BIG WEEKEND

Okay, the folks are gone and I can get back to blogging. I actually got a good amount of poker in during the week my parents were staying with me, since Dad was very much into watching me play. I worked on my France recap a bit, but I'm not ready to post it yet, and I've gotta post today because there is big news to report.

Dad was content to watch sports the whole week, and Mom and Marci spent a lot of time preparing meals, so I fired up the laptop during a college basketball game (no interest) and fiddled around with some five-card draw, which is new to PokerRoom. I was playing low stakes, but doing fairly well. I was winning $20-$50 per session, but Dad wanted to know why I wasn't playing my specialty, No-Limit Hold 'em. I told him I was just messing around, waiting for dinner, and I play much higher stakes at Hold 'em, so I need to be paying more attention for that.

The next day, I played in a $100 tournament and dad watched the whole thing, along with his college basketball game. I missed the money via a bad beat, but I shook it off. I played another $100 tournament and this time, I finished on the bubble after going all in three times with the best hand against a guy who shouldn't have made it that deep into the tournament. All three times he nailed a river card to beat me, and the final time, he knocked me out of the event before I could recoup my losses. My luck was running bad for several days and I was actually down $500 in three days time, with Dad railing me the whole while.

Finally, my luck changed. I entered a $100 qualifier to the next Grand Tournament ($1000 entry). I was the 8th guy to sign up, but there is no ticket awarded unless there are ten or more runners. Two guys bailed just before the event started, so I wound up playing six-handed winner-take-all for $600. I got down to heads-up, and I had a nice chip lead, but the other guy began applying some huge pressure, and I kept letting him take pot after pot until we were even in chips. This guy was a bulldog. I was just waiting for a hand that I could play back at him with, but it wasn't coming. I was adrift in a sea of trash hands. Even if I took a flop, he would put me all in and I would have to decide how much I liked it.

Finally, I took a flop with 65 and the flop came 234 with two diamonds. We both cheked the flop, then another diamond came and I bet out and he called. All hell broke loose on the river, as it turns out he was trapping me with a set of threes. When I overbet the pot, he put in a minimum reraise. I could have come back all in, but with that flush out there, I just couldn't call my straight the nuts, so I just called. This put him down to $1500 against my $10,500, but dang if he didn't keep attacking, and soon, he had tripled up. Just as I was getting worried that I would never get a threatening hand, I called his raise with J5 and flopped a five with two overcards. I called his bet on the flop and the turn brought me another five, which is just what I had paid for. He had top pair with a decent kicker and all the money went in. Winning this, I managed to get myself back to even on the week.

On Friday, I played the noon PST $50 Daily with 215 or so runners. Dad watched the whole thing and even folded for me a couple of times when I had to pee. I stayed patient for rounds on end, and got aggressive when I had the cards to back me up, and I managed to make the final table. This was especially satisfying with Dad in attendance, and after all that losing he had witnessed earlier in the week. With four players remaining, I raised preflop with tens and there were two callers. The flop was 884 two clubs and I bet strong. One player folded, but the guy in position raised big. I thought this could be AKc, so I reraised a massive $25k which was the size of the pot at the time. If he was going to beat me, he needed to have a bigger pair than mine. He went all in. The old Dude would have called here with his overpair, but the new improved Dude recognizes a pair of queens when he encounters one. My opponent was willing to take a flop, fearing only aces and kings. Anything else, he rightly felt good enough to go all in against whatever I've got. I laid down my tens. It was only a bad laydown if he's got nines, but a good laydown against fours, jacks, queens, kings, or aces. I was crippled, but still alive as he showed the queens.

I wound up making a good comeback from the short stack and wound up heads-up against the same guy. Another bulldog, he left me little wiggle room as he attacked every pot, and I just waited for him to commit at the wrong time. Finally, I saw a flop with Q6 and the flop came QJ3 two diamonds. I bet and he raised. Every time I bet a flop, he raised, but this time I had top pair and thought it was likely he was on a draw, so I came back all-in, only to find he had Q3. I finished 2nd and won $1700. Dad was impressed, but we were both sad I didn't take first and the extra thousand dollars.

My parents left Saturday, and that afternoon was my last hope of winning a ticket to the WPT event in December at the Bellagio. I had won a ticket to the qualifier a couple of weeks ago, even though I was unsure I'd be able to use it. It worked out that I could play after running the folks to the airport, and the brief recap of this story is that I WON THE EVENT! I am going to play in a $15,000 World Poker Tour event that will be broadcast on The Travel Channel! More details as they come available.