Pokah

Went to Harrahs once again on Tuesday. Played in the one o'clock tournament. This tournament is really a turbo tourney that morphs into a super turbo towards the end. The blinds are 25/25 to start and increase to 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400/ 400/800/, 500/1000. You start with T2000.

First hand I am dealt Ac2c on the button. Limper and a 3x blind raiser. I call and four of us see the flop. Flop comes KcQs4c. The small blind bets 100. Original raiser bumps it to 300. I flat and the small blind comes along. The turn is the beautiful 3 of clubs. Someone told me clubs always get there. The small blind then bets out 300. The original raiser calls and I bump it 600 more. SB calls and OR goes away. River brings another 3 and I decide to check it here. The small blind shows a queen and I win.

Two hands later I see a five handed raised flop with 55. Someone told me presto always wins. The flop brings Kd5dQc. Bingo. Action flop if I ever saw one. Now the original small blind from the first hand leads out. Two callers and I just flat. Turn is a beautiful 4c. The raiser bets enough to basically pot commit himself and the others go away. I move all in and he reluctantly calls saying it might be an early tournament. He flips over Q7 of diamonds. The river brings the 4 of diamonds. The guy pumps his fist and starts to take his seat he had stood up from. The dealer announces full house and the dude deflates. Been there done that.

I take out another player and hit the break with 10K. That is usually enough to get you to the final table. 40 runners and all. I do make it and go just card dead. I bubbled it. Oh well.

I went to the bar and played a little video poker. Hit quads a couple of times. Four to the royal a bunch of times. Lost $20. My buddy was sitting at a cash game. It was early yet so I decided to sit down at a different table. I grind it out for about an hour. Nothing going on really. I get 65os under the gun. Now this is usually an easy throw away hand. But, I decided to play it for fun. It is kind of my hand and the table had been limping a lot. Of course the player next to me makes it $12. We are playing 1/2. Four callers around to me, sooooo... I call. Flop comes gin!!!! 423 with two spades. Big blind checks. I check the nuts to the raiser and he puts in $15 more. One fold and then a player wakes up and makes a healthy raise to $55. A fold and the big blinds flats. I think and then push for about $130. The original raiser fold whilst muttering to himself. The re-raiser pushes. The big blind thinks for a while and finally calls. The turn comes the Qc and the river was the 9d. The big blind shows a set of 4's. The other guy had a set of 2's. I drag the biggest cash game pot in my life. $400 or so. The pre flop raiser had QQ. If the fireworks could have waited a round, I would have gotten his chips as well.

Just as I am dragging this pot, my buddy comes over and says he busted. KK vs. AA. I say I want to play a little longer. Would have felt bad about leaving after that.

A while later I call a $7 multi way pot with QTos Flop comes KdJd4c. I call a c bet of $11. The turn is the 9c. Bingo. I bet $60. Now I get called by one of the worst players I had seen in quite some time. I was in a small hand with him earlier where he called down my bets with second pair on an ace high board. A hand where I had raise pre flop. He had KJ. Jack no good. Anyway, his call could be anything. The big blind, after some deliberation, comes along as well. The river is a nasty Qd. I check. The bad player says to his table mates something about playing bad and pushes in his last $26. The big blind folds, thank goodness. I make a crying call. He asks me if I have anything good. What? Of course I do. I have a straight. He flips over AQ no diamond. He says he was working on a straight as well. Really. $60 on that board? I was kicking myself because I had to go. He reloaded for $300 more. Which you can't do at a 1/2 table, but no one objected. I wish I could have stayed until he busted. But I ended my session up $500. By far my biggest cash win ever.

I go to find my buddy and he is siting at his seat again. Wait a minute. He went bust. While he was waiting for me he sat down at an empty table near his and talked on the phone. The dealer from his bust out came by and told him the $40 at his seat was his. Turns out he had the other guy covered. The dealer just thought he was cooling down. He ran that up to $120. Not bad for a guy that thought he bust.

I played in my home game that night. I go up and down and end up losing with 45os on a A45 board. One guy had A5 the other has 23. Oh well. I rebuy later and have KJ. Raise it to $2.50. It is a .25/.50 game. Flop comes QJ4 heads up with the big blind. He is a loose guy. I make it the pot. He flats. The turn is an ace. I make it 3/4 the pot, he flats. I play with him all the time and I am almost positive I am good still. He will call down with bottom pair a lot. The river is a king. He comes alive and I make the crying call with two pair. It was $6. He flips over T2os. I as so pissed. He then starts to talk to me and defend his play. I was a little drunk and angry. I told him to shut up twice. Just horrible.

Still up for the day. Can't complain.