Weekend review

While the weekend didn't go as well as I had planned, I have to admit it was one of the best weekends I've had in quite awhile....

Friday...relaxed at home with the family...boxed up some books in the basement preparing for the move. We're hoping to have a sign in the yard by the end of the week.

Saturday...Headed over to Bishop's place for the $200 tourney. I played pretty well through the first 4 blind levels...not getting too much of my stack involved with pots and picking up a few smaller ones with some solid hands. I make it past the first break and we consolidate down to two tables with 16 players left. The chip leader (Action) sits to my immediate left....not where I want him, as he tends to play a little loose but very aggressive....and it's paid off as he has busted about 5 players and is sitting with a mountain of chips. With blinds at $300-600, I'm in the SB and see Q2os....the table folds to me and I (foolishly) decide to look up the BB with a standard raise to $1500. Action peaks at his cards....explains that he is pretty sure he has me beat at this point and calls the bet. Not good for me....but the flop come Q-3-7 rainbow, giving me top pair. I ponder my move for a minute, as I believe I have the best hand at this point.....why???

- if Action had a small pair, he would have raised me out of the BB to protect it.
- if he has a big pair, he puts me all in pre-flop...he's not the type to try and milk a big hand in this position.

So I put him on Ax at this point since he just called my pre-flop raise...now I have hit my hand and toss in $3000 to see what he does. He double checks his hand and says he thinks I'm putting a move on him...which makes no sense in hindsight....I know he has a solid hand...why would I try and put a move on the chip leader at this point. I either have a hand, or I'm an idiot to risk my stack against the chip leader.

So he raises me to $6000. Now I have about $10000 left at this point and push it all in. He has to call at this point, although he looks unsure of himself at this point, as now his read isn't quite so positive....but being Action, he calls the bet.....and flips over AJos and he's drawing to 3 outs....which in typical Action luck, allows the A to fall on the river and bust me out of the tourney.

In hindsight, I did reinforce the idea of not messing with the big stack unless I reeeeeealllly have something. Was a bonehaed play to do anything with the Q2os and ended up costing me the seat at the tourney. I also should have pushed post-flop instead of a smallish bet and then pushing afterhis raise...he may have folded the AJos when he missed on the flop to the all in bet, which would have really been my only play at that point.

Lessons learned at the poker table.

Made it home in time to play in the Poker.com Blogger tourney. Played very well, taking the chip lead in the tourney at the halfway point and not looking back until we hit the final table. Ended up loosing a couple of hands trying to bust very small stacks along the way, but overall was in good shape at the final table. Ended up loosing about half my stack when my AKs was called down to the river by another large stack that called my pre-flop bet with J-10 and caught a 10 on the flop....he check called me on the flop and turn, with both of us checking on the river when I didn't improve and didn't want to risk anymore chips. His pair takes the pot and I'm down to about 15k in chips...putting my in 4th place out of 6 players. I take another hit about 3 hands later when my all-in on QQ gets cracked by a short stack with A4s when he calls my bet and catches an A on the turn to win the pot and double up....I'm in last place for a few hands, but double up and then am able to slide into 4th place and win $55 and the ticket to the Blogger finals on July 1. Looking forward to the shot at the big prizes they have up for grabs.

Sunday - was able to get some $5/10 action in on Sunday while Jen and the girls went to church. Ended up pocketing about $140 from the players and also proceeded to get at least one players chat privledges revoked. Won't go into any details, but the guys was a complete a$$ after getting rivered by a couple of players.....and this after he busted at least one other guy doing the same thing with a very marginal hand. He went on a tiraid that finally had me emailing CS on the site and complaining. They responded that he had been taken care of, so that was a positive for the day.

Finshed the weekend with a great dinner with Mike and Leah coming over. Was great to catch up with them, talk some Magic and poker, along with work issues, moving, etc. The girls loved having the company and Leah was gracious enough to run around in the yard with them for a bit. All in all a great weekend.

Back to another week at work now...I may be getting a trip to Europe here in the next week or so...will keep you all posted.

ttfn.