Getting Back in the Scene

My first batch of bierocks are pictured above.  Mom showed me how to make them a couple weekends ago.  Mine are not as pretty as hers but sure were tasty.

Tonight I get to join the scene again in the Monday Night Muck Em.  It's been several weeks since I have been able to play.  Baseball is over now.  I plan on playing tight at first and feeling out the competition for the first few rounds. 

I am considering putting some time into online poker again, now that I will have some free time.  If I do it will likely be 1 tournament a night at a little higher buy in than I usually play.  I haven't had time to check out the tournament scene in a while.  I am thinking if I can find an 11.00 tournament that has a decent starting stack, 10 min blind levels and a relatively short re-entry period, I will play it.  Most of the tournaments have a 3 hour re-entry period and that is too long to try to outlast the re-entry - all in re-entry - crowd.  I might be able to do o.k. at the game, but it isn't my favorite game.

I like a tournament where people are at risk of their tournament life if they lose.  Myself included.  If somebody really loves that 7 5 offsuit, they won't be able to rebuy over and over until it works out for them.

I'm also considering playing a couple of the other local games for a while since things should be slowing down. 

I have had a pretty good break from the game, and I'm ready to hit it again full steam. 

No Poker, Baseball, Booking a Trip to Vegas

The poker scene for me has been nearly non-existent the past few weeks.  Baseball has taken the front seat.  Usually with 3 or more games a week.  One of which is always Monday night. 

I'm sure I have fallen below middle of the pack on the leaderboard for this year.  I thought I could walk away with the lead, but I have to work my butt off to have a shot at top 6.  Everybody is getting better and quickly, or I am getting worse and quickly. 

This is the last week of baseball and then it's on to poker for me and swim meets for the kids.  My first year of coaching baseball has been an interesting one.  We had lots of rule changes, a lot of new kids to the game, and myself being new to coaching the game after never playing.  It's a great feeling when the kids finally catch on to something or get excited about the game.  It also takes a lot of patience when they are not paying attention to anything that is going on and not trying to improve.

I'm ready for some home time.  I'm ready for some poker on Monday.  I might even deserve some Sunday and Friday poker.

I have started booking my next trip to Vegas with my friend from Ohio.  I booked our plane tickets to fly out on the 26th of September and back on the 1st of October.  I used points from my Southwest card and in the name of FREE, I scheduled the first 2 nights with comps from the Riviera.  I'm hoping to get the last 3 nights at Harrah's or the Quad so we can have quick access to poker.

I know better than to book a trip 3 months out.  It takes f o r e v e r !  I have plenty of other things to look forward to between now and then.  We are planning a trip to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City.  I have another bass tournament in Oklahoma in September.  O.K. that's only 2 things.  I may have to take a pre-trip trip out to Vegas for Christmas in July. 

I wouldn't have to pay for my flight or hotel.  I just don't know if I would want to go out by myself.  It would be different than what I'm used to.  

Monday Night Muck Em

We did not have a game on Memorial Day.  This week we had decided to do a non points larger buy in larger stack game.  I was concerned considering my recent results. 

We started the game with 10,000 chips, 4,000 more than usual with the same 20 minute blind structure. 
25-25
25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
break
500-1000
1000-2000 500 ante
2000-4000 500 ante
5000-10000 1000 ante
10000-20000 1000 ante

Notice the gaps in blinds after break. 

I went into the game ready to broaden my range and play more aggressively.  As soon as we started I realized that was not going to happen.  The guy directly to my left went on a heater all the way to break.  It was a one man show and his stack was enormous.  I won 1 hand pre-break.  He had just went to showdown 4 times in a row with close to nuts hands.  I didn't have anything but ended up betting him out of the pot.

At break I was sitting on close to my beginning stack.  The first hand back I was dealt pocket J's and had 2 smaller stacks go all in before me.  I called and faced 88 and 9 10o.  I took out both players and had a decent stack to play with.  A couple hands later I had 10 J suited and called another small stack's all in.  I hit a J on the flop to win that hand. 

I coasted to the final 4 from there.  We were pretty even stacked with 4 players left and I proposed a chop.  That would have given us all 2nd place money.  The pre break dominator shot it down right away so we played.  The blinds then jumped to 5000-10000.  I had 3 bb's which was 2nd biggest stack, but thought if I could push the blinds out of the hand 1 time I would be set to do some damage, when I looked at my Q8 of diamonds.  I was called by the big blind with almost all of his chips with a J10 off suit.  I hit a Q on the flop but he turned a J and then rivered a 10.  I got my buy in back plus some. 

Most of the time I would have waited for 1 more person to go out to make a play like that.  In this situation I felt I needed to make that play to give me a chance to win.  It almost worked out better than expected when he called and I spiked the Q. 

The person who turned down the chop finished 2nd, so it didn't hurt him to turn down the chop.  I have no hard feelings about it either.  He played well and deserved to have a shot at 1st place money and bragging rights.