Ragged Bored

Long weekend at the Beau. Played some poker, met up with some friends, watched some hoops, watched some friends play blackjack, and saw some oddities.

Let's start with hoops. My bracket is garbage. Whose isn't? What's odd is I liked Arizona to do the annual "We're not Deserving? We'll win a couple of games!" jig and it still didn't help. I hope they continue to fare well against Louisville who almost fell to Siena. I, unlike the rest of America, think Louisville will not make it to the final four. Did I mention my bracket is garbage.

The LSU game was everything I feared it'd be for the Tarheels. The Tigers were gunning for the Heels and kept hanging around. At any point it felt like Mamma Mo would be tipped too far to the Bayou Bengals favor. Fortunately, they got a little cold and the Heels prevailed.

I think Gonzaga and Syracuse would both be terrible matchups for the Heels as well. Josh Hyvelt ate up Tyler Hansbrough like he was Funions after smoking a bowl the last time they played. I'm not kidding. Probably the one game Hyvelt looked like an NBA big man was against the Heels just before he got suspended for eating Funions after smoking a bowl. Actually, the Funions had nothing to do with it. Think it was the Ectasy pills, tabs of LSD and copious amounts of mary jane. But can you blame him, Gonzaga is located in like a land-locked version of the Lost island. I dare somebody to find it on a map. What it's located in Spokane? Where's that? Oh, the third or fourth biggest city in Washington? I thought Washington was a city.

Sorry, for the tangent.

On to poker. Reid should be my pr guy. He mentioned a couple of spectacular plays I made on Friday night in the cash games, and I was proud to fire away with 72 o/s into the idiot that had second pair. I had earlier shown him a bluff and thought he'd make the mistake of thinking I couldn't possibly be bluffing him again, after showing it before. Still, despite some early highlights and a growing chip stack, to sum up my performance with that hand would be like putting wallpaper in a crack house.

I got tired, stuck, ragged and bored. Maybe a little tipsy. I got cute and got chewed up. I chased money and played bad. I made some bad plays and came unglued. Reid's buddy set me into motion when I couldn't give him credit for AQ by limping into a pot from late position. I fed him some chips. I regretted not playing at him more deceptively earlier when I had a big hand. I wasn't looking to felt the guy while there were plenty of other sources on the table.

Of course I got quads against Reid and threw a value bet on the river where anybody else I would have shoved on and with their full house they might have to call. Still, I had a lot of fun, despite going into the wallet a couple of times.

I played two tournaments Friday. Got knocked out of the Beau's when I had Jacks on the button. Blinds 50-100. Three limpers. Guy in mid-position raises to 250. Limpers are all itching to call. I bump it to a 1000. One of the limpers, a lady, calls. The original raiser ships it for another 2800 or so. I got about 5400 in front of me. O..kay. I ship it, now rethinking his holding. The lady calls for her stack (I got her covered). Any guesses on their hands?

Then I hold 10s and the board gives me a gutter ball 986. A guy in the big blind who called my preflop raise bets out, I raise, he shoves for the rest of my stack. Also a flush draw out there. I call. I go home, he has a set of something--8s--maybe.

Actually, not home I go to the IPs three table tournament. In quick succession, I run pocket queens into a guy who can't release his flush draw, despite my heavy bet. He was right not too as he drew out after putting all his chips in. Same guy called my BB shove on a table full of limpers with pocket 3s, when I had 4s. That was the hand that sent me home.

Actually not home back to the Beau for cash with Reid.

Fast forward to Saturday and my tournament "prowess" continued. A guy made a hero play against me after I had just snapped him off when he tried to come after my blinds for the third time. Three bullets he fired at me, and I knew A high was good. I called and was feeling pretty good when he refused to turn over his cards and mucked them when I said A high. Later, I bluff into him and he returns the favor by calling me somewhat light. That was my last mistake of the weekend.

I found my head at that point and keyed in on my three principles of tournament poker: patience, agression, and avoiding callboxes with draw heavy boards out there. I picked my spots and chipped up a bit. Got moved to the Big Blind at a new table as the blinds went up. I look at 1010. Folded around, would I get my first walk of the weekend? Nah.

The SB calls. I look at the stack sizes and decide I'd forgo a little value here and just buy the blinds and antes but leave the impression to my new table, just because I was short there would be no easy play against my blinds. Did I say I made my last mistake of the weekend? I hope nobody is taking that seriously, Parfait and the back-patting watchdog group, I'm joking. I had plenty more of them, especially as it came to deciding whether or not to pick games with my friend in town. Arguably the shove was one too as...

The small blind ignoring that my stack is 3/4s of his, says "I have to call" with the mighty QJ o/s. Right, you have to call, I said assuredly in the same tone of voice I say when offered the three wise men shots on a Tuesday night "It'd be stupid not to." Somebody needs to send that guy to school to learn how to play poker.

Flop is a 10 and everybody coos. It also brings an A and a J. "I say it's a good flop for him too." King comes in dirty right into the gutter on the turn and I got few outs. Not to be.

I saw Monkey there and I believe he made the final table. I'm glad Reid cashed on Sunday. He was on a mission and he did it. Congrats to both.

Saturday night, I played some cash again, and my friend who doesn't even know poker that well, noticed a big difference between Friday and Saturday. He was right. My mindset was there and I was working. I put a small dent in the weekend's bottom line. Had a hard time extracting money on my shorthanded table as I got a great run of cards at one point so I was still frustrated despite winning.

Oh well, this has rambled on. I still haven't even mentioned meeting up with Parfait on Thursday or some of the tomfoolery that took place Saturday night. Next time.

Oh, and the answer to the question I posited: Guy had AA and the woman had 1010. Thank goodness she donked off all her chips with that stellar holding and that kind of action. I enjoyed a tablemate saying "Now that's the way you play AA." What essentially min-raise three limpers and possibly go to the flop 6 handed but thankfully have a guy wake up with JJ on the button?



www.gulfcoastpoker.net


Comments

GeneD said…
Where are the "Super Bill" stories? ;-) Might have to just have Reid post up a "Super Bill" Blog. Your inlaws would love that HeHeHeHe (Just Kidding)
C.S. said…
No superbill did not make an appearence despite advertising him. Though, I did see an unexpected alter ego for just a moment.

And something I wanted to include in my blog, but I didn't, I was very impressed with the way Reid clawed back to a profit on Friday night. Nothing was going his way through no fault of his own and he just maintained his focus and rode it out. Pretty soon he was chewing up the short handed table.
Reid said…
SuperBill's signature move on Friday was this....

$1/$2 NL game. 7 limpers to SuperBill, who aggressively declares "Raise!" And then raise to $5.

This happened countless times and was quite amusing.
C.S. said…
I think he's called Mr. Invisible. I'm not sure if I saw him or not.

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