Another checkraise? WTF!

This week, the Tustin Sunday tourney was nine-handed... at the start, at least.

We had two new guys buy-in, bust out at about the 45 minute mark, and leave. Rebuys are half-price for the same starting amount of chips... why not indulge?

Heads-up was against Forty Ounce Dave, the second time we've faced off in a tourney. The first time was at the Lake Forest game, when I started with a sizable lead (thanks to Albert megatilting his chips off to me). That night, Dave bothered me with his small stack play: all-in or fold when he had the button, with way more pushing than mucking. It was really a pain when I couldn't find anything decent with which to call him.

180 degree turnaround this time. We were very deep-stacked, with 50K in play and the blinds only at 200/400 to start. Kida, Albert and Jefferson stuck around to watch. Everybody was in agreement - Dave folded way too many times on the button preflop. Albert was counseling him to raise his button more - told him he should raise with his K4 offsuit, not fold it.

I didn't like them giving him sound advice, but whatcha gonna do?

As the blinds rose, the momentum was all mine. After building a pretty nice chip lead, I reraised him all-in preflop holding AQ. Oops. Dave had pocket queens.

I started to stack up chips to pay him off, and wasn't looking at the flop. All five cards were on the board by the time I asked Dave for an exact count to pay him. He was a bit puzzled, because everybody else saw that the first card shown on the flop was an ace. A three-outer goes my way. Nice.

And I got Poker Clock working. It's pretty neat, and lends a bit of class to our hokey little low-dollar tournament.

$15 in, $73 out.

The subsquent four-handed cash game was interesting. I played aggressively. Probably a little too much. Kida, on my immediate right, checkraised me at least eight times in the hour and a half we played. Surreal.

Apparently I can't help but throw bets out holding the button in a four-handed game. Either Kida figured that out, or he's got a read on me when I'm bluffing or betting a weak hand.

$10 in, $0 out.