Monday Night Muck Em - Opening Weekend of Pheasant Season

Last years hunt

It's easy.  I have been playing way to loose.  All I need to do is tighten up my play and win a Monday Night Muck Em.

This Monday the plan was made.  I was going to wait for hands and collect chips.  First hand.  Fold.  Second hand my plan fell apart.  I don't remember what I had but it wasn't exceptional.  I played the hand and bet a middle pair as I had suited cards and there were 2 of my suit on the flop.  The flush never came and I showed down a winner on the river with 3rd best pair to their low pair. 

From then on I tried to play against that player and they had trips or better every time we got to showdown, which was only twice as I couldn't get past the rest of the players to get a shot at them again.

I was the very first one out of the game.  I didn't think about it at the time, but when I got home my wife asked if I had won.  I looked at the clock and it was pretty close to the time I would have walked in had I been in the money.  Everybody was playing their A game this week. 

The last hand I was in the bb with 3 bb's left behind.  I had a 2h 4h.  Three callers, nobody raised.  The flop came out Ah Kc 8h.  I thought a 3 blind could chase the players in the hand off.  The way they had been playing I figured that none of them even had an ace, and if they did I had a heart draw. 

All three players called.  Wow!  I had misjudged badly.  Still I could quadruple up if a heart falls.  The turn was an A.  I figured that hurt me.  The river was a K no heart.  I tossed my cards in the muck.  The winner had 88 for a set on the flop and a boat on the river.  The other 2 players did not have an ace or a king.  Maybe I hadn't misjudged my play so poorly after all.  Had the board not paired and a heart fell - you know the story.  Next time.

This weekend I head north.  It's opening weekend of pheasant season.  This has always felt like a holiday to me.  I'm sure deer hunters feel the same way the first day they can get out deer hunting.  Opening weekend is a tradition for my family.  We used to get together as a family, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, grandpa.  Everybody brought friends and we would all have fun the night before the big day and get up before the sun to go hunting.

One year my head was hurting extremely bad in the morning.  I had a bird jump up right in front of me.  I pulled the shotgun to my shoulder, sighted the bird in and cringed, I couldn't shoot.  I looked at my buddy and he had his gun up to his shoulder and lowered it back down without taking a shot.  He looked at me, looking at him, and we both knew we had drank too much of the homemade peppermint schnapps the night before.  We started laughing and before long were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks.

It's not so much about making memories for myself any longer.  I'm sure I will look back and realize hunting with my boys will be better than any experience I have had previous.  We don't have huge family gatherings like we used to have.  Now it's about getting my boys out there to experience the outdoors and build memories for them.  I cannot recreate the great times I had for them to experience, but hopefully they will develop their own fond memories of hunting with their Grandpa and their Dad.