Twice Confirmed Huge Junk? Indeed.

Bob won. He won big. Huge you might even say.

The $1,500 WSOP qualifer at PokerStars was the best $33 I've spent online since getting that subscription to Lindsay Lohan's private web cam. One can dream can't they?

All the usual suspects were out. Plus a couple of us from the great state of Minnesota.

I faired well early on, not really catching cards but grinding out some blind steals and making a couple of pot size bets after the flop to stay above the average chip count thru the first break. After the break I found a certain bodybuilder who proceeded to bat me around like a tetherball. I blame Little Drizz for not staying awake long enough, when he was up I was aggressive and playing to win. After he went to bed, I crawled to a little cave and pleaded with the card gods to shine a little light in my direction. I did manage to double up twice with AA and QQ to make it back to the average chip count during level 6 or 7. But, I never had that same aggression I did in the early rounds.

Then the bustout came. I was dealt 77 in early position and led out my usual odd numbered bet of 777, yes, I telegraph my bet sometimes.... but only sometimes ;) Folded around to HDouble who promptly re-raised enough to pretty much put me all-in. I figured him for AQs - AKs range and since he'd already hit quads twice tonight I should have thought better then to go into a coin flip with him. Raymer won out though when the Ace hit the flop, and I was left to railbird in 24th place out of 78. Not a horrible showing by any means, in fact besides jumping into the coin flip, I thought I played some good poker last night.

The chat room and railbirds while cheering on Bob to victory was surreal. This online tournament just seemed to be a teaser for the WPBT Aladdin and WSOP event in June. It was like that first nacho at a ball game before you get to that 40 oz. flat beer and malt cup. A great first taste of good things to come. Congratulations again Bob!

I don't know what happened to my cash game play, besides getting lucky, but I won back a good chunk of my losses for the past two weeks on Saturday and Sunday night. Spiking a set on the river twice when I was behind (overplayed QQ vs. AA once and KK vs. 33 when he flopped the set). Lucky? Of course. Happy? Not really, I got outplayed which hurt more then winning the money. Even thought my virtual wallet feels better, it was a wake-up call to re-evaluate my play. I tend to get too excited post-flop when I have an overpair but late Saturday night I started playing more patient by not pushing so much, and trying to value bet rather then play virtual bingo with two cards to come.

I also saw the power of game selection (thanks Felicia), I picked a game at Stars while the WPBT tournament was going on (yes I have ADD when it comes to online poker) and waited for a seat in a NL game with a lot of loose players, rather then my usual take-the-first-seat-available approach. Wow. I netted a nice buy-in and half win at this $.50/$1 table simply playing ABC poker and throwing some bait into the fishy waters when my monsters hit. I know variance on these games, and the tilt-inducing suckouts potental are higher then the usual tight no limit games. But, its worth it to see that your kicker comes into play, or people will try to bluff their busted flush/straight draws. I still haven't utilized the teachings in the Pokertracker guide like I should. But, bonus whoring has gotten the best of me once again as I currently have cash spread out over 5 different sites and still haven't cleared the Crypto bonuses yet.

I didn't ground myself to the computer all weekend. Saturday morning we packed up Little Drizz and headed out to a softball tourney where I was filling in for a friend of mine. I came. I played. I hurt the next day. Currently I'm at my desk begging that I don't have to move one iota. Even an extended soak in the hot tub didn't relax my old body. I didn't do horrible while playing my first tourney in three years, went 6 for 9 at the plate with a couple of home runs and kept some baserunners in check with my massive cannon in left field. I don't have twice confirmed huge junk, but I can still throw out people from the outfield off my back foot. The team lost all three games in convincing manner, but it was fun to play again and that's what counts.

Thanks for dropping by, now go read Bob's victory dance, he earned it.