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.

Coolerville, Washington , Population:Me

So, I am so tired of coolers.  Hitting my hand hard and losing to one of two or three hands that beat it.  Today, prime examples.  After busting out of the tournament first against an unpredictable wild man.  He had raised big under the gun with 2/4, then bet big against 3 callers on a 6/6/Q flop.  He called my button raise A/K with 3/7 and won with a pair of3's.  So, when he raised my K/Q suited in hearts with A/J, i called his reraise.  The A/heart /heart flop led to my shove, which he called.  No heart, i am done.  He ended up winning it.

 I moved over to the cash games and played some 3/6.  No problem, up $1.  Moving to the 4/8 game, lost $5.  Next stop 3/300 big game.  First loss with K/J on king high flop.  He had raised preflop so lost about $75 to his shove on turn.  Doubled up through aggressive player, then got stacked with K/J vs. K/Q ON A k/q/J flop.  Two pair vs. 2 pair.  Next stacking happened with 8/8 vs. A/A, hit my set but he did too.  Wow.  That was my last hand of the day.  

Coins Cooler

There is this one Asian dealer at Tulalip that has a lot of difficulty pronouncing "queens".  I find it hilarious playing on high hand days when someone makes a queens full hand and he yells it out, "Coins full of jacks" .  He usually has to repeat himself.  Lol.  Which brings me to a discussion of queens.  The great Doyle Brunson once said, "Don't go all in with  queen in your hand".  I should listen to him as busted out of last two tournaments with Q/J and K/Q.  As i explained recently I can't win with queens or against them.  My aces were cracked in a tournament last month by QQ.

The last Sunday of month tournament seemed to come early this month, so when I tried to buy in with a $100 bill, the td asked me for $570 more.  I have been running bad in cash games and had decided to just play tournaments for a while to control losses.  No thanks!  But the cash omaha game would not start for an hour or more.  What to do?  I took some time and finally signed up just as the game started.  The guarantee was $65,000, and first place was over $20,000.  A good way to catch up and i have done well in the past in these big ones.

Running fairly good despite early setback of my straight vs. Nut flush, I was at about 20k at first break.  I like playing the last hand at break as many players are anxious to leave and it is a good spot to steal, particularly on the button.  So, when I limped, the player next to me, fairly loose/aggressive, raised from the small blind, I called with my Q/J in position.  The flop came K/Q/Q.  He bet a fairly large amount.  I viewed it as a continuation bet, or possibly A/K cutting off draws like J/10, A/10, A/J.   There were only 3 hands possibly ahead of me, A/Q, K/Q, and K/K.  I had to rule out all 3 of these hands.  Since I had a queen it would be very hard and a cooler for him to have one.  Also, a flopped full house would check here hoping for a steal attempt or a drawing hand to improve.  With this in mind, and thinking of his draw options, I decided to raise all-in.  His snap call was not a good sign.  He tables A/Q, which at least leaves me with a few outs.  No jack or paired board and i am gone.  Ouch and double ouch.  Which brings me back to the "queen rule".  Wise words indeed.