POKER TIME!!!

Ok guys, it's time for what this blog was originally intended, poker poker poker. Well, Karen left Thursday morning in Tucson, so Thursday afternoon I found the Desert Diamond casino, a short little 25 minute jaunt from our hotel. Honestly, I was not interested in playing great poker that day, I just wanted to get my feet wet and play some hands, and, at most as really possible, gamble.

That being said, I was probably the best player at my table, but boy did I not show it. I started playing tight, but thought that was boring and played every hand for 3 rotations, limped, called raises, everything, I just didn't care. It was a 3/6 full kill game (meaning some hands could be 6/12), and all things considered, I wasn't THAT big of a loser in the game, losing $156. The way I was playing, things probably should have been a lot worse.

But, losing money sucks! So I vowed the next time that I would play there, I'd play my "A" game. It didn't take me long to get back there, as Friday provided another opportunity. Now, this time unfortunatly we didn't have access to our vans as they were checked out for the day. So I called the casino shuttle, and they came to pick us up!

Now, if I knew then what I know now, I definitly would not have gone with this idea. But that's for the end of this particular story. So I get to the card room, play the same game, and wouldn't you know it, it's 4 of the same people that were there yesterday. Now, just because I played like an idiot doesn't mean that I didn't watch what others were doing! I was on a tight schedule of 1 hr and 45 min for that session and I evened everything up living a winner of $154. Ok, that's still -$2. Nothing really special happened this session it was just a matter of the best hands holding up. Things got a little crazy though the next session.

I skipped Saturday as it was Carrie's birthday and we went to a bar called Dirtbags, prolly the best name for a bar ever. It was nice though, oddly enough. Had a few drinks, went back to the hotel. Sunday we had 2 more shows, the 2nd one being a 6pm show, a time I don't think I've ever performed at, and loaded out my drums right after the show, as usual. I had to go back to the cardroom though as it would be the last live game I'd play for probably a month. I knew that I owned that game as I hoped some of the familiar faces were there that I knew.

I drove on down after the show and sure enough there were 2 people that I had played with. Let me set the scene, the game had a lot of money on the table. There were 2 seats open, they play 9 handed, and the seats were the 3 and the 9 seat. Let's go though seat selection shall we?

The 3 seat would mean that the "chipleader" and I hate using that term in a limit ring game, would be my big blind when I had the button. He was one of the players that I had played with in my previous sessions and EVERY time I'd seen him he had a mountain of chips that he then lost about 40% of. He wasn't a very tricky player, but he would flop 2 pair like crazy and people paid him off.

The other seat was to the left of a woman who had a mountain of chips! Prolly close to $380-$400. Which is alot of the game we were playing. I will say that I had to go with a kind of stereotype for me here. Also, the player to the right of that person was a foreign man who had about $45 and was very anxious about pots and kind of half standing half sitting on his chair like every pot was instrumental to him. Very neurotic player.

So this blog is in the form of a quiz. Not to say that I'm right, or smart or even good, but question 1) Where would you sit?

Question 2. You are in MP with A6. Folds to you. You raise as your image has been portrayed as tight aggressive. You get 2 callers in the blinds. SB is a very loose passive player, bets and check raises draws all day. BB is an older fellow who is tight passive. Flop comes T63 rainbow. They check to you, you bet, get 2 callers. Turn is a another T. Check to you again. You bet again, get 1 caller in the SB. River is a K. The SB now leads out! What do you do? What range of hands can he have? Should you call, fold or even raise?

Question 3. You have won 2 pots in a row and the game is now a kill pot. You then win another 2 pots on top of that for 4 in a row and people are really starting to fear you at the table it seems. You post $6 and happen to be in the BB anway, which is fortunate. You look down at the ol' Gus Hansen T8o. There was a limper UTG and the older tight passive player limped as well. You check. Flop comes 79J rainbow giving you the nut straight. A quick glimpse around the table reveals that the UTG player has started to load up on chips perhaps not realizing that he doesn't go first. You obviously check, he bets, and tight old guy calls. What do you do? How do you play the nuts in first position when people fear you?

Regardless of that first answer let's call that 3a). You're obviously not folding. Now a Q comes on the turn making KT the nuts. What do you do now? How do you extract maximum value? This is question 3b).

Post your comments, I'll be back in a couple days after hearing responses with my answers. They might not be right, but at least I'll tell you what I did. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Thanksgiving blog to follow this one!