End of the Games and some Poker

So I along with 80% of Canadians (according to polls) watched the final gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada. What a game. Ends in an overtime win for Canada. Two evenly matched teams just like the women's final. Having said all that I actually enjoyed seeing the true amateur athletes win their medals much more. The joy on their faces after all the years of hard work makes the Olympics what is. Don't get me wrong I am a huge hockey fan but these players all go back to their million dollar jobs afterwords while the speed skaters, figure skaters and skiers go back to their real life. That is for them a 9-5 job and massive training afterwords. Sure some get corporate sponsorship but its not like they get rich doing what they love. They do because they love it. That's a huge difference than getting paid millions to play a sport. One thing the Olympics did was bring out the patriotism in this country like I have never seen it before. We have never been a huge flag waving nation but this Olympics seemed to unite the country in support of our athletes. if we gained nothing else from these games this feeling of all being united was worth it.

I played a live tournament on Sunday night with I think about 44 players. I ended up 6th. Two memorable hands that got me to the final table. I got dealt AK in middle position. I raised and got two callers. Flop comes Q,10,6 rainbow. Surprisingly one of the callers bet, I called (it was cheap enough) and the other guy folded. Turn was a lovely Jack. He checked and so did I hoping he would catch up or something. River was a 9 and he went all in. I of course called and won a huge pot. He had King 10. Guess he didn't put me on Big Slick.

The other big hand I was dealt on the button A2 Clubs. I limped in and the flop J 9 8 with 2 clubs. 4 people in the pot and 1 lady makes a less than pot sized bet so I come along and the other 2 fold. Turn is a blank and she makes the same bet. Still cheap enough for me to see another card although I am not a flush chaser but the bet was so small. The river brought me a lovely 5 of Clubs. She immediately pushed all in and I of course called with the Nuts. She was out as I had her covered. She had relatively slow played a flopped straight and under bet a flushy board. Got to the final table and I badly overplayed a high pair to a flopped straight and I was crippled but still a pretty good night