NOT...the King of Clubs...

Well, quite a hefty update for today. Since our last chat, many events have taken place. Let's start with some live ring game action the night after the heads up tournament.

I went to Hall's and played for a while and had a losing session. Probably around -$30 or so in a 3/6 game. After working in the city for most of the week I was home on Wednesday and went to Eddie's game as per usual. I forget how many people he had, probably around 26 (that's the danger in me taking time off during reports, I forget details and stuff.) Actually, after checking his website, http://www.freewebs.com/lpt1 there were 26 people. Nothing really eventful happened and I made the final table, and was busted out first, coming in 10th. I seem to be having trouble in these events lately. Overall, I'm just about even in my winnings/event fees, cashing 2 times with one win. The win was $265 and I had a 3rd place for $90. So I'm +25 for this season so far. Oh well, better than being down $330.

I came home again on Friday night and ended up playing a tournament at Hall's for what reason I'm not sure. I don't know why, but it seems to me that I feel like every time I play there I feel rushed. I asked Mike to raise the chip amount to play some more solid poker as I felt like we were moving in every hand after an hour. He agreed, and we played a good game actually. I had a big hand where I had 2 black aces 2 off the button. With the blinds at 75/150, I raised to 525, and Hall just called, but looked like he wanted to raise. I'm guessing he didn't put me on a big hand and was going to try and take it from me later. We got one other caller, a very loose guy in the SB. Flop came 3 rags with all spades. I decided to bet 2/3 of what Hall had left so he had no choice but to push in if he wanted to call. He pushed in and I called. Hall showed QsQh. I had him down to the last 2 queens because of my As. No help for him, and Hall made an early exit. I made it down to the final 4, and was knocked out after my 6's did not hold up against AJ.

Now on to Tuesday of this week. I did not go to Hall's season tournament because I don't like the idea of paying extra money that I can't compete for later in the freeroll as I am not available for the whole season. (Run on sentence maybe?) Instead, Simpson brought me to a new game in Bohemia that is detailed on http://www.tieds.com/pn. I had a hard time adjusting to the game and the way that it was run. In my opinion, they took the action out of the game, by increasing the blinds when they felt like it instead of at predetermined times. I got bored and antsy about 2.5 hours sitting through and bluffed off alot of chips with KJ and someone called on the river with A2 for top pair but no kicker. The horror was that as he was calling he said "I know I'm beat." I don't know why you would put money into a pot if you "knew you were beat." That's just assinine to me, I don't mind anyone calling me down, but don't say you're beaten as you do it.

I left there and went to Hall's 3/6 game around 11:30. I sat down and was stuck about $84 out of my $100 buy in in about an hour. I then went on a run of cards like you wouldn't believe and went from having $14 to $245 at my highest peak. I had KK and the flop came K33, and I couldn't get any action. But my good hands held up most of the night, and I was able to get paid off most of the time. I went down to even for the night, and thought about cashing out. I decided to stay however, and ran my stack up to $180 and cashed out.

Now....Eddie's last night. Well, I ran well in the tournament and the field was pretty deep, 29 players. I got Aces in the first level of the tournament and there was a raise before me to 250. I decided to smooth call it in MP with hopes of action before me to build a pot. This being the relatively smart game it is, people respected the action, and got out of the way. Flop came KQ7 rainbow. He led out 200 and I thought about a good amount I could get out of him, but the KQ scared me as this was the only 2 pair I could see him having if he had me beat. I decided to find out and raise it to 600. He eventually folded, and he asked the dealer to run out the cards. He was happy to see the 10 on the river and said he would've won, so I assume he had AJ. Good way to win that pot when I did.

I then ran into the force that is Joline, Eddie's girlfriend at the table. She has an uncanny way of getting a huge amount of chips early on in a tournament, and where was she? Directly to my left. She lost a couple of big pots by calling all ins with AJ when she was dominated and other assorted situations. So, I think mentally she decided her only move was all in. However, I didn't find this out until I opened 2 pots with a 3-4x raise, and she went over the top for like 15x more. I had to wait for a hand where I could trap her into doing this again, but I literally could not pick up a hand until we made a final table.

So down to the final 10, I have 5500 with the blinds at 300/600 with a 100 ante. It's costing me 1900 this orbit alone, and the blinds are going up to 400/800 in 6 minutes. I have to double up or go home. I basically just want to find an Ace and move in. Well, it didn't take long. Sof went out in 10th place after having a nice stack and getting decimated by Eddie in a hand before and losing with his JJ the very next hand. Down to 9, I found an A in MP. There were 2 folders and I saw the Ac, and didn't look at the next one, ala Doyle on the WSOP freeroll. I moved in for 4800 and got a short stack of 600 and another short stack of 2000 to call me. Now Joline, my archnemesis in the BB, goes all in!!!! We all flip over and short stack #1 has A2o. Short stack #2 has A10o. I have A4c...well...er...they're suited...and Joline?? Well of course she was KK! The flop comes 993 with 2 clubs!! I couldn't ask for a better flop, cause I'm dead to any A. I scream for a club, but NOT the King of Clubs. Well, almost like I had asked for it to appear, the turn was the Kc, and I nearly lost it. I was dead to her full house. I left in 7th place because of all the short stacks, I had the most chips. What I didn't like was that there were people below me on the stat sheet who will now catch up to me and now my ranking is perhaps in jeopardy. Well, that's all for me. I'm going to Simpson's friend's crazy game tonight. I have to make a better showing this time. Later!