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Played in a small head-ups tourney tonight – 4 players. I easily won the first round but the finals were a little more challenging.

We each started with 3000 chips. I won a small 160 chip pot on the first hand then proceeded to lose a 2640 chip pot. So after two hands I’m down 4240 to 1760. Not good. I won 13 of the next 19 hands but couldn’t get any closer than 2060 chips to his 3940. On the low end, I started two hands during that run with only 1100 chips.

My luck started to change on the 21st hand. I was down 1460 to 4540 and posted 30 for the small blind and he posted 60.

My hole cards:

I raised to 120 and he called.

The flop:

The betting was great for my set. He checked and I bet 60 – which was only a quarter of the pot. He raised 240, I raised 240, he raised 240, I raised 240, he raised 240, and finally I raised 80 to go all-in. He called and showed . So he has high pair but no draw.

The Turn: and the River: didn’t help him at all.

That hand got me back to nearly even at 2920 to 3080. But I couldn’t do anything with it and stayed behind for the next 9 hands. He built his lead back up to 4310 to 1690 at hand 30 – the second of my good hands and definately the best:

I was down 1690 to 4310 and posted 100 for the big blind.

My hole cards:

He called the big blind. With the blinds going up and my losing continuing (I was short stack for 30 straight hands) – I though I’d try and bluff out a quick pot so I raised 300. He called. So much for that.

The Flop:

So now I’m feeling a little better about the hand but I had shown some power with the big pre-flop raise. So I checked hoping for a big raise to my set. He checked. So much for that.

The Turn:

Ok – so this is good. I won the hand, I get the checkmark. But I need some chips and can’t bet. I check again and so does he.

The River:

I really liked the river card because it doesn’t appear to help me and it put three spades on the board. I have to try and get something out of this hand. I take a long time time and bet 500 into the 800 pot. He immediately puts me all-in for 790 more. Finally. I call and he showed a King high flush.

So I’m finally back on top 3380 to 2620 but by no means a big lead. We played two more hands and I won both. On the next hand (my third good hand) we started 4280 to 1720. I flopped 2h Kh and I raised his 100 big blind to 500. He went all-in and I called. He shows a Ts Ac. The flop is all red and all hearts and I win the hand and the tournament with a king high flush. Ironic.

Took the family to Las Vegas this weekend to visit their Grand Dad. We left early in the morning and the kids were still half asleep. This made the four hour car trip tolerable. However, on the way home, they were all awake and my cute little five year old morphed into a verbal terrorist. I have always told my wife that we should lend him to the military to sweat the terrorists. One hour in a room with him, when he is on a roll, and anyone would crack.

Moving along.

Checked out the WSOP. Railed Negreanu for a few, He was a little twitchy. Saw Jesus and a few others. Didn’t stay long. Got the T-Shirt.

I managed to squeeze in about four hours of 1/2 NL at the Silverton. This is the first time I have played NL live. I’m hooked on live play now. It is sooooooooo much better than online. The dealers were quick and knew what they were doing. There was a wide variety of characters at the table. Good Times.

I got some really good cards and folded almost all my crap. I had KK three times, AA twice, QQ once, 1010 once. I flopped a boat with a baby pair and took a guy to the cleaners. I burned a guy with AQ off on a AKA board. I slow played the KK once and got burned. I had a guy shove his short stack into my AA and it held.

There was the old guy that couldn’t stop bleeding chips. When I say old, I mean the undertaker was railing him.

There was the guy that knew everything there is to know about poker and wasn’t shy about letting everyone know it. He lost two buy ins.

There was “sunglasses guy” and yes, he did catch crap for it from “I know everything there is to know about poker” guy. He snapped off my pocket KK with his A 3 off. I did managed to throw in a blocking bet to keep the pot low when he flopped the A. I knew he had it but I couldn’t let go.

There was a blow out at the other table and the pit boss ejected two players after a litany of profanity was exchanged. Very entertaining.

I played it tight. It was obvious not too many people were paying attention to my play. But at one point, my cover was blown. You see, there was a guy who was paying attention. He decided to throw me under the bus. I opened the pot from MP. the action got around to him and he asked everyone if I was the one who raised. He announced that if I was the one that raised it then he was folding. He said, “That guy never comes in without the nuts.” That pretty much dried up my action for a little while. Here is the funny part. On that hand, I was holding crap. HaHaHaHa. Good Times.

My buy-in $200, cashed out $605.

Done rambling, GL at the tables.

Played in a small home game this weekend at the house. Some buddies that I hadn’t seen in quite a while and after dinner we decided to play a couple tourneys in the basement. First game was 6 handed and I immediately noticed something… no one was raising. Limp, limp, limp. Naturally the next hand that I had I switched gears and popped it up before the flop. What I got was completely unexpected… 5 callers! Now you and I both know that there was no way that all 5 players had a hand that could withstand a raise. But nonetheless, we went to the flop 6 handed. I made top pair on the flop and fired away. 4 callers… something fishy going on here. My hand did not improve on the turn so I decided to check. The rest of the table checked and we were off to the river. I made a small bet on the river and was called by one player who had caught two pair on the river (both smaller than my top pair, but two pair regardless). Needless to say I was a bit miffed, but I don’t bitch about luck in poker so it was off to the next hand.

The evening continued with no raises and tons of limping. I also quickly realized that there was no bluffing allowed in this game either. I realized this when I put a bet out on the river (thinking I was bluffing with 4th pair on the board) and got called… by A high. So even though I took that pot down I was not happy about the situation I’d found myself in.

1. No raising before or after the flop.
2. All bluffs were being called.

This left me in a situation where I was forced to sit back and wait for a hand. I managed to be hanging in there until I got my favorite hand in the big blind:

I of course checked when it was limped around to me and got a dream flop:

This is the beauty of a hand like 74 — NO ONE sees it coming when you flop a big hand. Of course, more often than not you flop nothing, but that’s another post entirely

The small blind checked and I made a modest bet. I of course was called by two players and the small blind actually released his hand.

The turn came a and the river came a leaving no straight and no flush possibilities out there. The only real hand I was worried about at this point was QJ which was a real possibility in this game cause of so much limping. I made a big bet on the river (about a quarter of my stack) and got called by AQ which was music to my ears.

More about this game later…