I love the taste of Riesling in the evening....

Tastes like.......victory. To paraphrase the immortal Lt Col Kilgore. Just got back from Derby Lane after a not so long session of poker. I'm eating a late dinner and enjoying a bit of wine with it. The wife and her sisters went to Orlando after work today to pick up our daughter from college. She just finished her first semester of college. I feel old. So after work today (Friday) I ventured down the street to Derby Lane to play some poker.

I wanted to play Omaha today but I was surprised to find no table going when I got there. They had an interest list which I signed up for but I was only the 5th or 6th person to sign up. So I went to play $1-1 no limit for awhile. Not much happened there, no big hands, hell not much in the way of hands at all. I played it much tighter than last week and managed to use my tight image to take down a couple of pots. But I was just breaking even while I waited for a big hand. They were running that special again where the top hand each half hour won $500 so I was hoping for something there. One time the best hand was Aces full of sixes, another was Aces full of 8s so it didn't take a monster to win most half hours. Unfortunately, it was all I could do to have 2 suited cards or an Ace and a face card. I played for about an hour and a half and was dealt one pocket pair, 7-7. Next best hand was Ace Jack offsuit. Not a great day at the table but I kept it cool and collected and stayed away from trouble. Finally they called the Omaha table.

I really didn't think we would get it started. Only about 4 people showed up at first but a couple of more people wandered over and we started with 6 people. Nothing good happened at first, I wasn't getting much in the way of cards so I just observed the other people around me. Older guy across the table was very aggressive. He was pushing a lot of draws and bad hands but I wasn't getting any kind of hands to dispute him with. But I watched. Lady near me was pretty tight and played solid. Couple of other people around the table were pretty loose but mostly passive too. So I watched my stack dwindle a bit and took mental notes while I waited for a hand. A few more people joined the table and we actually filled it up. Then it started to turn.

I was in the big blind with K-10-8-2. Normal crap I had been seeing. 5 limpers to me and I check my blind. Flop is 10-6-4. Not great but the loose aggressive guy bets of course. Gets folded to me and I know he could have anything so I call with top pair. Two others call as well. Turn is nice when a king falls and I figure I'm ahead with top 2 pair. He bets again and I thought about raising him but I kinda wanted to keep the other 2 people in the hand as well. If I make it $16 I figure they will probably fold unless one of them is sitting on a set. Probably should have raised anyway since there was a low draw out there as well. River is another beautiful king and of course he bets again. This time I do raise him up. Oh did he give me a look but he called and was very unhappy when I showed the nuts. He shows his cards to the guy next to him and starts going off how he had me on the flop. Yeah you did cuz you played another shitty hand and flopped bottom 2 pair. Unfortunately, bottom 2 in Omaha SUCKS. After that he gave me a very wide berth and just folded when I reraised him a couple of other times. He also folded a couple of times when I led out. Usually I even had a hand when I bet into him.

I won a big pot later on when I picked up AAJ9 and flopped an ace. Usually thats just a prelude to getting whacked on the turn or river and thats what I half expected this time. Especially since 2 hearts hit the flop and I didn't have any. I expected the dealer to turn a heart to screw me but instead he turned the fourth ace. Now we're talking. I bet every round and 4 people kept calling me all the way down. Once guy reraised me as he made deuces full of aces. Boy he didn't like my quads at all. It was a big pot but unfortunately a low made it on the river so I had to split the pot. Still that put me up about $100 by then. I made a couple of other hands and then went completely card dead for about an hour. I played next to no hands except when I was in the blinds and even then I was usually dumping them after the flop as nothing connected. Thats ok, as long as I kept my head I knew it would turn back. And it did.

But it turned around again. I was in early position with KQJ10 with the QJ suited hearts. The flop was AQ4 with 2 hearts. I have a great draw for the straight along with the 2nd best flush draw. The turn was a 9 which helped but didn't make anything. It was checked to me and I bet. I was hoping for a king to make my straight or a heart, especially the king of hearts to make the flush for me. Neither came but the river was an 8 which made me a straight to the queen. I had to check twice to make sure it was good but after figuring I made the nuts I got ready to bet. Then the tight lady near me bets out after the river. I just couldn't put her as betting out on a made low in that situation. I thought for a second and figured I'm splitting the high end with her. There were just too many people in the hand for her to figure she was the only one with the low so instead of raising her up I just called her. A couple of others called. She shocked me when she turned over A2 for the nut low. I flipped over J10 for the nut straight and the other 2 guys had 2 pair and A3. I really was surprised that woman didn't have J10 for the straight as well. I wouldn't have been surprised if 2 people had the high and the other 2 had the low. Still it was a nice pot, even for half of it.

I'm getting too sleepy to finish this so I'll pick up in the morning

Back again. I scooped another hand a little later and the pot was just big enough for the half kill to be in play so I was in the big blind for $6 for the next hand. I looked at a crappy 4-5-8-10 with the 8-10 being spades. It was raised preflop to me but since I was in for $6 already I put in another 6 to see the flop. The flop was ok, 3-4-5 with the 4-5 in spades. I checked then called the bet by my old nemesis across the table for 6 bucks along with 4 others. I thought I might be ahead with top two pair though someone could have flopped the the wheel straight with A2. No one pushed hard though so I felt ok. The turn was bingo, another 5. Now I know I have the lead and I bet out for $12 and get 4 callers. I know I'm pretty vulnerable and it's probably a split pot so I was hoping everyone else either had a straight or flush draw or had a low. The river was another 3 but not the 3 of spades. I bet out, one guy thinks for a bit about raising but just calls, another calls and 2 others fold including my nemesis. I turn over the 45 hoping no one has 33 for quads. They don't and not only do I have the high, no one has a low. The other 2 guys had 34 for a lower boat and a A5 for trips. Often times trips will win in Omaha when there are 2 pair on the board but not this time. Not only that, no one had a valid low so I scooped the whole pot. That was sweet. Put me up to about $240 at that point.

By then I was getting hungry and tired. It was about 10:30 and it had been a long day and long week at work. Some of us did not go to Vegas this week to party and play. Work has been very busy with a lot of phone calls to boot. Not only that, we are in the middle of testing a new system we will be deploying this year. So a number of my peers were doing testing most of the week which meant they weren't available to handle phones or workflow or anything. That was bad enough but the people doing the testing were all experienced people, none of the newer folks were doing the testing. So there was a serious drain of qualified people who could handle a lot of different things. Mainly myself and a couple of others were the only people in the department with more than a year's experience. I was a little surprised they didn't take a couple of the newer folks to do the testing. That way they would get an idea of what the more inexperienced people could do with the new system and also leave a little more experience in the department. After all it's been busy for the past month so they know we are under the gun a bit. But I am just another cog in the machine so I don't get paid to make those decisions. Now enough of my bitching. Anyway I was tired by then so I called it a night and booked a nice win. Victory is sweet, like a nice wine.

When I posted my last missive, I was about to head to the company Xmas party. Now that was a good time. About 45 of us or so got together for a major meat fest. It was at this Brazilian steakhouse named Boizao in Tampa. I had never heard of it before but some of my co workers had been there and said I would enjoy it. Man were they right. We got there at 8 pm and were seated shortly thereafter. I introduced my wife to some of my coworkers she hadn't met and we were seated at one of 4 tables in a separate room. Then the food. First we hit the salad bar. Not your typical Ruby Tuesday bar. There was prosciutto and cheese, huge portobello mushrooms and a number of items I didn't recognize right off. It was good. After the salad we got back to our room and they starting bringing around meats. There were potatoes and also fried bananas. I am no banana fan except in a banana split so no big thrill to me. But the meats, now that was a thrill. They bring these meats that have been roasting by an open fire out on huge skewers. Then they would slice off a piece for you right at your plate and you'd grab it with these small tongs, kind of like sugar tongs, while they sliced it. And oh was it tasty and there was a large variety. I started with some delicious top sirloin, maybe the best sirloin I ever ate. Then there was some flank steak, filet mignon, steak roasted in garlic, parmesan pork loin, linguica, garlic chicken and bacon wrapped chicken. They also had ribs and lamb chops but I don't eat lamb. Everything was good to excellent starting with a few surprises. Unsurprisingly I loved the bacon wrapped chicken. Hell, you could wrapped bacon around fried uranium and I'd eat it and probably love it. As I said the top sirloin was great as was the flank steak and the parmesan pork. The others were all really good, especially the linguica. What was surprising was the filet wasn't that great. It was good, don't get me wrong, but compared to most of the other meats, I expected it to be better. Still we ate our fill and then had dessert to boot. My wife had this chocolate lava cake which was soo chocolatey it was impossible to eat it all. I had a piece of raspberry cheesecake which did not suck at all. The whole time we're eating were talking it up with my coworkers and their spouses/girlfriends or boyfriends. The husband of one of my coworkers is a major poker player. He plays stakes a lot higher than I can afford. And does very very well at it to boot. So of course we were talking poker a lot of the time. He plays at the $5-10 no limit tables or even $10-20 when they have it going. Way too rich for me but it was fun to talk about. Afterwards my wife told me how much she enjoyed dinner and my coworkers.

When dinner wrapped up at almost 11 we talked about what we wanted to do. The wife wanted to play poker but didn't want to go to the Hard Rock because it would be a long ride home from there so we opted to go to Derby Lane. They have a midnight tourney she likes to play in and I figured I would play some 1-1 no limit. When we got there about 11:30 I was shocked to see they had an Omaha table going with a waiting list. So I signed up for the waiting list and for $1-1 no limit holdem while I waited. The wife signed up for the tourney and I gave her another $40 to play some 1-1 while she waited.

I decided to play pretty loose on the holdem table and try to hit some big hands. So I called and raised some hands pretty weakly. It worked out once when I hit a full house with J9 but on other hands I couldn't get people off of weak pairs the times I bluffed. I didn't play well and I knew it. Gotta work on the holdem game. I was forcing it too instead of waiting until I hit a good hand or 2 and then letting people believe I had big hands later on. So it cost me about 100 bucks to play like an idiot. I was called to Omaha after about an hour. Like I said I was really surprised it was going so late. Usually the omaha table is populated by nitty old guys and it doesn't go on after 9 or 10 at night. But it was going strong at midnight.

I really tightened up my play on Omaha. I didn't want to toss another hundred or two after my first one from holdem. My hands were garbage for awhile but since I was folding everything preflop it wasn't costing me much. Most of the hands are not being split as not enough low cards are hitting the board. I get to work on a half kill hand with QQJ10 and flop top set on a Q 7 2 board. I bet and get raised by a guy. I call him along with a couple of others. Turn is ok with a 10 though it puts a flush draw on the board. I bet and get 3 callers including the original raiser. Another 10 comes on the river and I lead out again. No low and I know I'm scooping this one. The guy raises me again as everyone else folds. I look at him and reraise him again. He caps it and shows 7-7 for a lower full house than my QQ holds. He did not like that as I nearly broke him. That hand alone makes up all of my losses in holdem. I make a couple of more hands for smaller pots and when my wife walks up at 2:30. I'm up about 40 bucks. She is happy because she finished 3rd in her tourney. it was only a 30 person tourney so she only got back a little more than her buy in but it beat a stick in the eye. So we both walked out ahead and that was fine by me, especially considering how I started.

Well that's enough for now. Gotta hit the showers. Going back to Derby Lane tonight as the wife wants to play in their ladies tourney tonight. Hell twist my arm baby. So I'm off and until I write again, stay lucky you nuts.