Some Bitch'en, Some Poker

Last night was a bitch. After M’s practice last night I had a few things I had to straiten out before I could go home so she got a ride home with a teammate. It wasn’t a big deal because her teammate’s family was going to eat over anyway so I didn’t feel I did anything wrong. That was until I got home 20 minutes before a meeting I had to attend. My wife lit into me about being home in time for dinner and anything else she could think of. No big deal. A quick bite and I’m out the door for my meeting.

So I get home and she asks if Mike can stay at our house for the next few days until his spot is open at rehab. Now Mike has been married to Jackie for 14 years and are involved in a love hate relationship. She loves to bitch and he hates to hear it. It’s really no surprise that he has addiction problems with the crap he puts up with but I regress. He is bipolar but doesn’t like to take his meds. One of the problems associated with being bipolar is being susceptible to addiction. Along with his drug addiction, Mike also has a gambling problem that has interrupted his marriage to Jackie. He doesn’t see the problem with snorting and/or gambling away his paycheck. Well after understanding the whole situation I agreed to let him stay until he can start to get his life back together.

It’s funny comparing Mike and my buddy Bob who both suffer being bipolar. I can see the stages that Mike is going through by remembering the battles that Bob undertook. My wife and I also helped Bob with similar issues around 8 years ago and with support he has achieved guarded success. During a recent conversation with Bob he told me that there are still times when he wants to go back to his old lifestyle. The alternative has been to by him self a toy and put his energy into the thing he bought. It is an expensive game that he plays either way but it gives him focus.

On to better things like poker.

I played a few SNGs this morning with limited success. My first was an example of a trap and a donkey play all in one. Early on with the blinds small I’m dealt AT on the BB and raise it 4x. UTG calls and everyone else folds. The flop is 569 and I continue with a bet of 120 and get called. The turn gives me my T and I push just trying to take the pot down and get called by the 56suited of UTG. This is a great example of over playing TPTK and trapping the idiot who pushes with TPTK. I think I played 8 hands.

In my second game we got down to two players when my opponent became a push monster. If I min bet he went all-in and if I raised he folded or called depending on his cards. No big deal other then his stack was bigger then mine so I had to catch a trapping hand quick. I did and took the chip lead only to see him gain it back with my passive play. I finally got back to almost even when I was dealt A2 off-suit. I called his push and he flips over K3. I’m in great shape until he hits 2 pair on the flop.

In my final game, I cam back from near death to take a second. With 5 players left I have 2800, villain 1 has 2100 and villain 2 has 2200. I’m UTG with pocket jacks and raise it to 600. V1 goes all-in as does V2. I’m getting around 3-1 so I call. I figure that they are taking some of their outs away from each other unless one is holding a higher pocket pair so I think this a good call. V1 shows QT, V2 shows AQ. I figure I’m in good shape as only 5 cards put me behind unless there is a running flop. An Ace on the flop kills my hand. Is this a good call on my part?

I’m down to 600 on the next hand and get 86 OS and raise all-in to the SB who calls with K9. A 6 on the flop is golden. I steal the next three hands and get back to 2000. Blind stealing becomes the mantra of the game for the next three rounds until a player is knocked out and we get down to three and in the money. From this point I chipped up to around 6000 before V2 knocks out the other player and gets us heads-up. I really don’t remember what happened after this as we battled back and forth until blinds were at 400/800 with a 50 ante. I think I pushed with QT and lost to his King high. Anyway, I’m going to try and play the wwnd tonight. If not I try and hit the SNGs again.