Back in the saddle

Was able to play a short session on Paradise last night....about 30 minutes is all I was able to get in between feeding Alan and taking care of the girls while Jen was at work.

If I had been smart, I would have left the table after the first 15 hands, as I was up $250, but decided to play another 40 hands or so and ended up walking with $140 instead...still not a bad night, but lost a good chunk of my profit on two hands.

first loss saw me in EP with AA, open the pot with a raise that get 3 callers (including the BB). Flop comes down 4-4-9 and I figure I'm in pretty good shape. I open the betting and get called around. Q hits the turn and I get check raised by the BB...at this point I put him on Qx...maybe AQs or KQ to call the pre-flop raise. Blank on the river and he check raises me again...I have to call and he shows 34s for a flopped set and takes down a nice pot by cracking my AA. sigh.

About 10 minutes later I have to step away from the computer, so I miss the blinds...I come back in late position and opt to pay both blinds to get back on the table. Find 58os for my money and get to see a cheap flop....which hits 5-Q-8 with two hearts. I raise the mid-position open and three of us see the turn, which was a 2 I believe (non-heart). Mid-position opens, I raise, BB calls, mid-position re-raises, I cap, BB calls and mid-position calls. River brings a 9 of hearts, completing the flush draw....BB opens (?!?!?!), mid position goes all in with remaining $19 (raise), I call and BB calls....shows the 4-10 of hearts for a 10 high flush draw....late position shows KK and I show my two pair that got chased down to the river. Now I ask you....how do you call 4 big bets after the turn with nothing more than a 10 high flush draw? If he had the nut-flush draw, or a straight-flush draw, maybe, but nothing more than a 10 high flush....crazy. Non-the less he took down a $200 pot for his chase to the river.

At this point I there were numerous comments about my loose call of 58os, so I figured I was good to get some action on any good cards I was dealt. The next four hands went something like this....

JJ - raise to open the pot, folded around to me, pick up the blinds
AQos - ditto
A10s - ditto
KK - get the BB to call....flop comes 6-6-9 and he check-folds to me.

So my loose call generated no action what-so-ever and I basically pick up about $40 in blinds with some solid hands. I go card dead for the next two rounds until hitting a set of 4s on a ragged flop and busting QQ and AKs with them for a nice $80 pot. Waited for the blinds to come around and walked away with the profit. Halfway done in clearing my bonus on paradise and then my new chipset from Pokersourceonline.com will be on the way....how cool is that.

In other news, getting a huge grin from reading the posts regarding the blogging group that got to play out at the Playboy mansion in LA last weekend. Opportunity of a lifetime and I'm enjoying living through these guys and what they were able to do. Congrats to them all....check out Tao of Poker and Al Can't Hang among others to see the pics and hear their stories.

Nothing much else going on...still working on the house, hoping to have it on the market by Easter, so lots to do between now and then. Will keep everyone posted.

ttfn.