken went ballistic..."that's bullshit!"...talking about what a bad call it was and how he's tired of getting sucked out on by donkeys. I mentioned that I had a much better hand pre-flop, and his reply was "not when the money went in". True. I put him on a hand, made a decision, was wrong, and got lucky. Move on. I didnt bitch at Ken at his place on Tuesday when he called $15 preflop with K2 suited and got lucky.

Most of the suckouts I've dealt to Ken were the result of him checking a big hand hoping to trap. I'd check and hit or he'd just call my bet. Not my fault he let me catch up. Oh well, I'm surely not changing my gameplan to suit his needs. I'm winning 100% of the time at $1-2 in just over a month and 4 sessions. Lower stakes is another story. I should just give it up, or quit when up $100.

Poker week in review

Tuesday at Ken's:

Nothing much to speak of. I did win a hand with 4-5 people in the hand...there were 4 hearts on the board, and I had pocket 2's with the 2 of hearts for the winning flush.

I was up about $250 at my peak but Ken called a good sized bet preflop with K-2 sooted and flopped trip 2's against my 10-10 on an 8-high board. I ended up giving him about $150 on that hand. (and Ken bitches at me all the time for getting lucky)

I was about even up to the last hand when I pushed against Laidman when I hit my A on the flop with a suited A5. He had AJ and won. Finished down $90.

Friday at TK's:

23 players in the BBJ. I finished 4th, winning $230. I also profited $170 in the cash game, so it was a pretty decent night. If I had quit on Tuesday when my little man was screaming at me, I'd be up around $2K this month. Instead, it's about $1700. Still not bad. If I can pull $500/month average I'll be happy as hell. It's a car payment. Another great thing is that I'm keeping my losses much smaller than my wins, so even if I do lose a few in a row, it hopefully will not be a huge bankroll hit.

I'll add more tourney details later this week. There were a few interesting hands.