Back at the River Palms

Thursday, August 19, 2004

I'm back in the groove with poker. Oddly enough, I didn't miss it at all while in Missouri caring for my Grandmother. I didn't miss playing, reading about poker, studying, nothing. I think this is a precursor to my prediction that I will stop playing full-time once I win something on a big scale.

Glenn called the Palms once we got home and settled back into our routine. All of the tourneys had changed. Gone is my beloved Stud 8 tourney, as well as the LHE tourney with the Stud river card. All of those oddball tourneys are history. Replaced with...I'll bet you can't guess, lol. Yeah, NLHE, what's new?

I could tell that Glenn was chomping at the bit to play some live poker. So I agreed to play the LHE tourney last Tuesday.

I couldn't get a hand to stand up. I, queen of rebuy avoidance, had to rebuy twice. I should have just folded every hand for the first hour, nothing stuck. I could have saved $20, lol.

At any rate, after the first hour, I had only 300 in chips (after starting with 500). I made the add-on, which gave me $2000.

The only other woman playing didn't make the add-on. I am still not sure why she didn't, but she did have well over 2000 in chips at the break. Making the add-on would probably have almost guaranteed her a win. I have to give her credit though, she played very well, and she never had to make a rebuy or add-on. Her total investment for the tourney was $30, unlike my $70.

The other participants were the usual assortment of loose/passive calling stations. Nothing new.

Finally after the first hour, things changed and suddenly I was kicking it up into high gear. I'll bet readers get sick of me saying that same thing time and again, but that truly is the proper way to play these tourneys.

A few good hands that I forced others into folding, and a few hands that stood up all the way through the river, and I found myself the chip lead. The lady who had done so well during the entire tourney simply played too many hands. She was a decent player. She had the aggression down pat. She just played too many hands here and there, and in a tourney with such high, escalating blinds, one simply can't speculate often.

Not surprisingly, it came down to the two of us. I out-aggressed even her, and mostly I kept the chip lead. Finally I got a couple of premium hands that held up; KK and TT, and I kept pushing her to commit all of her chips. She was wary enough to hold some chips back and wait for a better opportunity with the tens, but I kept pushing hard enough until she finally committed, and I believe it was Kx vs. Qx which did her in. We had a fun time, she was a savvy competitor and a good sportsman.

On Thursdays, Dan has changed the tourney to a NLHE freeze-out, one table, winner-take-all event. Tanya from Kingman (I have written about her before) came down to play. She won the event in about 30 minutes flat.

I began the tourney as a dog when I had KJo in the BB and lost on the river. An EP newbie limped with 53s. I flopped TP with the king, went in, and he called with bottom pair, no draw (fives). He got his trey on the river. After that, I went on a series of all-in's (given the blinds), until I was all-out, in third place with 55 vs. 88 and 33.

We tried to get another of these tourneys going, but no one was having it. I know that players like Tanya and I scare them. They want to limp into a lot of pots, they want to play like loose/passive calling stations. Tanya and I prevent that type of recreational play, and that bothers most of the regulars.

-----------------------------

I saw a couple at Sam's Town on Friday that I've met before at Binion's. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the name/website/e-mail of the husband, who is going to run the big tourney at Sahara. If you can please write me, I would appreciate it.

-----------------------------

Glenn has a new post up. It is fabulous. The guy is cute and funny, what can I say?

Felicia :)