I have become an Eskimo

Because this my home. 

Yes I am still running bad on the poker front but right now I don't care (much) as I am sitting in my living room, watching the state's rebuttal to the closing arguments in the Casey Anthony trial, with a stomach full of eggs (mushroom, bacon, and cheddar omelet) potatoes, bacon and biscuits.  I was in a cooking mood this morning, much to my daughter and PQ's benefit as well as my own.

Back to poker.  Saturday evening, the dear wife and myself went to Derby Lane for another round of "coolers".  We got there about 5:30pm and were going to play some 1-1 NL for awhile and maybe play the 8pm tourney.  When we got there we noticed there was a $50 tourney at 6pm so we signed up for that instead of the later tourney.  This way we could be done earlier even if we made the money.  We decided to play a little NL until the tourney.  Nothing much happened for me at first.  I called one draw but missed and lost some chips.  Lost some more.   Then I got KK in mid position.  A couple of people called and I bumped it to $6 to narrow the field a little.  I failed miserable.  One guy calls, the small blind pushes all in for a little more than my raise, original limper calls and we see a 4 way flop.  Of course an ace flops.  I figure the all in for an ace but bet out to see if I can get something from someone else.  I get one caller.  Turn is a blank and I check.  Guy to my left makes a big bet and I dump those stupid kings.  He flips up A7 and the all in had AQ.  So I had the same odds of improving as those two but of course they did and I did not.  Story of my poker career lately, get it in bad and lose, get it in good and lose.

A few hands later I get A8 in the big blind.  No one raises and we see a flop 6 ways.  Flop is AA2.  Nice.  I check as does everyone else.  Turn is a 7, no flush draws or straights so I make a $4 bet.  Fold, fold then my wife raises me to $8.  I give her a dirty look as I just know she has something like A10 or A7 and has me beat.  Table cracks up with the see my dirty look.  I call her anyway as she could be on an A5 and trying to push me out still but I'm not happy.  River is a blank and I check.  I'm prepared to call just about any bet but PQ checks as well and flips up A8 as well so we split the pot.  Final hand before the tourney I call a small raise in the blinds with K10.  Flop is the bingo QJ9.  Oh yes!  I check, original raiser bets $4 and gets one caller.  It gets to me and I push all in for $14.  Both call.  Now we're talking.  I figure this puts me back over my starting stack.  Turn is a low blank.  Original raiser makes a big bet and the other guy folds.  He flips over KQ to my K10.  The river is of course, a 10 giving me another split pot and really really pissing me off. 

So I get to the tournament in a bad frame of mind.  Early on I played very conservatively and didn't get much to go on.  I did make a couple of position steals and lost some chips with top pair bad kicker from the big blind.  Then I get KK in late position.  Same dealer who dealt me the KK in cash game gave them to me again.  There were 3 limpers in front of me so I raised to 300 on the 25-50 blinds.  Get 2 callers.  Flop is a beautiful AQ10.  Oh yay, another ace on the flop when I have KK.  What did I expect, this dealer already did me that way once.  Small blind leads out kinda small and one guy calls as do I looking for my miracle jack to hit.   It does not (shocker) and I fold when the small blind makes a big bet.  He held AJ as it turns out.  I went up and down for a while but then made a bad raise on a small stack who pushed in with a big hand.  I am still missing things in the game, feeling rusty and out of sorts.  I missed a lot Saturday night.  And so I lost almost half my stack. 

I went out not very much later but at least I think I made the right play there, just ran into a bad situation.  Called a small suspicious raise with K of clubs, Q of spades.  Flop is Queen high, all clubs.  Original raiser bets about 1K and I raise all in for almost 4K.  I am afraid he has aces but he might have AK or a mid pair.  Have to figure the 3 clubs don't help him and if they do, I still have outs to the king.  With luck he'll dump a better hand or I'll suck out on the river.  Well he does have aces and if one wasn't the club ace, I think he dumps it cuz he waited awhile to decide on his call.  But he did have the club ace leaving me just 5 outs which of course did not hit, no draws seemed to hit for me Saturday night.  And out I go.

I decided to play some more 1-1 no limit holdem.  The poker room was running a promotion, any quads or better got paid $100 and the highest hand each hour got $500.  I'd like to say I got a big hand and made a mint but I never came close.  It SUCKED.  I did manage to get KK one more time and see an ace flop.  Just another hand mucked.  Never got much in the way of hands, JJ once, AK once, AQ twice and a few low pairs.  I made one bad fold when a guy pushed over the top of me when I had 99.  Turned out he had AK.  Thought he might and thought I should push over him all in after the flop but I didn't.  I chickened out but then I had a night where nothing much went right so I think I can be excused for that sometimes.  The wife busted  out about an hour later and of course hits quads about 15 minutes after sitting down. 

We called it a night about midnight.  I managed not to lose any more cash than what I started with so in that instance it was successful but not in any other way.  The wife walked out with her winnings so she was happy.  Probably no poker next weekend but the following weekend we will check out a poker room in North Fla while we are on vacation and celebrating my 51st.  Till then I hope all of you stay lucky.  I will keep plugging away.  Who knows, maybe I can get lucky too.