Let's talk

Last night, I returned to the real green felt of bar poker. After the last few weeks of live poker, I'm really glad to see my changes are paying off. Fear...HA! Let's rumble.

Last week, I didn't make the points, but sometimes we just never see cards and I got bored; one of my other big leaks. This week, the numbers attending are WAY WAY WAY down. We had 22 runners last night. This is really concerning, hopefully, the people at the Minnesota Poker League and the Free Poker Network can do something. I mean really. This is a city of 100,000 people.

I caught some good cards last night and got people to make huge mistakes ending with the ShoveFest that is the final table. I survived just fine to the final 3. Blinds got to 1000/2000, but remember, with only 22 people, total chips in play is 44,000. Divide that 3 ways evenly. Yep, if they looked pretty, we pushed. (and it was much more of a beer goggle pretty).

Since bar poker provides you an opportunity to play people and their cards for them, I got to practice some skills that you don't always get to use online.

The first hand I will describe was with the Comic Book Guy. He is a fairly loose player and loves to see flops and when he has a stack, he's not afraid to wield it like Captain Caveman's club. On this hand he one bet raises from E/MP. It folds to me in the LB and I just call with pocket nines. I'm a bit worried about why he suddenly put in this small raise. The BB then folds. The flop comes KK9. Isn't that an interesting flop. I figure I'm either doubling up or going home here. I check. He was the original raiser and he very well could have KK. My gut tells me nothing. As he's counting out his chips, he does start to look concerned like he's thinking he's going to be trapped. He bets out about half my stack. I'm quite sure with his raise and appearance that he's not happy. So I go in the tank and come out all in. He does the quick math in his head and decides to call. He tables JJ and it never improves. I did figure there would be a jack on the river.

The next hand was with Corona Bucket Guy. This guy is very aggressive and likes to win with taking pots away from people. I raised it preflop with QQ and he just calls. We are the only two in the pot and he's got position on me. the flop comes 49Q rainbow. Top set and if he's on a draw its a seriously sick straight draw. I know damn well that if he's go over cards or any pair, two pair, he's gonna muscle me out of here. I check and in order to let him hang himself and that's just what he does. He shoves. I tried calling faster, but I couldn't get the nerves, larynx and diaphragm to move any faster. He tables AKh for the seriously sick straight draw that never materializes.

The only problems I had all night was a short stack that I just couldn't get rid of. He was directly on my left. The table folds to me on the button, I raise with A3 to 300, he shoves all in with his last 200 chips, I call, he's got AK. About 10 hands later, we were moved to another table and he's now on my right. I'm UTG with QQ, do a standard raise, he's still a short stack and shoves from the BB. I call. He turns over KJo and hits the K. Geez! I guess he was keeping me humble.

After all was said and done, I did finish 2nd. Not too bad. I like first better, but there is no way to avoid the end game when the blinds to stack ratio is that steep.

I got home last night and settled in to wind down. Two large Dt. Dr. Peppers had left me a little too wired for sleep. I fired up my Google Reader to do a little blog reading and discovered a post that sent chills down my spine.

It shouldn't take to much time reading any of my blogs to realize that I love my wife and kids very much. They are more important to me then I am to me. One of us, the poker bloggers got a call yesterday that all of us husbands that love our wives fear. Bayne_s' wife was taken to the hospital suffering from seizures and the prognosis is unknown. For people suffering this types of episodes, it is not uncommon to induce a coma to stop the seizing. I was entirely grateful to read that their child, while with mom, was not harmed. I can't imagine what he is going through and I always hope that I never will.

You guys showed me that this little community isn't just a huge pile of crap when you turned out for TripJax, I hope and it looks like its already started, that we help one of our own through an event of this magnitude. Even just a comment saying "Thinking of you" can mean so much.

My thoughts are with all of you and your families in this time of need. I hope all get well soon.