Crash But No Burn

There is nothing like seeing two cars hit each at an intersection to make your day start out bad. There is a bad intersection on my way to work and some guy made a right turn on red. The problem was that he didn’t see the truck coming because of a little hill that blocks your view. I was at the scene with in seconds of the crash and thankfully everyone seemed to be OK. Like I said, not a good start to the day.

I grinded out some Razz again last night. One session saw me lose most of a buy-in as my A24 and 345 saw flops of QQ and JJ or other such junk. None of my good starting hands hit for the most part. I worked hard and made much of the loses back but never got back over the hump. On another table I moved up slowly and had a marginal gain. In an hour of play I lost about $10 bucks.

Later on I played the 8:45 central time Razz tourney and chatted with Surf as he moved along in a MTT he was playing. As the bubble approached he was on the edge but made it to the money when the bubble burst. At the same time, I was trying to keep afloat in my tourney Early on 4th street was my foe as my good starting hands were killed by early crap. At the same time Surf started to make a move. He chipped up and got into the top 10 after being on the felt for much of the tourney. I kept a low profile in my tourney, mostly cuz I was getting no cards. I slowly moved closer to the bubble as dead money dropped out.

Surf made the final table. His run of cards was more than amazing and he took full advantage. And there I sat, card dead in a donkey game waiting for the chance to hit it big when I get A53 and get two callers to my complete. 4th street is an A and I bet it out as even though I paired, my cards look much better the either one guys J and the other guys 10. 5th street brings a 5 to me and I bet again. Though I have 2 pair I can’t back away. Both call. Next I hit a 3 on 6th street and I have to bet. The best either has is a made J and they have to fold, right? Nope, they call and I fold on 7th street. Now I’ve called down some players before but never on a board like that. The best part of it all was the comments that Surf made to me. He agreed that my betting was right and that I had to play it that way. I already knew that but it felt good to hear it from a guy I respect.

So now I’m crippled and get lucky when I push all my chips in and double up. I double up again and again a little later and I’m now in 5th place over all. I know have chips and made the money to boot so I get aggressive. My good hands start to come and become the chip leader in short order. And Surf gets knocked out in 5th in his tourney. I push every edge and the short stacks fold to pressure. As the final table bubble bursts, I’m second in chips and ready to work. The only problem was the guy who held 40% of all the chips left. He knocked out a couple of players and held over half in short order. I stayed tight aggressive as I held on to the 3rd spot but a few missed draws and huge bets costing almost 10% of my stack at a time and I’m hurting. I did double back on the big stack eventually got knocked out in 5th. Just like Surf.

He and I both commented about how similar our runs were. We were both on the felt near the bubble and had nice runs to but us at or near the top. I should have trade final table money with him considering he got more from his 5th place then I did.

Anyway, I went back to the Razz tables and played some 1/2 for a while and made a quick bit of cash before calling it a night. It is funny how the worm turns sometimes and can change your perspective very quickly. When I got up this morning I was happy about my play last night. And now I’m having a bad day because of someone’s misfortune.