The End of a Long Road

A quick recap. The league has been over for a month or so. Nothing is really fresh in my mind.

Week 13
Not much to remember, except I finished 3rd. That would be nice except Tighty & Tilty finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Also, Walken lost his job and quit the league.

Week 14
An interesting weeka. I card dead for most of the night, but managed to squeak into heads up against the Host. I got all the money in 4 or 5 times with the worst of it... Amd won them all. I was never dominated, but he was always ahead and all were better than a coin flip. It helps to be lucky. The last hand Host pushes. I look at an Ace and call. He has A2 and I have AK. I take first place.

Week 15
I don't remember anything specific about this week. I finished 1st again, heads up against the Host again. I remember he started with a big chiplead but I was patient. I hit some hands and bluffed a few hands to gain the chiplead and took it down.

The Final Week was coming up. Double Buy-in, Double Points. It didn't matter. Witb Week 15's win, and 2 people who quit the league, I was guaranteed 6 points which meant I was untouchable for overall 1st place.

Week 16 still pays almost 300 to first place. Unfortunately, l finished 4th. Tilty won and took 2nd overall.

I ran amazingly this series. I finished 1st or 2nd 10 out of 16 weeks.

Tighty is gettiing married soon so hey are taking some time off. I'm still undecided about doing another series. It is such a long committment. I also benefited from the Hosts personal problems, Walken's constant no-shows and Slappy's tilt. As the only other good players, it made me the odds on favorite. Also, it's a lot of money, $450. The final point is that other than the Host, I wouldn't classify any as "friends." I don't hang out with any of them outside the game. I might invite Tighty to other games, but that's about it (again, except for the Host). With this being a 16+ week committment, I find it hard to make it to either of the other monthly home games or the casino.

On the Positive side, I do get along with them, and enjoy myself most of the time (only one of them is an asshole). I am also playing poker EVERY week, which is a good thing. Plus playing with the same people will helps me with my observation skills at the table, which I often lack. Finally, while I definitely ran good for the season (6 first place finishes and a split), I am definitely one of the top players in the game. The game is definitely beatable.

Maybe I'll take a season off again. I have a few weeks go decide.

I'll keep anyone still reading this blog informed.

A Trip To The Sun

The Legendary Dawn Summers from IHadOuts.blogspot.com was heading up to Mohegan Sun with Aceste and 3some Mary and wanted to know if I would join them. I did.

I played my usual bad short-stacked cash game poker, limping into too many pots. I really should buy in for more. I bleed chips until they show up. When they finally do, they want to go to dinner (Hey Dawn! The ocean called. They're running out of shrimp!) but I want to finish the round. I'm already down a buy-in and a half. UTG and I'm dealt Kh5h, the Le Dawn. Must be a sign, right? I limp (1/2 NLHE). There are 2 more limpers and an aggro asian with a big stack bumps it to 12. It folds around and I obviously call. Fold, fold.

I'm not too concerned with asian since he has a habit of raising limpers. My main concern is that I'm calling a raise out of position with Le Dawn of Hearts. Is that -EV? I think, me playing pomer is -EV.

The flop is j98 one heart. I check, he checks.
Turn is a 2nd heart. I decide to bet out 10. Aggro Asian raises to 30. I have 40 behind, so obviously I call.
The river brings the dirty little heart. I sheepishly toss in my last 20 and even more sheepishly tell the dude "I got there." he really has no option but to call. He flips over the T7 for the flopped straight. I stack my ill-gotten chips and head to Dawn's shrimp fest.

I'm more of a Enjoy The Meal type person, as opposed to Dawn's Beat The Casino Anywhere You Can method of dining. She might have gotten a better deal for the buffet (plus it was comped for her hotel shuttle ride), but I tried a lot of food and didn't feel the need to sprinkle my ice cream with shrimp. Did I mention she ate a lot of shrimp?

Before dinnef ended I went back and picked up my chips since dinner was taking longer than the 45 minutes before they pick up your chips. However, I ended up back at the same table. I didn't like my seat so I ended up moving 2 seats to the left of aggro asian.

I don't remember much of the night except for hitting the K-high straight flush. My call on the turn with 12 outs. But was able to value bet my hand.

In the end, I was just above even.

The last hand of the night tilted me, though it shouldn't have.

Middle position and I'm dealt KK. A couple of limpers and I raise to 15. Button calls and old guy limper calls.

Flop is Q89. Old Guy checks. I was going to bet but the button looks like he wants to bet. I check and the button bets 20. Old Guy calls and with about 80 in the pot, I push for all-in. Button folds and Old Guy stares at me. It's an additional 115 for him to call. I know I'm ahead. I decide to try to induce the call. I smile and wink at him. He sees that and instantly calls. He shows QT for top pai and the gut shot. I show my KK.

The tilt isn't the suckout, its the slow roll by the fucking dealer. Before he flips the turn, I know I'm beat. The dealer starts to flip the river but then stops and just looks at it. Fucker. Q. The river is a blank and I angrily push my stack in the middle. Didn't even count his chips to see if I got any back, which was stupid.

On the way home, I was steaming. Why would the dealer do that? One asshole in he league does that. But that's a home game. For some reason it popped into my head that he may not have burned a card on the turn. No way to prove it after the fact, but would explain his pause. Nothing I could do about it on the way home. I was still tilty when I got home so I left my daughter in our bed where she fell asleep and felt better.

Next Post: the final league recap.

-- Post From My iPod Touch