Shooting near Canadian Poker room....

I played three games last night and went two for three in cashes.

Carrying on with yesterday's theme, I naturally money bubbled the first game. Pissed me off a little too, as my bust out hand could be seen coming from miles away. Agro-Donk that would play any two cards and catch every single time, was the massive chip leader. So naturally when he put me all in while I held K-K and had just flopped top set, I expected the worst. I got it! As his complete air on the flop, naturally went runner-runner, double-gutter, to give him the straight. I got it in good and lost, gg me!

The second game was a bit different. I ran well early and was lucky enough to have run two huge hands, into two big hands. In the first of these, it was checked around to my BB while I held 4-4. A flop of 4-4-A saw a min. bet by the SB, a call by your hero and then a 3x raise from middle position. SB made the call and I had to think of the best way to make a chip or two more. I went with the smooth call. The turn 7 didn't look like it changed too much, except for suiting up with one of the fours. After a check from both the SB and myself, mid-position made a pot sized bet. This caused me to lose the SB player but let me know that just maybe, I could get all of Mr. mid-positions chips. I re-potted and saw an insta-jam come right after I acted. I made the call and my flopped quads somehow, managed to hold on against his A-Q.

The second hand of importance in that game, after limping in from the SB with 8h-9h, the flop of 6h-10c-7h kind of peaked my interest. It was certainly an action flop, as three others were willing to toss a few chips into the center. The 5h on the turn brought even better action for me, as I managed to get two players to commit there entire stacks to the pot. My straight flush held against the Ace high flush and a flopped set of ten's. I was the monster chip leader! I never looked back from that point on, and managed to score a win.

Game three was STUD Hi/Lo. Still not a huge fan of the split format, but I've recently been having a lot more fun while playing it, so it's a game I'll take on every once in awhile. Similar to the second game of NLHE, I ran descent at the start. Having two made lows to the 6 or 7, luckily catch something special on 6th. street, to make wheels out of both. Good enough for the scoop on both occasions.

It was about this time, that I started to notice the bizarre noises coming from outside. Peb's and I had thought we'd heard something the other night as well and when we woke up in the morning, the tracks were evident everywhere. We have a Raccoon family snooping around. So despite the bright light emanating from the basement window where I sit to play some Poker, the little bugger was scratching around just a few short feet away. A brazen Raccoon, is not what you want hanging around your house. By the time I'd grabbed the gun and made my way to where I thought I could find the damn thing, I didn't have to do too much more investigating at all. There he was, hanging off of the suet feeder at the kitchen window that Peb's likes to put out for all her peckers. I snuck around the back, scared it off the feeder and it only took one shot.

Back at the game a little while later, finds me running either incredibly card dead or even worse! Running made hands by fifth, into what seemed to be obvious winners by seventh. I had to let go of some pretty damn good hands on 6th. and 7th., 'cause I just knew I was beat. That can eat at your chip stack a little, not to mention your patience. But still, each time it was the right thing to do. At several points, I'd gotten all the way down to about 6 possible bring-ins total. Each time I'd manage to catch just enough of a hand or a break where no one else had anything to fight back with, and managed to hang on for dear life until we got down to four-handed.

That was where the gun had to be brought out once again. I was convinced this would be the ruination of me in the game, but getting rid of the pests now is way better than putting up with them all Summer long! So out I went again. There was more than one this time, DAMN! A warning shot got them moving in the right direction, but it just wasn't good enough I guess. The second shot got all but one of them moving back into the trees in a hurry, as the one near the back of the gang laid motionless. I came back in once again, but left the gun at the door just in case.

As I sat back down at the computer, I was amazed to see I was still in the game. The only thing that had changed was, another 'shorty' had been created at the table. muhc and TheGoatlady, pretty much had all of the chips at the table. Only three got paid! I was on the bubble once again. It was time to put my plan to the test for the second time of the night. Watch, focus and learn, was what I needed to do. And I did. At one point of the session, I worked my way up from worst to first. Something I'm very proud of myself for accomplishing.

We lost our fourth at the table and the bubble had burst. I was getting paid for another game of Poker. I tried my best to improve from the third place position, but in the end it just wasn't going to happen. I ran second nuts into the nuts one time at the higher levels, and that was all it took. I would not have enough chips to make any kind of play. I was in the worst possible place you can be in STUD, 'pick three cards and ride'em out.' I even managed to pick the right three! Not that it did me any good. But once again, I did get'em in good.

Thanks for all the fun, to everyone that joined me in that game last night. It was great to see you all once again.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....