Happy Birthday Robert

Please excuse the bad picture.  Last night at the Legion was Robert's 84th birthday.  We had birthday cake and party hats, and a bounty on Robert (LOL).  19 people kicked in $5. each for the one to knock him out of the tournament.  I suggested we split the pot with Robert, but no one was interested in that.  He was not even at my table at first, but luckily got moved to table 2 with a short stack. Another player and I had a shot at him when he shoved with KQ and we both called with weak aces. With an ace on the flop we checked it down, but he hit a queen on the flop, then another on the river. Lucky rat bastard!

A little later, a much healthier Robert called my button raise (KK) all-in with pocket 5's .  Bounty player down!!!  I decided to split the money with Robert by paying his buy-in.  I still netted $55, and some good karma.  Fun.

With a pretty healthy stack I had the misfortune to run up against the luckiest player at my table.  He had knocked at least 3 players out, usually on a draw on the river card.  He limped in under the gun and as the next player with pocket 10's, (blinds at 200/400) with around 5,000 behind, I raised to 1600.  In retrospect this was too large of a raise.  The lucky player is a calling station so I pretty much knew he would call.  With a big hand and position figured I could make some chips on this hand. Everyone folded and he called as expected.  The flop came down J/8/3 rainbow and I was surprised to have him bet out 1500.  With the 3500 already in the pot plus his 1500, I had about 3000 behind. There was no chance I would just call this bet, so I tanked for a while before shipping it all.  He snapped called and slow rolled his set of 8's.  He had hit his 2 outer now I needed to hit mine.  No such luck.  Thinking back on the way I played, it would have been much better to have raised to 1000 or so.  Still a strong message and with his lead out bet could have folded much easier.  I really did put him on either AK, AQ, or a worse pair.  So, just got unlucky all around.

Another Robert story that I thought was funny.  Wednesday's game, Robert was in seat 1 while I was dealing.  He got involved in a big pot with the player sitting next to him, and aggressively bet to the river.  He was confused after the river was dealt and evidently thought there was no more betting so he tabled his hand, A/9 on a 9 high board.  The other player then bet 300 and Robert called, knowing he had seen his hand.  The other player had a straight.  I was laughing.  Perfect time for a stone cold bluff or a value bet!!!