Badger Poker...5 hands and a mistake

Tuesday night at Rock Bottom was nice. You could get a good meal upstairs before playing some cards. Now Tuesday brings you to the Have a Nice Day Cafe. A place where the 70's and 80's puked up all over the walls. Picture Dump Milwaukee and put something on the walls and a little worn down carpet. Oh yeah, more booze behind the bar. Not a bad place to play except for it being a little cold in there. That decribles HAND. HAND is ok. George wanted hand, Jerry wanted hand. And on Tuesday, everyone gets HAND (hmm...sounds like there are cheap hookers hanging around). Bit I digress.

First thing to note on Tuesday was the assigned seating. One step closer to playing by tournament rules consistently. I liked it. But some others didn't. It didn't shock me when one of the others was one who always started at the same table with the same people who for the most part were weak players. It is alleged that this table did some chip dumping late in the season so people could get into the finals so a change was made. The argument was that they come to be social and have fun, but you can be social and have fun with others. Difference being is that you do not have the advantage of knowing how others play all the time. All in all, it isn't a big deal. I prefer it though. Luck of the draw puts you at weak or tough table.

My table to start was interesting. Only noticed one guy to start, Darkman. The dreaded Darkman who cracked my aces on Saturday. Oh, I won't forget that! Otherwise it was a table of newbies. Guy to my left looked like the Grimace from the McDonalds commercials of way back. If he was wearing purple, it would have been a dead ringer. Next to him was another husky guy, but a bit smaller. There was the serious guy, a dude with the Fox Racing shirt, the Indian guy, some spiky hair dude, and a hmm...how do I put this sensitively...a LESs interested in BeIng with A maN (not that there is anything wrong with that). Table play is interesting to start. Spiky starts by trying to be aggressive and wins the first pot. But when he tries to continue, Grimace jumps all over him and takes a chunk out of him. Grimace begins to rule the table with his betting. He is playing a lot of hands, staying aggressive. Some are trying to stay with him. Fox Racer seems to enjoy giving his chips away as does Indy. I have mastered the art of folding. There were a couple of hands that I found to be quite interesting. I am not quite sure of the order they came in but I believe the first one involved my potentially alternative lifestyle friend to my right. She was in the small blind and saw the flop that came Q Q J. Grimace bet out 2k. She stared him down and called. Turn was an A. He bet out about 5k. She thought about it, counted out the chips and called. She only had about 1600 left after that. I would have pushed there because you know her chips are going in the after river anyway. If not, then why are you calling that big bet? But she called and the river was an A. Grimace pushed her all in and she reluctantly called? She had flopped the full house, Queens over Jacks (WOW! How fitting a hand for her! Queens over Jacks- get it??? man, either I am clever for that one or I am the only one who thinks that is funny). Grimace turns over A 10 for Aces over Queens. Talk about a bad beat. I tried to think of what she could have done different here. Slow playing the flop like that was the best play I think. She tried to draw more out of him. She should have pushed on the turn. It wouldn't have taken him out of the pot, but it was her only move. There is the chance that he would have called the all in on the flop, but it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Next was the suckout by Fox Racer. One of the stupidest plays I have seen in a while and one that reminded me of how I wanted to play tonight. Grimace came in with a small raise. Fox and Indy both called. Flop came K 4 5. Fox bet, Indy called and Grimace raised. They both called. Turn was a 3. Check, check, bet 3k, and they both call. River is a 2. Fox checks (huh?), Indy moves all in. Grimace called and Fox Racer calls. Indy shows Big Slick (he didn't raise preflop???), Grimace showed the set of 4s (it was more than obvious someone had a straight, especially Indy who suddenly bet out) Fox showed a pair of 6s to win the pot with the 6 high straight (now what in the blue blazes was he doing calling 5000 worth of bets with second pair???) He sucked out in the end and got lucky. Massively stupid play, but he got lucky. It was at this point that I reminded myself about the newbies and early rounds. They will call anything and everything no matter what pair they have. Grimace should have known he was beat. Indy should have been more aggressive. Indy would go out soon after that with second pair. Fox Racer would move on. Spiky kept feeding chips and would be knocked out with second pair as well. Besides some blinds, the only hand I played at the first table was A Q suited. Bet out a pot size bet and had only one caller. Bet the flop and they mucked. At this point we got broken up and I moved onto the disco floor.

Yes, the disco floor. This place has that theme so I was playing on one of those tic tac toe lighted squares. I didn't mind as long as I didn't look down. At this table was a couple of faces I knew. The Black Widow was there as was the Manager. Darkman came to the table with me as did a very small stack. There was one slow guy with a big stack of chips and some chick who just wanted to play some cards. I folded many a hand here as well. A couple people got knocked out while I sat there. I played two hands here. One time in the big blind I had K 10 hearts. I raised the Manager who was in the small blind and he came along. Flop came A 5 5. He checked, I bet, he called. Turn was a K. He checked and I checked. River was an A. He checked. I tried to buy the pot and bet 4000. He called and showed the full house. No raise? Interesting even when he said he thought I had the A. If you thought I had the A, then why would you call? I got most of those chips back when I saw A J suited and bet preflop. Had one caller, the ATM, pay me off. Flop missed me but I bet again and he called. Turn still didn't help but I fired the second bullet and he folded. We took a break soon after that. I had two meaningful hand to this point. I wonder if I can get a degree in mucking.

A couple hands after the break, the ATM would pay me off again. I checked from the big blind with Q 9. Flop came 2 6 9. I bet out a pot sized bet, had some limpers fold except for the ATM here. He called. Turn was another low card. I bet again and the ATM spat money out. River was a Q and I moved all in. He folded (I guess I was over my limit). They moved 5 other people to our table then. Among them was one quiet guy who I had played with before, a newbie, Faggy Dude (this guy once called me a dick because I said he couldn't make a string bet) was put there as was mp3. Cubs fan filled out the last spot. I only had about 13k when I made my mistake. The manager raised to 4k (blinds at 1000/2000). I looked down and saw two black 10s staring at me. I called. Two others, ATM and mp3 went for the ride. Flop came 3 K Q, two diamond. ATM checked, Manager checked and I thought it might be a good spot to buy the pot. I bet 3000. mp3 raised all in. The others folded. I was stuck. I think my move should have been all in. I had played with mp3 before and knew he could be aggressive. Did he have just a draw or K Q or just one. I suspected just the draw but didn't want to take the chance with the over cards and folded. I fucked that one up. If I was going to make a move, it had to be all in, otherwise, don't bet it. Blinds came around and sucked half my chips. Then they were moved up to 2000/4000 and I was screwed. All in on the big blind and I am done when 2 3 diamonds gets obliterated by the heart flush.

It was just one of those nights when I didn't catch any cards, nor even the cards I did catch would have done nothing if played.

Words of wisdom from Bagman- This didn't come from Bagman. I saw he showed up late and I don't know if he played. He may have because about a half hour before I was done, I noticed him sweating doo-rag behind me. That would be par for the course. Surprisingly though, he was quiet. But I would give the award tonight to the husky dude at the first table. He said he wanted to create pool for the ALCS. You put in your money pick which obscure Yankee was going to screw over the Red Sox this year. Great idea! You know someone like John Olerud, who came out of retirement, will have a big hit to knock the Sox out. Then we could have the story of John Fucking Olerud to hear for years.