Absolute Insanity

This weekend was absolutely insane, in every possible way. Well, in every possible GOOD way. Almost.

Things started poorly on Friday night when I was the FIRST person eliminated from the poker league. I had done so well the week before that people were gunning for me. Third or fourth hand in I got AT on the big blind, and Actyper (another PSO regular) raised from 20 to 100. I called and hit an ace on the flop. I checked, he bet 100 and I raised to 400. He would later say that that raise was WAY too high and he thought I was trying to buy it. The pot was already 310, so I don't think it was that outrageous, I was just trying to send a clear signal that said "I HAVE AN ACE." He called and the turn was a 10, giving me two pair. There was also a queen on the flop, so I thought momentarily about KJ but dismissed it. This time I led out with another 400, and he still thought I was putting a move on him. I have only posted about a zillion times on the forum that I play TIGHTER that TIGHT early in multi-table tournaments, but he ignored this and called again. The river was a disaster. A queen counterfeited my pair of 10's and now I was beaten by Aces, Tens or any Queen, along with KJ. He had me outchipped and went all in for my last 600, and like a stupid fish, I called. I was so upset that he was stupid enough to call my first two bets, it put me on tilt. Maybe I was pot committed with 800 in the pot already, but I came back from 600 last week, there's no reason to think I couldn't do it again. Instead I took that opportunity away and called to see his KQ. Yes, he called with a pair of queen and a king kicker to a big raise after the flop with an ace on the board. Yes, he called a big bet on the turn with only a pair of queens and a gutshot straight with an Ace and a Ten on the board when the straight could already be made. He made two fish moves, and I made one.

The good news is he took this MONSTER chip lead and finished 21st out of 45 people. Good show. Don't worry Actyper, you're not a fish. I flamed him pretty hard on the forum, but I was really just kidding. He had a pretty good comeback with "You like Hellmouth so much you're starting to act like him." Touche. (No idea how to do the accent over the "e")

I played a STT on Pacific to console myself. I only had a few bucks in there because I cashed out my original deposit so it was just a 10+1. It was an incredibly dominating performance. I had 4500 of the 8000 total with 6 players left. I had 7200 with three left, and knocked the third place player out with 72 (The HAMMER!) I dominated the heads up game and basically got the guy to fold until he was all in on the blind. I bet those guys hated me. I was pushy, greedy and all kinds of mean. It felt GREAT!

On Saturday I drove up to Kansas City for KingLucky's home game. I started out very poorly. I even had to reload after about an hour. But then someone called a round of Omaha and everything turned around. I made a bunch of my draws, usually with a dozen outs or more, and even when I didn't I won anyway. That got me healthy, and things just got better and better. By the end I think I had doubled or tripled my buy in. It's a very small stakes game, but it's still nice to win once in a while. I had gotten abused the last two times out, but I made up for it both times by hitting big at the casino. I joked that I would probably lose at the casino this time because I won at the home game.

But that turned out to be false. My first hand at Ameristar Casino was 88, which I like to call "The Crazy Eighty-Eight." (Any Kill Bill fans out there?) I caught an 8 on the flop and got the boat on the turn. I never touched my buy in money again. I was up $250 on my first session of Hold 'Em, and took a break and played some Let It Ride with King Lucky. I lost $20 playing LIR, but won that back at the craps table. It was a real struggle, and considering how much I got down originally, a $20 profit was a real accomplishment.

I returned to the Hold 'Em game and won another $150 in pretty short order. There was plenty of Laundry to be done...at one point I asked the dealer if they sold ski gloves in the gift shop for the cards he was dealing. But I won a few monster hands that made the whole game worthwhile. I only bought back in for $80, it's what I had in loose bills and I figured I could reload if I needed to. I did get all in twice, but won both of those. Once I held 77 on a kill hand. A kill is when someone wins two hands in a row at 3/6, and the game becomes a 6/12 game with a forced bet of $6 by "the killer." I just called the $6 with my 77 but got raised afterward to $12. I went all in (limp reraise!) for $16 and got called by the original raiser and another player. The flop was Q7Q. Just what you want when you have no more money to bet, a flopped boat. It got worse. The original raiser bet out and the other player folded. We flipped our cards and I apologized to the raiser when he showed AA. The turn revealed the case 7, and suddenly my heart raced. "If there's an ace on the river, you've got the bad beat!" I said. We quickly added up the pot and realized there was enough in it to qualify, and I screamed "COME ON ACE!" It was a 4, but wow, what an exciting hand. The Bad Beat Jackpot amount was over $38,000, and my share would have been nearly $10,000. The AA player would have won $19,000+ and each player at the table would have had over $1,500. The table mumbled and grumbled about it for a good half hour. Nothing like a close shave with $10K to get your heart pounding! Instead I won $48.

But I came back big with that $48 and left the table when my plays made my neighbors irate. When I check raised the guy to my left when I caught my KKKJJ boat on the river, he said "Were you ever going to bet your hand?" I replied "Why would I, you were doing just fine!." I pissed off the guy to the right of me when I held TT and called his pre-flop raise. He bet all the streets and it got down to just he and I, with the only over on the board being a King. I said "I think I'm beat but I have to call," and he showed 77. As I was stacking my chips I said "I was almost positive you had me beat that time," and he said, very unhappily "Then why didn't you fold?!?" I was thinking "There was $80 in the pot and it was just $6, what do you think I'm a fucking retard?" But all I said was "The pot made me. Too much odds." This didn't satisfy him and he started getting more and more irate. Time for me to go.

Session three ended up dead even, but the table was a ton of fun. I was really sweating being put at the same table, because the same two guys were there. Luckily they started a new table and everyone was there to have a good time. I really enjoyed it, and broke dead even. After tips even, so I was happy.

From there we went to Harrah's Casino so I could take a look a the brand new poker room over there. It was really nice. Quieter than Ameristar's room, and everything was shiny and new. The Plastic cards glided over the brand new felt like there was no friction at all. The rounded edges on the $5 chips made chip shuffling a breeze, and I was happily shuffling away as I fold fold folded my way along. I barely saw a hand worth playing, and my starting hand requirements are VERY LOW in a casino. Like fish low. Like I won a big hand with 47s earlier in the night. Scaly. Smells like tuna. Anyway, I did manage to win a big pot with Q9 that ended up being the nut straight from the turn.

We got back to KingLucky's in time to see the Simpsons, so we were out from 2AM to 7PM. I slept Sunday night and drove back to Oklahoma on Monday. That's when the really exciting part started.