Badger Poker...Time to try the wings

I headed on down to Stenys a bit early on Thursday night. Had to try the wings. If my poker game is just ok, maybe it can be spiced up with some hot wings. Then again, maybe not. The wings were ok. Nothing to brag about (like they claim on the board outside; famous my ass!). If you are hungry and need a cheap snack they are ok. Plus, I don't think they do anything for your poker game.

I sat down at the first table I noticed with an opening. It also had quite a bit of room around it so I didn't feel like a sardine. Also, the fans were going so it didn't seem very smoky in there either. It was a good table to start at. Trick or Treat was there along with his brother. King Tut was on my left. The card snatcher was two spots over. The Biker was across from me. The dude on my left I had played with before. He kept the hat pretty low so you really couldn't see his eyes. Freeway's older brother was two spots to my right. A guy with a Marquette shirt and some guy in a sweater round out the table.

Things started out ok. I didn't play for a full orbit. I mucked a pair of 6s when Low Hat raised the pot 1000. That seemed to be the bet. King Tut started it by raising 1000 and the table adopted it. Somewhere around 19 hands in I caught K K on the button. There was one caller ahead of me and I raised it up to 1700. King Tut had already grabbed chips so I was pretty confident he would come along. He did. Big blind folded but Trick or Treat called. I dealt the flop, thinking all along, no ace. 7 7 5, two spades hit the board. They both checked. I looked at the 3700 pot and decided to push. The aggressiveness paid off and they folded. I then went back to mucking. A number of hands later I got A J diamonds and decided to bump it up 1900. Freeway's brother had been bleeding chips and had already called the blind. I didn't expect Marquette to push. He had only 2100 so that wasn't bad. Freeway's bro called the 2100 bet. I looked over and saw that he had only 1400 more left so I re-raised him all in, knowing he didn't have much of a hand. He didn't as he flipped over K 10. But Marquette had 10 10. No A or J hits the board and he tripled up. By taking out Freeway, I had lost only 700 on the hand.

Strange hand happened a bit later. King Tut got Trick or Treat's brother heads up. Flop came A Q x. King Tut moved all in and was called. Tut turned over A K. ToT'sB had Q 8 suited. WTF? At that point someone said it was over, but ToT'sB said he could still hit an 8 or Q to win. Sure enough, the Q hit on the turn and the 8 on the river for the boat. Unbelievable. One really bad call tripled him up.

There was another bad play that set me off just before the break. I was in mid position and limped in with 7 7. Tut called and Trick or Treat's Bro raised from the small blind to 1600. Big blind, sweater boy, pushed all in. He had done the same the hand before but everyone folded. I hated the move. I would call the extra 1200 but I wasn't going to put 9k in there. The Biker called down his last 6k as did ToT's bro who had this clown covered. Sweater boy had only 5 5. WTF? He went all in with that?!?! ToTb had K 7 suited and the biker had K 10. Flop came with a 7 and I was pissed. Two 3 filled the board and ToT'sB won. How could he push with 5 5? I walked to the bar and was able to vent on J (thanks for listening J).

In the second session, I didn't have much to work with. I tried to make some suited connectors and big cards work but the flops weren't hitting me. I don't even think I won a pot. In the end, I went out with A Q. I dealt King Tut cowboys and that was all she wrote. There was an interesting spot that happened though. One the new guys, leather jacket was in a pot with King Tut. The board had a bunch of face cards up. Tut pushed all in and it came around to leather jacket. He was thinking of calling. Then he asks if he can flip his card face up on the table. Right away, old man Badger said that would constitute a fold. I said that it wouldn't. There was no one that could act behind him so he could do what he wanted. I then must have sounded like a total poker geek as I pointed out the same thing was done in the 1993 WSOP. This was just on ESPN Classic and I had watched it earlier today. They called Jason over and he ruled it was good. Didn't matter as the guy folded but it provided for a bit of entertainment.

And now a word from our sponsor. Some people need to learn some manners. The other night I was invited to a tourney that featured a good prize. One of the players at the table had overheard someone else being invited and was trying to weasel his way in. When the host of this game came by the table, he loudly started asking about the details. He was pretty much ignored by the host as he should have been. If you are not directly invited to a game, it is not your place to spread the word about it or inquire about it. Do everyone a favor and just be quiet.