THE PENDULUM SWINGS BACK

I took a drubbing yesterday, but kept my positive mental state. I played really well and just got super unlucky. I was ready today with three hours of free time to try to win it back. Well, I got $800 of it back and here are the two hands that mattered:

The first key hand was a continuation of yesterday's luck. I had As-Ac and called a raise preflop. It is important to note that in the previous hand, I had lead into an ace-high flop only to fold to a reraise. So the same situation came up here - the flop was Ad-6c-5d and I lead right out into it. I figured he had some sort of pair between sixes and aces and I needed to convince him that I didn't have an ace, because if I had an ace, why on earth would I be leading out rather than check/raising. He fell for it and tried to raise me off my hand. Out of position, I didn't wish to get tricky and see the action freeze when another diamond falls, so I just shoved right then. He gave it a think and called with 9h-9d. Running diamonds fell and I lost the $700 pot.

I was pissed, but I didn't let it tilt me. He apologized profusely and rationalized "I knew you had an ace but I had so much money in by then that I figured I could try to catch a third nine." He was still apologetic a few hands later and said, "I'm sorry man, that must have been a 2% shot." I told him, no worries, I'm used to it. And besides, I want that call every time. I plugged the situation into the online calculator and discovered he was 5.25%. It's not often I can get $350 in as a 95% favorite, so I felt a zen-like serenity about the outcome. After all, it wasn't 100% and there will be that one time in twenty that it goes the other way. I'm just glad it was only $350 and not my mortgage on the line because I would have bet all I had and all I could borrow on those three aces in that spot.

I bought back in and plugged away, getting even, and then was rewarded with this beauty:

What I love most about this hand is who it came against. I won't say his name, but I referenced him some weeks back as the guy who could not lose - he hit every river on me time and again and fleeced me for a large amount. Ever since that day, he's been popping into games as if he's got software designed to seek me out. He's a solid player, so I haven't been able to put the hurt on him like he did to me, until today.

I respect his raises, because he plays strong hands and he plays his hands strong. He puts out a continuation bet every time, but he will slow down on the turn if his opponent shows interest. If he has a hand, he is not afraid to play a big pot. I've been waiting forever to get into the situation against him when I could check into him twice, because I know that if he fires the turn, then he's basically committed to the hand. So, in this instance, he raised my big blind and I defended with Jc-9c.

POT: $39
FLOP: Qh-Tc-5d
ACTION: * / B $30 / C
ANALYSIS: I hit just the right kind of flop. I've got a draw to a big hand. His bet seems like more than a continuation bet. He's either trying to protect against a draw or he's trying to build a pot, hoping I've got a piece of it. I make the call and pray for an eight or king.

POT: $99
TURN: Qh-Tc-5d / Ks
ACTION: * / B $84 / C
ANALYSIS: I hit my gin card, giving me the second nuts. I have to check to see if he's going to fire the second bullet. He bets strong and for a moment, I begin to fear the A-J, but then I remember the big bet on the flop and completely discount that possibility. He's either got a set or K-Q. Whatever he's got, he loves it, and with no flushes possible, thus very few cooler cards, I decide that we're taking this to the river so I can try to get him pot-committed.

POT: $267
RIVER: Qh-Tc-5d / Ks / 6c
ACTION: * / B $174 / AI $568 / C
ANALYSIS: A perfect blank. I've got the nuts and he loves his hand. I could bet and he'd pay me off, but I have a grander plan. I check and let him stick out a value bet. It turns out he's got a set of queens and he instacalls my shove for a $1538 pot and the best result I've gotten in ages.

I haven't been able to play any tournaments in awhile as we just wrapped up two solid weeks of house guests. First, my wife's mother was in town for a week, and just as she left, we got an aunt and uncle for the week. All this while we're having our bathroom redone, as bad timing would have it. So, we were a family of six this week, all sharing the kids' bathroom. I had to stay at home all day with the workers and was able to squeeze in some poker while our guests were out exploring Hollywood and Malibu.

The past week was a blast with the random relatives around. Aunt Sally is my father-in-law's older sister and she's been married to Uncle Tom since 1964. He is quite a storyteller and I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I call him Uncle Jody (Joe D) because he's the spitting image of Joe DiMaggio. He grew up in Brooklyn and used to go to 50 games a year at Ebbets field before the Dodgers moved west. He told me about how his social circle revolved around the basketball court at the public playground. He was very athletic and good at ball so he had some social standing. The kids who couldn't play wound up buying heroin from the thugs and were ostracized from the courts. When he moved to Delaware, he went to see the all-state team play and was amused at what passed for all-state in Delaware. They couldn't even dribble with both hands.

Aunt Sally is pushing 70 but petite and spry. She went to the hospital ten years ago with some sort of minor ailment and wound up having one of those hospital-induced strokes. She's healthy now but still has enough aphasia that holding a conversation with her is an adventure in patience. Her mind works perfectly but she can't always get the correct words out which frustrates her, so a lot of times she just gives up. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to decipher what she was really trying to say and I was never sure whether or not I should try to finish her sentences for her. Tom is so laid-back, he doesn't get frustrated at all and waits her out, helping her when she looks to him for assistance. They've both had health debacles and it's obvious that they still dig one another.

Tom was always a runner, even way back before it was cool. In fact, his son, Tom, runs a cross-country training program up north of San Francisco. So all that running finally gave him a sore foot, which he took to a doctor several years ago, only to find that the real problem was with his heart. So he wound up with a pacemaker, but the model he had implanted was soon recalled, so they had to open him up to get it out. This of course lead to an infection in one of his heart valves which put him in the hospital for some time. During his stay, his kidneys failed so he's put on dialysis, which he describes as by far the worst thing ever. After months of rehab to get healthy enough to walk again and go home, that's when Sally had her episode. Talk about your rough patches.

I was at their house in Old Saybrook, CT one time when I was freshly married into the family and before we had kids. Their daughter, my wife's cousin, was getting married, and it must have been October '95 because I remember watching Tom Glavine throw a one-hitter in the World Series at their house. There was an old guy, whom everyone referred to simply as Ghecas, watching the game with us, and I was honored when Ghecas told me in front of everyone that I know more about baseball than anyone he's ever met, based on my in-game analysis.

Ghecas, it turns out, was a college football hero for Georgetown back in the late '30s. He played pro football with the Eagles for one game back in 1941, returning kicks. When football didn't work out, he switched to baseball, but never made it to the bigs because, as the story goes, he was a minor-league centerfielder for the Yankees behind Joe DiMaggio. So, Ghecas traded in his cleats for a sidearm and became a special agent for the FBI. My wife's grandfather - father of Aunt Sally - and Ghecas served together as g-men for decades.

So there you go, you're up to date.