APRIL 16, 2008

I was busy Tuesday, volunteering at the school, timing the kids run the mile. It was fun until I realized I screwed up on a couple of groups by stopping them one lap too soon. Now those kids have to get yanked out of class to run again - oops. After school, I got into a couple of tourneys and got nowhere. In the $75, I never won a hand and lasted about half an hour. In the $109, I got coolered with Q-J v Q-Q on a Q-J-x flop. I gave up and watched TV the rest of the day. I've been watching reruns of the old game show called Blockbusters. I really like the format - that would be a good show to reprise. I don't think it ran for very long in its early '80s heyday. The kids watched Across the Universe with me. It sucked but was chock full of Beatles music, some of which the kids recognized.

My car needs serviced, but I'm counting kids' push-ups on Thursday, so I made sure I got a day's worth of gaming in on Wednesday. It turned out to be a good day. My intention was to play a bunch of NLHE tables at once and see what I could do, but instead, I discovered the EPT live internet broadcast which took up most of my attention and screen space, so I played a couple of MTTs. One was a $11 turbo in which I made the top 30% before getting coolered. The other was a $109 in which I went deep before imploding.

I played very well actually but ultimately found myself in a familiar situation that never seems to end well for me. I had an average stack on the button with a small stack in the small blind and a big stack in the big blind. It folded to me and I had A-7. I have no idea how to play this situation. I had been raising judiciously the past few orbits but almost always was re-raised off of my hand. I knew I should raise with the A-7 but I didn't want to get re-raised off of it again, so I pushed in, even though I had way too many chips for that particular play. I wasn't worried about the sb so I figured there was just one guy to beat and I didn't want to give him the opportunity to re-pop me since I'd become an easy target for that move of late. Well, it seems many of my tourneys end in similar fashion with me shoving a mediocre hand and getting called but not getting lucky. This time, the bb woke up with A-J and insta-called. I nearly sucked out when the flop came A-7-x, but I had no illusions it would hold up and it didn't - running tens counterfeited me and I was out 36 of 423 for $254. I guess I need to stay patient, raise with raising hands, but just keep folding to re-raises when I can't take the hand into battle.

I had half an hour left before I needed to pick up the kids so I got into a $2/4 PLO8 game and won $43 before quitting. But wait, I just remembered a hand in the tourney I was recapping. I spent the first hour making sure I moved forward, however slowly, and not doing the usual one step forward, two steps back thing. My starting stack of $3k became about $4.4k at the break. Then in the second hour, I still played conservatively, but was willing to gamble if a good spot came up. There was a crazy hand where I raised the button with Jd-Td and the big blind (big stack) responded by pushing all-in. It was such an instant overbet that he could just as well have turned his cards face up - I knew he had either A-K, A-Q, or a small pair. My first instinct was to fold because I am behind all of those hands. Then I thought, you know what, I'm not too far behind and I've got to get chips somehow and here's a chance to get several thousand all at once. If I lose, I'll open a cash game, but if I win, then I become the big stack and maybe can make some money here. So I called, hit a ten, doubled up, and took a verbal pounding in the text box from the guy who showed A-K. He thought I was the biggest kind of moron. I asked him if he would be happier if I had won with 3-3 but all he knew is that only a moron calls with jack high. He went on tilt and flamed out soon after while the moron made the money.

The final tourney of the day, I found a 4:30P at Tilt that I had never played before. It was a $109, one-and-one, my favorite. I got a bunch of chips early on and nearly went wire-to-wire. I was the chip leader at the first four breaks, and in second place at the final table at the fifth break. It was one of those magical runs where I was catching cards, playing well, and getting action on my big hands which all held up. I re-raised four times with A-A and three times, got re-raised all-in. All three times, my aces held up - I was a chip magnet. Here is a hand to illustrate how good I was running: I raised with A-Q and the bb called with Kh-7h. The flop came 9s-7s-7d. He check-raised me, but I seriously didn't think he had a seven so I assumed he's either making a move or he has a small pair or a draw so I called. The turn is a queen. He is good enough to check and I check behind him. I want to go ahead and see his draw miss before I bet the river. The river is another queen, filling me up. He bets into me, I go all-in, he assumes I must have a seven as well or perhaps aces, and he calls. I forgot to mention that this guy was in second place, behind me, when the hand began. That's how far ahead I was for most of this event.

It was a coast to the final table, but it all came crashing down with three devastating hands in a row once we were down to six players. The big shot to my right kept raising my bb so I re-raised him with Kd-Jd. He called. The flop was 8-8-4, helping nobody. He checked to me and I bet $43k, a bit less than half the pot, yet a healthy sum all the same. He made it $115k. I tanked for a long time, thinking I could get him off his pair of sixes with an all-in, but I realized I could simply fold and be in second place moving forward, so I mucked.

Two hands later, I was on the button with K-Q and I raised the blinds. The bb re-raised me, and I called to see a flop, figuring if I paired up, I was good for sure, and I could also use a few other scare cards plus my position to take down the hand post-flop. The flop was T-8-3 and it went check-check. The turn was a king and he bet into me. I was in that tough spot where if I thought I had the best hand, I needed to pull the trigger to get him off of Q-J or a club draw. There was a chance he was using the king as a scare card after I showed weakness on the flop. Plus, I had just re-raised in his spot with K-J suited, so maybe I've got him out-kicked. Or maybe he's got a set of tens, which is what I found out after I put him all-in. Boom, I was down to $40k all of a sudden. The same player knocked me out soon after with A-K against my Q-Q. As soon as I saw what I was up against, I was putting on my jacket because I hadn't lost a race yet in the event so I knew it was coming. It was a disappointing finish but it bumped my Full Tilt account up by $2656, which is nice because I was getting low on that site. All my winning lately has been at Stars and all my losing at Tilt, so it was good to get a nice score there.