Current Events

On Thursday night, I had resigned myself to a 'blah' session at my home cashgame. I rallied late, thanks in part to recognizing that Shawn bluffs at everything when the game gets down to four-handed. Kida had a good session, and bluffed me off the river to a scary board (A-8-7, 9, 6). Hopefully he'll resume being a regular at my game. He's fun. And he's made a copy of the Kayne West cd for me, but keeps forgetting to bring it.

Once again, Albert hit quads while we were four-handed. Unreal. This time, it wasn't me paying him off, but Shawn. In for $20, out for $22.

~~

Friday night at the PCS was enjoyable. Start of a new season there, and John's got a few new things going. It was the first time we played with $5 bounties, and I brought along Albert. The PCS has a refer-a-friend deal going this season. If the person you refer qualifies for the Championship, you get a free buy-in to the Championship.

My play was quiet for the rebuy phase, though my table wasn't. Geoff and Esteban pissed each other off early. Esteban doubled up on Geoff on the first hand, but Geoff had the last laugh, busting him on two consecutive hands much later in the tourney. Muto and Dallion saw more than 2/3's of the flops. An action table, and my cards wouldn't cooperate.

Right after the rebuy phase, I raised it up with pocket tens UTG. Foy called, then put me all-in when I bet on the 8-high flop. I called after some thought (It's Foy. He plays fast and loose. And any two cards.) to see his pocket 9's. Double up!!

I gave half of it back later when I was the second caller of Foy's raise with JT-spades in the small blind. I took a $35 stab at the pot when the board flopped J-high. Geoff pushed all-in, exposed a jack, and I folded. He showed his ace kicker before mucking.

AQ offsuit in my small blind ($4/$8 blinds), with two limpers in... damn right I'm gonna push. Foy called my $70 total, then hit two pair with his K8-spades. 11th out of 20. $55 in, $0 out.

Albert kicked some butt though. On the drive up, I brief him on the tendencies of most of the PCS regulars. One tip in particular won him a hand he probably would've folded. He check-called Dallion's bet on a board of K-Q-3, 7, 2. Albert's pocket tens beat Dallion's pocket eights.

Albert had a good rush of cards when the action hit six-handed, and parlayed those chips into a second place finish. Geoff was the dominant chipleader throughout most of the tourney, and Albert needed more than two double-ups to pull even when they faced off. Albert got tricky with pocket twos heads-up, and Geoff wasn't going to fold his OESD. The turn locked up Geoff's first PCS win.

Looking back, Albert was a bit too protective of his chips and scared of facing off with Geoff when it was about four-handed. Geoff pushed him off a hand, showed K-high, and Albert was perfectly fine with keeping out of danger. It's easy to second-guess, but the heads-up action might have been a little different if Albert had taken a few chunks out of Geoff's chip tower along the way.

~~

My poker bankroll is doing well due to my Season 4 results. I missed out on a chance to play in some medium buy-in events at Commerce. Derek and Albert went there this week, playing in the $30 and $40 single-table satellites. They both played their way into the $220 and $330 MTT's there. Derek finished in the money in 25th, getting busting with pocket aces on the button. Three all-ins before him, and only the guy with QQ had him covered. The other two hands were 77 and 55. The flop? Q-7-5. Harsh.

I'm not to a point where I want to directly enter these types of tourneys, but I think giving a few single table satellites a chance would be a good idea.