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.

Life Without Poker

This summer has been a poker bust.  First a long trip to Phoenix with only one tournament at the very end.  Then a couple of weeks in Seattle (yes, I do know that there are cardrooms and casinos all over the place) with busy family schedules.  My last two tournaments at the Legion were pretty bad, finishing in 12th or 13th place each time, busted by lucky lucky players (my 10/10 vs J/10 the first one, followed by my A4 two pair busted by runner runner flush one pair of 3's hand).  I am trying to expand my interests this summer by doing some fishing, working on daughter's new/old house, gardening some, and just generally doing other stuff.  With my mom's sudden health deterioration it hammers home the point that life is pretty short.  That said, we do need to follow our muse where it leads us.  If poker is indeed my focus, then play I must.

Upcoming in late September is more travel, this time to Dallas for a visit with my brother and his family, then on to St. Louis to see Lincoln, my oldest friend plus wife's family.  She is heading off to see her other sister in New York, so during her absence may have to slip over to Tri-Cities to see friends and of course play tons of poker. 

Tournament Game Face

Decided that the missing element from my game is a good "game face".  Practicing this one.

Running Not So Good

Sometimes, let's face it, we are just not running good.  It is a combination of things usually.  Like, too tired to play well, not focused, card dead, bad match ups, lousy flops, opponents red hot, etc.  I was running soooo good before my Phoenix trip thus the letdown has been brutal.  Last Friday night was an example of bad match ups.  Running very good pre-break, had doubled up to around 4200 in chips, just where I like to be.  I was out 4 hands after the break.  This is how it went down.  Playing a 9/10 on the button, the flop came down A/7/8.  Pretty good flop, so when a loose aggressive player bet 400, I was happy to call.  The turn paired the ace, and after my check he bet around 800.  Too much for a straight draw, so I folded.  He showed A/7 for the full house.  Now down to 3500 in the big blind, the dealer raises to 600.  Another loose aggressive player (is it just me, or are there lots of these guys?), re-raises to 1200.  I look at my cards and hallelujah, pocket kings!!!!  So naturally, given the action and my chip count, I re-raise, intending to go all-in (but neglecting 3 100 chips on top of my cards), trying to isolate.  She folds and he snap calls, turning over A/A.  I turn my kings over and the dealer runs the board, failing to find either a queen or a king on the 9/10/J board.  I am out, but wait, what about the other 300 chips?  Oh, he just said call, and I just shoved, not stating I was all-in.  No argument about me keeping the chips, so I post 100 in the small blind, am dealt 3/3 and after calling the flop, shove $100, hoping no-one caught anything.  I am called by two players, it is checked to the river and the guy with A/A knocks me out with 7/10 having caught a 10 on the flop (I told you he was loose).

With low expectations, I dealt table 3 at Wheeler.  Also running good early, had doubled up when we broke my table after the 1st break.  After running and playing good, went totally card dead.  There was no hand I was dealt that would have won any pot.  Also, the cards were lousy and it was mostly fold, fold and fold.  One opportunity was against a short stack who was playing squeaky tight on my table who shoved about 1/2 my stack.  I had 6/6, and with loose aggressive players behind me, figured a coin toss at best, so folded.  The big blind (LAG!!!) called with Q/8 off suit, knocking his AK out when she hit an 8 on the river. I hate this game!!!!

My last hand was from the small blind, blinds at 200/400, with only 1350 chips.  Only one limper (Mr. LAG) who turns out was playing 4/7 suited, I shoved.  The big blind, a newbie girl, just called, pricing LAG in.  She had A/J also.  So the board ran out with a 7 on the flop and I was eliminated in 10th place, she was short stacked for the final table.  If she had re-raised all-in, I believe Mr. LAG would have folded, but maybe not.  In any case that in my opinion would have been the correct play, and we would have chopped the pot and lived to fight another day. 

The New Normal

The past 3 or 4 weeks have been pretty crazy for me.  Spending 17 days at my mom's retirement home and caring for her were draining, so when my friend Don suggested the $200 buy in Talking Stick Saturday tournament I was "all in" for it.  We registered early and were seated at adjoining tables.  There were approximately 175 players, so first prize was substantial.  We both got off to good starts, Don winning around 6000 on his first hand, me about $1000.  Turns out we would both need those chips.  I lost about half my chips to the same player when I rivered a straight to his full house on a board of A3A52, my 4/5 losing to his A/2.  Over half my smaller remaining stack went to an 8/7 suited who raised under the gun, flopping 2 pair to my open ender with the 9/10.  Could not hit the straight draw.  I recovered those chips with a big blind shove holding AA vs. small blind's 9/10.  We were both very short, but he had me covered.  Last hand was my AK vs. KQ on a queen high flop.  It was against a very loose aggressive player so I flat called his preflop raise, then shoved after his continuation bet.  A 10 on the turn doubled my outs for the jack giving me a straight, or an ace topping his pair, but could not find them.  Don got very short, went on a run, and nearly made the money finishing around 28th.  In the meantime I found the 4/8 omaha high/low game (with 1/2 kill), and managed to drop $140 before leaving.  I realized afterward that really not on my game due to the stress of the past weeks but despite that needed this session to blow off stress.