Game in Selden last night...

Well, where do I start? I've been running into some unlucky cards lately, really bad beats, and fish who outdraw till the end of time. Usual Tuesday crowd last night, NL Hold 'Em but with a 20 person field, a little bigger than usual. I noticed some new faces, including a much older chap and some kids who couldn't have been older than 17. It smelled like Long John Silvers in there.

We had 3 tables (7,7,6) and I was seated at the small table with the older fellow, 2 EXTREMEMLY tight players, Erod (who has tightned up considerably lately) and a loose raising person. *side note-this last person was the person who in a previous game was raising with garbage to get out of the game because he was tired. He effectively dumped his chips to whoever called him, he had 10 7 offsuit so pretty much anybody beat him*

I couldn't hit a face card, and most of my cards were 6 2, 9 7, 10 3, etc. Even though the blinds were 5/10 and we started with 1000 in chips, I folded folded folded, only to find I hit monster flops 96% of the times I bailed. So, I played a couple hands with crap, hit 2 pair, and would get sucked out on river to a gutbuster straight. I chilled out again for a while. The older player hadn't really played hold 'em before and I instructed him when it was first time to deal. When I told him to burn one and turn one, he thought that each player got another card, or was exchanging one like 5 card draw or something. I thought he would be easy money.

Cut to Erod, raising UTG with pocket 10's, and everyone folding but the elder. Flop comes A 9 7, Erod bets, guy calls. Check the turn, check the river, old guy flips up pocket Q's and asks "Is this good?" hmmmm...

I found something in here to be a huge hole in the game in Selden. Well first off, no one understands the idea of a sizable raise. If the blinds are 5/10, why would you raise to 250 preflop and expect callers? That's a quarter of your stack just to see a flop, and the raiser picks up 15 to 25 in blinds. The huge hole, is with all the betting preflop and on the flop, the turn is almost ALWAYS checked, and the person who was ahead could have won the pot right there but instead gets rivered or outplayed when a flush or something hits.

Well, after 2 levels at this game, we switch tables. I lost 140 in chips at the first table and went in with 860 against a fish who had a HUGE chip lead, prolly around 3K. Luckily he was directly to my right, and was one of the more respectable players in the game, ironically. He actually wasn't a fish at all.

The most memorable hand of the whole tournament was at this table. Everyone folded to me and the BB, an extrememly tight player who check raises everything and puts you all in on every river if he's in. Knowing this, i called in the SB with KJ offsuit. BB checked and the flop comes A K 10. I bet 100 and he string bets all in. He puts the chip in reaches back and says "eh, I'm all in". I immediately looked at the leader of the game and said, "I'm pretty sure that's a string" and that's when all hell broke loose. Apparently, some other guy had been talking trash with the stringer, and it escalated into expletive laden outbursts. The stringer then insulted a woman there who turned out to be the guy's wife and poker turned almost turned into a fistfight.

Anyway, back to the hand. The string was ruled just a call, and thinking I was behind, I did my ol' "check before the card hits" check. The turn was a Q, and the board being a rainbow, it gave me the stone cold nuts. He looked at it pensively forever, and fingered his chips. I thought, if he had been willing to put me all in on the flop, why not do it now? After what seemed like a week, he checked and the worst possible card came on the river, a J. Now the board had a straight, and we split. I couldn't have been more pissed off if I tried, but it was my fault for checking blindly. He later told me he had a 10 on the flop.

With the blinds going up to 50/100, I had no choice but to sit back go all in and pray for a double up. I eventually went all in with K 10 in the big blind for about 400. The small blind called with QJ, and I was quite excited when the flop came 4 J K. Turn however was another J, and the river paired the 4, giving her a full house and me a seat on the couch. Overall, I was dissappointed with my play, but my lack of any decent starting hands had something to say about that too.

Erod ended up taking home the tournament, and I was quite impressed with some laydowns he made. Not typical Erod style at all, I give him kudos.

In other news, I came in 2nd in a $10 SNG before the Selden game, and was pleased with my ability to finish in the money, being a serious short stack 4 handed. I had pocket 8's and pushed all in and got called by QQ. Flop came 9 6 7, blank turn, and a magical 10 on the river, and I was right back in it. I made him go all in on his next blinds and outplayed the 3rd place player to finish 2nd. Till next time, Monteith, out!