Fishing and Poker

It should come to no surprise to anyone that lots of poker players also fish.  I have been listening to their stories for years.  Lately, I decided to join them.  A friend who is a fishing expert took me under his wing recently, loaning me tackle, showing me the hot spots and when to get your line in the water, even cleaning our catch!!  I am indebted to him, cause you know how it goes.....give a man a fish, etc. My first outing, 1 nice coho salmon, 2nd outing, 2 nice salmon 1 jack and 1 chinook,  3rd outing, nada.....raining and blowing wind, miserable, lasted 3 hours before giving up.  After we left got reports that it was "the best run of the year" for an hour and a half with everyone catching multiple fish, even one guy using bass lures!!!! Oh well.

So, my salmon fishing may be done this year as we are leaving town for a bit and the run will soon end.  Steelhead fishing coming up.

  Back to poker.  Not a lot of luck this week.  Wheeler ended early when my flush draw failed against pocket kings.  Cannon Beach was worse with my pre-flop raise AJ, several callers, flop of 2/3/3, and one caller of my shove....really expected to see an A/3 suited, but no, worse, pocket 2's.  No poker for me for a week or so, leaving tomorrow for Dallas and St. Louis family visits. 

Back in The Saddle-

Finally decided to get back on the poker horse.  It has been too long.  My last tournament was 2 months ago.  So, driving to Wheeler last night I was eager to play and to see my poker buddies, as well as to enjoy a tall glass of Old Chubb beer.  The turnout was fairly light, around 21 players, 3 short tables.  I drew seat 1 on table 2 (which combines to 21 as in number of players, and also adds up to 3 tables) coincidentally if you are into numbers meanings).  Looking around at the players I was kind of going rut-row.  There were all of the usual suspects plus some players on known heaters.  All in all a pretty tough table.  Scott was dealing, and what a string of cards he put out!  I had A/A early, winning a large pot from K/K.  Got A/A again which I folded after the flop with 4 callers on a coordinated flushy board and a big bet with caller in front of me.  Good fold as a straight was hit on the turn.  During the course of the evening Scott dealt A/A a total of 8 times.  Unreal.  When we formed the final table, A/A was dealt back-to-back the first two hands!!!  Aces did not lose once all night (except for my early hero fold).  There was even a set over set aces and 5's hand to add to the excitement.

Never having a huge stack, I nonetheless managed to get hot late in the tournament, knocking 3 players out on separate occasions.  One of the luckiest hands was shoving from my small blind in a multi-way pot with 6/7 off on a flop of 5/8/x all spades (I had zero spades).  Two callers and I rivered a 9 to more than triple up.  Getting down to 3 players, we were all very close in chip count, so I suggested a chop.  The one lady in the tournament agreed, but the other player (1st time I have played with him) did not want to.  Shortly afterward, she raised with A/9 suited, I shoved with A/Q, she called and failed to find her flush or 9.  Down to 2, we agreed to chop even though I was now about double his stack.  Felt good to play again, and even better to win!!!

Side note:  sickest hand of the night, lucky player raises with 10/J, short stack dealer shoves with A/K, biggest stack over shoves with Q/Q.  Mr. Lucky (strawberry Sasquatch....no names) calls for all of his chips.  King on the flop, Q on the turn, and......you know it, 9 on the river for the straight. Dealer down, big stack crippled.

Long Time No Post

Wow.  It has been a long time since I have posted.  Hope my few followers have not given up on me.  Such a busy and sad summer for me.  In June, I traveled to Phoenix to help my mother for a couple of weeks after her stroke.  I recounted my poker adventures on that trip.  So, in August spending another week in Seattle helping family with their transition to new house, and then getting a call that mother had suffered another stroke.  Back to Phoenix for another week.  This time the stroke affected her speech and ability to form thoughts.  She is a strong willed woman, and certainly did not want to live with both the physical problems and mental problems now existing.  Her vow if she ever got really sick was to "stop eating and drinking till she died".  So, that is exactly what she did.  Her plan was to go in 5 days, maybe she had read that somewhere.  Unfortunately she was in excellent health and it took her twice as long.  She passed away last Saturday with my sister and brother-in-law by her bed.  We cared for her that last week with hospice care in her old home, now my sister's.  My younger brother was with her for several days before I got there and was also able to say goodbye.  Betty was 89 years old and lived a good life.

So, my poker game has been held in suspension.  Really did want to play last night, but just not feeling up to it yet.  Think I will grieve for a while longer.

Picture from last January's visit.  She loved to work puzzles and play bridge.  Now some of the other players at her retirement community will have a chance to win 1st place.  I got all my card smarts from her.