Monday, February 9, 2004

Welcome to Monday Night Hold'em.

We got to the Belle early, and into a 4/8 game. I couldn't win. Nothing held, no draws got there. My first hundred went through my fingers like water. I was working on my second hundred when I decided to call it a session. Boy, have my cash games been running bad or what?

The upside is that I got my ticket for the tournament, lol. What lengths I go to just to play some dumb $25 HE tourney.

I noticed that the maniac in seat one of my cash game was going to be at my tourney table. Bonus!

We started playing the tourney. I caught some premium hands right from the start. I played them very aggressively. During the first hour, I was in hands with the maniac three times. No matter what he did, I simply raised. Genius play, right? LOL, okay, so any monkey could be trained to play the way I play. I never said I was that bright. Anyway, I either got him to eventually lay down his hand, or showed down the best hand. He was a thinking maniac, as Dr. Feeney describes them. They seem to actually lay down hands on the turn or river, because they absolutely know they are beat, rather than just always paying the bettor off.

At any rate, I made quite a bit of money off of him, and the loose/passive cowboy on my right.

Once I had a good chip position, I took a commanding lead of the table. Ours was the last to be broken up, so we were constantly getting new players, as others busted out.

RC was seated to my left, having come from another table. I was dealt JJ and went all-in, in LP. RC hemmed and hawed over his decision. I had him outchipped by about $800. He finally called, and we turned up our hands. He had KK. I was amazed that he had comtemplated his decision for so long. He exclaimed, "I was just sure you had AA! I know how tight you play, I didn't think you'd go all-in on anything less than AA!"

Does this make no sense or what? Diabetes is killing him.

I got no help, and suddenly I was a chip dog again. I immediately went all-in with Ax, and was called by an inferior hand. I doubled up.

I tried to double through a couple more times before we went to the final table, but things were moving too quickly, as players bust out so fast during the quick levels of the second hour.

By the time we moved to the final table, I had only gotten back up to $2400.

Luck of the draw gave me seat ten, the button. I was able to see quite a few hands before I'd need to make a move. In my BB, I looked down to see 66. It was my best chance to win the tourney, so I took it. Unfortunately, I ran against QQ, and I was outta there, in 10th place, but very satisfied with my play. I had to buy a bag to carry my big $81 in winnings. What a champ! :)

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My journal keeper of the day is:

http://www.thefatguy.com/

Scott is hilarious. He is a beginning poker player, and amuses us all with his innocent naivity and wit. He is very candid, just like I like 'em. He is an extremely generous man, giving more of himself than he ever asks in return. He has recently been helping me make my transition from a plain-Jane website journal, to a very well-planned blog on Typepad.com. He even offered to pay for my own domain! What a guy.

That is not what attracted me to his journal, however, as I was reading it long before this came up. I have always enjoyed his entries, he is a fantastic writer and has a great sense of humor.