I bungled in the jungle

Happy Sunday everybody.  I know many of you are looking forward to some truly awful weather today and in the next few days.  Here it's a bit chilly even.  High today is only supposed to be 72 and its pretty windy out.  Took the dog out a little while ago and I actually felt a little chilled.  Been quite a while since I could say that while standing outside. 

Last week at this time I was sitting at the Buccaneers game sweating my ass off.  It was only in the low to mid 80s but sitting there surrounded by people it was pretty warm.  It was a fun offensive game against New Orleans but the good guys lost.  The refs didn't help hosing them on 2 different occasions but the Bucs defense was completely helpless most of the game and generated no pass rush.  Give Drew Brees time and expect to lose.  Still the Bucs drove down in the final seconds and appeared to tie the game only to have a shitty ref call go against them.  I understand you cannot go out of bounds and come back in and catch a pass but where is the illegal contact call for the guy who pushed Mike Williams out the back of the end zone?  Last time I checked, the end zone is still 10 yards wide which means that contact came way more than 5 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.  But the Bucs got what they deserved for missing a FG and not scoring from the one yard line.  At least now the coaches have finally realized that LeGarret Blount is not a short yardage back and Doug Martin really toasted a good Viking defense this past Thursday night to prove it.

The reason I was at the game was that my cousin and some of his friends were in town on a mini vacation and wanted some good seats to a game.  Since I work for the company that has naming rights to the stadium, I was able to get a deal on good tickets down off the side of the end zone and about 20 rows from the field.  Closest I ever sat as well.  Chris my cousin has season tix to the Patsies up in the nose bleeds so he really enjoyed the view from down low.  Not to mention not freezing his ass off.  Apparently San Fran is playing the Pats up there on December 13 in the Sunday night game. And Miami is up there for an afternoon game on December 30.  He is not looking forward to attending either of those games I can tell you.  Nor would I be. 

Anyway we had a really good time, hit a few new places and just enjoyed ourselves.  I grew up only a half mile or so away from Chris and our families spent a lot of time together in the summers and holidays so we've always been pretty close.  His parents now have a place in central Florida so he is down here from time to time to see them and in fact will be down here at the end of November.  So while I didn't get to gamble any, I did have a fun weekend and was pretty tired at work Monday. 

Holy crap, I just saw the unis the Steelers are wearing today.  What the hell do they call that color, jailbird baby puke?  Wow, yellow and black or purple stripes circling around them?  I'd be embarrassed to be seen in that.  Of course I'm not paid millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to work in funny looking outfits.  I might change my tune in that instance. 

I love watching football on Sundays from the comfort of my own recliner.  Good thing I'm not an Eagle fan as they look pretty bad today, especially on defense.  Oh look, Andy Reid lost another challenge.  Here's my shocked face. 

Now Jaquizz Rodgers just ran through most of the Eagle D for 40 yards.  Ouch they cannot stop Atlanta.  Julio Jones has made them his bitch too.  What a TD he had beating Asomugha like a drum.  Unfortunately my wife started Matt Ryan against me in Fantasay Football and he is killing it.against a supposedly good pass defense.  I started Aaron Rodgers against the crappy Jags D and he has all of 1 TD in a 14-12 game that no one expected to be close.  Hey Rodgers!!  Wake up and throw some TDs so you can do your discount double check dance.  Because if I lose to her today I will be very disappointed.  Her team is 6-1 so far while mine is a stellar 3-4.  I loved this team when I drafted it but it just hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. 

Last night we hit Derby Lane for the 8pm tourney which we hadn't played in for quite a while.  About 50 players in the tourney.  10,000 chips and 20 minute blinds.  I kept it very tight early establishing my image.  Took down a couple of small pots, lost it back and had my starting stack after 3 blind levels.  Then took it up a notch and started being a little more aggressive.  The cards were nothing much to speak of but I'm not letting that stop me.  I managed to raise up 4-5 and river a straight against a gal for a decent score.  I later took her out when she pushed with 9+7 into my AK and I actually hit a K.  I felt pretty good with 16K in chips but lost 6K back to a shorty who pushed in with 33 over my preflop raise with KQ.  Nothing for me and I hit the first break at just over 10K in chips and feeling a little frustrated at not being able to build a stack. 

The PQ was doing a little better at the break but neither of us was lighting the world on fire.  After the break though I got going.  Got some hands finally and even made KK stand up twice, once taking out a guy who thought he would steal with KJ and another taking it down post flop.  My stack started building up and I was starting to feel better.  Then I decided to play like a lion

No not this lion taking down his prey

 

 

Yes  this is much more like me.

 

 

 

I was in the small blind with a middle sized stack of about 16K and look down at JJ.  Blinds are 300/600 and I figure I'm going to play this hard.  I really want to get more chips now.  Folded around to the cut off who is a kid that likes to make moves in position.  I'm hoping for a raise from him as I'm going to push in over the top of him.  He might have something, he might not but a healthy raise from him was right up my alley.  He pops it to 2500.  Then the lady on the button called him.  Which really surprised me as I thought she was fairly tight and liked to play big cards usually.  This changed my thought process.  I didn't want to get in a race with 2 big cards at this point for most or all of my chips.  I had her covered but not by much, the kid had me covered by a fair amount.  I thought a while and half of me wanted to push in but I figured the one person I was worried about was the woman and I was pretty sure she would call.  Not ideal with JJ in your hand.  So I played the cowardly lion and dumped it.  I breathed a sigh of relief when the flop came down AK7 then another K and finally a 4.  They both checked it down which surprised me as I was sure one of them, probably the lady had an Ace or King.  But the kid shows 33 and the lady MUCKS.  What??  You didn't have an ace or king or a pair and call a good sized raise for 20% of your chips and then don't even bet when he checks to you.  He rakes in the pot and I do a slow burn. So what do you think, was I too cautious there or is it right to toss JJ in that situation? 

 

 I kept my cool after that and started abusing the lady every chance I got.  She would call preflop raises with a wider range than I first thought but she would only call postflop if she hit something.  I was able to push her a few times with crap to build my stack and got away from one problem hand when she bet at me.  That helped me out a good bit.  Then I had cowardly lion hand number 2.  I'm on the button with 30K.  Big stack in seat 4 makes a raise to 4K on 500/1000 blinds.  Guy to his left raises to 8K.  Its folded to me and I look down at AK of spades.  Nice.  I start thinking through the betting.  I put seat 4 on a solid hand, big cards or a big pair, probably a big pair.  He got caught a few hands earlier raising light and I was betting he raised in fairly early position with a hand.  Guy to his left is a bit of a wild card and I didn't think he was too strong.  I thought he probably had a solid ace up to a mid pair.  My fear here is he has AK also and I push into the big stack with AK and am drawing short because 2 of my outs are in someone else's hand.  So I agonize for a minute between calling which I didn't like to do because thats over 1/4 of my chips and I may still have to call another raise then, folding which I don't want to do with these cards, and pushing all in over the top.  I finally decide to dump the hand.  Big stack calls the raise.  Flop is a jack high rainbow and the big stack pushes all in.  Guy on his left thinks really hard then calls for all his chips.  He shows AJ but the big stack has QQ.  He has one foot out the door until an ace splashes the river and burns the big stack.  What do you guys do there?  Are you really aggressive with AK suited or does that spell trouble to a raise and reraise in front of you?  I would have lost to the one guy who hit 2 pair on the river but beaten the big stack.  I'm sure the big stack calls my all in reraise and I'm not sure the AJ would though he indicated he was taking that hand all the way. 

 

We got down to 11 then the PQ got knocked out and we made the final table.  I was in ok shape with a just over 34K in chips, a bit below the average stack.  I stayed patient for a while but the blinds and antes were eating into my stack.  There was a good amount of action early on and a couple of people got knocked out including the lady on my right.   At that point I have the second shortest stack.  Then I started finding positions to move in and made up some chips pretty fast.  I got myself up to 70K while another guy got knocked out.  It sounds like a lot but the average by then was 80K so I was still below average.  I could tell a couple of guys were irritated as we were down to 6 and I should have been gone to get it down to the money but I did a pretty good job of picking my spots.  I did goof big though and wish I could play one hand over.  

 

I had moved up to 50K with blinds at 2K and 4K.  I had been pretty active so I figured someone would call a move from me thinking I was stealing.  Sitting in the big blind I look down at AA for the first time that day.  Just what the doctor ordered.   UTG calls with a big stack  then the guy in the cutoff min raises to 8K.  He is sitting on around 90K.   It folds to me and I have to make a decision.  Like I said, I thought a big push from me might get called because I had gotten so aggressive and I really didn't want to play AA against 2 opponents this close to the money.  Plus I thought the min raise might actually have a big hand and be looking for action.  And I really wanted to get a decent sized stack.  So I pushed all in.  UTG folds and the min raiser thinks for a second then folds as well.  Not what the doctor ordered.  I guess I should call there or maybe try a raise to 20K or so.  I won a decent pot there with blinds and antes it put me up to 70K but I could have done so much more.  With 6 people left and 5 getting paid, I really didn't want to risk a multiway pot but damn I think now that's the way I should have played it.   After that I managed to lose a chunk when I was on the button with 22.  I raised to 25K with blinds at 3K and 6K.  Unfortunately the big blind called me.  I thought with as much a stack as I had then and the fact I didn't push all in, it would make him think.  It didn't.  Probably I should have just pushed in and taken my chances.  Flop was queen high and missed me and he pushed in.  Had to fold there which put me down under 50K again.  Luckily the former big stack who lost with QQ had built himself back up to about 65K and tried to steal a hand after a king high flop.  He pushes in and the guy to his right calls him with K3 and that was all she wrote.  So I hit the money.  I held on for a good while afterwards too but could never get myself back into contention where I was a danger to the bigger stacks.  Blinds got so big that I ended up pushing in on the big blind with 52 after the guy to my right raised.  I put him on a pure steal and figured I had 2 live cards so I went for it.  He actually had 44 and I did not improve.  So out in 5th I go with a little over $300 to show for my efforts.  It certainly beat not hitting the money and for the most part I felt good about my play and my aggression but I really think I misplayed some of these hands and could have done so much better.  Then again, if you lose the tourney, don't you always feel that way?