Food coma

After dinner yesterday, I was sitting on the couch at my brother's house in food coma, wondering what it is that I had to do that night. I couldn't put my finger quite on it. Maybe I was content to lay there with a full belly.

Then I remembered that I had signed up for the Riverchasers tournament. It would provide me an out. So took a piss and decided it was time to head out.

But then I got bamboozled into driving my mother home. It would be 15 minutes out of the way. I figured I would be about 15 minutes late, so another 15 wouldn't really matter. Plus, it would be bad karma to not help one's own mother right?

As I drove in the night, my stomach started to talk to me. I was in a bit of pain with how much turkey and stuffing I had shoved in there. I contemplated getting home and just calling it a night, sacrificing the $11, but decided to just play for a while. I could take one big risk and if I bust, I bust. I had to work the next day anyways.

When I finally sat down to play, I had only lost about 300 in chips. Not shabby. I waited for some good cards to come and played my game. I did notice my stomach, though feeling better, was still telling me to call it a night. Shut up stomach! I got a little loose making some calls and tossing chips around on weak moves.

I pissed someone off when I went tried to make a bluff. I can't recall exactly what I had. I think it was either A Q or A 10. I called the raise from MP. Flop came J high. The raiser checked as did I. The turn was either a Q or a 10, putting 3 of a suit on the board that matched my A. This time MP bet out. I put him on a mid pair and decided I could make a move right here and push him off the pot. I popped it back all in, representing that I had made my flush. He instacalled with J J. Bad read by me. But a K hit the river and I caught my gut shot straight. I had even noticed the straight was possible. That set flopped set o' Jacks on tilt. Later he would show up at a table and berate me for moving with A high.

The double up got me over 4k. Basically it meant my stomach would have to deal with me playing more poker. I continued to play patiently, waiting for the right time to gain more chips. Hoy helped out by giving me a good chunk on one hand. That got me closer to 10k and I would soon move above that mark.

Got lucky when I got moved to a table with a push monkey. Didn't matter much what the size of the pot was, he was going to put it all in. 3000 in the middle, bet the flop for 10,000. Thus when I got dealt K K, I started praying for him to get stupid. My prayers were answered when he made a raise of 6xs the blinds. I moved all in and was instacalled by his pockets 10s. A couple hands later, I would get another chunk when someone tried to run their K K through my A A.

Before I knew it, I was atop the mountain in first with 20 some left. It took a while but soon enough we were at the final table. I lost my top spot and was sitting around 8th when we got there. I stayed patient looking for spot to pounce. I thought I had my spot only to see it slip away. I called a raise from the player on my left with A 10 in the SB. Flop came 10 high and I decided to make a move with it. I pushed and was called by A Q. Uh...ok. Unfortunately for me, rag rag gave us both a wheel and the pot was split. It would have knocked him out.

That came back to bite me later. This hand bothered me. With J J in the SB, I again called his button raise. Flop came K K Q. It checked around. Turn was an 8. This time I bet out 10k and was raised to 30k. If I called, it meant I would have 11k left. I didn't like calling there and had to decide to push or fold. My notes on the player showed he was pretty tight. He only made raises when he had pocket pairs or face cards. I took some time to decide if he was playing A K or A Q. In the end I folded my jacks. I don't think he would have raised me there with a small pocket pair. My gut was screaming he had a K. Maybe I should have said WTF and pushed.

I would play another 40 minutes beyond that hand. I was down below 20k and needed to find some place to push. I made a poor play by re-raising with A 2 and was out by flopped set of 9s. Yeah, poor spot to try and make something happen.

I finished 4, one spot better than the Mookie the night before. Not bad for not wanting to play.