"Winning is GREAT"

Well I have not continued our vacation adventure, but I hope to some day. At this moment I am playing Paradise .05/.10. I am up about $3.

Here is why winning is great! Friday night I got invited again to play in a tournament. I had decided I was just going to have a good time. I had four bottles of Indio. Great Mexican amber beer! Plus a bottle of tequila. I arrived and immediately had 2 shots and a beer. I drew a table with one really solid player and one maniac. Fortunately for me the maniac had not arrived yet and was being blinded out. I call him a maniac because his play is unpredictable. He won the last time we got together. I thought I had a tell on him, but I am still not 100% sure. More analysis is needed! He showed up just after losing his small blind. I was on the button and I happened to get pocket Kings. Blinds were 50/100. Comes around to me I confidently raised $200. The maniac was to my left goes all in. Player in the 4S also goes all in. I was not going to be eliminated, but severely crippled if I did not win. Pocket K's though! I had a feeling Mr. Maniac was just trying stir things up. There was also a $20 rebuy for the first 2 rounds only if you lost all your chips. Three players in, we turn over the cards. Mr. Maniac has pocket 5s and the 4S had 89 suited. Somebody commented "That is a greathand to go all in with!" I was like huh? Really you would risk all of your chips with 89s.

The kings help up and I was the early chip lead. The funny thing is that I do not remember any other hand at that table. I eliminated 4 players, but I do not recall with what. When I had good starting hands I made reasonably sized bets. We moved to the final table. I only knew one of the players and in my opinion was the player to beat. I was a little shocked in that he had almost twice the chip count of me. I remember one hand I had AQ and I was on the button. I put in a 500 raise. The chp lead called me. The flop came J2T. I bet $500. The chip lead raised me. I let the hand go! It was a good thing to because he had a set of dueces. It was nice of him to show me.

Pretty soon I was heads up with the chip lead. I was excited just to be in the money. I am not even sure I knew my name at this point. Just kidding! I was not sober though. I had not eaten dinner! That was a huge mistake. I must have played really well heads up because shortly I was the chip lead and I put him all-in twice with marginal hands. He won the first battle. The next hand he went all in and I called with Q8. An eight arrives on the river and I win my first tournament. I had no clue how much. It was a $30 buy in and paid the top 3 places. I almost passed out when he counted out $384. I immediately had 3 more shots of tequila. Whoa I did not need those! My ex-neighbor offered to follow me home. I should have just left the car and let him take me home. I did manage to make home safely. Bottom line is I should not have been driving, but it was only .5 miles.

In celebration I took the family to see Shrek2. Insane that it costs $54 to take a family of 4 to a matinee. Usually we sneak stuff in for the kids, but this time I was splurging. Next time we will sneak stuff in!

Man it is great to win! Next time I can just act drunk and I will have an advantage! Maybe or maybe not! I did have a great time and I did execute my strategy exactly the way I had planned.

Play on! Oh and Shrek2 was a fun movie!