Arriving early at the casino my plan was to play the morning tournament. This is normally a reasonably priced event and since the Omaha high hands did not begin until 2:00 figured I could play it and get signed up early in case of a bust out. I was a little surprised to see the end of the month tournament was a huge one with $65,000 guaranteed prize pool. The buy in was a nosebleed $670. No thanks, too rich for my blood. As I sat waiting for the Omaha game which probably wouldn't start for an hour or two I reconsidered the tournament. Rationalizing that it would be a giant payoff if I won (just dreaming) finally decided after chatting with a player about his WSOP trip that it was worth the risk without the travel costs to Vegas.
My game started very tough, seated between two young and very good players. I hung in and when our table broke early was happy to move with around starting chip stack of 15,000. The next table was very good to me, particularly when I got them all in with set over set (my 6's vs. his 5's). Doubled up I kept running good with my AK's holding up, some nice pocket pairs that won, and hitting about 60,000 or double average stack with about 60 remaining players out of 117 entries. Then trouble began. The first problem was a young player who shoved his short (around 10K) stack with Q/10 off. I wake up with A/A and re-raised all in to isolate him. We see a flop of Q/x/x then another queen on the turn. Player doubled up courtesy of my cracked aces. Oh well, still way up and running good.
A few hands later an older gentleman in the one seat shoved under the gun with a 15-20 K stack. I again awaken with A/A. Snap call. The flop is K/K/X and he holds A/K. Another courtesy double up by me. Now I am down to below average stack. Long story short, we get down to 3 tables, I go card dead and am busted in 20th place (paying 12, with 1st $21,000) when I shove my lousy 3 big blinds UTG with A/5 and am called by the big blind's 6/9 and he hits a 9 on the turn. So close and so frustrating. The two guys who cracked my aces were still going strong when I hit the road.
Moving on to a different topic, I was saddened this morning to hear that one of my high school classmates passed away last week. Her name was Diane Lohohefener. She was my crush sophomore year with her cute dimples and friendliness (voted most friendly in senior class). Her parents were friends with mine and played bridge with them occasionally. Our paths crossed several years later as married couples. Her husband was Woody Warder, a few years our senior, the son of the local GE appliance dealer. They took over the business and when we briefly moved back to our home town somehow Diane and my wife got the idea to start a pre-school in their home. It was cute when they met with the local banker, kids in tow, she had 2 and we had 1. They got their loan, perhaps just to get the girls out of the bank, and we remodeled their basement into a classroom. Not too long after that I got a job promotion and transfer to Seattle. We dissolved our partnership and she continued the business, ultimately building it into a huge enterprise housed in the old telephone company building which she purchased. She was a very good businesswoman and eventually sold it and moved to Florida after the death of her husband. We stopped by once to say hello when in town and also saw her at our 10 year class reunion but that was almost my last contact with her. I tried emailing her a couple of times but no reply. After a school reunion a couple of years ago which I did not attend, I got her phone number from a mutual friend and we spoke briefly. I hope she had a good and happy life. My love goes out to her family. RIP Lady Di.
My game started very tough, seated between two young and very good players. I hung in and when our table broke early was happy to move with around starting chip stack of 15,000. The next table was very good to me, particularly when I got them all in with set over set (my 6's vs. his 5's). Doubled up I kept running good with my AK's holding up, some nice pocket pairs that won, and hitting about 60,000 or double average stack with about 60 remaining players out of 117 entries. Then trouble began. The first problem was a young player who shoved his short (around 10K) stack with Q/10 off. I wake up with A/A and re-raised all in to isolate him. We see a flop of Q/x/x then another queen on the turn. Player doubled up courtesy of my cracked aces. Oh well, still way up and running good.
A few hands later an older gentleman in the one seat shoved under the gun with a 15-20 K stack. I again awaken with A/A. Snap call. The flop is K/K/X and he holds A/K. Another courtesy double up by me. Now I am down to below average stack. Long story short, we get down to 3 tables, I go card dead and am busted in 20th place (paying 12, with 1st $21,000) when I shove my lousy 3 big blinds UTG with A/5 and am called by the big blind's 6/9 and he hits a 9 on the turn. So close and so frustrating. The two guys who cracked my aces were still going strong when I hit the road.
Moving on to a different topic, I was saddened this morning to hear that one of my high school classmates passed away last week. Her name was Diane Lohohefener. She was my crush sophomore year with her cute dimples and friendliness (voted most friendly in senior class). Her parents were friends with mine and played bridge with them occasionally. Our paths crossed several years later as married couples. Her husband was Woody Warder, a few years our senior, the son of the local GE appliance dealer. They took over the business and when we briefly moved back to our home town somehow Diane and my wife got the idea to start a pre-school in their home. It was cute when they met with the local banker, kids in tow, she had 2 and we had 1. They got their loan, perhaps just to get the girls out of the bank, and we remodeled their basement into a classroom. Not too long after that I got a job promotion and transfer to Seattle. We dissolved our partnership and she continued the business, ultimately building it into a huge enterprise housed in the old telephone company building which she purchased. She was a very good businesswoman and eventually sold it and moved to Florida after the death of her husband. We stopped by once to say hello when in town and also saw her at our 10 year class reunion but that was almost my last contact with her. I tried emailing her a couple of times but no reply. After a school reunion a couple of years ago which I did not attend, I got her phone number from a mutual friend and we spoke briefly. I hope she had a good and happy life. My love goes out to her family. RIP Lady Di.
