A chip and a chair

Last night was interesting to say the least. First I played some HU action at the Talking Poker HU Challenge. I won my first match easily but then got destroyed my second match when my opponent had A8,AA, and AJ all in a row. The Talking Poker forum is a pretty cool place. Unfortionatly that caused me to miss Mookies tourney. Sorry man! Next week for sure!!! Garthmeister showed up though and had a good time.

Next on my list was trying to break my curse at Stars. I have gone two weeks without winning a 1-table SNG. That HAS GOT to be a Donkey record. So instead of losing two 10$/SNGs in a row I decide to lose quicker and play a 20$. I ended up taking first. I think my opponent was a little mad that my 46o made a straight and kicked his ass. What kind of donkey plays 46o HU?

So with my curse lifted (at least for a moment) and a smile on my face I decided to check out the FT cash games again. They have been nice to me. I know I suck as a cash player (more on this later) but maybe I can improved. I am up over 140 bucks on FT in just over 3 days so who knows.

One of the first hands I have A9 and the flop is 95x. I pot it and get one caller. The turn is another five. Now it is HU and the guy bets into me. Here is where I make a mistake. I re-raise him all in. Umm. Why? I have no idea. Here is an important thing I have to keep reminding myself in cash games kids: Pick better spots. You have no need to speculate THAT MUCH with a hand like that. Just be more patient. Pick better spots to invest.

So I am down to .75 cents and feeling stupid. I decide to push all in and go to another table so I can be less embaressed. I get six callers and my Ax holds up. Now I have five bucks. Ok. I get AJ s00ted next. Neato. So I push again and get two callers. The donkey who busted me bets the flop and the other guy folds. He flips KT and my AJ holds up. The guy who folded says he had AQ and I would have been going home. So now I have worked my stack back up to fifteen bucks. I then go back to playing solid poker and end up with a dollar profit. Way to go Sir!

One other thing. Some guy was chasing a gutshot draw for a 2$ pot-bet, when he had ten bucks left, and I had about $50. He then tells me that he played it perfectly, and that the IMPLIED odds if he hit his straight were huge. In this situation I did not agree.. also, how cal you get implied odds on a hand that is easy to detect? If he hits the straight and makes a large bet I am folding. I can see this possibly in a larger priced game where the stacks were bigger and the aggression and bluffing was AMPED through the roof. If one of you high rollers want to write up something about when it is good to chase a gutshot draw against a pot sized bet that would be interesting reading.

A few other things. Congrats to Scary Lady Joanne for beating the Poker chump! Goot job. I knew she was going to win the whole thing. I picked her from the start. Although she was down at the beginning, and I had to help her get a 2 outer against Maudie, she pulled it off. Both ladies played exceptionally well. Good job!

My Aqua Lung tried to kill me last night. I wake up in the middle of the night having problems breathing. The Aqua Lung is no longer sending me pleasant streams of air, instead it is only on SUCK mode. I quickly remove it and try to shut the machine down. It will not shut off. Instead it tries to suck all the oxygen from the room. I look at the control panel and it reads: CPAP or REDRUM. I am not sure which since I was a little tired. I quickly pull the plug out and go back to sleep. NeverAlways trust a machine!!!!