Slowing Down a Little

Well, the old win rate is down to 36% right now, but it's interesting to note that the four tournaments I have cashed in since April 13 have all been FIRST PLACE cashes. I split first place with "Old Joe" at the Crazy Moose this past Saturday, so I consider that to be a first place cash, even though Joe actually had 2 more chips that I did. It was fun because he was down to one red chip and came back in about 3 hands to become the chip leader. A chip and a chair!! Also, it was two in a row for me on Saturdays at the Moose. Whahoo!!

Last night I played the $15 tournament at the Cable Bridge. There were 25 alternates and the pay-out probably would have been pretty good, but I never stayed around long enough to find out.

I started out very well, limping in with pocket eights on the button, catching a set and then a full house on the turn. The lady next to me went all-in with trip sevens and I busted her and had a nice chip stack. I won another hand with pocket eights after raising pre-flop and getting no callers.

Then I pushed with pocket tens and flopped an open-ended straight draw and became extremely stupid. First, I RARELY hit open-ended straight draws. Second, there were 2 other people in the pot. I bet with my open-ender. The first player went all-in for about 700 more and the next player went all-in, which would also put me all-in. I should have just folded, but I got greedy and I just knew that my stupid draw had to come in sooner or later. WRONG!! The second player had flopped a set of nines and actually got quads on the turn. OUCH!! End of night.

On a brighter note, even though I am determined not to play much live for a while, I got bored Saturday night and went back to the Crazy Moose. I'm glad I did because I hit quad threes for $499!! About one hour later a guy on the second table hit quad queens, also for $499. My timing was back to being atrocious, because I hit quad queens on my table TWO hands later!! Good grief. It was a good day, though, and I certainly can't complain!!

43% Win Rate Last Seven Tournaments

I'm continuing to be pretty lucky (skillful??). I won the $15 tournament at the Cable Bridge on April 13. I split first in the $30 tournament at the Cable Bridge on April 16 and I won the $40 tournament at the Crazy Moose on April 18. So, out of my last seven tournaments, I have won (or split first) three times for a total net profit of $689, which includes the $215 I blew in the limit hold 'em tournament in Pendleton.

The Pendleton tournament was fun, but I only lasted about 2 hours. I had some good chips early and then went card dead. They had some poker celebrities there and I had one named Bonnie Something-or-other at my table. I did not recognize her. She knocked me out so I got to "spin the wheel" for a prize. I chose a poker book entitled "Queens Can Beat Kings" by Suzie Isaacs who happened to be at the tournament and who was kind enough to autograph the book for me. I also got to meet Marsha Waggoner. All-in-all it was great fun.

Speaking of queens beating kings, I held queens on both Monday and Thursday last week and beat kings both times when I was all-in. I flopped a set and turned a full house each time. It was nuts. They were not kind to me last night, however. I had 17,000 in chips at the final table and was probably second in the chip stack department. One guy went all-in for only 3,000 and another guy raised to 9,000 all-in. I looked down to find two black queens, so I called both of them. Guy #1 flopped a flush and Guy #2 hit a king on the turn. Phooey. One more spade would have been nice!! Oh, well. I ended up out of the money.

I'm taking tonight off and will try again tomorrow. I haven't played the cash game for almost 2 weeks. I'm not really missing it right now.

Winning Ain't So Bad Either!

Last Monday (April 6) I placed 2nd in the $15 tournament at the Cable Bridge. Last night I won it. Yeah! I will tell you that I was what the poker community refers to as a "luck box". I was hitting cards on the river like crazy. For the first time in at least a month I actually hit an open-ended straight draw. I had K-10 with 8-9-J on the flop. The queen hit on the turn and I had the nuts!! Two people with tens called me and I ended up with a monster pot on that hand that took me all the way to the final table. It was an all-female head's up battle, but I finally put the other girl (Elsa?) all-in with my pocket sevens. (Everyone knows how I love sevens.) She was very short-stacked at that point and called with Q-5. She hit her five but that was all.

After this tournament, however, I am seriously beginning to wonder if I have any skill at all or if I'm just the luckiest woman on the planet. Who knows? It's fun anyway. Turning $15 into over $300 is always a good thing. Just like professional poker player Freddy Deeb, I shall start telling my family that I am an "investor". Ha!

Second Place Is Not So Bad!

I played one of those "cheapie" tournaments yesterday at the Cable Bridge - $15. I thought I was going to be gone early, as I was down to 375 under the gun and the blinds were 100-200. I looked at my cards to find 2-2 and pushed all-in. I got two callers. Flop was 6-8-6. They both checked. Turn was a 3. They both checked again. I was feeling pretty good about it. The river was a deuce! Full house for me! Yippee! They both checked again. One had K-J and the other had A-J and neither one of them had hit a darned thing and pocket twos were a monster without the boat on the end. That made me feel better.

A couple of hands later (small blind) I pushed all-in again with pocket threes and got no callers. Three hands after that I pushed all-in with a suited A-J and won the pot. Then I was off to the races as it were.

I must say that I had one "used-to-be-blonde" moment at the next to last table. I had 9-10 diamonds and for some strange reason decided to raise. Another player re-raised enough to put me all-in. I went crazy and called. I figured I had "ace busters" and for no apparent reason I fell in love with my hand. He had A-K diamonds. I prepared to leave. He hit nothing and I hit a nine on the turn to win the hand. I was SO lucky and he did have A-K - see comment on that sucky hand below. Another very lucky hand was when I pushed all-in with pocket fives only to be called by Larry with pocket nines and hit a five on the flop. He was not happy. I WAS!

I ended up taking second place for a profit (after buy-in and $10 tip) of $160. This is not bad for a $15 tournament. They paid $300-$200-$100 and we took $15 off first and second to pay 4th and 5th because the final table took over one hour (good players) and everyone agreed that it was fair. I didn't get home until 10:20 p.m. I could have split with the winner (Larry of pocket nines fame), but we agreed that neither one of us gets much practice with short-handed play or even head's up play because there's a lot of splitting going on, so we just played it out.

The last hand was his A-2 against my A-K.

A-K SUCKS!! I had fun anyway. I might even play the $11 one tonight!

The Worst Hand Loses - Go Figure!

I played the $11 cheapie tournament at the Cable Bridge last night and I'm here to tell you that the cost of the tournament means nothing to me. I still want to win! I still get frustrated when I see garbage for 30 minutes. I still get impatient when I have only 900 chips and the blinds are 100-200. Call me silly.

I looked down to see A-K suited in the big blind and went all-in with my last 900. I won that hand when nobody called and got an additional 300. The very next hand in the small blind I saw A-7 suited in diamonds and because there were four limpers in front of me, I went all-in again with my last 1200. I do not think this was a bad play. One guy folded and two guys called me, putting 3600 plus the 300 blinds in the pot.

When the flop came A-7-2 rainbow and I had flopped top two pair, I was very excited. I just knew I was going to double-up and be right in the fight. I guess I got cocky. One guy went all-in for his last 700 and the other guy called because he had plenty of chips and the pot odds were great.

Guy #1 had A-K, so he had top pair with top kicker. Guy #2 had pocket jacks and was in simply for the aforementioned pot odds. The turn was a blank and the river was a king. Sob. Moan. Groan. Two bigger pair than me. I'm gone. As indicated earlier, I didn't care if it was only an $11 buy-in. I was still thinking about the stupid hand this morning. Good grief.

I just wish that either one of these bozos had bothered to raise their very good hands instead of limping in. At this point, I can't say whether or not I would still have called, but with ace-little and one more round of the table to see other hands, I would like to think I would have folded. Who knows. Call me bummed.