Razz is Still My Friend and a Weekend of Tryouts

It was a crazy weekend in the PE’s world. I’ll try to keep it segregated into sections as well as possible but I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed so give me a little room for error.

Friday night started out like crap. I jumped onto the poker machine around 8:00 and signed up for the $3 turbo to get things started. A short time in, like the first 10 hands, I find KK in the big blind. There are two limpers when the button puts in a nice raise and it is folded to me. I re-pop it to 900 hoping to take it down or get heads up with the button. But one of the limpers pushes and the button calls. I have to call and to my joy the limper holds AK and the button has 77. An ace hits and I get knocked out early.

Bad beats happen so I take a step back and play a SNG and marvel at guys calling bets with over cards and counter fitting my flopped two pair with runner runner joy. So with my spirits high I made the decision to play the Razz MTT that was just getting ready to go.

Now if you’ve read me in the past you’ll know I’ve had some good luck with Razz because of my donkey like skills so I figured playing with the donkeys would be good. I started out slow and steady by only getting involved with good hands and letting the skilled players pay me off. It worked well and at one point I was the chip leader. Then like every other game I had to work through some card dead times and before I knew it I was back to an average stack. The bubble broke with me sitting back in 6th place and I worked to maintain my position as the final table approached. When we were down to 8 I stayed patient and moved up in spots by letting others bust. I was down to 1800 chips and cards dead when I went on an epic run and within 6 hands I was the chip leader. I kept the pressure on and when we got to heads up I held a 2-1 chip lead. A few hands in I was dealt the A23 and caught a 5 on 5th street. My opponent held a 9 and I made the decision to get as many chips in the middle as possible with a fabulous draw. I then hit 2 queens and a king to give away my chips. Now with even stacks I was card dead and with the levels at 1500/3000 this is not the time to run out of luck. I had to throw away a bunch of hands and made some calls that bricked and then I was behind. The killer was the guy calling me down with a 10 when I had 3 low cards up. They had paired twice but I kept the pressure on and I hit another low number. On the last card I hit my 3rd pair and bet out at his at best made 10 and he called. I was out the next hand.

I’ll take the 2nd place and my 3rd final table of the week and 4th this month.

Saturday was a day of tryouts and driving. Softball E. did well at both tryouts as she attempted to move on to a new team. At the first one she threw very well and hit the ball like crazy. She threw all strikes, including her change ups and she hit line drives into the screen protecting the pitcher. It was a huge success with only one problem. They only had 2 spots and they wanted a catcher and a utility player. If I had to rate her vs. all the other players trying out I’d say she was top 5 but not top 2.

In her other tryout she rocked them and there is no doubt in my mind that she’ll make the team. She hit the guy feeding the pitching machine 4 times with line drives and had another session of throwing strikes.

After getting home I cleaned up and headed to a show featuring a Led Zeppelin tribute band with my wife. We had a great time and strolled in around 2 am.

Sunday we went back to one of the tryouts and started over again. As SE started her workout one of the coaches said to me “I was going to call you and tell you it wasn’t necessary to come back today”. That’s code for we have a spot on our team. We are now very happy. We won’t know for sure until Wednesday but I know it is in the bag.

So it was a great weekend at the house and I even get to play golf on Thursday and get paid for it. What more can I ask for.