Meetup Group Tourney 6/28/07

Off to play in the meetup.com poker group tonight. Placed 4th last time, wish me luck.

UPDATE: We have a winner and justice is served! It was a fun night, I was one of the chipleaders for a large part of the night, especially when the final table started. I did lose some chips at the final table trying to knock people out or by being "priced in". Things ended up looking "not so good" at a few points as I got really low in chips. Somehow Rick managed to continue to win hands and trade up for more black chips. I started to really pick my spots pretty well as it turned out. We played 4 handed for quite a while, no one wanting to be the bubble boy. We were just trading turns taking down the blinds. At one point, I ended up getting all of my chips in with AKd against the chip leader in the BB at the time, he had K8. I was pretty bummed when the flop brought an 8 for him. It was not looking good. The turn helped a bit as it brought the 2nd diamond on the board and gave me several additional outs. The river was my friend, the ace, which saved my life. Imagine that, the best preflop hand won, yippee! I just waited patiently and let the bubble burst to guarantee money. In the last hand I had 57o on the button and just limped the flop came 348 for a gut shot to the 6. Flop went check check, I thought great, free card. BINGO! 6 on the turn. I bet out 400 which was the pot at the time (100/200 level) and he raised it to 1000. I then pushed and he called. We had EXACTLY the same amount of chips, he had slow played a flopped 2 pair and I had the straight. I prayed for the river to not fill him up and when bricked off I took it down.

FEAR THE ELEPHANT!!!

5 7 of clubs

I was itchin' to play some cards tonight so I went ahead and headed out at about 9:30 or so. I did not really have a decision as to where I would play yet, but I headed towards Viejas or Barona. Once I hit the 67 Freeway exit I had to make a decision. I decided to go to Barona because I have enjoyed the $1/2 NL game there the few times that I have played it.

Well I got there at about 10pm and the placed was PACKED as you can see by the image below.

I put my name on $3/6, $1/2NL and $1/3 NL which I have not played before, but it is $100min to $300 max , I think. I would give it a shot. The attendant stated that it would probably be at least a 1/2 hr and I asked for a pager. BTW - My name could not even be seen initially as I was "off the charts".

I waited, and waited for about 1/2 hr, I think maybe 45 minutes and they finally called my name for $3/6. I really didn't want to play limit, but to kill time, I sat down. It wasn't very exciting and I missed every draw I had. I ended up donating about 80% of a rack there. Finally they called me for $1/2NL. I was glad to move and got up quickly.

As I sat down at the $1/2NL table ($20-60 buyin). I gazed over the table. It seemed like a good table to me. There was one young fellow, and when I say young I swear he was 14. He was probably 17-18, but seemed even younger. Barona seems to have the youngest players. Anyways, this guy was very talkative and seemed to know the game well, almost...well he was very cocky in his own way. I could not wait to extract from this guy... Several others at the table were very soft so I felt that I was in for a good session.

I buy in for the max $60 and get to work. Basically, it was a pretty routine session for me, quite a change from the $3/6 game. I got a lot of great starting hands, like QQ right off the bat. Also saw KK, AA, JJ and QQ another 2 times at least, but the best hand of the night was the 57c. I ended up flopping the club draw, but with big cards on the board. That pot became about $80-100 by the end and I rivered the club and bet out only to get raised and 1 caller to the raise. I called and won the hand against 2 people with 2pr, one being the youngster. He was pretty bummed when I said, I have to call, if you have a flush you probably have me because mine is small. He said flush is good and they both turned over 2pr.

Several hands later and several smaller pots, the game started to ween down. One young girl sat down and bought in for $20, I think. She was UTG on her first hand and bet out $7. I'm 2 positions in front of her and look down at KK. I make it $20 to go and she states, I guess I may be out the first hand and reluctantly calls. She tables QQ against my KK and never improves. I felt a bit bad since it was a first hand cooler.

One more interesting hand to note was a UTG hand I had of JJ. I decided to limp and see what happens. at least one other limper and the flop comes 3 rags. There is about $6 in the pot and this new guy to the table (waiting for $4/8 game) slides a stack of $20 out there. I said why so much? $20 into a $6 pot. Of course he said, oh is it only a $6 pot? I thought to myself, why the drastic overbet? Either he wants no callers or wants someone to think he is bluffing. Well, I decided that I may not win here, but I'm not going to play a big pot with JJ and a huge overbet on the tiny pot. I folded face up even though there were at least 2 other players yet to act. THe guy to my left calls and they check it to the river. Villian had 99 and caller had T7 and had flopped top pair of 7's. He was also clearly waiting for a bigger game and seemed bored. Even compainign about only being able to play $60. I would have won the hand, but it was just one of those really strange bets.

All in all, I was down about $80 in $3/6, but I ended up positive about $65 after the NL game. Pretty big swing for the night...

Good luck and great cards to you!

Barona 1/2 NL $20-60 (2nd nuts)

Not that you want to hear, but I want to tell you so just appease me...:-) It was interesting, how I played last night. I sat down at a table in the #10 seat, which I hate because you are right next to the dealer and you cannot see the #1 or 2 seat very well and can easily make mistakes by not knowing that someone is in the hand. Anyways, I immediately request a seat change so that as soon as someone leaves I get their seat and the new player would get my seat. I like #3 or #7 for the best visibility of the table. Ok moving on, very first hand I am under the gun, so right after the big blind and the first person to act. I have 9/10 of spades or 9Ts,. This is one of the types of hands that I really like to play. So, I decide to limp in for $2 to see what happens on the flop. There are several folds and then the small blind says "raise 10" so he makes it $12 to go. The big blind calls $10 more and I decide to call $10 more and see a flop. This is not unusual for me at all. The flop was 466, so for the most part I figure that it did not help anyone as they probably have big cards. Long story short on that hand is the big blind had 44 and flopped a full house. I caught a 10 on the turn and lost a decent pot, but I pushed a lot of chips in to create a table image right away that says "lookout" this guy will stay in with nothing.

Ok the very next hand I get to move to seat #7 and I get 99 and I decide to limp in from late position because now I am behind the blinds. Well the flop was something like A9X so perfect for me. One guy bets $7 and I slide a stack of $20 in there. The turn comes off and I cannot even recall what it was, but I he checked and I pushed the rest $28. He calls and I end up winning that pot. So now I am even...

and then the dreaded hand... I had AK, my nemesis, although this time I did not play the hand for high pair value at all.

I limped in with black AK, in late position, which I do sometimes to see a flop and get away if I miss. There were a few other limpers as well. The flop comes down with three clubs Q high. So, I announce "club check" and I look at my cards again. I have the Kc so if another club comes I will have the 2nd best flush you can have (you can imply where this is going). I go ahead and bet about $6 into the flop to see if I can just win it there and I get 1 caller. The turn is what I think to be a very good card for me. It was the Jc so I made my flush, king high. The only other card that would have been better, of course, would be the Ac so that I have the best flush possible. I check the turn with the intentions of check raising if he bet. Well, he bet $6 and I made it $18 to go. He announces raise and throws in the extra $12 that I raised. The dealer then proceeds to say ok you can only raise another $12 now. This is because he threw in the $12 that I raised already. There is a rule at this casino, at least that states that if you want to raise more than the minimum, then you need to put in that raise along with the call of the previous raise not separate. It's strange, but their rule. I was a victim of this myself one night. Anyways, so he can only raise $12 more and does. I call that figuring I still have the best hand and will push on the river or check raise all in. The river was a blank (meaningless card) and I went ahead and pushed. He instantly called with the AcJd and had the best hand you could have. As it turns out, I was behind he whole time except preflop. So, needless to say I was a bit ahead and dumped it all on the 2nd nuts. I hate when that happens.

until next time..

It's hard being me, but somehow I seem to manage.