A good weekend

Last weekend was the "deepstack" at Terry's house. What an amazing house. His poker room is amazing as well. Thanks for hosting Terry. It is a great place to play cards.
I started drinking in the afternoon on Saturday before I made the trek to his place. It was one of those days where we took the kids out to lunch and ended up with a few beers. The problem was the "few beers" were 22 ounces each. I met Ang, Nicole and Chaz before the tourney and had another beer (which I could not even finish) and a jager bomb. I hate Jager. (I had to use google to get the correct spelling of Jager) By the time I got to Terry's place I was feeling pretty good.

I ended up with a pretty tough first table. I had Colin, Malcolm, Ang, Chaz, Brad, Meat, Ken and Rob. I really tried to just stay out of a lot of trouble and chip up. I was fairly successful at that table. I picked off a bluff by Ken and then Malcolm three barrelled me and I called with 99. There were only 3 over cards.

When we combined to 2 tables I had a pretty good stack. I played a hand horribly and I wish I could have a do over. I limped with AQ clubs. Why? I have NO idea. I flopped a flush draw. Chaz bet out on the king high board. I just called. Mistake number 2 in the hand. Chaz bet on the turn. I raised her. Mistake number 3 in the hand. Although I knew Chaz was not really strong, she is never folding to me in this spot. The river was a blank. Chaz checked to me. I thought for a minute and my brain was screaming just check behind. Nope. I fired again. Mistake number 4 in the hand. Chaz thought for a while and correctly pieced it together. Good Call. She had k5. Top pair no kicker. I was right in my read that she was not strong, but I did not listen to my self that she will never fold to me in that spot. Hey, it is not often that you can make a mistake at every point in the hand and still have chips.

Somehow I managed to make it to the final table. I was fairly short-stacked when we got there. We played 9 handed for quite a while. I just kept picking my spots and tried to play smart poker. At the break, Meat, Chaz, Prowest and Mark were the chips leaders with well over 60k. Malcolm was close by with about 45k. The rest of us were just hanging around. Meat, being Meat, told Chaz that if (when) they got heads up they could chop. Meat was out 9th. That made me happy. He thinks that he is the best player ever and I love outlasting him. When he got busted, there was talk of an 8 way chop. Um. No freakin way. I was still fairly short stacked but there was still no way I would ever chop 8 handed there. Malcolm tried to entice me to chop by pointing out that if we chopped, Meat would be the bubble boy. HMM. That sounded good, but no way was I chopping 8 handed.

A train wreck occurred shortly after Meat got busted. Malcolm spewed some chips and then shoved with A5. Chaz shoved behind him with AJ. Mark woke up with QQ. A safe board and Malcolm is out, Chaz' stack is decimated and Mark has a bunch of chips. Chaz ended up out soon after that hand on the bubble.

A very funny hand occurred between Karl and Hip hop. Karl limped utg with about 8 big blinds. Hmm. Wonder what he has? Hip Hop shoves with 10 10. I had AQs and insta-folded. Of course Karl has AA. Of course Hip Hop hits a 10. Hip Hop knew Karl had AA or KK at the least but still shoved. I can't really blame in that spot because of his chip stack, but he knew he was behind. 4 handed. Blinds are about to go to 5,000-10,000 in about 3 minutes. Anyone want to chop now. Please. Pretty Please. I only had 40k in chips. No one took me up on the offer. I picked up QQ in the big blind and Hip Hop shoved the small blind while only looking at a K. That is the right move in that spot. I got lucky to wake up with a hand. My QQ held and I was back in the game. Hip Hop got knocked out during that level. We played a few hands 3 handed when Mark who had the chip lead, although not a huge one, suggested an even chop. At that point we were guaranteed more than 2nd place money. Financially it made sense to chop. Also, even the big stack only had about 17 big blinds and the blinds were about to go up to 7,000-15,000. So we chopped 3 way for $800 each. A $700 profit. Not bad for an evening worth of "work".

I folded two hands at the final table that 8 months ago I would have played and I believe it saved my tournament. We were 7 handed. Prowest had been pretty active (surprise surprise) and was raising and limping quite a bit. He made a decent sized raise and I looked down at AJs. It was a weird spot. My chip stack dictated that I could not just call. It was either shove or fold. I could not make my self shove there so I folded. Someone made a comment to him about playing a lot of hands so he flipped over AK. Wow. Good lay down me. I may have caught my J, but I was way behind. It felt really good to fold that hand in that spot. I also folded 66. This was a pretty easy fold, but the old Jen would have seen a pocket pair and gotten all my chips in the middle regardless of the action before me. I cannot remember all of the action now, but I remember I would have lost had I put my chips in the middle.

I played the cash game for a short period of time and lost $20. I was not really in the mood to play cash, but I hung around for the fun.

The next day I had to drive to Detroit for work. That was fun on less than 2 hours of sleep. I cannot be that close to a Casino and not attend. I know that Matt G goes to Detroit fairly often, so I asked him the best place to play. He suggested Motor City, so there I went. I have to actually work now as my boss is a bitch. I will write later about the Detroit trip and my first session of Omaha 8.

Busy summer

I have had a crazy busy summer and it is really interfering with my ability to play poker. I played hooky one day when my meetings and court canceled and I decided to hit Rivers for the day. They have a pretty good 1/3 game there. I was cruising along nicely when I got involved in a crazy hand. I had j10 h. Flop comes 789 with 2 hearts. Nice flop. One guy bets 25, crazy guy raises to 55. I am next to act and I have 450 in front of me. I think for a while there are a few people behind me to act and they do not look interested in the hand at all. I decide to raise to 100. Lets get some money in the pot. The original better goes all in for about 120 total. The crazy guy calls. Turn is 4. Crazy guy bets 75. I figure he likes his hand enough to call my raise so I ship my remaining money into the pot. He calls. River 7. Short stack had j10 also, crazy guy had 74. He went runner runner boat for a monster pot. When people asked him what he thought I had when I raised the turn, his response was two smaller pair than him. HE HAD BOTTOM TWO PAIR.

I did manage to make it to Meadows for their big poker weekend tournament. The tournament is a $335 buy in with a decent structure. I was cruising along nicely chipping up when I went completely card dead. I could not even get a spot to shove. Whenever it folded to me I had a hand like 82, 10 4. It was crazy. I finally get 99 utg and shove for about 9 big blinds. I get called by AK and Aq. Of course the door card is an Ace. Why do they always hit when they are sharing outs. Oh well. That's poker. I suffered a few horrendous beats that weekend and I am really proud of the way that I handled the losses. I did not go on tilt as I normally do.

I also went to Hollywood Casino for the Indiana State poker championship. I played in the $345 deep stack. I did a sort of running log after
each blind level. In the early rounds I played smart tight aggressive poker. I refused to call with weak hands out of position. Won a few decent pots with Ak and Aq. I am really upset about a few hands that I played. After losing a decent pot with Ak vs Aq when he hit a queen
on the river, I went completely card dead. I had over 65,000 in chips so I was not desperate at all as the blinds were 600/1200 with a 150 ante. I did not stay as patient as I should have been. I saw aj s utg and decided to raise. I hate that hand. Of course the crazy guy in the
big blind called. Flop was j46 with 2 spades. I way overplayed top pair. He bet out 3,500. I put him on the flush draw so I raised to 9,500. He shipped it. I did not take the time to count his stack before I insta-called with just one pair. He had 7-5 spades for the open ended straight
flush draw. Of course he hit the flush on the river. When will I learn to slow down and think. He had about 39,000 total and my stack was down to 22,500. I am so pissed that I played such a big pot with one pair. I should never have been in the pot in the first place and I lost
a good portion of my stack. I stayed positive and tried to refocus but I could hear that little voice in my head that I blew it and I needed to get my chips back. Soon after we went to 800/1600 with 200 ante I got nervous. It folded to be on the hijack and I shipped it with my
favorite hand Aj s. I was insta-called by the player next to me and he had QQ. No luck for me and I am out. I don't hate the shove with Aj but it is such a bad hand for me that I should know better.

I also played the $555 tourney. It only had 171 runners. There were really no weak spots in this tourney. (other than me). I played really well
in this tournament. I got unlucky in two spots that cost me a bunch of chips. The first hand was a cooler blind v blind. I had jj in small blind vs kk in bb. Luckily he did not have a huge stack. Then I called a small raise from the big blind (against the most aggressive guy at the
table) with 74 c. Flop was 746. I checked, he bet about half the pot. I raised and he shipped it with 78. He hit a 5 on the turn for the straight. The only thing I would have done differently was I think I should have went all in after he bet and put maximum pressure on him. I don't
know if it plays out any differently but I wish I would have shipped it. I finally got short stacked and shoved from the button with pocket 10s. I got called by kq s. Flop qq9. Good game. I went out 28th. I was upset because they redrew for seats at 27 and I was hoping to get away
from the maniac 2 to my left.

Not sure if I will go back to Hollywood. I liked the tournaments, but they shut down their cash games. I got squashed in the pits. It was a very expensive weekend. Luckily, the next weekend I was saved. I will write about that later.