What a weekend

Went to Horseshoe Indiana for the WSOP circuit event. It was a blast. Played quite a bit of poker, most of it good.
Friday afternoon..sit at the 1/2 game with $200. It is a great table, I am the youngest player at the table and the standard raise is to $6. If I cannot beat this table of nits, I have no business playing this game. I am playing tight aggressive because they see me as a rock and I do not want to get out of line too early. Win a few small pots. Then I pick up A9 on the button. There is a raise to $6. I just call. No reason to go crazy. Flop is 9 high with 2 diamonds. Sb bets 10 dollars. Hmm.. that smells like a flush draw. I thought about raising here, but he did not seem like the guy that would fold a flush draw ever...so lets play pot control. Turn is a Queen. Another $10 bet. I guess I could raise here, but I really don't want to go crazy with Top pair in case my flush draw read is wrong. River is a king. Now he grabs 40 dollars, adds 20, then takes away 10 and bets $50. What the hell is going on here? Was he betting the flush draw and hit a king? I think he missed the flush draw and is trying to bet me off this hand. I call. He just sits there. I look at him and say "Sir, I call..what do you have?" He shakes his head and shows a 7 high flush draw. I turn over my hand and scoop the pot. The older guys at the table were telling me/him that they would NEVER have called there but placating me with the standard "good call honey". I just kept my mouth shut and prayed that they would all stay at the table. About 15 minutes later I hear the call...cash game players this is your last hand..we will be closing all the tables for the freeroll. What? No way, this is the best table ever. Grr. That is a bad beat. I left the table up $193 in 45 minutes.

The freeroll was a joke. I did not even really want to play. Busted that pretty quickly with kk v. a7. Oh well.

Played again later in the night and had Colin and Gross at my table for most of the time. Colin could not win there so he left and went to another table. There were mostly standard junk there, nothing too fun. Except the 2 4 hand. I got 2 4 a bunch of times that day and I folded it almost every time. That is very hard for me to do, but I am really trying to get better at this game and playing 2 4 for a lot of money is just not a good thing. A really aggressive guy sits at the table and I can tell he is just waiting for some action and big pots. He button straddles for $10. I am utg and raise to $30 with the old 2 4. I know that there is no way this guy is folding his button straddle so I want to play a pot with him with my favorite hand. Gross then interferes and calls the $30. WTF. Aggressive guy calls as well. Flop is A K 5 rainbow. Not a great flop for 24, but a great flop for the "nitty woman" who raised to $30 under the gun. I bet $55. Tom thinks for a few minutes and finally folds. Aggressive guy insta mucks. I really wanted to show the 2 4, but I decided not a good idea yet. Gross tells me that he had JJ. I tell him..well you know I had one of two hands. AA or 2 4. I later told him it was the 2 4.

Gross got his money back from me later when we both flopped trip fours and I had him outkicked and he went runner runner flush. Luckily I just check called the river. Phew. Left that table up only about $30 after about 2 hours.
I was done for the night as I developed a migraine and I could not continue to focus.

Saturday is the Tourney. My table draw seems ok, a few older players really solid, a few older donks and a few randoms. As I am staring at the guy on my left I see that he has what appears to be 2 WSOP circuit rings. Great. Of course I ask him about them and find out that he was the "unofficial" WSOP circuit event player of the year for 2009. Nice. Maybe I can learn something from him. We chit chat and he shows me his cards some times after he folds and we discuss strategy a little. Worth the price of admission.

We had a guy who did not show up for the first three levels and then this black guy sits down. Hmm. He looks a little familiar. Dwyte Pilgrim. Just won the Borgata Open for 780,000. Nice. He only lasts a few levels and he is busted. Interesting to watch him play. He got coolered in a big hand and that took most of his chips.

The old Donk on my right bled most his chips away and we got into a big pot together. I called on the button with j10 s. Flop is j 5 9, two hearts. He checks. I think about checking behind, but decide..I better bet here. I bet about 2/3 of the pot, he tanks and shoves. I know that he has a flush draw. Fuck. What should I do. Why didn't I check the flop and see what comes on the turn. Grr. I call. Before he turns over his cards, I say "Show me 10 high flush draw." Nope. The 7 high flush draw. Really? The turn is another J, please do not let him get there. 6 of hearts on the river. Grr. Why does it always get there.

I lost a few other medium sized pots. Almost ready for dinner break and I have 6600. I want to push because after dinner the blinds will be 500/1000. I do not want to come back to six big blinds. Even I could not push with the garbage that I had. Off to dinner break.

Two hands after dinner I am in the big blind. Please let me double up or get knocked out. Poker tournaments are boring when you cannot play any hands. The button raised by BB for the 100th time, so I thought no matter what I have I am pushing. I look down at 10 10. All in. He calls with q3 and I avoid his over and the flush draw that he picked up. Yeah. I doubled up. Soon after that I get moved to a new table. I manage to double up one more time there to a high point of 27,000. Then, I lost about 4,500 with Aj vs. Ak. Luckily he did not reraise me preflop and luckily I did not hit an Ace. I lose a few more blinds and antes and have 21,500 when I pick up 99. The blinds are 700/1400 with a 200 ante. I raise to 4600 in mid position, one caller. The big blind goes all in for 19600. What do I do here? I would have 16,900 left if I fold. A little more than 10 big blinds. Can I really expect to get a better hand than 99? I finally decided to call because about 20 minutes ago this guy pulled the same move with 910 o and he did it another time when he did not have to show his cards. I am going back and forth in my head about the call. I think I have to call there.

I wanted to shove the next two hands, put i picked up 5 high each time and I wanted to get my money in a little better. I end up in the big blind with 10 2 and call all in for my last 500 chips above the big blind. He has A10. Of course. I cannot even have 2 live cards. We both hit the 10, but it is not enough and I am out of the tourney about 105 place. That really sucks. Oh well. Off to play cash.

I will talk about the nightly cash game later. It was juicy!