Now don't be too surprised

But yes I am posting once again.  What has gotten into me?  I guess that 4 day weekend over Memorial Day actually did me some good in the rest department.  And I actually have more poker content to blog about.

So far I had played on both Friday and Saturday night but the PQ had not played at all.  So she wanted to play on Sunday in the 7pm tourney.  Poker 3 days in a row?  Sign me up.  We both got into the tourney on time.  $85 entry fee with $10 for every knockout.  Not that I saw any of that. 

My table was difficult at best.  I had 2 raising machines to my right and another one on my left.  I was not getting anything worth playing, even the 2/4 failed me.  It got old looking at people raising and never getting cards to go to war with.  I made a few position raises to keep from being run over.  First time I get reraised and then a somewhat shorter stack pushes all in.  Ok, I'm out of this one.  Pocket 10s go up against AA and lose.  I chose discretion over valor and folded.  Good choice as the aces would have taken me out too. 

Not long after I get AK in early position and raise 4x the big blind.  A guy across the table reraises and the very aggressive guy next to him pushes all in over the top.  He had done this before and I was pretty sure I was ahead of him but the reraiser I was not so sure about.  It gets folded to me and while I'm thinking about whether to call or not I see the guy across the table cutting out chips to call.  I felt like he had a big hand and that the aggressive guy probably had something like AQ.  If it was just the 2 of us I call but I was sure I was up against a big pair so I folded.  Turned out the guy across from me had QQ and the aggressive guy turns over AK as well.  And of course flops a K to win the pot.  I felt like I made the right read and play but damn it still worked out wrong for me. 

The only other hand I had worth speaking about was KK under the gun.  The table had been so aggressive I felt safe just calling the blind and letting someone else raise it up.  Unfortunately no one helped me out and 5 of us see a flop of A76.  Immediately the lady to my right bets and it's good bye cowboys.  I really felt like I was Robbed again but maybe it was for the best.  If I raise, I'm sure one of the weak aces calls me and after that flop I'm dead.  I at least remembered not to go broke with KK when an ace hits the flop.   Something one of my table mates did not remember.  And he took the walk of shame from the table when he lost to A9. 

I did manage to chip up on a bluff when 3 hearts hit the board.   I also managed to make a hand with JJ to get myself a little over starting stack but the blinds kept going up.  Eventually I got AK of clubs and raised in late position.   The big blind had a big hand I knew (he tried to raise when he was the blind) but unless he had AA or KK, it's worth it to me to push in and hope.  Of course he had AA.  I did flop a K but no clubs and no other K hit and it was good night to me.

I had an entry to a free roll tourney at 9 that night and since I was knocked out just before 9 it was handy for me.  The freeroll paid top 6 places and had either 6 or 8 tables.  Got off to a slow start but this was a quick tourney with 10 minute blinds so there was no time to mess around.  Lady 2 seats to my left was extremely aggressive willing to push in on marginal hands and draws but she got lucky a couple of times and chipped up well.  Any decent ace was good enough for her.  I kept it tight but took some shots and chipped up myself.  There were some pretty weak players at the table and I abused them enough to keep my stack up.  Blinds moved fast though.  I did manage a nice double up when I called a raise with 66 and flopped the set.  Original raiser pushed in after the flop and was very disappointed to see my set.  I was hoping someone else would call as well but everyone else folded. 

Made it to the final table but got card dead at the wrong time.  Everyone got more and more aggressive as the blinds accelerated.  Finally I pick up A9 in the small blind.  Big stack makes a big raise which signalled to me he had something from 10s down to 5s or so.  I was ok to push into that especially as short as I was getting.  So I called and saw he had JJ.  Damn.  No ace for me and I was done. 

After a short break to lick my wounds, I joined the PQ at a 1-1 no limit table.  She had final tabled the first tourney we were in but got knocked out when her KK was run down by A10.  Why don't we ever get to do that?  But the 1-1 table was a good place to lick our wounds.  Fun table with a lot of back and forth.  I managed to finally make a few hands and also get people to bet into me.  One guy decided to push all in over my continuation bet on a 10 high flop.  He figured I raised a big ace and he could take it away from me post flop when it didn't hit.  Too bad for him my original raise was with QQ.  I thought a second and called.  He didn't like flipping over AJ and losing all his chips.  That was a good decision.  I managed to make a few hands though the PQ got me with of all things, KK.  But we both walked away winners from that table.   Not enough to cover the cost of my tourney buy in but a pretty good gain none the less.

So nothing great to report still it was a fun weekend all in all and restful to boot.  Since then work has been the usual grind.  Almost 16 hours of OT this week alone and I'm going in on Sunday to boot.  Lucky me.  Still it pays the bills and leaves me some extra cash for poker, just not as much time for it.  Gotta wrap up now as I better hit the showers.  The PQ and I are scheduled for a massage at 11 then I play on playing some Omaha 8 this afternoon.  Tonight the daughter is having friends over so we're playing in a tourney tonight.  I hope everyone has a good weekend and a profitable one too.  And if anyone does really well, how about buying me a new fridge?