What's your favorite station?

Mine is whatever one gives me cash.

Allow me to apologize for my sparse posting lately, work is living up to it's name. I've been in early and worked late almost every day and I expect to do a lot more of that over the next few weeks. Tax time combined with a change in the regulations creates much more work than usual.

Time for a recap. I mentioned yesterday (Saturday) I was playing in a freeroll tourney sponsored by a local radio station last night. It was a fun tourney though the turbo style of it was not my cup of tea. We started with 2000 chips, 10 minute blinds starting at 25-50. So it got up to fold or shove very quickly. And I'm a take my time kinda guy. 4th Blind level is 200-400 and I'm sitting on the button at just under 2K after tossing my blinds to raises on previous two hands when I wake up to JJ. 4 people had called the big blind when it came around to me and I pushed all in. Amazingly everyone dumped their hands and I basically double up. The very next hand I get AQ and push again and steal a couple more blinds. Then the next hand is also AQ. Now AQ is my nemesis hand. I can't win with it and I can't beat it either. I've lost with worse hands, better hands and far better hands against it. So I don't like seeing it, whether in my hand or my opponents. This time I just call with it since I've now taken my stack from 2k to over 5k. Flop is A-6-3 of spades. I've got the queen of spades in my hand. Its checked to me and I push in and take down another pot putting me up to 7k.

Now I'm sitting pretty good but with the blinds increasing, people are really pushing things and we're losing players fast. A little later the blinds go up to 400-800 and I look down to see AK in my hand. Guy to my right calls and I raise him up to 2500. Everyone folds and he pushes in for another 1000 which I immediately call. I'm hoping he is on an Ace Ten or Ace Jack but he actually has 6-6. I'm a slight dog but it gets worse when a 6 hits the flop along with an Ace and Jack. I see a 10 on the turn but I don't get a Q on the river and take a big hit. That hurt. I nurse my stack a bit, dodge a bullet when I toss 44 away after an all in raise and call and see AA vs QQ. I finally decide to push with K10 in early position before the blinds come around again and I get even shorter stacked. I get called by the small blind and the big blind folds after a bit. I figure this is probably it for me but the small blind flips over Q7. He doesn't improve and I double up while he goes on life support and soon exits the building.

I hit the first break and our table is dissolved. From the 15 or so starting tables we were down to 4. When we get back from break we get the news that the top 13 get paid, $97 for 2-12 and $971 (the radio station was at 97.1 on the FM dial) for first. I play smart, don't get many hands but make a couple of timely steals then knock out a shorty when his AQ doesn't improve against my 9-9. The blinds keep increasing and people keep dropping like flies. We are about an hour and a half into the tourney and already down to 2 tables when I get AK in early position. I push all in and get called by a guy to my left who pushes all in over the top of me. I figure he has a big pair but he flips over A-10 suited. We both get an Ace on the flop but he doesn't improve and a king hits the river which costs him nearly 2/3 of his stack. I was a bit surprised by his all in after mine as even though I was short I hadn't played much. Of course he was at my first table and saw my all in with K10 so maybe that was why he did it. He ended up out soon afterward.

Both tables got down to 7 players in short order and we went hand for hand. I had a couple of decent hands but in bad positions. I was short enough that I was in push all in or fold range and really didn't want to push a mid pair into AK and be out. Also though I was about the shortest stack at my table, there were a couple of people at the other table who were really short including 1 lady who had less than a big blind left. Most of my table felt the same way and since 2nd paid as much as 13th, the important thing was making it past the bubble. UTG I pick up 88 and decide to dump it since I was first to act. Good thing as the blinds both had big hands, AK and AJ. An ace flopped and the big blind almost went out as the small blind's AK took him down. I also folded AJ a few hands later and I think I should have pushed that one as I was in position but the other table had two all ins and I figured to wait that one out. Turns out the small stacks both stay in and I'm regretting my choice as every other hand I see is crap. But I keep winning some blinds and my stack stays about even. Finally one of the other guys gets knocked out and we're in the money.

Play goes quick after that. I don't get anything going but a couple of others get knocked out including AA getting cracked by 66. We get down to 10 and combine the tables to one. I'm pretty low but not the shortest however the gal who had less than a big blind before is now one of the bigger stacks. We play for a while and the shortest stack gets knocked out when it's break time again. When most of the players got back some discussion started about a 9 way chop of the prizes. I was all for it considering I was about the second shortest but I just said I'd go along with everyone as I didn't want to pressure the bigger stacks however all of them realized that one bad hand and they were out. So we chopped it 9 ways. Everyone got near $200 which was sweet, especially since it was a freebie tourney.

I left off this post last Sunday and it's now the following Saturday. I've been so tired at night I just haven't had the will to post. Afterwards I was talking to the DJ and let him know how much the PQ was wanting to take him out of his tourney. He got a good laugh at that and wanted me to tell her he'd be waiting. Well it's Saturday again and she is gonna take a crack at him tonight. I might as well.

Sunday I did run by the Hard Rock for a little while but the poker room didn't have much going on and no Omaha tables going so I decided to use my free play on Video Poker and that was about it. I of course hit nothing and tossed in another 50 bucks to boot. Some other guy sat next to me a while after I started and hit quads like crazy while I couldn't catch a cold. He walked out with four or five hundred bucks. I was pissed. Seemed like my luck had turned back again. I didn't play in the Sunday night Donkey tourney, I was too damned tired and went to bed pretty early.

The rest of the week passed in a blur pretty much. I did play in SmBoatDrinks tourney Tuesday but got proof about my luck there. No biggie. Skipped the Wednesday Dankoment as I was again too tired to play that late. Haven't played any poker since so today I guess I'll see if things are better. Well the PQ called and we have some errands to run so I'm off. Hope everyone has a good weekend. I will try to win the Powerball tonight as well so maybe tomorrow I'll be a rich man. Doubtful but if you don't hear from me again, well you'll know why. Anyway stay lucky you nuts. I hope to as well.