Harrahs Weekly Poker Donkley 1.12.11 Wrap up And Beau Rivage Nightly

Continued from previous posts but I have a feeling you realize that. Anyway was talking about the final table at the No limit Texas Hold'em tournament at Harrahs I call the Donkley.

The chatter continued about me having to call there. I challenged the gentleman who didn’t want to chop a little bit. I regret it because I like him and he’s usually a nice easy going guy who takes his beats well and wins well too. Still, I reminded him that I didn’t have to call there because Merle had almost folded AQ earlier at the table, he had shoved UTG, and with King-Two many of the hands he shoves with from there crush that hand. Also, with the blinds what they were 4k was nothing to sniff at but I was't there to give out Texas Holdem poker tips.

Next hand, it gets folded to me in the small blind. I raise Merle and he calls. I think I have 86 suited (it was some sort of one gapper). I flop open ended. Check call Merle. Turn a brick, I check call again. River is another brick and I check fold showing Merle my draw he showed me a flopped set of fives.

Now, I had just given him about 17k in two hands and he was in good shape. The other short stack survived a couple of all ins and suddenly the entire table was about even in chips. We chopped it and I was fine with it. I decided it was basically a free roll for the Beau tournaments I was going to on weekend and it was actually more than what I set a goal of leaving with.

At the Beau nightly I played one of the stranger hands I’ve been involved with, was beating myself up o the inside about it, but didn’t let it affect my play. I couldn’t get there early enough on Friday to play the $350 so I decided to play the survivor tournament at 7.

I got out of New Orleans early but found myself getting to Gulfport with two hours to kill. I stopped into Barnes and Noble and read the first few chapters of Titanic Thompson, great read by the way, but reading the stories about a hustler card pro and poker cheat from the turn of the century, I entered the Beau thinking everybody with a long fingernail was marking the cards.

For the first couple of levels I was just looking for angle-shooters, collusion, mechanic dealers and all kinds of nonsense. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make too many decisions because of poor starting hands. I chipped up a good bit. Then I ran AK into a set of Aces and paid off the loosest player at the table but even as I called his river bet I just kind of felt beat me.

He’s a player from Baton Rouge I’ve played with ~fairly often who has enough patter and a distinctive look for me to file away a memory of him, even though I’m probably just a guy that looks vaguely familiar to him. He killed me “in the money” of a tournament at the IP a couple of years ago, but I’ve gotten him at the Harrahs tournament and in a couple of cash games since.

Definitely have learned how to play loose players a little better since the IP tournament. He’s a good player and on that day he definitely was getting the better of me. Earlier, I hit two pair on him on the river as he hit his flush card. I paid him off knowing it was the only flush card that could get me to pay.

He drove most of the action on our table and I've seen him make good laydowns, good bluffs, and a lot of good decisios so I was wary.