Just under the wire

I said I would post sometime within a week. I made it. It was a crazy weekend for me. I rarely get the opportunity to play two nights in a weekend, but this was a "special" weekend and my husband did not care that I played both nights.

Friday night. Deep Stack tourney at Colin's house. I was to the left of Colin and he was on fire. He could not miss, 2 pair, a set, flush etc. etc. At one point he almost had the table covered and he sure let us know it. I am being patient and not pushing or being stupid. I was actually disciplined. I think that I only played about 8 pots the whole tourney. The first time I actually get a hand is in the small blind, I pick up KK. Tom limped UTG and it folded to me. I could not believe that Colin folded his button. WTF. I'm a little weary about Tom's UTG limp, but I put a smallish raise out there. BB folds and he calls. Hmm. Flop k99. Nice flop. How can I get any money from Tom? It is the first hand I have raised all tourney, I think that if I check here, he is going to be very suspicous. So...lets make a scared bet. I don't think that the chips were even out of my hand and his cards were in the muck. Grrr. Oh well. I am finally scooping a few chips.

Two orbits later, I pick up KK again and again in the small blind. Thank you Colin for dealing. Folds to cut off, she min raises, no callers until me. I think about reraising but for some stupid reason I just call. As soon as I said call, I was pissed at myself because I know better than to just call in that spot. I am out of position. Flop, AQ2. Grr. There is almost always an ace out there. I check, she make a weak bet. Hmm. Let's check raise and see if we can get her out of here. She thought it through, but we have too much history for her to fold here to me. She thinks that I like to bully her too much. She calls. Turn is blank. Check check. River is a 2. Hmm. Everyone knows that my favorite hand is 2 4. Maybe she will believe me now. I make an almost pot sized bet. She had the cards near the muck and then she just could not fold her A5. Really. A5. Wow. I just kept my mouth shut. I was mad at my self. I should have reraised preflop. Ok I still have some chips left. I am not desperate yet and I am a good short stack player. I steal the blinds a few times over the next few orbits, but I cannot really get anything going because the table is being very aggressive.

The final hand. I get KK in the small blind again. I am starting to wonder if Colin is monkeying the deck and is just off one player. (Just kidding.) Blinds are 400/800 and I have 6,400 left. One limper, Colin raises the button to 2,400, I shove, he has to call. He raised with 7 5 spades. Great. I KNEW I was not going to win this hand. He flops a flush draw, turns a straight draw and hits both on the river. Nice hand. Dick. We argued for a minute about his raise there. I think that he is needlessly putting his chips at risk, he thinks pressure pressure pressure. There were 3 short stacks behind him that he raised into. Pick on the medium stacks. The short stacks have to push. I still think that it was the wrong play for him. I was an 80% favorite in the hand. I will take it. Hopefully next time I will be luckier. But whatever. Let's play the cash game.

I love to play cash games. I can have fun. I almsot stacked Meat with aq vs. kq. We both flopped a queen and I let him do the betting for me. I hit two pair on the river and he still bet and called my raise. I guess me bluffing him a while back with 2 4 still sticks in his head. Hey Dude, I know you will call me down light..I will not be bluffing you for a while.

Later I flopped a pair and straight draw, turn the flush draw and hit the flush on the river. Because it was runner runner flush he could not fold to my river raise. I think I let Mike take a pot away from me. I am not sure. I felt beat. I called in raise with j10 in position. Flop is J10A, with 2 hearts. He bets 15, I raise to 40. He reraises all in for about 280. Hmm. I cannot stack off here with bottom two pair. Can I? I think I am beat. KQ is his favorite hand and I think he is protecting against the flush draw. I show the hand and fold. He looked surprised so I think that he flopped broadway and was sick that I folded. I hate bottom two. I am committed to playing smarter poker and I think it was the right fold.

Saturday was ladies night. Wow. The amount of alcohol that I consumed was crazy. I think that I played poker that night, but I am not really sure. I took some notes during the game, but I do not have the notes with me. I will post about the hands later.

I forgot about this blogging thing

I was reading some blogs the other day and I remembered, I wrote a blog once. I think it was about 2-3 months ago. I started searching for it and I realized I wrote it last November. Whoops. I think that I am going to start writing in it. I am making a commitment to write something at least one time per week.

Why am I making this commitment? Because I lack discipline. I have ZERO. Guess what? That kills you at the poker table!

I played poker on Thursday night for a little bit. I was set to leave at 6:30 so that I could go drink and hang out with Julie, Scott, Ang and Tommy. I grabbed a rack and was ready to leave. I was up about $250. My first winning cash session in a while. Yea me. Then I accidentally (really it was by accident) posted my big blind. Now that I have paid for the blinds I have to see my free hands, right? So, about 6:50, its right before my big blind and I am going to cash out and I lose a big pot. Now I am up about $100. Ok that sucks, but a win is a win. The cage at Nautica was closed for 20 minutes. Really? Well, I cannot just stand around with my money, I guess I am playing one more round. I play stupid in two hands. Why? Because I LACK DISCIPLINE! I cannot help myself. I cannot just sit there. So now I am down $220. I am pissed. My lack of discipline in leaving when I said I would and playing hands that I know I should not play has burned me again.

Alright, one last hand and I am leaving. Really! I pick up JJ. UTG raises to 10, next player reraises to $60...what the hell am I supposed to do here with Jacks? Fold, raise, set mine? I have position on the raisers so I decide to take a flop. With these players I know that I am ahead of the raiser and behind the reraiser. I need a jack. Flop is K-10-5 rainbow. Hmm. The raiser checks. The reraiser looks visibly disgusted with that flop. (The reraiser thinks that I am a tight solid player- even kind of nitty so he hated my smooth call preflop) He bets 75. I have to call this. I am starting to think that I can take this pot away from him. I think he has QQ. Turn A. Ok, now I have a gutshot and position lets see what happens. He checks. I bet $110. A smallish bet, but I wanted it to look scary and I only had another $134 behind so he has to know that all my chips are going into the pot. He just calls. What is going on here? Does he already have a straight? Does he have two pair? A set? I am so confused. River is 2. He looks disgusted and checks. I go all in for my last $134 and resign myself to going drinking without any extra money. Its a $680 Pot he has to call the last $134. Right? But wait a second, he is a really good smart player.

Well, luckily for me, this is the one guy at Nautica that does not just put his money in and pray. He thought it through and figured there is no way he can be good here and he would rather save the money. WHEW! He said he had QQ. I believe him. I did not show the bluff, I just said, good lay down, whatever you had. He convinced himself that I had a set of kings. Right you are. Good fold. I left up about $180 dollars. If I had any discipline at the table I would have left up $250 AND I would have been able to see Julie and Scott. Sometimes I really piss myself off.

OK. So I finally have a winning session at poker, lets go to Eddie's for a game with calling stations. Yipee. I am doing really well, playing tight, smart poker. I am even playing solitaire on my Ipod to help prevent the bored play. Well as always, that fails and I start splashing around and playing stupid. I just have to call the reraise with 24 s, its my favorite hand. I do not however have to put another $150 in the pot because I hit the 4. I know better. I knew as I was calling and betting that I was beat and that this cannot end well for me. I ended up losing $300 for the night. Grrr.

OK. Enough for now. I need to have something to talk about for my next blog that will occur some time in the next 7 days.