Comeuppance

After a nice run was due for a fall and it came today.  Arriving plenty early (I thought) for the big end of month tournament at about 10:15, was planning to miss the last minute sign up rush for the $230 buy in.  Boy was I late!  Informed by the tournament director that I was alternate #28, thought he was kidding.  Nope.  Ultimately over 80 alternates and re-entries I was looking at a possible 2 hour wait to get in.  The blinds just keep going up so would be at level 4 in two hours at first break.  With 12000 starting chips, blinds at 200/400, you are in bad shape, specially with other players nicely chipped up.  Decided to withdraw if I did not get in before the break, but made it with 15 minutes to spare.

Very card dead but picked up blinds a few times with raises, but no action.  At level 6 or 7 with only 7000 in chips, called a min raise with one limper in front of him holding 10/10.  First pair of my tournament, and with a short stack, I shoved my last 5000 on the J/J/9 flop after a check and a 2000 bet from original raiser.  The limper called for all of his chips, and so did the raiser.  Limped had Q/Q, raiser K/K.  Rut-Row!  The turn was a 7, giving me 6 outs for a set or the straight.  River brick sent me to the rail.  My problem was lack of fold equity.  Too small a stack to scare off the others, plus with a bigger stack could have waited for the turn or river to shove as a jack in my hand slow plays. 

Now on the wait list for omaha, I finally get a seat.  Terrible luck there and I leave a poorer but wiser player a few hours later.

  

4- peat for Butter

Breaking from routine, drove to Tulalip for the morning tournament today (not my usual poker day).  Using a coupon, entry cost only $5.00, but ran into trouble when a raised pot was called by 3/5 off suit and flop came down Q/3/5 and my Q/J failed to improve.  Oh well, it is a re-entry tournament so $25. later seated at a different table.  Running fairly good, again made final table, with two players eliminated on one hand only 9 seated, and 7 spots paid out of 70 entries.  We agreed to pay the two bubbles and a couple of guys went out shortly afterwards.  I ended up out in 7th place for a $70 payout when my K/10 suited shove was called by K/Q.  Making the only pair with the 10 sealed my fate as it gave him Broadway (whoever pairs their live card loses!!!).

Still feel good with 4th final table in a row this week, and about $500 in total wins.  Not much money, but bragging rights for the 4 peat.  Like butter, I am on a roll.

Update on kidney stone: urologist checked cat scan and says no stone.  Great, now I don't know why I was hurting.

Sunday No Chop

Sunday is my usual Omaha day, but feeling the love in tournaments decided to pass on oh8 and enter the $60. No chop.  The name explains it, they do not allow any deals, including bubble pay.  Using the $20 coupon from Thursday my cost was $40 to join the eventual 100 entries.  Running really well early chipped up big hitting suited connectors for straights and flushes.  Took a major hit when the short stack next to me went all in with AJ, I re-raised all in to isolate with AJ suited, but a big stack called with AK.  We hit our jack, but he hit his king.  I picked up a royal flush draw on the turn, plus the straight, but missed.  I would later get all my chips back from him with a flopped set of 4's vs. His KQ on a KQ4 flop.  Nearly eliminated when shoving from the button with K9 suited when big blind finds QQ.  Doubled up with the rivered flush and ultimately made final table with a short stack.  Watched 2 players eliminated, then shoved my one blind 6k stack with 3/3 and lots of callers.  Protection came with huge stack shove and hoped for AK.  Nope 5/5!!!  Some hope for a straight on a small flop when he flopped a set, but he hit quads on turn.  Cash out for $140, smaller win than I would have liked, but still 3rd tournament cash in a row.   Long wait for Omaha, missed lunch, tired, drove home.

Quick note on re-entries.  A very obnoxious player re-entered whining about cracked kings as she sat at my table.  I commented to the woman next to me that it was "headphone time".  She nodded in agreement.  This woman is big and loud and talks constantly.  Grateful to see her knocked out again quickly.  Her 3rd re-entry put her on table 1 and she was gone again soon. Two tables away could still hear her.

$5.00 Investment

Another Tulalip trip on Thursday.  Using my free tournament entry coupon from Monday, I did the "dealer appreciation", $5. add on for 500 extra chips.  Got great cards early on, then card dead.  Managed a double up against a good aggressive regular when he hit a straight vs. my nut flush.  Making the final table played carefully with a small stack to ladder up to 5th place.  There were 74 entries, 7 places paid, but we agreed to pay last 3 spots money back.  My 5th yielded $100.

Using my winnings to buy into a new Omaha game, cashed out a few hours later for $210, giving me a net profit of $205 ( plus another $20 tournament coupon).  Great day of poker.

On a personal side note, this year has sucked for me health-wise.  Fighting back pain for a couple of weeks, drove myself to urgent care at 4 a.m. Sunday with severe abdominal pain.  Turns out to be a kidney stone.  As additional side note, 4 a.m. is an excellent time to go to urgent care, literally only patient, free parking and no traffic which is awesome in Seattle east side. I feel much better and have lots of pills.  Will post picture of stone later if possible😎

Back in the saddle again?

Finally made it back to Tulalip casino for the morning tournament.  I went early, which was fortunate as shortly afterwards there was a huge wreck on I-5, blocking all northbound lanes.  I played o.k., but got unlucky with A/K on a A/J/x flop.  The other player had A/J.   Moving to a new 1/3 NL game, played 2 hours to validate my tournament free play coupon.  Financial results below:

Tournament buy-in:  25.00
Loss:  25.00

Cash Buy-in:  220.00
Cash out:  226.00
Net win:  6.00

Tournament free play coupon:  20.00

Net/net win:  1.00

As you can see, I am a high roller.

Branson, MO

Taking a break from poker writing the past few weeks for a variety of reasons.  Have been very busy moving the last possessions from our Cannon Beach home to Seattle.  The house sale closed on Friday morning, the 3rd, and we caught a plane to St. Louis at 12:30.  Saturday morning caught up with my high school buddy, Ron and wife Linda over brunch then drove 4+ hours to Southwest Missouri, Branson to check in to our rental home in a giant vacation complex (3300 acres).  This trip was a surprise family reunion for my wife's sister, who recently had a milestone birthday.  A total of 32 people are here in the heart of the Ozarks, including our kids and grandkids.  It is pretty chaotic in the 2 houses with combined 13 bedrooms.  The heat (95 today) plus high humidity are a radical change, and I am often freezing in the air conditioning.

There are a couple of food bucket list items on this old Missourians menu.  I got one today, deep fried catfish.  Pork tenderloin sandwich is next, also deep fried.  Making my heart medicine work overtime.  That is it for now, poker talk of late way too depressing.