Kings!!!

Last night I played a live tournament with I think around 54 entrants. I was seated at a very passive table which I liked because I am not a passive player. I am not a big believer of limping unless I have a very marginal hand in late position and I just want to see a flop. Usually I am raising or folding. Anyways second hand in I get Pocket 4s UTG. I really hate small pocket pairs and especially being first to act. I thought whatever blinds were cheap enough so I limped with the thought any raise and I am folding. 5 limpers behind me. Told you it was passive. Flop comes 10,6,3. Not a horrible flop but not great either. I check, guy next to me min bets and everyone calls. Action back to me. I was thinking of folding but thought whatever its cheap enough. Turn is a 7. I check and everybody checks. Geez what is this?? River brings a lovely 4. I now have trips but also with 5 other people in the pot and with a straight possibility I am not loving my hand. Guy who was in the BB bets but its only twice the Min so I thought whatever I called as did one other guy. My trip 4's were good. So I take down a decent pot. That hand played weird though.

I then preceded to get Ace Jack 3 times in the several hands and with me raising I took two of those hands preflop and also got a couple limpers off their hands. So I was slowly building my stack. Definitely the chip leader at my table. The third time I got Ace Jack I raised preflop got one caller. Flop comes KQ4. HMM. I did a continuation bet and the old guy folded. Not sure what he had but probably Ace something.

I was sailing along when I got 10,3 clubs in the BB. Blinds were now at 400/800. Two limpers to me I checked. Flop comes AAQ with 2 clubs. I hollywood it a bit studying the flop and decide to check. One guy bets out 1200, other guy folds and trying to show confidence in my flush draw I come along. Turn is a 10. Okay card but not if he has a Queen. I make eye contact and smile and then I check. Reading his look he has me on an Ace. Too funny so he checks too. River is 5 of diamonds. I bet and he disgustedly throws his hand away and comments you had trips right. I just smiled.

We were down to 22 players when I got dealt Pocket Kings in early position. Blinds were now 500/1000. I raised it to 3500 and surprisingly two very tight players (both the blinds) called. Flop comes J 8 4. Rainbow. SB checks. BB goes all in. BB is an older guy who plays pretty tight. Action is on me. I have him covered but not by much. What does he have?? Ace Jack?? Pocket Queens?? Aces?? In the back of my mind I think did he really hit Trip jacks. I decide to call. SB takes a long time and decides to fold. We flip and yep he had pocket Jacks and hit his trips. I am severely crippled. SB said he had pocket 6's.

Very next hand I get pocket 2's and with the blinds coming I go all in which only covers the BB. 5 Callers. Flop comes 10,3,5. Checked all around, Turn is a 6, Check check. River is a 7. Everybody checks. Somebody caught their 7 on the river and my night is over.

I am not sure if I could have folded the Kings but I did consider that he had the pocket Jacks and should have gone with my gut feeling. Tough to fold though. That's twice in the past 3 weeks were Kings did me in on a relatively safe board. Both times guys caught their trips. it's one of those times where you just got to shake it off and look forward to the next game..........

RCMP and a Tournament Win

First of all before I start this rant let me say that I am a supporter of our local police forces and the RCMP but lately all we have been hearing about is inquiries and accusations of police misconduct.

The biggest of course is the inquiry into the taser death of the Polish immigrant at the Vancouver Airport. To summarize what happened Robert Dziekanski an immigrant from Poland landed at the Vancouver airport planning on meeting his mother who lived here in B.C. He spoke not a word of English. After wandering around the customs area for hours (why nobody got an interpreter is another story) he became agitated and police were called. Four police showed up and instead of trying to restrain the unarmed, average build man they immediately tasered him and he died. Pretty tragic eh!! Oh and his mom was waiting for him. You can read more of the story here.

Anyways one of the four officers who were involved in this incident about 6 months ago allegedly (notice I said allegedly) hit and killed a young 21 year old on a motorcycle while driving with his 2 young children in his off duty vehicle. He was also allegedly under the influence of alcohol. He has now been charged but my question is what the heck took so long?? The average joe would have been charged the next day. Seems there is something very wrong here. I tell you if he is guilty he better get the same penalty that you and I would get. No deals!! You can read more about it here.

I played last night in my regular Tuesday night live game and managed to outlast 47 other players to snag a win. I have always said you need some luck to get wins and place in tournaments and mine came when I was very short stacked. I think there was about 20 people left when with the blinds 1000-2000 and me sitting with only 1700 in chips(yea I know I shouldn't have let it get this low but I was card dead). Anyways I got dealt 7,9 off suit in the big blind and I of course was all in. Well the flop came 7,9 ,J. Hmmmm Okay looking good. There was 2 other people in the pot and they both checked. The turn brought another 9 and the river was a 6 I think. Anyways I tripled up and was back with some chips. I managed to double up again a couple hands later and then slowly started building my stack up.

When we got to the final table I was probably 4th in chips. I played fairly conservatively until I got A9h in middle position. I min raised and everybody folded except the BB who was all in. My A9 held up when I hit an A on the flop.
When we were down to 3 players I got dealt A,10s. I raised and got called. Flop comes KJJ. Two spades. I have a gut shot Royal flush draw and a flush draw. I just checked. The other player went all in. I had her covered and called. She had pocket Queens and one of the Queens was a spade so there goes my Royal Flush possibility. Anyways the turn and river were no help to me and she won a huge pot and was now the chip leader. Then I started getting more great cards and battled back when I hit pocket queens and won a decent pot. I managed to eliminate the other lady and it was down to the 2 of us. The tide turned when I hit pocket jacks and pushed and I think she thought I was just trying to buy the pot and called with 9,10d. My Jacks held up and then 2 hands later I got dealt Pocket Queens again. Yep you gotta love it. Anyways they held up and I managed to prevail.

Big Slick

I played a live tournament last night and was dealt Big Slick 3 times. Now generally you like getting dealt these cards but I always struggle on playing and calling someones all in with these cards. I will regress a bit as last night was another one of those nights where I was getting dealt premium cards and hitting flops. I got dealt KK which took down a huge pot QQ JJ and AQ all which won for me. The JJ actually completed a straight when I had a scary flop and play continued to the river. The AQ actually hit trip queens on the flop but my one caller from my original raise just flopped air and even though I checked it to the river in hope she caught something it wasn't a huge pot. Then I got AK and the flop cam AK7. My one caller hit his king I think but when the turn brought a J. I bet and he folded. Didn't want to see him hit his straight if he had K10.

The second time I got dealt AK was when we were down to 2 tables. I was the second largest stack at our table and before the action got to me we had 2 short stacks all in. To call for me made sense so I did but still 2 players to act and the chip leader then went all in himself. Action back on me. Now I was in a bind. To call his all in was going to cost me all my chips. I like my hand but analyzing what others pushed with scared me. I figured the first guy had either an A or K (turned out KQ suited). The second guy usually plays premium cards and although shorter stacked he wouldn't have pushed unless he had a good pocket pair (turned out he had pocket 10's). The guy who worried me was the chip leader. Very loose player who could have anything (turned out AJ). Anyways after some deep thought (well deep for me anyways) I folded. Of course an A came on the flop and then a flush on the river which would have won me a huge pot. The chip leader won with his AJ as his J was clubs. That was okay as I was still sitting with a decent stack but it played on my mind. A couple players thought I made the right decision to fold even though it turned out I would have won. What was playing on my mind was last week calling an all in with AK and coming up against pocket Aces and that crippled me.

We got down to the final table and I managed to win a few pots and when we were down to 3 I was second in chips but just a bit behind the chip leader. The other player was really short stacked. Anyways action was on him and he pushed (he would have been blinded out after the next hand). Action to me and I look down to AK. I just called (cost me very little). Then the chip leader made a huge re raise which to me put him on a pocket pair. I could have folded but I decided to push with Big Slick and he insta called. He had pocket 9's and the original guy had 3,6. Anyways 3,6 hit a full house and I completely whiffed and was out in 3rd. A pretty decent result but still disappointing. I replayed that hand in my head while in bed last night and still question my call. I hate putting my tournament on the line when going into a race I know that I am an underdog even though just a small one with AK against 9's.

Heading out to play another tournament tonight even though its game 4 of the Canuck Blue hockey playoffs.