Being Unlucky is NOT Fun!

I had my great roll, so I suppose I'm due for a few crappy beats, but I still do not like it one little bit.

Sunday night I had about 3200 chips with the blinds at 100-200 and the break coming up in about 5 minutes. The blinds would then be 200-400, so I would only have about 8 times the big blind. I had taken a few smaller pots and had been playing well and folding a lot. I was on the button when I saw the pocket kings - one heart and one diamond. Yippee! There was already $1100 in the pot (300 blinds and 4 limpers @ 200 each). I did not want any of them who might have an ace to call me so I made a raise to 1000, which was almost one-third of my chips.

The small blind (and massive chip leader) did the scary double-raise thing, making it 2000 to go. Everyone folded back to me. I simply went all-in. It was the right move. My woman's intuition told me I had the best hand and I was right. He groaned quite loudly when he saw my kings and he turned over pocket queens - one spade and one club. However, his tune changed when he hit running spades and knocked me out with a flush on the river. Ouch! He said, "I was hoping you had A-K". I quite honestly told him that I would never put my tournament on the line with that piece of limburger. He was appropriately chastised. :) Anyway . . . so it goes.

Last night I was absolutely card dead for one entire hour and had only entered 2 pots, once with K-J and once with K-10, which were the best cards I had seen. I had to eject both hands immediately after crummy flops. I finally had my chance when there were again 4 or 5 limpers and I looked down to see A-8 in the small blind. I had only 1200 left and it went in the middle. Everyone folded except A-5 suited in hearts and, yes, you guessed it - running hearts and I was flushed again. Good grief.

My only consolation is that I was patient and played well and went all-in with the best hand both times. There's not much else I can do except get lucky "one time"!!

I Must Be Doing Something Right

I took 2nd last night at the Cable Bridge, which was good for $200 (only a $15 tournament, so not a bad profit). I only had $2700 coming back from the first break with blinds of 200-400. I got up to over 12,000 very quickly. I even knocked out 2 players while holding 2-2. Good grief. Then I made a bonehead move when I check-raised a guy with a paired board and I was holding the nut flush. He had a full house. OUCH!

After that fiasco I tightened up considerably and was almost out until I picked up the rockets in the big blind. I said, "Oh, darn" and called two all-ins and my hand held up - yeah!! I could have split with the eventual winner and picked up an extra $50, but I really like head's up practice and that's just the way it goes. As usual, I went in with the best hand (A-10 of spades) and got beat (8-7 offsuit). Oh well! :)

I Am Semi-Famous :)

I wrote an email to poker professional Susie Isaacs after reading her book "Queens Can Beat Kings". She actually wrote me back and now my email is on her blog. You should check it out. Her blog address is www.susieisaacs.blogspot.com. What a thrill! Right under it is a fun post she wrote about splitting prize money. Kids these days.

I was on such a roll, but I got sort of stupid on Tuesday. I decided to play one of those dumb free rolls they have at the Crazy Moose because you can qualify for a super satellite to play each and every tournament at the Fall Poker Roundup in Pendleton. Before the tournament, I did very well in the 3-6 game, earning $140 profit between 5:30 and 8:00. The tournament was the fiasco I thought it would be and I was out fairly early when my pocket 7s got beat by a set of 5s on the river. Ouch. None of this was too awful, but then instead of going home (as I knew I should have) I went over to the Cable Bridge to try the $2-$40 spread game for the first time at that establishment.

I played well but never really had a profit of more than $40 and I think I was a little under my initial $200 buy-in. I was just about ready to go home and decided to limp in with pocket twos. The flop was 9-3-2 with two hearts. Sweet. I was playing with Sam (young tattooed kid, very nice) and Frank (used to be "Woodstock" until the hair cut). I was first to act and I actually bet $7. Sam raised to $17. Frank re-raised to $37. Red flags should have gone up, but they didn't. I just knew I had the best hand. I put Sam on a flush draw and Frank on an over-pair. In hindsight this was wishful thinking on my part. All I did was call the re-raise.

The turn brought a blank. I checked. Sam checked. Frank bet $40. I raised to $80. Sam folded. Frank re-raised and by that time I only had $3 left and it all went in. He had a set of threes . . . cry . . . sob . . . moan . . . good-bye. I had fun though and I guess I really should have known he had a hand like this, but it surprises me that he was so aggressive with it after I re-raised him on the flop because I could easily have had a set of 9s. Oh, well. Better luck next time.

And The Hits Just Keep on Coming!

As you know, I was so tired on Sunday night that I should have stayed home. However, Monday turned out to be another good day. I played the little $15 Cable Bridge Tournament and yours truly now has a seat at the Tournament of Champions on July 5. That is the 4th of July weekend so I'm hoping for a semi-small turnout so I can crush them!! Ha! I chipped up very early in this one and was never in any real danger. It was kind of boring actually. Did I say that out loud! :)

Best Poker Weekend Ever - Part Five

I was SO tired on Sunday morning, but because I was already up thanks to my worthless yet loveable kitty cat, I went on down to the Crazy Moose for the 10:00 a.m. tournament anyway. I ended up splitting first 3 ways and took $390.

My favorite and luckiest hand was when "Triple Gutter" called my all-in with A-10 off. I had pocket nines. This was near the end of the tournament when only 6 of us were left. A ten hit on the flop . . . sob . . . cry . . . moan. A nine hit on the turn . . . jump up and down . . . do the wave! Yippee! He wasn't out, but he was crippled and he was gone on the very next hand. It was pretty easy from there.

Did I go home and take a nap? Hell, no. I had to do laundry (but not fold it) and go grocery shopping and make dinner, etc. My really wonderful poker weekend ended on the same note as it began - with a loss in the Cable Bridge 7:00 tournament. In hindsight, however, I never should have played this tournament because I was simply exhausted and I was not thinking very clearly and I played very badly as a result. I was home and sound asleep before 9:30.

Before ending, I must give a lot of credit to poker professional Susie Isaacs. I took many a day off in the past few weeks and some of that time was spent reading her book, "Queens Can Beat Kings". I learned the five "P"s of poker and really worked on them and I honestly think I play a better game now. Unless you read her book, these weapons (the 5 Ps) shall remain my little secret - ha!

All-in-all, I have to say that this weekend was my best ever. I sure wish life was perfect and would allow this type of poker weekend a little bit more often.

Best Poker Weekend Ever - Part Four

After I took $200 out of the free roll tournament, I decided to do something I hardly ever do any more - play in the cash game - because it was FREE. I played 3-6 for about 20 minutes and then discovered that the 2-40 spread limit game had become a 2-20 spread limit game, which I like better. I proceeded to play from about 9:30 p.m. until almost 3:00 a.m. Yawn! I was seated directly behind a very drunk guy and a guy who was annoyed by the very drunk guy who kept re-raising him, so I was pretty much able to play like a rock, which (go figure) allowed me a small $50 profit on the evening. On top of that, however, I got quad twos for $237 on the monte carlo board. Whee!!

As indicated, I went home very early in the morning and pretty much decided not to play the 10:00 a.m. Sunday tournament at the Moose because I like to have plenty of rest before playing. However, my stupid cat decided to pick that night to bug me and be mad at me for leaving her alone all day and she raced around my small apartment all night banging into the blinds and playing with her toys and I might have gotten 3-4 hours of sleep - maybe.

So, because I was sort of awake anyway, off to the Moose I went . . . TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Best Poker Weekend Ever - Part Three

I made it back to the Crazy Moose with only about 10 minutes to spare before the 40-person final of the $1,000 free roll. As expected, there were a lot of the regular players that I consider to be good players in the final, so I knew I would have my work cut out for me. I do not really remember anything too exciting about this tournament, other than the fact that I was very happy to make it to the final table with a very healthy chip stack.

We took a break right before the final table and when we returned, it was suggested that we all take $100 and call it good. I think there were two of us who declined. I was one of them. I gave this little short speech about how I knew it was free, but I still wanted to give it my best shot and if I got knocked out before the money, that was my choice. For some reason, I just didn't feel that $100 was enough for outlasting 55 people in the qualifier and another 30 in the final so I stuck to my guns. I think a couple of people were annoyed by this, but oh well. I was not the only player who felt this way, but I was definitely in the minority.

We played for about another 30-45 minutes after the break and were down to five players with pretty even chip stacks when the suggestion was made to take $200 each. We all agreed to that, mainly because the blinds were soon to be 10,000 and 20,000 and it was just getting to the point where you had to go all-in and take your chances, no matter what your chip stack was. So, we took a 5-way split. Not bad money for a freebie! TO BE CONTINUED . . .