The Weekend That Was

Last weekend was an amazing spectacle. The first bit of good news is that I got myself back into the win column by taking first place at a larger event outside of the Thursday Night Poker Club. Troy T Anderson (TTA) hosted a poker night last Friday with his roommate and a bunch of people from PBGC. It was different than our normal poker experience because it was in a party room in an apartment building, there were female poker players, and it started with 18 people. I outlasted everyone to take the championship in my first appearance.

The tournament had a $10 buy in and low odds of winning so I decided to make a $10 "last longer" bet with Ron. I ended up cashing in after about 5 minutes. Ron raises from early position with AK. Some girl calls with AQ and another guy calls on the button with AJ. The flop is A blank blank. Ron bets big and both call. The turn is a blank. Ron bets and they both call. The river is a J. Ron bets, the AJ guy goes all in. Ron calls quickly and the girl calls reluctantly. The guy who had AJ tripled up.

I had a pretty normal first couple hours winning small pots and folding alot. Then I get dealt 94 in big blind. The flop is 995. A guy I thought was tight bets and I call. The turn is a third heart which could potentially make him a flush. He goes all in and I fold, not wanting to risk my whole stack. He tells his friend he didn't have a flush so I change my opinion from "tight" to "aggressive". A few hands later, I have 45 and the flop is A23. The same guy goes all in and the girl to his left calls. I call with the wheel and triple up. He shows AJ. Therefore, I have about $11,000 out of $45000 in chips when we head to the final table.

At the final table I don't make many moves right away and win some small pots. The guy who knocked out Ron aggressively bluffs many times and starts to build a big stack. When it gets down to 4 people left, the security kick us out of the party room for playing the music too loud so we had to finish in Troy's apartment. We go up there and I'm pretty drunk at this point but am still happily throwing chips in the middle and taunting people. I revenged my earlier loss to Troy by knocking him out in 4th place. He went all in with 10 8 and I called with J6 because he didn't have many chips left. I won with Jack high on that. Then when it's 3 handed, the guy who knocked out Ron ends up knocking out the third place guy and has a mountain of chips. I think I had about 8000 and he had 37000 at the start of heads up.

I change up and get more aggressive, winning some bluffs. I go all in and get him to fold a pair when I have nothing but 7 high. Of course, I show him the 67 and say "good fold". Later on, he pushes me all in when a 4th club hits. I have a J high flush and call and he has a 5 high flush. I end up having about 90% of the chips after that hand.

After that, I put him all in twice and won on the second try. It was a difficult win and well earned.

In other news, Sharkey won on Thursday night.

Look how happy he is. He taunted me when I got 4th and said that I am in fact beatable. In addition, Troy said "I heard you are having trouble at poker lately" when I saw him on Friday. Thus, it made my victory all the more sweet. How did that feel, Troy?

Week 4 Roundup

There was no poker this week. But a bunch of us got together and drank at the poker table. We also played Kings. If this keeps up we will need to call this the Thursday Night Drinking Club (TNDC).

Woo Boo brought brownies and cupcakes. The brownies were mildly edible but I did not enjoy the cupcakes because they tasted like lemon.

Matt Thompson and Clown were their usual gregarious selves. Sharkey was mad that we didn't get the poker game going. Woo boo was woo boo.

Week 3 Roundup

Troy T. Andersen won this week. The newcomer had beginner's luck I suppose.

It was a wild game. The first hour was pretty quiet, but right before the rebuy period ended I look down from the small blind and have KK. Sharkey raised me and I reraised. He reraised again all in. I called because I could still rebuy. He shows AA. I got lucky when we dealt it out by hitting quad kings. That was one hell of a bad beat and Sharkey was fuming the rest of the night. He rebought and then we had another big hand after the rebuy period was over. I had 10 9 and the flop is 953. He bets big and I slowly call. The turn is a 10. He bets and I call. On the river he goes all in and I call, he shows a pocket pair. Sharkey is probably going to slash my tires this week.

So I have a mountain of chips and we have another huge pot. The flop is KK10 and I have KJ. Matt Thompson bets 5 into a big pot which was suspicious so I raise to 20. Ron goes all in for 92. Thompson calls. I go all in because I have Thompson covered and he puts in his last 25 or so. Ron had AJ and Thompson had AA. So only one card can beat me. Guess what happens? The A falls on the turn and I lose the pot but am still the chip leader. Ron is out and we go to three players. We played with three for an hour and not much happened but Matt slowly lost his stack. He finished in third.

So I'm heads up with the new guy. I have about a 2 to 1 chip lead. I raise him constantly and his stack dwindles until he raises all in. I call with A9 and he shows 10 8. Of course he hits a pair and we need to keep playing. He is still behind but then I hit a straight on the same card that he hits a flush and he wins a big pot. Now we are about even after these two brutal hands. As the blinds raise, I try to keep raising and he figures this out. I have Ace hi and the flop is 433. I bet big 3 times and he calls and shows 24. Now I'm down to about 200 and the blinds are like 30/60. I go all in with 67 suited against QJ and he pairs the queen. So there was alot of luck on both sides but he played well and got the win.

We also played a 3 handed game last Thursday but it wasn't that interesting except that Sharkey got mad at me for letting Ron rebuy after he busted out. Ron ended up getting second and I took the win.

So after 4 games I have two wins and two second place finishes.