Long overdue, BUT A BIG LESSON LEARNED

This blog entry is long overdue. I have had a very busy week. I had meetings with the VP of my department almost everyday. I had to be to work at 7AM 3 days this week (brutal for me, as I am a night person) and I put in at least 50 hours. I had to prepare for a trip this week and I worked on creating 2 DVD’s from 40 8mm home movies, damn, I was busy. Oh yeah, I took Rocco (our dog) to Agility training on Wednesday, wrote and ad for an estate sale, packed for the trip, packed and shipped 6 ebay items, and played poker on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (all live games).

I felt really good on Friday morning… I was energetic and my wife commented on it. I told her I felt good because I finally got 6 hours of sleep. I will try to rest a little in AZ this week.

OK so lets start blogging the last live games with a few comments on some online play I squeezed in.

Friday June 23rd – Poker at our house

We had 9 players, I have to say I do not remember much from this tournament. I remember I was out first, Stacey didn’t money either. The players included:

Mookie
Mrs. Mookie
Todd, Stacey
Becky
Mike
Godfrey
Ian
Me

The format was $20 fee, $20 rebuy if you’re down to zero, and a $5 add on after the first hour. I rebought after I failed believe Mike had the wheel. He had been playing aggressive and stealing pots, I had 2 pair and knew I could rebuy, and that’s what I did. Just before the end of the first hour, Godfrey made a move with about 11K in chips, I had AJ off and called, turns out all he wanted to do was rebuy and my had held up, I can’t remember what he had , but it wasn’t connected, suited, paired or paint. I managed to win. After the add-on I was chip leader. I donked my chips away so fast I don’t remember what happened, except a little while later I looked down at a troubled stack with 22 and met Clara’s bigger pair and I was out – first – at my own house – bummer….

Mike played well, but Godfrey caught him bluffing a few times and took some chips from him. Mike ended up in third and Mondo and Godfrey chopped.

All in all it was a lot of fun and I am glad everyone came out.

Wednesday June 28th – Online with the Mookie

Got home from Agility and entered the tourney a little late, got real good cards and chipped up to about 11th place. I lost a couple of pots and fell back a lot. I finally had AK beat by QQ and bowed out. I hope to log in from AZ and play this week. I really enjoy this one a lot.

Thursday June 29th – Motive game

This one was a five player game. I managed to win this one after playing heads-up with Jerry for a while.

Friday June 30th – Live play at Mookie’s house

Stacey and I played at Mookie’s before our tip to Phoenix on Sunday. We had a good time. There were a lot of new players and it was a bit difficult to navigate through some really bad play and maintain your sanity with some pathetically slow play. Some people were new to a well run game. I did hear a funny comment. One guy said, “pot odds depend on how big your chip stack is.” I got a kick out of that one. I managed to navigate my way to a third place money finish. I was pleased with that as Mookie made a great comeback to take it down. I was impressed with his play – don’t let him fool you with all his “Donkey” talk – he’s good! Nice job Mook!

Saturday July 1st – Live play at Rico’s house

Stacey bowed out of this one as we were leaving at 6AM the next morning for Phoenix. I played, of course, and had a great time. The format was the same as Mookie and my tourneys. There were only 11 people. We started at 2 tables and one guy on my table doubled up very early. He played well and the cards went his way OFTEN. He consistently went into big pots with decent cards, but behind before the flop. He would always end up winning these situations. Some astronomical odds went in this guys favor. Here’s a couple… A5 off vs. AJ suited – he catches a wheel, TT vs. 99, he gets set over set, and other one or two outers coming through, over and over!!! Anyway, he ended up winning, I got third when my short stacked QQ went up against is 88, I caught the set on the flop, he caught runner-runner for QUADS!!! What a horrible way to end a tournament.

Well, here is where I learned a BIG lesson. We played a second turbo mini-tourney with 5 players. I was a little tired and I was on a bit of tilt after watching this guy beat the crap out of everyone with inferior cards. I made a really, really bad mistake that has kept me thinking I may have been transported to and from grade school on a little bus.

I had Q7 and limped on the big blind. The flop came Q72 rainbow. I check, lucky bet, I called, one other player called. I put him on either A7 or AQ. The turn gave us a 5. I was sitting pretty with 2 pairs, I bet ½ the pot, the third guy folded, lucky put me all in and I immediately called. He turned over 78 suited, no flush draw. I said I have two pair and dropped my cards in front of me. Assuming he would suck out, I said, “watch him get trips with a 7!” Sure enough the river was a 7. I said nice hand, pushed my chips to him, correceted him for apologizing on the suck out, and said I can’t believe you beat me with trips! I left and was running the hand through my head on the way home. I actually won the hand with a boat!!! QQ777 vs. 777. Actually, I was a 100% winner and the last card had no consequence.

I didn’t sleep well that night. Not for the money lost, or anything like that, it was for being so stupid! I let my emotions of assuming I would lose the hand to a guy that consistently got lucky against lots of people in lots of hands. My pre-determination of this biased me to the point I didn’t even look at the cards. WOW. I thought I was a lot better player than that, but I had a real reality check. I have not played poker since (haven’t been able to, as I was running my Grandma’s estate sale in Phoenix). I learned a very good lesson there and I need to ALWAYS keep my emotions in check.

Question to the readers of this blog: “Have you ever done anything like this in Poker or another situation?" If so, tell me about it. I would like to know I am not alone, but maybe I am…

I played the Mookie and the Motive Thursday game and I will post those results tomorrow.