Rivals

This weekend you could have viewed some classic rivals... Duke vs. UNC in Mens Basketball, Phil vs. Tiger in Golf, Drizztdj vs. Grandma...

Well, the last one wasn't exactly a nationally known rivalry, nor were we playing for millions of dollars in front of millions of people on TV. But, it was the biggest part of the 3 table family tournament over at my parent's house on Saturday night. $5 was the buy-in for this event, BYOB, but mom put out a spread of chicken wings, BBQ beef, 5 kinds of chip dip, cake.... and well you get the idea. The tourney started with 21 hopefuls, dreaming of that $50 payday for first. Everyone started with T5000 in chips, and I started off nicely hitting an inside straight draw with QTo and busting my neighbor out who held a flopped two pair. Limping was the name of the game and since I didn't want to kill the buzz I didn't go all Brunson at the table with relentless raises and re-raises. It was a good time, and a quick study to see how people reacted to their cards in a live tourney.

Soon it was down to 14 people and I held JTo UTG with 7 people at my table and decided to limp in. Sitting with T7000 in chips (I'd lost a couple of chips when 93o busted my KK earlier) the rest of the table also limped in to see a J T 3 rainbow flop. With top two, I fired off a min bet with the intention off re-raising should it happen. Another neighbor went all-in with his remaining T500, my brother's mother-in-law called with a similar stack to mine so I just smooth called instead of the raise hoping she was calling with a J or T. The turn was a beautiful T, so I bumped it up to T2000 and after consulting with her husband (it was her first time playing poker) she happily went all-in. No brainer for me as she flipped up QT for trips, my neighbor flipped up 33 for the flopped set (nice suckout Drizz), and I showed my higher boat. The river was a blank and we were down to 12.

Grandma was busting people left and right with an array of hands, everything from the Hilton sisters to the Hammer she'd win with. I mostly stayed out of her way on the sheer luck factor alone, except when I hit two pair to beat her pair of aces for a couple thousand in chips.

After two hours of play we were down to the final table of 8 people, my table of four came in as a cash cow with three of us near 20K in chips, and the other table only had one person over 20K.

The second hand is where I . Staring down at AA in MP I shoved out a T4000 raise after Grandma limped in with T600 UTG and the blinds at 300/600. Both blinds folded and she called. I put her on Ace - rag, and we saw a flop of 7 8 9 rainbow. Sigh. Knowing full well that under that 5' 1" frame and 80 year old smile there was a devious little card player (she's the one who taught me to play cribbage, euchre, pinoche (sp?), 500) she fired off a T1000 bet, I went all-in and she called immediately with.... A6 (do I need to tell you what the next card was?). After seeing the Ten come up I was dead to a split pot but no six nor Jack came and it was Grandma taking down the .25/.50 no limit internet wannabe pro. And I couldn't have been happier. If there was anyone I wanted to win, it was my grandma. Her health has been failing lately and she doesn't have much longer to live, but her smile after she won was worth more then a WSOP bracelet (I know I'm crazy for saying that).

Grandma went on to take 4th and take home $10, my brother-in-law JAYSTONE! took 3rd for $20, my good friend E took 2nd for $30, and some kid that my cousin brought along who defined the word R-O-C-K took 1st. He'd only bet with an Ace or a PP, eh, it worked for him since he won.

Afterwards came a little cash .10/.20 NL $5 buy-in cash game with 6 people that involved JAYSTONE! My brother-in-law tends to get a little wild while drinking.... during a halloween party 3 years ago he literaly butted heads with my biggest friend who's 6'5" 300+ lbs. until they both ended up in the emergency room getting matching stiches on their foreheads. So, JAYSTONE! decides he's gonna play CAUSE THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE! (as he stated many many times). He played everything, drank some more, and donated $10 of his winnings to my friend B who was cleaning up the table with his usual loose-aggressive play that I have a tough time figuring out. JAYSTONE! busted out with some new bruises on his arms (after playing flinch with B during the poker game) and in his wallet but went home with a smile on his face. The cash game wasn't a total loss for me as I doubled up my initial stake which paid for the tourney. Full of beer, a Jag shot (bleech!), and chicken wings I high-tailed it home to get some sleep at around 1:30am.

Sunday would bring some lessons on poker play.

While clearing my monthly Crypto bonus at Interpoker I learned that NL is something you don't want to play bored or on tilt. I lost the fun of playing after two hours while my second best hands kept getting smashed and watching others win $100+ pots with a pair of sixes. Jack high flush, downed by a Queen high flush. Overpair winning will the river pairs the top card on the board. Aces cracked by JTo when a runner-runner straight comes in and the player called a pre-flop raise and a $15 pot size bet with nothing. Then I made one questionable call, and one stOOpid call. AJo, flop comes out 9 high, I check to the player UTG, he bets $2, I raise to $10 hoping to take down the pot, he flat calls, an ace on the turn, I push hoping he was playing junk and hit a pair on the flop (like I said, bored and tilt are not good things), he calls with AKo (was his call of my check-raise horrible or worth it?). Of course I lost my stack there. Then, on another table I pickup AQo (I hate this hand with a passion) and see a flop with 6 others of A Q J rainbow, I fire off a $5 bet and get two callers (don't mind the warning bells, they don't mean anything), a blank on the turn and I fire off a $25 bet, another flat call, but the second caller re-raises all-in. Knowing he has KT, I of course call and no help on the river for me. Minus $250. Ouch. Good thing I walked away and didn't look back because that was some ugly bad play plus suckouts that looked like Phil Mickleson's putt on the 16th green on Sunday.

Since my wife was working her scrapbooking, I decided to hit up the slots on Lucky Nugget since I needed some relaxation and since Little Drizz was kind enough to take an extended nap. Right away I hit 5 scatter pays resulting in a $90 win on a $.02 machine (yes I play for the big bucks, stop laughing). And cashing a total of $120 after the 15 free spins got done. Ah, the spoon full of slot sugar made my bad beat poker medicine go down in the most delightful way (damnit now that song is in my head).

We took little walk to my parent's house with Little Drizz since the weather was beautiful out. Even though my socks got wet from wearing flip-flops with the sidewalks full of melted snow, it felt like cabin fever was done for the season and we could finally enjoy the outdoors again.

After coming home I decided to unwind with a little more poker, but this time for fun. I deposited $250 on Full Tilt to play tourneys and some cash games to pay for the tourneys. First up, my first Razz SnG! I was rolling along fairly well and got to the final four, but busted out when I caught 3 bricks in a row (K - 7 - Q) with a 7 - 4 - 3 - A start vs. someone who over played his Ace showing and had K - 8 underneath and he made a 9 low. Money in with the best of it right? It was a different game, that's for sure, having to remember what gets folded to know how many outs you have really makes for challenging game. I'll be trying again tonight of course :) I made a little bit on a side game while I waited for the SnG to fill up, nothing exciting just hit AA vs. JJ and took down a $20 pot to more then cover the $5 SnG charge.

13 days till Vegas, gotta make some reservations at a Treasure Island restaurant (any suggestions on which one???). Thanks for reading and hope your Monday isn't, well, a Monday.