Badger Poker..Another day..another shirt

Went down to the Rock Bottom Brewery yesterday to try and put the debacle of the previous night to rest forever. As I bellied up to the bar, I hear a voice calling me out. My co-worker Cale is there with his friend. We chit-chat for a bit. I had mentioned how my reports might become about wings instead of poker if I got knocked out right away again, so he encouraged me to get the wings, mainly for the hell of it. Rather that jam into a booth with these guys I found a spot at the bar where I could gather my thoughts and where any wing sauce that came flying off the drummies wouldn't land on someone. The Honey Creek Ale was good. And the wings weren't bad. Better than the previous night, but in the world of wings, they were just ok. I was able to gather some info about some rule changes. I guess an email went out announcing they were switching to a blind structure. Good, the antes was a crappy method.

Went downstairs to play some poker then. I would say the tables were half full (meaning maybe 3 or 4 people sitting). It was pick your spot again, so I took a table close to the bar (Yeah, I know, what a surprise!). The table would fill to only 8 people. Cale walked by and talked about being on the final table (yeah right!). It was good to see that dealer button. Blinds would start at 100/200. I had decided to not necessarily play aggressive but to pick my spots. My first play was on the 3rd hand. Caught As Qd. I was one before the dealer and was deciding what to raise to when someone else kicked it up to 600. I called with 2 others. Flop came all spades. I thought this was a good spot to bet out and went 1000. He thought for a bit and folded. I figured he had a mid pair, and the suited flop was disastrous for him. As play went on, I noticed he didn't play much. Seemed tight and not that aggressive. Unlike the Viking fan next to him. He played aggressively. He raised the first pot to 1000 right away. Apparently he was catching some cards. Guy on my right was trapping people. He trapped me at one point when I tried to buy a pot. There was one chick at the table. Apparently the sister of the organizer. She wasn't that good. She paid to see too many pots. The ASU fan was ok too.

Nothing much happened during the first session. I had taken down one big pot and a couple of small ones. Hadn't seen too many flops, and was slowly moving back to my starting position. On the hand before the break, I would catch KQ 2 spots left of the deal. Blinds were 200/400. I raised to 1000. Everyone folded but the dealer. Flop came K J 8, rainbow. I bet 2000. He called. Turn came a rag. I bet 3000. He sucked on his cigarette and said something about the bet being half the pot. "yeah, roughly" was my reply. He thought a bit and called. River was an A. There is no flush draw, but there is the straight possibility. He thought and then asked how much I had left. I was down to about 4800. I had him covered so I wasn't too concerned. I was thinking what he had. I was extremely confident he didn't have a K and was pretty certain he didn't have an A either. He may have been on a flush draw earlier and didn't catch it on the river. I figured when he asked about my total, he was going to bluff. He was the one who folded earlier to my bet on the flush flop. I was pretty confident I had the best hand at this time. He bet 2500. I called after just a moment and told him "Don't tell me you sucked out for an ace!" and showed my K. He mucked. After the break, he came up and asked how I could call. I told him I didn't think he would suck out for the A. Reality was, I was confident he didn't have an ace but his bet was bad. If he had the A, he most likely would have had two pair and would have gone all in. I could call his bet and still have enough to work with for a couple of hands. At the break, I was sitting at 17600. Not bad, but not great. I had increased so I was happy. I looked around to see how Cale was doing. Couldn't find him. He must have busted out early.

They consolidated some tables and it was then I realized how low I probably was. One guy sat across from me with over 50k in chips. The Viking fan at the other end of the table had been our chip leader with about 30k tops. A Cowboys fan sat down with about 30k as well. Blinds were moved to 500/1000. Two hands into the session, I caught QQ and raised the bet to 4000 total. Only the Cowboys fan called me. Flop came Q J 3, with 2 clubs. I made a smaller bet of 3000, hoping the bet would look like I was just trying to scare him off. It worked. He raised me all in. I quickly called. He showed pocket 7s, no club. Though he was teased with a 7 on the turn, my queens held up and I doubled through. Over the next hour, people stared dropping like flies. Nothing much happened for me. I took down some small pots. Still had the trapper on my right so I was careful with any pots that we were both battling for. I tried to limp in on some but the small stacks were getting giddy and pushing all in. Cowboys fans got busted. ASU would go soon too. Viking fan choked. The chick went out right before the second break. At the second break, I was sitting at 20400. I had peaked at about 35000.

When we started up again, they broke out table up. There was about 35 people left (from my estimation). They moved me over to what would be the final table. There were 3 big stacks there and 2 small ones. The small stacks started pushing in on any hand and were quickly taken out. I caught the Qs again and doubled up once more. Players are dropping again. Before we knew it, it was down to 20. Blinds were pushed to 1000/2000 and then to 2000/4000. I was chipping up, taking some chances with Aces and faces. I pushed up to about 50k, then 70k. I doubled through when I raised with A 4 clubs on the button and was called by A 8 diamonds. Hit the club on the river for the flush. I was now sitting at about 110k. Play meandered and we were down to the final table. Play got so tight then. I started at roughly 6th spot at the final table. The small stack to my left went out quickly. The chip leader who was on my right started raising every hand preflop and giving his chips out. He was soon out. The new chip leader was an old guy on the end. Anytime someone went all in preflop, he started whining. It was becoming the move to make, especially late, blinds were up to 5000/10000 and then 10000/20000. There wasn't much wiggle room. I called an all in bet with A Q just to see he had the same. Just about caught the spade flush but it was a split. Got A 6 then and moved all in. Got called by A 2. The deuce hit the flop and I was out in 7th place. It was 11:15 and they were doing things to encourage play. Antes were coming up next so I just moved in with something decent. Took a bit for the guy to call, but he was looking to leave as well. In the end I got a shirt for making the final table. Another day, another shirt.