Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Badger Poker...umm...can I have a second chance?

Tuesday night brings us back to the Rock Bottom Brewery. I heartily endorse you try the Hefe Weissen. Smooth and mellow. Nice. Maybe you can try to play poker too. I did. It didn't go well but I tried.
Tuesday started better than previous night. I liked the table I was at. Some good, but not great players. One guy could be bluffed easily. Another liked to overbet the pot on any hand. A third was going to fire out on anything. Then there was the rock to my right.
Things started ok. A couple hands in I got J J. Raised, but only had one caller. Flop came with rags. Bet out 1000 and he folded. This would be a trend with this one player. Boston Hat would always fold to a big bet. Didn't matter if he had pot odds, he would fold to any big bet. So, when I got K J suited a number of hands later, I raised preflop and had two callers, including Boston Hat. Flop included a J so I bet out a pot size bet. Both folded. I did it again the following hand when Kojak returned, this time, unsuited. Raised from the big blind. Boston Hat and a calling station were in. Flop missed me. Came 9 5 2. I bet out 1000 and the calling station went with me. Boston Hat folded (no surprise). Turn was a Q. I tried again. Bet out 2000. Calling Station called. River was nothing. I checked and he showed 8 9 hearts. Ugh! Calling all that down with just a pair of 9s. Interesting. I would also drop a bunch of chips just before the break when I raised UTG with K 10 hearts. Flop came A J K, one heart. It was me, Calling Station, and the guy who would just fire chips away. CS was all in preflop. I bet out 1500 on the flop and was just called. Turn was a rag. I checked. River was a 10. I bet out 2500. I figured he had a piece of the flop, maybe the A and was just slow playing. Turns out he had A J, beating my own two pair. Bastard!
I started the second session with about 3500. There were a couple small stacks at the table. Talk turned to the second chance table and how some people will bet crazy with the small stack at this point. They will either double or go to the second chance table to get some points. I limped in with Q J. There were 4 callers until the Chip Chucker raised it 2000. The chips were there so I called. He showed J J. Didn't catch a Q so I was done.
I walked up to the bar, hand another Hefe Weissen and got into the second chance area. It started bad as they kept cramming people onto a table. I think we had 12 people just after the start. It seemed like we played a couple hands and brand new players were pushing in. The betting was nuts too. Blinds started at 200/400. Preflop bets were flying around between 2000 and 5000. I held back a bit and waited to see some of these guys out. The guys doing the crazy betting were having big chip swings. I waited for the chance to swing those chips to me. Caught A J and raised to 2000. Got 2 callers. Flop gave me a jack. Bet out and they folded. Soon I caught Q Q. One guy I had played with earlier, who always made big bets, pushed all in. I quickly called. I showed my Hilton Sisters as he showed his 9 9. No help for him and his chips were mine. Next hand I caught A 10. One pushed his 4200 in. Another guy had called as well. A hit the flop and I pushed the other guy all in. He folded. Other guy showed 5 5 and he was done. I was getting a nice stack in front of me, over 35000. Soon, I would catch K J clubs. I raised preflop and got 3 callers, with one going all in. There was over 15000 in the pot when the flop came A 10 rag. The A & 10 were clubs. The other guy with chips had slightly more than I did. He was a weaselly looking guy. He bet 3000. I raised all in. I had the royal, flush, and straight draws. Turn was a Q for the straight. River was another Q. Thankfully, no one had filled a house and I raked in a huge pot. They consolidated tables and we had 9 left. There was one guy who had roughly the same amount as I did. But he didn't use his stack like me. I started raising and stealing blinds. Got caught once, but I don't think it was that bad of a call. Raised with J 10. Got on my left went all in. I placed him for A high and called about 8000 more. Sure enough, he had A 9 suited. Didn't get any help on the board and lost the hand. Nothing too exciting happened as people dropped left and right. What I didn't like was the play by weaselly guy. I had noticed a friend tell him to go all in soon because they had to leave. A couple of hands later he did just that. He pushed all in on the turn when his buddy came back. He had absolutely nothing and basically pushed about 10k of chips to the guy on my left. That was BS. If you are going to leave, don't donate to someone else. It kills the integrity of the game.
We would soon be down to 3. I had lost any semblance of a lead. It was fairly even. The guy to my left is a good player. I was more concerned about him than the yahoo across from me. Yahoo would want to see a flop. Usually, you could bet and he would fold. He also liked to slam his cards down to show he had a good hand. Things went back and forth for a bit. It was funny how someone volunteered to deal. It was good because things went quicker. But Yahoo couldn't handle it and whined to deal. Things changed when I dropped a huge pot. With blinds 1000/2000, I raised it to 5000 with A J. Yahoo called. Flop came Q J 10. Yahoo went all in. I called. He showed Q J. Didn't catch an A or K and I was slammed hard. I had about 10k left after that. I managed to double up twice. Pushed with A 2 against K Q. Then again with A 10. But went down when my K 10 ran into A J. Nothing for placing third.
Strangely enough, I had more fun at the second chance table. There were better players in that group than maybe the final table. Game became a bit more strategy than just firing chips.
Oh well, there is always tonight.

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