Not playing much poker

This thing called my career is really getting in the way of me playing poker. I have been extremely busy at work and I have just not had enough time to play. I have been averaging about one time per week, sometimes I get to play twice.

A few weeks ago I made it down to Nautica again. Wow that place is awesome. I was there for about 2 hours maybe 2 1/2 hours and I won over $600. There was an interesting hand against the guy next to me. I raised preflop with 10 10. He called with kq spades. Flop was 10 j K with 2 spades. We both flopped hard. I bet all three streets and he just called all three streets. Luckily for me he did not get there. That was a decent pot. Only decent sized pot I lost all night was when my AA got cracked by 55. It was a strange hand. Ang raised preflop with AK (I think) I was sitting right next to her so I re raised to 27. Horrible guy at the end of the table four bet to 75 with 55. It folded back to me. I decided to smooth call hoping to disguise my hand. Flop was 456. I thought this was a good flop for a 4 bet pot until I noticed his tell. He plays with his sunglasses and gets a smirk on his face when he really likes his hand. I just checked and called the whole way. I really think I lost the minimum with that hand. He later called 175 preflop with A7, so I am really glad I did not ship my stack with the AA, because I think he would have called with 55 there.

I also played the no cap buyin game at Diablo's house. It was a really great game. Grayday bought in for 1,800. It was a 1/1 game. That was quite humorous. I bought in for $400. I lost a bunch to Matt G who kept three betting me when I was just strong enough to call but not strong enough to raise. I have a plan for him next time we play. I also lost a bunch to hiphop when he flopped a straight with an open ended straight flush draw and I turned top set. I was so worried about the flush draw that I did not see that 56 was a straight. I kept thinking that the only straight out there was 97 and I did not put him on that based upon the action on the flop. Of course as soon as he raised me on the turn I knew I was behind. I did not have enough chips to fold a set there so I called. My brain did not even focus enough to quickly offer to run it twice. The river card was down before I could even say anything. I was upset at myself because I should have played it differently and hiphop never sees the flop. Oh well. I am constantly learning.

I ended up into the game for $1,000 and I was down to $98. I moved to the back table to try and change my luck. Thank God I did. I went to that table with $121. I won quite a few hands and when we combined back to one table I had over $500. Late in the night I busted Crazy Mike and Mike T when they were both fairly short and I had AA vs. Ak and not sure what Crazy Mike had. I ended up only losing $55 for the night. I call that a win.

We had the team tournament at Dave's house and my team was "Bitches". Of course I chose that name. The team was Linda, Ang and myself. I really thought that we had a great combo for our team. Ang and Linda generally make it deep in tournaments and depending on how focused I am, I am a threat in any CPMG tournament that I play in. I was cruising along in the tournament until Caveman decided to play 89 o out of position to a raise. I love him. He flopped a double gutter and got there on the turn. I had AA. I could have folded, but I am an idiot and I dropped anchor. I got very short stacked at that point. When we combined to two tables Ang and I were still in but very short stacked. We both made the final table. Ang chipped up nicely but lost a bunch of chips against Hacker. He shoved preflop and we consulted about calling. She had A10. We figured his shoving range at that point was any ace so we decided she should call. He had JJ and she did not hit the A. That took a bunch of her chips and she went out 6th.

I somehow survived and when we got to three-handed was outchipped severely. They both had over 200k and I had about 50 or 60k max. Eskimo and Nick were on the same team and that dynamic made it a little harder for me. When we got a little closer to even in chips Nick offered a three way chop and it would have made sense financially to do so, but I really hate to chop, especially three handed. When we knocked Nick out Eskimo still had a pretty substantial chip lead, but the blinds were very large. I managed to get the chip lead and I had him all in with AQ vs K8. An eight right on the flop. GRRRRR. I hate that. It would have been a great comeback if I could have made it. A few hands later we get it all in preflop again and I have 77 vs. his jj. No luck for me. I had about 10,000 chips left after that and it was over the next hand. I ended up 2nd overall in the tournament and our team finished 2nd also. It was a very long night. We did not end until about 5:15 am.

Really want to have a game at my office again soon, but I have so many trials coming up that I just don't think I can do it soon. Have to miss Terry K's first cash game at his new place this weekend. Julie is having a tourney for Ang's bday. Can't miss that for my fellow "bitch". Should be a crazy night. Hope I have a DD.