The omens were horrible. I had been battling Montezuma’s Revenge all day. I untwisted the front wheel of my bike to ride it to the poker game and the entire brake caliper snapped in half. Not good omens at all.
I was determined to play tight. I didn’t play many pots. I didn’t have to show my cards during the first 90 minutes or so. Everyone was folding before me. That was nice, since I never got premium cards. I found myself with a small lead.
With blinds at 100-200, the player to my left raises to 500. There is one caller. Then an all-in bet of 1850. I look down and see pocket kings. O my, I couldn’t ask for a better time! I call. His pocket queens don’t hold up, and I find myself almost 3,000 richer. I felt bad for him, he made absolutely the right play, just happened to run into kings at the wrong time.
Blinds at 200-400. It’s raised to 1,200. From the big blind I have K-J of clubs, that’s worth calling. The flop has two clubs and nothing else. I decide to push a little (I am the big stack after all) and throw in another 1,200. It’s called. The turn is a blank. I check. He goes all in with his remaining 2,300. Seeing as how any ace or board pair beats me, I am probably behind. I figure I have 15 outs on the river: 3 kings, 3 jacks, and 9 clubs. That’s 30-35%. Plus there’s the chance that the other guy is bluffing. It costs me 2,300 to get back over 7K. With the pot odds on my side I call. He has an ace. The river is another club, I get my flush and knock him out. Note to self: That’s a bad beat in my favor!
Blinds at 400-800, we’re down to 4 players. At this point any ace is a good hand. With A-7, I raise to 1,800. The next guy goes all-in. I reluctantly fold.
The very next hand I have A-4, I again raise to 1,800. This time he calls. The flop is A-10-7, he goes all-in. I don’t know what to do. It feels like he’s pushing me around, but there are a lot of hands that can beat me. I call. He has A-Q and it holds up. It’s lucky I was the big stack. That hands knocks me way down, but I’m still in it.
I don’t remember a lot of the rest. I got some good cards and some good reads and some good luck and made my way back to the lead. We eventually get back to heads up at 1,000-2,000 (there’s 35,000 chips in play). On the very hand I call his all-in with Q-J and get knocked down to about 12K. I fight back a little. But it’s 11:45. We’re exhausted. We have to close up the pool and we have work the next day. He offers a chop, with him getting an extra $10 on top. I agree.
Tonight: $70
Running Total: I haven’t put this up lately because it’s so depressing. I figure with this win I’m somewhere around -$50. I’m going to use that.