Poker Pays For A Classic

It's been a couple weeks since my last blog post, I'd offer up an explanation but anything other than "I'm too lazy to write" would be a lie.

Two weeks ago I played the $10 rebuy mania at Dave's. I built my T1,000 stack up to T7,800 at one point, but rebuys are too swingy and I ended up donking most of it back (the biggest hand - I shove with 66, get called by 55 and AJ, J on the flop). After the tournament I bought into the cash game. They were playing .50/.50 HA round by round when I sat down, but three hands in they needed players at the $1/1 so I moved over. I started off bad again, running two buyins deep with no luck. I decided on one last buyin and started over. I started hitting hands and built myself back up to even when Colin joined our table and the DP/Colin/Grayday show began. Grayday decided to play aggressive, big stack poker and was taking some huge swings. He had about $500-600 in front of him before he gave most of it away. I got him two hands in a row. In the first, I have about $175 in my stack I get QQ and make it $6 to go. Few callers, including Grayday. Flop K-J-9 two spades. I c-bet $15. Grayday calls. Turn J. I shove. Grayday counts out the money and tanks...starts talking himself out of calling. I ask if he wants to see a card and he says "Yes, the one on the right". I turn over the left card. He starts mumbling. KQ? Q10? He shows me the Kc. Ruh roh. He finally gets mad and says "I don't want to see another fuckin' card again" and folds. I show the other Q and he gets furious. (It was the 2nd time he folded the best hand after seeing a card - Meats did it to him with A8 earlier).

Then, the VERY NEXT hand I get AA. I raise to $10 and get Dave W and Grayday in. Flop 10-9-7 offsuit. I check, Dave checks, Grayday leads for $15. I make it $40. Dave folds. Grayday slows down and calls. Turn is another 7. I shove again. He tanks again and starts mumbling. "Want to see one?" I ask. He says "Yeah, the one on the left" and this time I oblige, turning over an A. He calls my all-in and I say "Aces" and open the other one up. He looks dumbstruck, "Really?" he says, craning over to see my hand. River a blank and I scoop two in a row. The very next hand, Grayday shoves over my raise all-in for his remaining $100. I call with A-Q on the button and we run the board out and my A high is good. He showed Colin a lower A. On one of the last hands of the night, I get AA again and limp in for the straddle of $2. Grayday makes it $20 and I shove over top. He calls and I roll over my Aces and they hold up.

I cashed out way ahead and put the money toward the sweet 1965 Buick Lesabre 400 I bought that weekend. I didn't play much poker this past week, made the final two tables at Dave's on Saturday but managed to blow a 48K stack and not cashing. Cash game was not as nice. I lost my first buyin when I was getting whittled down and shoved my last $50 with AJd. Linda calls with AKs and turns a K. I rebuy and get mushed by Holiday Inn Jim's buddy who cracks my K with Ax. I raised preflop and he calls, flop 2-3-4. I bet $15 he calls. Turn a 7. I bet $25 he calls. River an A and he goes "Oh!" and bets $25. I muck disgustedly and add on for one final buyin. I run it up to $420 and am not smart enough to cash it out. We lose a few players and then I get caught in the Danny and Chan show. They both decide to keep raising and re-raising each other, and Danny goes on a sick run where he starts hitting every hand. I run down to about $65 and then build it back up to about $200 when we move tables. Danny and Chan are still going at each other when I start getting agitated. I limp on the button with 58 when Danny raises again to $6. I decide to push him and re-raise to $40. He shoves in his last $71 and I accidentally price myself into calling. I flop two pair and it holds up, and I make a quick speech about how I am going to start shoving with junk to combat the aggressive players. The table slows down a bit and I start cruising. I crack a big Linda pocket pair with my 8-3s (two pair) and in my final hand I stack Kirsten by turning the nut flush and rivering the low end of a straight flush. After the up and down I am +100 for the night, so not too bad.

Blog posts may be spottier than usual for a bit, I have a busy couple weekends with my kids since I had to shuffle my schedule to accomodate the two big tournaments at the end of the month.