Hmmmmmmmmmmm......

A rather interesting development in live poker this weekend! Probably only my perspective to be honest, but to call it all a coincidence seems....
Well, rather coincidental I guess.

I couldn't get paid on a single hand in two games. At first, I figured it was a "tell" or something that I may be giving off. I first assumed this, because Saturday was a TuckFard game. These players know me rather well and I certainly wouldn't put it past them to develop a plan that leads me to blind to death in the game. You know, if 'Bam's' in the pot, let him win small and walk away. That's exactly what happened too. If I reached for chips, for the most part everyone folded out of my way. The one real exception was Carson. I was holding the "sooted Carson" in his BB and I just had to have fun with that. He actually called. I hit my top card and decided to have some more fun by betting into what I thought would be his fold to me. Nope! He called. The turn threw 3 Diamonds on the board and I've seen this show before. I checked my pair and watched as Carson reached for chips. At that point, it didn't matter what he was holding. I'd had my fun and was done with the hand. I showed him my cards and we had a good laugh.

For the most part I would reach, and I could see cards flying into the muck before my chips made it into the pot. TotalTilt made a raise into a pot with me and I doubled what she'd bet after a short amount of thought. She tanked, gazed around the room, and then let me have her original raise. It was just enough to bring me back to a starting stack. I was being basically blinded away. My blinds were heavily bet into and any bet I made the rest of the way, only won me the blinds. It was really, a slow and painful death in the game. After TotalTilt pushed in her remaining $2600 with a hand that I read as a small pair from 2's to 6's, I looked down at the K-J of diamonds and decided to race my way to chips. I know it's a kind of "checkers or wreckers" mentality, but I was correct on my read. She held 6-6 and I was one of the few that can say, I saw them coming. I didn't improve and so I think I finished 9th., maybe 10th. Another pathetic showing on the season!

Then today I was representing "Team Tuckfard."

It was an aggressive table I'd drawn and I really liked my chances to take it down. Funny enough, I could not get a caller or raiser when I really wanted or needed one. If two players, (not me!) were in a pot, the average pot was about 10-15x the BB. If I called, everyone but the BB would fold. If I reached for chips, I could see cards heading into the muck before I'd said or done anything. I decided to reverse absoloutely everything about my attitude and body language. With this, I managed to take down a very small pot with T2P that made me a boat on the river. I was then amazed to find out that she only called while holding top two pair with top kicker. In this league, that is unprecedented by a mile. Typically with the players I've been sitting at the tables with in these games, I would have been able to see at least a 2 - 3x pot bet into my made nuts.

I ended up getting a little frustrated by the size of the pots I'd win, and very disappointed that I could not participate in some of the larger pots that were going on between the others. As I got down to 3-handed, I started to open up the range of hands I would play just a touch more than normal. I figured that if they wouldn't play me, I'd steal some more blinds until they did. This worked pretty well to be honest. With blinds at the 9,000/18,000 level, they were well worth stealing. I took the blinds in one full orbit. It still didn't build my stack up enough though, as these two had been the ones in all the huge pots earlier on. Between them, they'd taken out the other 6 players at the table. I was the runt in the chip stack department and I knew that whatever hand I played, it was going to be for my entire stack. I needed to double up, and with the blinds about to hit me again, I needed to do so soon. The bigger of the two stacks finally threw chips into the pot on my BB. I honestly didn't give a crap what my two cards were, I was so bored and frustrated at the lack of play when I was involved, I would have pushed with 2-3 off-suit. It isn't a good place to be, but it was the place I was in. I looked down at my cards and saw a Queen. "I'm all-in," I said. It took 5 minutes for him to call......
WITH POCKET KINGS ! And to make matters worse, he felt the need to justify his call by saying, "I don't see how I can fold this! Nice hand."

We flipped up and I told him, "I don't mind this at all. It's the second hand someone has played with me in 3 hours of play today. At least I get to feel what it's like to play the game." Of course I didn't improve and lost the race. But it was exhilarating to actually play a hand of poker.

YES! It was that bad at the live games this weekend!

Pebbles also represented and had her A-8 run into pocket 8's on a board of 10-J-3. The guy showed, (what I thought) was just the right amount of weakness to get Peb's to make a play. She did and made it huge! She went way over the top and had committed herself to the hand. It took forever for him to call. He announced that he "really didn't want a caller" and that he "should probably fold." As often happens in this league, he felt the need to say "nice hand" and throw the money in when he felt he was beat. No help for Peb's and she also went home in 3rd. I know Carson had a rough day and so did Nutzy while subbing for another team. TotalTilt looked very comfortable and happy as we left the hall to get home. She was down to 5-handed and I had a gut feel that she'd be improving her position in the pecking order soon. She just had "that look." So with a kiss on her head and a "good skill" for luck, we left her to duke it out for the win. We have, (HAD ?) a huge lead in the series. This shaped up to be our worst week yet. I think the worst we can do point-wise, was about 2 or 3 points below average. Still not bad considering I know that many of the players on teams chasing us, were gone quite a long time before myself and Pebbles. hopefully an average week was had by all. The first prize is a free trip out to Vegas for the W.S.O.P. I like free! I see value in it.

On-line, I set three goals.

1) To take down a 90 player MTT. Mission accomplished in the first try.
2) To take down a 45 player MTT. Mission accomplished on the second try. (other = 7th)
3) To make enough to pay for my games this week. TuckFards, TuckFards II H.O.R.S.E., The Skillz game, The mookie and the Riverchasers. I'm only 3/4 of the way there.

So with that said, I better get back to the office !

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....