Monday, August 20, 2007

"Nice to have a huge Stack"

I am not sure why but it is really hard to be motivated to post. I continue to grind at the low limits on Poker Stars, but I am definitely lacking inspiration to blog. Just now in a micro SNG I lost with jacks full of aces to queens full of aces. I had top pair all-in and my only caller hit a king on the turn to topple my queens. Maybe I should not be playing tonight.

Any way I wanted to share what happened a couple of Monday nights ago. There is a live tournament in Cedar Park. This time I believe there were 24 players. I was sitting at a table of very tough players, so my MO was to be aggressive early and hopefully build up a stack.

The third hand of the night I had pocket Kings. I made it 3x and got two callers. The flop came 67Q rainbow. I think I made it about 6x and same two callers. The turn and river were small cards and not chance of a straight or flush. My only fear was two pair. I made it 8X which would have left me short stacked. Both players called instantly. I went "oh shit"! On had AQ and the other had QJ. I almost tripled up.

The remainder of the night I could raise in position and force action. I called one all-in and lost, but other than that things went my way.

Two interesting hands came later in the evening. I was under the gun with QJ of clubs. The flop came AAK with 2 clubs. There was a reasonable bet of 2X the BB. I called. The turn came the ten of clubs, giving me a royal flush. Here is where I think I made a mistake. The raiser after the flop checked. I immediately went all-in hoping he would think I was stealing the pot and I assumed he had an ace. He thought about calling me for a long while then mucked stating "I bet you have JQ of clubs". I definitely had to show the cards to the table! If I had this situation again I would have checked and hoped that he caught something on the river. Oh well!

Another hand that was interesting was a player went all-in from early position. Everyone folded and it was up to me. I felt obligated to call even though I had 96o. I commented nines have been hitting the flop all night. A nine hit on the flop and my pair of nines held up to the two over cards.

Nothing two eventful until I was heads up. The player I was heads up against had played extremely smart all night. Twice he slowed played pocket aces perfectly and took down enormous pots. I think heads up I only had him by $500 in chips. I alternated between agressive and conservative. I was waiting for a moment to win this tournament. WE exchanged chips for about 30 minutes. I was in the SB and limped in with A5. The flop came 529 or something like that. I made a small bet and the other player went all-in. I felt he was trying to steal so I insta-called. He turned over 54o and my kicker won me the tournament. It was nice to win $187 in profit.

The good news is that I shared the spoils with the family and my better half will let me play again. These games are on a Monday night so it does impact our weekly flow of life. Now I am working my bachelor points so that I can play twice a month.

Play on!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Well I obviously have not blogged in a long time. I have been meaning to, but for some reason never make it a priority. Here goes a quick shot at catching up.

Two weekends ago I went to Plano, TX for some baseball, golf, and gambling. It only took 2 hours to get through Waco, but we did make it to the Rangers Indians game. Here is a great game if you go to a baseball game, Pass the Cup! In our case it was cap night so we played pass the cap. Rules to the game are:

1. Everyone in your party puts $1 into the cup
2. One person starts with the cup
3. The person with the cup is now attached to the batter at the plate.
4. If the batter gets out you put in another $1, if he gets a hit you take out $1, double $2, and a triple $3, if he hits into a double play you put in $2, if he hits a homerun you get all the money in the cup (everyone then re-antes)
5. Pass the cup and the next person has the next batter.
6. Odd rules - Fielders Choice put in a buck. An error put in a buck, a walk or hit by a pitch is a push and you pass the cup. End of the game all money in the cup is divided back out equally.

It is really a fun game.

We also played a dice game called ships, captain, and crew. Everyone put $1 in the pot. You roll five dice. You must roll a 6,5, and a 4. One you do that then the remaining two dice make up your score. Every player gets three rolls. The person with the highest score drags the pot. So I roll and I get 654 on my first roll and two 4's my score is 8. Since I have two more rolls I can stay put or try to improve my eight. The person who drags the spot and starts the next round. A round is complete when everyone has had a turn.

Saturday night we did manage to play some dealer's choice. I was down most of the night until we played 5 card draw 6's are wild. I hooked up with a straight flush.

I did play in one big tournament here in town with 38 players. I had a full house only to get beat by a bigger full house. I knew it, but could not let my boat go!

Monday night I am going to give it another shot. Hopefully I will have better luck and make it into the money.

Soccer boot camp has been going on all week, so I spend 3 hours per day at the soccer fields. It has been fun for me, but I can not say the same thing for our daughter. The run their asses off in the morning, then work on skills at night.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to doing one post per week. My fingers are tired, so I am not in typing shape.

Peace!