Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Vegas in February - EllisMania 10

Last night we had our weekly game.  I was card dead the whole first half of the game.  I won 1 hand the first 2 hours.  Even the hands I folded I would not have caught anything on the flop had I felt like playing 8 3 offsuit.

After break I came back to 4 bb's.  I had just talked to one of the players outside before the break ended saying that I will come back to a mid pocket pair within the first 2 hands, go all in and get called and lose.  It always happens when I am low stacked. 

The first hand back was not quite a mid pocket pair.  It was 66.  I was early position and went all in.  One of the other players hem hawed around and said he was going with his gut and called.  Everybody else folded.  He turned over 10 3 hearts.  He hit a 3 on the flop and a 3 on the river to send me packing. 

After the hand he said he was sorry, he made a horrible play.  I told him it wasn't a horrible play.  It was the best call I could have asked for with him only having 1 over.  He went with his gut and it worked.  I told him not to worry about it.  I figured with my chips as amunition he would make it deep, just as I probably would have with his chips had I won.  He ended up cashing in 3rd place.

On a good note, I have booked another trip out to Las Vegas.  I will be bringing another newby out, so probably not a lot of poker this trip.  He plays a bit so we may be sitting at some tables over the weekend.  I booked it for Feb 21st - Feb 23rd.  We get there early Sat morning and leave Monday afternoon.  It will be a quick trip. 

I wanted to have something to look forward to after a busy start to the year.  We will be staying at the Riviera again.  I really like the size of the rooms.  Plus they let me use my comps for a room on the weekends.  Play a little too much on the slots there I do.  If only they had a poker room.

We've already booked tickets to EllisMania 10 Saturday night.  I am not sure exactly what it is, but the guy I'm bringing said he listens to Jason Ellis on XM radio.  They were having EllisMania 10 the same night we get to town.  This could not be coincidence.  I booked the tickets before I knew what it was about.  From what I have heard random people do challenges on the radio to have a chance to go to this and fight.  The last one had a musical chair fight, 4 man shock collar fight and some other crazy fights.  It sounds like they put on one heck of a show.  I'm excited to go see it and bring back some interesting stories to put on here.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Muck Em

After winning last week, I had a target on my back for the $20.00 bounty this week.  It was apparent at the start of play that I was going to have to have the best hand from start to finish every time.

I had pocket aces fairly early and had 2 callers all the way to rivertown.  I had 1 beat.  The other caught their flush on the river.  Painful. 

This week was not at all like last week.  I could not buy a hand.  Actually I got creative one time when I was about out of chips and called an all in from late position with 7 2 when nobody else called.  There were a lot of chips in the pot.  He had JQ.  I caught a 7 on the river to win.  It was pretty exciting.  It was apparent that I showed up last night to eat, drink and have fun.  With the cards I got I do not think things would have turned out any different if I had played seriously.

I did have fun.  The host always makes a meal for us.  This week it was a baked potato bar, with a snack tray and cakes.  It's a rough way to spend my Monday evenings.

My last hand of the night was 4 2 s.  I went all in and had 2 callers.  KQrag out the gate.  Big stack bets, other player goes all in.  Uh Oh!  Big stack folds.  Other player has a Q.  A 2 hit on the turn.  No love on the river.  I was third out of the game.  I had 1 BB left when I went all in.  I had just gotten out of the blinds with 8 3 and 9 2 with raisers and callers ahead of me.  I had 4 more hands to make a move.  When I looked down at the power hand 4 2 I knew it was time to put my chips in the middle. 

Not this time.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Poker and Basketball

This week I got back into the Monday night Muck Em.  The week before my daughter had been diagnosed with Influenza, I was exposed and I did not want to spread it to anybody else so I stayed home.

This week I came ready to play.  The cards were ready for me too.  I won the very first hand I have played this year with a pair of kings.  Nobody called my bet on the flop.  I caught several boats, sets, straights and all at the opportune times.  By the time we got to the final table I had a sizable chip lead.  The cards went dead.  Compared to what I had been getting.  I sat on my stack and watched as other players were taken out.

When we got down to 5 left I started looking for a spot to make a move.  I found a couple of spots and maintained my stack.  The blinds were starting to get to where I could not sit any longer.

When the bubble busted I was sitting with a slight lead.  From there one of the players continued on his run he was having since break.  He had been down to 1 bb at break and had went on a heck of a streak.  He took out the other 2 players and had me covered in chips. 

We played back and forth for nearly another 20 minutes.  I looked down at pocket 3's and thought I would do a semi-steal attempt.  He called.  The flop came out low.  He had called my raise so i figured he might have high cards.  I thought he had me covered so I announced all in.  He thought for a while and called.  It turned out I had a few more chips than he did.  I turned over my 3's and he showed 2 6 for a pair of 2's.  The board ran out not improving his hand and giving me the win. 

I collected my my hundo from finishing 3rd last year and collected more than that for my 1st place finish.  Nice start to the year.

We had our first basketball games on Saturday.  The boys played really well.  We lost 11 to 16 the first game and 12 to 32 the second game.  We fell apart at half time the 2nd game.  We were down 10 to 12 and looked like we had a chance.  Then I had a couple of kids start arguing and pushing each other on my team.  Another 2 kids forgot their positions and started running all over chasing the ball.  We are looking good.  We have 2 players that are scoring all of the points.  We need another player to step up and become a scoring threat as well. 

After practice this week I think we will have at least 3 kids scoring this Saturday.