Things That are Found

Before I get started I want to talk about DADI 6 onMay 29th. It's a great event and the 10:00 eastern start should allow me to play in this one so sign up. Maybe I'll place my old cup as the bounty on my head.

I found a few things this weekend. Some of the things, like my cup, had been missing for various amounts of time while others were just discovered. It’s always nice when you find something that has been misplaced so you can enjoy using it again.

Lets start with my cup. I was going through the trunk of my car when it miraculously appeared under my ball bag (no pun intended). I sighed with relief as I returned it to its proper place inside my well-worn bag. The girls and I were just leaving for their respective practices, which included my working with the pitchers so nut-sack protection was necessary. My concern and relief as to the apparent demise of the protector was soon just an after thought. About ten pitches into L’s workout she put a 50 MPH drop ball into the dirt that bounced up and got me in the seldom used area between my legs. All I can say is thank you Lord.

I found my poker game this weekend. It started out Friday night as my wife and I watched

Sin City. I know that watching movies has nothing to do with poker but it gives me a chance to mention Jessica Alba. She looks great as a 19-year-old stripper who was saved by a do gooder cop 8 years earlier from being raped by the son of a politician. Anyway, by the time I got going it was after midnight. A $3 + .30 MTT was going to start in about an hour so I killed time by grinding so micro limit NLHE on Noble. As the tourney started I made a decision to keep tight and play my monster with aggression. This was great in theory but a cold deck and boredom threatened to change my resolve. In the end I held strong and reached the first break with a little over T2000. Now with the blinds starting to escalate, I needed to make a move. The deck did it for me as I doubled up from the big blind when my pocket 2’s hit quads. From this point I started to chip up with steals and re-raising the weak play of some of my tablemates. As I start the third hour I’m sitting on T12,000 and ready to move. I’ve picked out my victims and waiting for the opportunity to strike. That’s when the deck hit me in the face. Inside of 6 hands I get QQ, AK, AA, JJ. This little run puts me up to T45,000 and I think I have a shot. I get a table change and look down at AA again. The table chip lead re-raises my 3x bet and I insta push. He calls with QQ and my aces hold up to put me at T95,000 with 50 players left. At this point I backed off some but did continue to increase my chips. As we got down to 23 players, I see AA again and push a medium stacks raise to which he calls. His kings are good when the turn answers his prayers. Now I’m down to 65,000 but still OK. Players continue to drop and I make a nice move back into contention returning to the T100,000 level. With 14 players left I’m sitting with pocket 3’s on the button and call a raise to 12,000. My opponent’s range of hands is pretty tight but it could be a steal. He has me out chipped by 47. That’s right, 47 chips. I hit my trips on the flop and re-raise his ½ pot bet to 40,000. At this point I have over half of my chips on the table but could still get away form the hand. He calls. The turn is x and he checks. I think I’m ahead so I push and he calls. He has KK and is way behind. I ended up in 14th place as his king hit on the river. I’m happy with the play and can’t blame him because he had the over pair. If I win that hand I would have had almost 20% of the chips in play.

I played that game about as well as I could. For the most part I got my money in with the best hand all night. I only lost one coin flip but was involved in only 4 or 5. I had the right cards at the right time most of the night and the right cards at the wrong time at the end. I was just a few spots from the big money.

My 18-player SNG play was good as I took a 1st, two 2nds, and a fourth in five attempts. I also had continued to have a good time in the MTTs cashing in 4 of 7. The only thing I need to change is my finishing position so I can get a good payday.