Dead Money Weekend

I don't like AQ v. AJ preflop.

I got crippled at the Beau to go in the 30s with that matchup in a second chance tournament. I held the AQ.

On Saturday, which I bought myself straight into, in our little satellite tournament it got to three handed and after I put my opponent on A rag, holding A (kind of rag)8, I made a big call. I had raised, he shoved. I stewed and got a couple of tells off of him. Ultimately, I looked at the third player's big stack and told myself, I had a chance to back door a knock-out even if my read was completely wrong. My read was right, but I lost when a 5 hit the board.

A couple of hands later still sitting in second with a now smaller chip stack I get AdQd against his AJ. We get it in. I think the turn brought the jack. Argh.

I still had chips. I folded a pair of 5s after our chipleader woke up and open bet (BIG) more than my stack. He hadn't played a hand like that for a couple of hours. He had a upper-middle pair earlier when he did. I really wanted to throw it in there, but I stopped myself because I didn't want tilt to cloud my judgment. That's really the only hand I've questioned in retrospect. I think I got lucky making a bad bet representing a straight at one point when I didn't get called by a better hand than I was giving my opponent credit for.

I think I might have been behind the entire time on my final hand but I don't know--I don't even remember it.

I was very happy with my reads all day and playing small ball poker. I never got involved in any huge pots and seemed to value bet the two or three big hands I did get just right. My chip stack just kept getting bigger. I made a couple of big calls that shut down two of the more agressive players who tip-toed around pots with me for the rest of the day.

Basically, I got lucky because in all the pots I got involved with my opponents didn't seem to hit much of anything. My aggression via check raises, and reraises were accepted at face value and induced folds. It was nice because I was moving people off of hands when I felt they were weak. Plus, my early willingness to correctly make big calls with mediocre holdings really allowed me not to feel threatened all day.

In short, I was ginning. It's the type of day were you don't need hands to win and most pots I dragged I didn't have much. I just was super selective and each entry into a pot was accorded a lot of respect. Days like that make you feel like you are a much better poker player than you really are. Yes, I didn't need big hands to go deep but I must recognize that I was getting lucky timing wise as well. Sure my read-radar was like KITT on Nightrider but I also rarely got involved with a player when they hit something.

Saw some gross suckouts though.

The Good Bad Guy, Mr. Derek Bonvillian, who won our last Houma satellite table to make the main event table, took it on the chin when he got his aces called by kings then got squashed by the dreaded two outer on the river. Dan Rush from DC played solid all day and got his pocket queens into an unwinnable situation as 9-10 o/s called him preflop. Rush got his set and then watched a Jack give his opponent a straight.

I finished third the night before on the last chance table too. I bluffed off half my chips when my read was dead wrong against Leo from Delaware. My AK fell to his pocket QQ on a ragged flop. I tried to push him off and he obviously called. Really no need for that.

Anyway it was a good time for all. Had a blast hanging out with everybody afterwards and look forward to hosting the event next year. Plans are already starting to make it happen.

Will put up a better synopsis later, but will be tough as I focused mostly on my hands as I was finally involved this year.

www.gulfcoastpoker.net


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