Wow, what a fun Christmas! Sure it was more hectic having a little toddler screaming all over the place and saying the word "no" 15 million times. But, the smile on his face when he opened a gift was worth it.
Lets see if I can remember all that went on...
- Christmas eve:
Went to my parents side of the family for an hour and they were all gearing up for a poker tournament!!!! But... the wife said we're going to my sister-in-law's house instead BOO! Oh well, we had a good time over there as my brother-in-law's parents were down from up north and we always have a good time with them. I got a big hooded sweatshirt from Ely, MN, a poker calendar (complete with a hand ranking guide!), and an omelet maker (I love breakfast). There were some assorted other items but those were the ones I'll be getting the most use out of.
- Christmas day:
Went to my mother-in-law's house and my wife's grandparents were there with the same people from yesterday. Party punch? Sure I love getting semi-drunk without noticing it. And I thought I put too much alcohol into my mixed drinks. Grandma was slurring her words after a couple of hours which made me worried since we can barely walk as it is. The boys spent most of the time in the basement watching KC vs. Oakland (covered plus the over GO GO $5 parlay bet whoo whoo!!). Again, I had a good time, got some scratch off lotto tickets (won $12 off $7 worth of tickets wheeeeeeeee). We got home around 6:00pm and I was going to settle in with the Junior National Hockey tournament and the phone rings. My dad calls up and asks if I'd like to go to my uncle's and play poker. My wife looked over and saw the poker chub in my pants and calmly told me "you're not getting any tonight", but if you want to go play poker go ahead. My dad picks me up and away we go. We played 3 tournaments, $5 buy-in, all you drink (after all that party punch I reverted to Miller Lite to prevent passing out). The first two touraments had 8 people each and we had a blast! First hand of the first tournament 4 people go all-in! I thought AA, KK, QQ, AK... nope 22, K9 (SOOOOOOOOted), TT, and someone did have AQ at least. The flush dropped for the K9 and we were down to 5. And you thought PartyPoker was loose-aggressive. I just sat back and waited to drop the hammer, but alas, it never came the whole night! I did manage to slide into the final two of the first tournament and got heads-up with my aunt. Everyone was telling me to just give up since it was a 6 to 1 chip difference... Ye of little faith, I won two back to back all-ins and we near tied-up. When I got J8 and a Jack flopped with a rainbow board. With top pair I pushed all-in... my aunt pushes with... J5 for two pair! Sigh.
Second Tournament I found myself in the final 3 again with big slick and after my dad raised, I pushed all-in and he calls with... 32o! Three spades flop (I have the As) my chances are looking pretty good now, then an offsuit 3 hits (grrrrr.... and I take a swig of my watered down Lite), and an offsuit 2 on the river completes the train wreak IGHN.
Third Tournament some more degenerate gamblers wander in and we have 12 people total for the last tournament. I built a nice stack after hitting top set into a boat with two cowboys, and picking off my sister's bluff with top pair on the turn with KQs. Since it gets hazy I don't remember much of the third tournament except it was down to the last two and I offered to split the $55 between 1st and 2nd since I had a 3 to 1 lead and was about to fall over. But someone suggested we play showdown for it! Nothing like poker bingo for money. His Q4 vs. my 78s... flop Q - 4 - 6 rainbow (at least I got a gutshot) turn Q (at least I got a gutshot) river... Q (at least I got shot in the gut). Jez, four ladies! IGHN.
3 tourneys, 3 ITM, but spending time with the family was the best part... ok playing live poker was cool too but playing with the family made it all the better.
- Day after Christmas
Played some online poker while shaving off more of the 750 FPPs I need at PokerStars. Again the fishes there have multiplied 10 fold. I was winning quite a few hands with top pair and stronger flushes (hint to WhiteSoxFan... 94s is not a good hand to cold call 3 bets with). I won 20BBs over the weekend while getting 500 FPPs. Not a great win rate, but I felt more confident at the $1/$2 level then I have in the past. I wish Stars would have the auto hand download that most of the other sites do, I think I missed 200+ hands to put into Pokertracker.
PartyPoker's Bad Beat Jackpot tables again turned my frown upside down, calling down all flush/straight draws (that didn't hit) raising with the non-nut draw into my AXs. God bless you PartyPoker, now gimme the jackpot! I made back all of the money I lost at the $25NL tables last week plus some! I even won a NLHE SnG for the first time at the $11 level (small po-ta-toes, I know but it was nice!).
I fired up Intertops for the $2004 ho-ho-ho freeroll, played like a maniac for the first rounds, double up or go to bed. And soon I found myself ITM with 30 people left (852 started, top 90 got ho-ho-ho cash!). I'm not sure if I made a fishy play here but... with AQo in MP and 6XBB my stack I decided to go for a steal and push... only to get called by AKo. Should I have just limped in and gotten out if raised and wait for a better spot to push? I got $11 for the 3.5 hour effort. I haven't played in a MTT for a while and it was nice to go on a rush.
Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday season... oh wait we got New Year's Eve and bowl games coming up don't we. I never remember much about New Year's so don't expect a long post about it :)
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