In the points..

Well for yet another week I have amassed a huge stack, maintained it in the middle game, and gone out far too early. I am encouraged that I have been getting large stacks and maintaining them and another score is just a game or two away. Sometimes when you are outplayed by someone you have to take your lumps and learn and wait for your next chance at revenge. If I had to be taken down by someone I think Otis is a pretty good guy to be taken out by.

The night started really promising. Smokkee raises my blind and I decide to see a flop with QT diamonds. The flop hits me well with two diamonds and all low cards. Smokkee bets out. Here I decide to make a play. I figure if Smokkee raised me with a hand like AK/AQ/AJ he is a good enough player to let go of his hand. If he however has some kind of pocket pair then we might be in trouble. So I re-raise Smokkee and he shoves all his chips in after considering his options. I consider what he might have and I think at the very least I have 9-flush outs and possibly 3 over cards if not 6. I decide to gamble early and either make some chips or take my ball and go home. So I call his all in shove. He shows JJ. So I have 12-outs twice over. The turn is a Jack of diamonds and before I can figure out of Full Tilt is rubbing it in to Smokkee or setting me up the harmless river comes and I am scooping a large pot.

I continued playing well and finally got switched to a new table. I will say my starting table was rough. I think I did well to chip up there. I made some nice folds against cmitch and played fairly well against the likes of Sucko, Smokkee, CMitch, and other assorted Fonkeys.

I then got sent to the Otis/Cmitch table. Here is where Jacks were definitely not good. The first hand I get jacks I re-raise to 940 when one limper and the blinds are in the pot. I really just want to take it down. Some fonkey who's name I have banished from my mind calls a 940-chip re-raise with the powerhouse of KQ and spikes a King on the flop. He then pushes all his chips in. If he really did have KQ as he said then that is the most fonkiest move I have ever seen. I mean how do you not even consider that I have AK? I think a more likely scenario is the fonkey had 55 or 33 and spiked his lucky 2-outer. My next steal attempt is picked off. I am feeling a little annoyed as my stack is getting a little smaller. I then get into my final hand of the night.

Otis raises to 1K on the blind. I look down and see the hookers and seriously consider folding. However I decide to push back. Part of the reason I did this was because Otis was on the button and could easily have been stealing. So I pop it another 1500. Otis calls. Now to me this either says "Big Hand" or something like AK. Apparently it says the prior more than the former if your playing good players like Otis unlike the normal fonkeys at these things. The flop comes a killer 223 and the pot is 3K. I have around 3K sitting behind. I really think in this spot betting small encourages someone to come over the top of you. So I had to decide if I was ahead or not. I felt there was a good chance I was and so I pushed. Otis called with QQ and I did not improve.

I have filed this additional information into my vast memory stores for random access later and look forward to facing Otis in the future. I think one of my strengths in poker is I get better the more I play against a person. My instincts sharpen and I really am able to get good reads. That kind of hand is really one of my weaknesses. I mean the pair looks sooooo good and then that flop does nothing to discourage me from thinking that.

This is a good example of where you need to play the player. If it was another person then the EV on putting money in with my jacks in that spot might be good. If it is someone as experienced as Otis then possibly I need to consider how he would play more.

One of the reasons I think I get paid off ALOT, besides the Waffles Tilt Factor, is because I play differently from most other people. I never was a Super System guy and it makes my plays different to read. Some of the bets I make look a certain way to people brought up in that book. Anyway.. I played a decent game. Room for improvement. Possibly Moved past the guy two spots in front of me. See you all at the Mookie Wednesday.