Party Animal, Right Here!

So much to talk about. I think this might turn into a Jordan-esque post.

The girlfriend is out of town for the weekend, so that means cramming in as much poker as possible. Yes, instead of going out with friends or hanging outside during a beautiful weekend in Seattle, I've kept myself inside for most of the weekend, and when I've gone out, it's most been to...you've guessed it, play poker.

Friday:

I rushed out of work on Friday, leaving earlier than I was supposed to, to make it down to a cardroom about 20 minutes away, without traffic. But this was a Friday during rush hour, so it's easily double that. Plus, my phone was dying, so I had to stop home to charge. So instead of getting there at 5:30, I was there just past 6pm, in time to sign up for the tournament...as the 15th fucking alternate! What was usually a 4-table tournament became only 3 because they refused to break up the last table, which was being used for a 4-8 game.

At this same cardroom, I had my first encounter with a real live poker blogger! About 30 minutes south of me lives a blogger by the name of RaisingCayne. You may know him, he's been luckboxing dominating the MATH the past couple of weeks. I don't make it out for live poker as much as I'd like, but with the girlfriend gone + a recent cash inflow (see my other personal blog, Nothing Special, Really, for more info), I figured I could make it down and invited Cayne as well. But after an hour, we were still nowhere close to getting in. So we cashed out and donked off our money at 4-Card Poker. Yay table games! (I would've played Pai Gow but they didn't have the $5 table going.)

So I came home and fired up some FTP. Ended up getting 5th in a 90-seat SNG when I ran presto into 99. I made about as much as I would at a 1-table SNG, but at least I had more than $4 profit to show for about 3 hours of playing.

Saturday:

After dropping off my car for a new brake job, I came home and decided to broaden my horizons. I jumped into a $3 PLO tournament, and sat somewhere between 3rd & 6th for the middle part of the tournament. However, I donked off most my stack when I took AQxx to the felt on an Axx, two spade flop. Not only did the other guy flop top set, but he also had the flush draw as well. From there, it was a perfect storm of sets losing to turned straights twice afterwards, and I busted well short of the money when A-high lost to a rivered straight.

I joined Cayne and his friends Josh and Jenn for the tournament at Treasure Casino, this time making sure to get there early enough to be guaranteed a seat. Cayne & Josh had been there since earlier in the day, playing in their DS game at 12:30. This was my first time playing live casino poker since I think March, and only my second time in about a year, so I was both anxious & nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect, but as I learned very quickly, I was sitting at a very beatable game. Here's a couple of notable hands:

I sat out nearly a full orbit, then decided to follow something like 4 other limpers with a limped JTo from the CO. The flop was a golden 789 rainbow. It gets checked to me, and instead of checking, I decide to bet 300 into I think a 400 pot. I did this because the table was very loose, and I expected to get a couple of callers chasing something. What I didn't expect was the button to reraise to 800. Then, a big ass loose donkey to my right calls. A note about this guy: I saw him limp-call a 10xBB raise from OOP with 76c, then call a pot sized bet on the flop with nothing but a gutshot which got there on the turn. When I saw him call, I knew there was only one thing to do: reraise. I could've just flat called, but honestly, I thought like the reraise was strong enough to call, and I knew this other guy would call anything. I repopped to 2800, which got the reraise to fold, but the donkey called. Turn was a 4d, putting two diamonds on the board. I push for 1800 more, he calls with....A6d. The turn call I understand, but the flop call was beyond me. After the hand, he tells the girl between us how he thought I may have had a straight but he liked his call anyways. Yeah, nice call as a 95-5 dog.

Lost a chance at a huge pot when flopped trips became a boat on the river, only to see the other person have the exact same hand.

The hand of the night came when I limped J9d from the button. Flop comes AJ9 with the J&9 spades. Girl to my right bets pot for 1200 and I reraise to 3k. When she calls, I know she has to be on a draw, probably a spade draw. Turn is a offsuit ten. I still think my 2 pair is good so I put her all in, and she calls with KTs. We were pretty much even on the flop, but by the turn, she was about a 2:1 dog. When I put her in, she still had about 5500 left, enough for her to fold, but she felt her draw was too strong. Of course FTP the dealer rewards her with a Qh on the river, and I lose about half my stack.

I move tables, get AQ in the CO, only to get reraised by the button. I don't know this table, but I purposely disguised my bet as being very stealy-looking, so I start thinking about the push. His raise was 1500 less than what I had, or so I thought, so I hoped for a race situation & pushed. Actually, I had about 3500 more, so I easily could've folded, and should have. He had QQ, and the Q-high flop did me in. At least I did better than Cayne, who bounced just after the first break when he fell victim to the almight 37 suited (although, admittedly, he wasn't very clear headed to start the tournament. Cayne + booze = A Drunken Donkey).

So I came home, fired up some more FTP, and made a whopping $7. Time to start making retirement plans...

Sunday

Started the morning taking down a SNG in which I received not or two pocket aces, but FOUR. Including back to back at one point. And I got action on each one of them. Needless to say, I took that one down.

Took a break to watch the Seahawks game with some friends. I'm no Seahawks fan per se, but as long as their not going up against the Steelers or my hometown Cardinals, I'll root for them. It was a pretty ugly game, but the Seahawks made some plays at the end to come from behind and win.

Came home and played a couple more games. Won some, lost some, but was able to pick up a token at least. Between all the games I've played this weekend, I basically broke even.

Now, time to spend the rest of the night taking care of the things I put off all weekend. Like laundry. And dishes. And other various chores.

BTW, if you don't know about it, you should check out this link. Tons of free streaming TV shows & movies, including movies still in theaters. Not the best quality, and you have to deal with Japanese subtitles, but if you ever wanted to watch Superbad or The Office while you're playing poker, now's your chance.