Since I've decided to play more live poker this past month, I'm going to start keeping a journal of these events. Partially because I can't ask for hand histories so I need a way to remember how I've played. Also, I'm just curious if I'll be running into nearly as many bad beats.

Gonna start retroactive to a game last Friday.
Local Knights of Colombus has games every Mon and Fri w/ $25 buy-in. Most players are horrible, many are drunk and horrible, but there are a few decent players in the mix as well. There are 14 tables of 8 or 9 players and there are 2 floors. No dealers and only 1 person running it who goes up and down yelling out blind increases. Other then that, tables are left to police themselves. Not the greatest way to run a tournament, but for $25 and the competition I'm facing, who can complain.

We're just about to start and the guy on the button whips out a pair of expensive sunglasses on puts them on. I'm finding it hard to keep a straight face. There is also one girl, extremely attractive at the table. My thoughts are (1) I don't want to get knocked out (2) I don't want her to get knocked out. Chip stacks are 1500 and blinds start at 10/20, increasing every 20 minutes or so. Second hand in I Button and BB both have AA. Never seen that live before.

I get a steady diet of nothing, followed by more nothing. I see a few flops, only when I get a free ride in the blind, never even flopping a pair. Guy immediately to my left is calling down anything. I've seen him call and all-in w/ [8d] and hit. I've seen him call a big raise and then call down with bottom pair w/ 76o and win. He's been very lucky and a few players are gone already because of his luck. I'm also starting to notice that the girl is a player. She's watching everything and she knew what was going on. Another reason to stay away from her.

Now we are an hour in and I have not VPIP into 1 single pot yet. Blinds are 75/150 and I have A7o on the Button. We are 5 handed after losing 2 players in the last 2 hands. An aggressive player limps in front of me and I push for about 1000. He folds and now I have 1325 and something to work with. Next hand I'm in the CO and catch [Qc]. Raise 4x(600) which is half my stack. The lucky guy, Button, who had been thriving by making terrible calls all night doubles my raise. S***!!! He's been calling everything, but I don't think I've seen him raise yet. I'm pretty confident he has a monster, but I don't think I can fold considering what I've seen him show. He could have Tens or Jacks. Just please don't have Aces. He does. I pick up the flush draw on turn, but it doesn't happen. So I basically sat and folded for an hour and played 2 hands, then went home.

-$25.

Went back tonight for the Monday night game w/ a vastly different result. This time I went with 2 friends. On Monday I'm told you have to get there really early because they only use the downstairs (7 tables) and cut off at 63. I called ahead and asked what time was good to get there and the guy told me 7:30 should be fine because they start at 8:30. Then he offered to take our names and reserve our spots. We walk through the door at 7:37 exactly and the guy says, "Your the last one. Sold Out!". That's ok, we called, we're on the list. Guy checks the list up and down and says no your not. I told him when I called and gave him the conversation I had verbatum. He calls another guy over who has a blank look on his face until I feed the conversation back to him and then he remembers, but he forgot to put us on the list. Nothing they can do about it though so I'm last and the other 2 are 1st on the waiting list. After waiting almost an hour, 5 players that reserved didn't show up and they sneak in.

Blinds are starting at 25/50 this time w/ 1500 stacks. Lot of folds for me early when I catch AKo in CU. There is 1 limper and I raise to 200. Button re-raises to 400. I call.
Flop is AKJ all different suits. God, I hope he has Queens or Tens, but I have a bad feeling. He is a bit of a fish though. Turned over some horrible hands. He raised and called down with A high before and paired his 4 kicker on the river. I'm pushing all-in. He calls immediately and I'm ready to leave, but he turns over [8h] and I double up.

Next hand I play, I run into the same guy. I have T9o in BB and flop top pair w/ 98x. I and he calls. Turn is 6. I check, he checks behind. River is T. I'm almost positive I have him beat here even with that scary board. I move in and he folds. Told me he had J9. What are you playing J9 for UTG?

Colds went so cold for the next couple of rounds that everyone makes a big deal when I open for a raise with AQ. After that I hit a run of cards where I catch AK, AQ, AJs, 99, JJ, and AQ again almost hand after hand. I laid down 99 to an all-in push, but I was the aggressor in every other hand. On the last 2 hands I end up taking out 2nd and 3rd stacks at the table and I am the big table leader now. Yes, that's right, every one of my hands held up.

Now there are 2 tables left and I'm being moved. One of my other friends is still in it and I end up just to the left of him. He's not doing too bad, but I have everyone at this table covered as well. I pick up AK and JJ again and everyone folds to my raises. I show the JJ so they don't think I'm just bullying the table. Not much happened after that and I coasted into the money w/ 7 players left. My friend got short stacked and went out UTG w/ 22. Really no choice since blinds were next hand. He was called by SB w/ JKo and J flopped. Now we are 6 handed and then we are 5 handed. I'm on the button and I have almost 30,000. I pick up AQ as blinds are 500/1000. I raise to 5000 and SB calls. Flop comes xxQ. He moves all-in and I immediately call. He shows Q6 and I am on my way to a Monster Chip Lead! This baby is MINE!!!

Turn is a 6. You know what? I don't expect all of my hands to hold up. I hadn't suffered one bad beat yet so even though this hurts, I can accept it because it was just one hand. It crippled me, but I'm supposed to have a bad beat every once in a while. I still have 8,000 left though. I'm not dead yet. I outlast another player and now there are 4. I pick up KK and JJ and move all-in w/ no callers and get one free ride in the BB. I have 11000 left when the blinds move to 1500/3000. I get nothing on the 1st round and the woman on my right was dangerously close to going out, but she doubled up on a coin toss. I'm in the BB now w/ [4s] w/ 3500 behind my 3000 blind. UTG raises to 10,000 and I don't really have a choice so I call. Of course he has me crushed w/ AQ. It's time for payback though. 2 spades on the flop, w/ an Ace. So my 4 is gone, but I have 9 outs 2x now. Nothing on the turn, and the river is a 4 just to add insult. I finish 4th and take $140, but DAMN I shoulda won that thing. That was my buy-in to the 1st Event at Caesar's AC 3/21.

After 2 sessions.
+$90

There were cash games at the other tables. Looked like they were playing mostly 1/2 NL w/ $40 min and $100 max. Thought about playing for a while, but I would have had to wait for someone to get up so we said the hell with it and called it a night. Next up, possibly something Friday night or AC on Sun.

I look forward to more of these stories

So I completely forgot about the live game Friday and then Sunday fell through, which brings us to this week. The plan was, live game tonight, same place as last Monday then the $300+40 WSOP Event at Caesar's tomorrow morning.

Problem #1: We had 2 backers paying half of our entry fees who backed out yesterday. Now we have to either find another staker on short notice or come up with another $340. Not good, but not the end of the world.

To avoid last week's fiasco when I showed up at 7:30 for an 8:30 game and got the last seat, I show up at 7pm tonight. Only 2 people in the building. Now I gotta wait around for an hour and a half, but at least I got my chips. We'll try 7:15 next week.

Not a lot to talk about tonight. This game was a carbon copy of the game I played there about a week and half ago. There were a few maniacs at the table and I had nothing. I folded [Td] in the BB to 5x raise very early on. Figured I'd have a lot of time and didn't want risk a decent portion on my stack on that hand. If I had known what I was in store for I would have pushed all-in with that hand. I folded, folded, folded, folded, folded, [5h] UTG folded, folded, folded, folded, folded, started showing the guy next to me all the 94's, T5's, T2's, Q2's I was folding (we both laughed, but I was crying inside), folded, folded, folded, Q9 offsuit in MP folded, folded, folded, folded.
Blinds are now 150/300 and I have 625 left. [8c] UTG. All-in. A bronx cheer goes up at the table for my 1st hand. Everyone thinks I have a monster, the Aces I've been waiting an hour for (not true, but I'll take that image right now), but BB who I've been showing my disgusting hands too, wakes up with [Kd]. Ace on the flop and King on the turn and I'm gone. This is the 2nd time I've gone and played 1 hand in an hour. That's ok, I'm still playing with their money from last Monday.

Side games were brutal. $1/$2 w/ $60 max buy-in and people all-in every other hand. No side action for me tonight. So now I go home and go to bed and take off for Caesar's tomorrow morning.

Problem #2: A couple of other players had the same idea I did about tomorrow. The guy that was running the game took 2 days off from work and got a room. He sent his brother down with a friend tonight to buy-in for him. He gets a call around 9pm tonight that they are capping at 700 and already have 600 in w/ a line around the block. Ok, I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

So you know when you see all those guys at the $100 buy-ins at the Taj w/ sun glasses and full poker apparrel (Or even when I see them at the $25 game) and wonder......Do they even know what the F they're looking for? I'm completely convinced that most of these people just want to look the part. They have no clue. Well here's what they're looking for. I found this article very interesting and informative.

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/arch ... harf06.htm

Another live game at the local KOC on Friday night. After sitting tight and playing only 1 hand two of the last 3 trips, I decided to open up a big more with the big blind structure. Luckily I caught pocket 10's early in the 2nd round w/ 25/50 blinds. I raised to 200 UTG+1 and only UTG called. Flop came [Td][8d]. I want to make some money off of this, but there are too many draws out there to slowplay. UTG looks like he wants to bet, but hesitates and checks. This makes me think I can get him to call a decent sized bet so I bet 300 into a 475 pot, but he folds. OK, at least I won a hand this week.

I didn't see a playable hand the rest of the round, but w/ the blinds 50/100 I get [8d] in the CO. Not the type of hand I usually get excited about, but probably playable under the circumstances. A few limpers ahead of me, I limp as well, and Button and SB see the flop as well. (6 handed) Flop comes Qx9x2x w/ no real draws. SB bets 300, BB calls the 300 hesitantly and it gets folded to me. I move all-in for about 1300. SB folds and says "He's playing too tight." BB obviously didn't hear him because he calls off almost his entire stack and and turns over 96. Of course the turn is a 9 and I'm done.

I haven't played a cash game here yet, but say what the hell when the old guy who knocked me out shows up at a table near me. The game is 1/2 w/ a $40 min and $200 max buy-in. My friend and I sit down for $100 each, but then he gets up, throws his $100 at me and makes up some excuse about having to be up early tomorrow. Tells me to buy-in for the max and call him to let him know what happened tomorrow. Considering that I usually play no higher than $50NL online, I'm probably a little out of my comfort zone right now. I want to play aggressive, but losing any more than the $200 in front of me would probably bother me a little bit too much at this point. One other person buys in for $200 to the right of me, but most are in for about $60 - $100.

Right from the start it looks like that 96 call wasn't an isolated incident. This guy is calling everything. He calls an all-in w/ a pair of 9's and 3 overcards on the flop. Amazingly he takes the pot as the maniac was pushing w/ 23 offsuit. I try to show some aggression w/ [5h] on the button in an unraised pot, but the flop is an ugly KQJ and I can't shake one opponent off who takes the pot w/ QT. At this point I have to ask the old guy exactly what he thought I had that 96 was ahead of before because it was still burning me. His reply, "I thought you were bluffing." I have no answer for this.
Anway, this game gets a lot more interesting, but I don't have the time to tell that story right now although it will be coming soon.

Soon after the last hand I posted I catch pocket Kings (a usual nightmare for me online) in the SB. We have 5 limp ins and I raise it to $12 total. Good raise. I only get 4 callers. Flop comes Q-high w/ no draws. I open up for $40, the old guy who calls everything folds, a tight player w/ about $20 left calls, a maniac folds, and the Button who I have some respect for calls. Turn is garbage and I put the Button all-in for $20 more. He turns over KQ for Top Pair and the other all-in player turns over QT for Top Pair and I scoop a very big pot with KK. Now I have about $320 in front of me. How about that. KK can win once in a while.

Now things get completely out of control. A girl, very cute too, sits down on my left with $80 and immediately raises. The maniac to her left calls and the old guy re-raises. She moves all-in and both call. Since she had more than the maniac they flip them up.
She shows JJ. The maniac shows A9, but the old man actually shows a hand w/ KK. Does him no good as the maniac rivers a straight. The line on the old guy is that he'll call anything, but watch out when he raises.

Poor girl pulls out another $20 and we let her buy-in for only that amount....well.....because she's damn cute. It actually lasts her about a half hour. Funny thing is, she keeps looking at the maniac's cards and screaming "Fold". On one hand where he is contemplating a calling a big raise for a long time, she rips his cards out of his hand, shows me his [3c] and throws them in the muck. Funny scene.

Somewhere in the middle there I raise in CO when there is only 1 tight limper to me w/ [Ts]. I flop and open ended straight and when he leads into me for $10, I put him all-in for $30 and actually get a fold from the only person at the table that I think I could have made fold.

[Ks] for me now and both maniacs and the old man call a raise to $8. Flop is K-high with 2 diamonds on board. I push out all, but one maniac. He only has middle pair and I end up with his whole stack, which wasn't much by that point. It's kind of obvious that most of these guys know each other as they keep begging the maniacs to fold when they know someone has a hand, but both guys get cleaned out 3 or 4 times. One knows enough to quit, but the other one has it in for the old man because of that 23 vs 99 hand. Next time the old guy raises, the maniac pushes him all-in. KK for the old guy again who calls immediately and the maniac turns over AJ. When it's no good, the maniac erupts into a tirade about how he never wins with AJ. Someone yells back at him to stop playing it, but he says one day he's gonna hit BIG with AJ. OK.

A few hands later the maniac starts screaming at the old guy wanting to know why he never folds and tells him that he's too old to play cards. A funny moment occurs when there is a mis-deal and the old guy only gets one card. I say that he only needs one card to call and this cracks the table up.

At this point I'm up over $200 and w/ [9d] in UTG+1 there is a raise to $10 in front of me by a decent player. The had been mistakenly flipped up during the deal and is now a visible burn card. This makes this a very easy fold for me. The guy to the left of me, new to the table, but known to most of the rest of the players shows me pocket 8's and folds them. I told him I just folded 2 diamonds and he looks at my mucked hand, because that's the kind of game this is now and can't believe I folded it. Tells me it's a great hand. I try to tell him that I'm probably in trouble if I catch a King, especially with 2 callers, and he looks like a genius when the board comes KAKK9. He begs me to let him show the rest of the table my hand and I allow him too. The maniacs can't believe I made this fold either, but that's why I'm ahead and they're all close to broke I guess.

A few hands later I raise w/ AJ offsuit to $6 from UTG because I've been kinda quiet for too long. The player immediately to my left announces to his friend that this is what your supposed to do with AJ and folds. Great, there go 2 of my outs. I question whether he really threw away AJ and he swears he did. I have no choice, but to fold to a $10 re-raise from the maniac when it's called by a tighter player. I mistakenly flip up my AJ showing it to the player that folded the same hand and again the other players are shocked that I dumped this hand against the maniac, but it was really the tight player I was afraid of. They look even more skeptical when an A shows on the flop, but I look real smart when the tight player takes the pot and cleans out the maniac again w/ AK.

I'm still up a little over $200 and almost on my way out when I pick up [7d] in the SB. The Button, a solid player, raises to $10 and I'm his only caller. Flop comes 7x[Td]2x. I decide to lead into him for $10. He raises to $20 and I call. Turn is . Almost the perfect card for me. I check with the intention of check-raising. He bets another $20 and I..............call. I said I had every intention of check-raising and I did, but 3 things stopped me between then and now.

1 - I remembered seeing a check-raise earlier and everyone at the table got very upset at the check-raiser because most of the guys were friends. Since these were guys I'd seen before and will probably see many times again, I didn't want to become that guy.

2 - That scary thing called intuition. I had an open-ended straight flush draw w/ a pair already, but between then and now, I just got a bad feeling about the hand.

3 - He wasn't folding. I'm almost positive I could have put him all-in and he would have called. There was only one guy at the table that knew how to fold (besides me).

River is . Bingo. I could check-raise now and I really do think about it, but I figure I'll let him bet, just call it, and let him off the hook. Also, that bell in the back of my head is still going off for some reason. I check, he bets $20 and I announce that I'm only going to call, but I have the flush. I'll keep it friendly. He says "Me too" and turns over [Jd]. I know this is not the text-book way to play this hand, but under the circumstances I truely believe that this was the best possible way this hand could have turned out for me financially. I wasn't folding and the only other way it could have ended was in a much bigger loss for me.

Ugly way to end the night and that 96 hand is still burning me, even a day later, but I did walk away from that cash game up $123 and that feels pretty good. Not sure I'll be playing in another one of those anytime soon because even though I felt I was the best player (maybe 2nd best) at the table I didn't feel very comfortable in that type of game. The variance was too high w/ the maniacs and I don't have a bankroll that can withstand that right now.

nice journal. just a suggestion in my live experience. With 1/2 blinds, my standard raise is to 12. Raising less than that (like to $6 you did on one hand) will not do anything. Also, your reraise oop with KK to 12 was not enough to get people to fold. In fact, i was surprised if anyone folded but you got 4 callers, no shock there. I make it $20.

The K9 hand, i don't care if the 8d is shown, i'm folding that preflop for a limp, let alone calling a raise.

Thanks Briachek. This was a different kind of game for me, especially live. I'm used to deeper stacks in cash/ring games and that threw me off a big. I figured with only 1 other player above $80 that a raise to $12 was large enough in proportion to most of the stack sizes that I would only get maybe 1 caller. Guess not. The $6 raise was because I hadn't played a hand in a long time and I wanted to see how they'd react to an UTG raise. Looking to see if they were paying as much attention to my table image as I was theirs. I really didn't mind getting away from AJ and I didn't want to invest too much with it in the 1st place. I was still trying to figure out the correct raise amount in this game.

Anway, my Monday trip wasn't even worth writing about. I saw 3 hands. [Qc] in the BB w/ blinds of 25/50. 3 limpers and the SB gives us a 5 handed flop. $250 in the pot and the flop comes [Js][Qd]. I bet $200, 1st limper calls, 2nd limper goes all-in for his remaining $550, 3rd limper pushes all-in and he has everyone covered. I have $1200 left now and there is $2400 winnable in the pot for me. Decision time........

1 - The 3 limpers came from the last 3 seats so there is no AK or big pocket pair out there or they would have raised. I know that much about this crew. I'm behind only 98 or K9 right now and ahead of, but a dog to 2 higher spades than J.

2 - We are only 3 hands in and the short stack (CO w/ $550) lost a big pot on the last hand when the Button hung around to catch a runner runner baby flush. I'm calling the CO no matter what if the Button folds, but I've seen the Button play like this on flush draws in previous games as well so I'm not entirely convinced that he's ahead of me.

3 - I still have 1 person to act after me who called $200. I've never played with this person before.

4 - The starting stacks are $1500 and blinds start at 25/50 and move up every 20 minutes. I don't have a lot of wiggle room here. If I win this hand I'll be the chip leader and may be able to start bullying people. If I dump it, I'm already in all-in mode.

No. 1 and No.4 really made my decison for me and if I was behind I still had 4 outs. I just didn't have enough time to fold this I don't think. I called and the last player folded. Short stack turned over KT offsuit no spades and big stack turned over a made straight K9 offsuit with no spades. I missed the turn and the river and went home early.



Tomorrow night, Friday 3/31, I'm not planning on playing, but thinking about going to watch the final table of the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar's AC. Embarrassing turnout according to PokerPages.com. After they had to cap the $300 event at 700 last Tuesday and turn people away, they only get 99 people for the Main Event. "Jesus" Ferguson has made the final table however, and little know Herbert "The NY Slasher" Cheng has made his 2nd WSOP Circuit Main Event final table. He was at the final table in February at Harrah's when I went to go watch. He's been on a bit of a roll lately from what I hear so he may be someone to watch out for. Hopefully the final table tomorrow afternoon and then the Gypsy Bar at the Borgata tomorrow night to see one of my favorite cover bands, Tripp Fabulous. That girl can sing. I'll file my report here if I make it down there.

What the heck is this new trend where players limp, but will call any bet with a small pair. Do they honestly believe that everyone who raises is bluffing when they have 55?

Anyway, you ever have one of those nights where you feel like you accomplished more by just cashing in a tournament than you would have if you won? Well that was my Monday night.

I got half my stack chopped out from underneath me on the very 1st hand w/ 99. I raised to 4xBB (200) in the SB with 2 limpers. Only one called. Flop came 8T4 with 2 clubs. I bet 400 and he called. Turn is an 8, I checked, he bet 400 and I showed him the 9's as I folded. He showed me KT offsuit. In trouble right from the start.

"Hanging around, hanging around" is the quote from Teddy KGB and that is exactly what I did. A few blind steals kept me right aroung $700 for the next half hour. Then with the blinds at 100/200 I raise all-in in CO w/ A9 offsuit to open the pot. What else could I do there? Unfortunately BB called with QQ. Flop was no help and I got up to leave. River showed an Ace and I sat back down. Back to a little over my original $1500.

Blinded down to a little over $1000 when a very large stack sits down directly to the right of me. He limps into the 1st pot, but I raise him off of it with a good hand that I don't remember exactly. I took the blinds and his limp which was a healthy $600 to put me right around the starting mark again. Very next hand I pick up AQ offsuit. He limps again. I raise to $800 and when it gets back to him I guess he thought I was bullying because he pushed all-in. I was pretty much pot committed so I called quickly and he turned over 33. I hit the Ace on the flop.

It's strange. Anyone sitting at that table knew I was playing a tight solid game, but he sat down and saw me try to push him off 2 hands in a row and formed exactly the opposite opinion of me.

A few hands later the same player gets into a hand with an older gentleman directly to his right. The younger, aggressive player raised preflop. Flop came 7 high with 2 clubs. Check, large bet, which the older man called. He was a nice enough guy who I've played with before, but he liked to call a lot. Seems like most of the older players played like this. In fact he was the player who I lost half my stack to in the 1st hand tonight. Anyway, turn is a T and after another check, the younger player moves all-in. Older man calls and turns over 55. Younger player has [Qc] for the flush draw and 2 overcards. River is a blank and now the once gigantic stack when he sat down moments before is almost entirely gone in a heartbeat. What followed was probably the loudest "discussion" I've heard since I've been playing there.

"How could he call all the way with 3 overcards on board?"

"How could you bet your whole stack with nothing?"

I don't know. He won, but these people just love their small pairs. It happens more and more frequently. Don't they realize that they are at best, a coin flip. That's AT BEST!!

After a few more hands the table was broken up and we are down to 3 tables. 63 entered, 7 get paid every Monday. I'm still slightly short stacked according to the size of the blinds, now 200/400, but a few hands into the new table I am on the button with AJ offsuit. 2 limpers ahead and since I don't want to commit too much with this hand and raising would pretty much commit me, I limp. 4 to the flop of JTx all different suits. BB who is a young aggressive solid player bets 800. It gets folded around to me and I push all-in for 2300 on top of his 800. He shows me a 10 and folds. I show him the J. He tells the older man from earlier, who followed me to this table, that his kicker sucked. I said I had an Ace and he asks why I would not slowplay it. I told him to go rabbit hunting and another 10 would have flipped on the turn. I said "That's why."

Still hanging around, but now we're down to 2 tables. Don't know how I'm still here. Without catching another hand we're down to the final 8, but we still have 1 more to go. We redraw seats and I am 2nd lowest stack at the table (lowest is immediately to my right). However, we have the 3rd lowest stack, still almost double me, an older man who I've played with before who just calls everything. In fact if you go back a few entries you'll see the disgusting hand he knocked me out with (96) a few weeks back. True to his nature he was calling everything and his stack was dwindling.

I had one hand UTG with [Kh] where I went all-in and it was folded around. BB took a long time before showing me 44 as he folded. WOW, someone can fold a small pair!!! The smallest stack doubles up in the BB as he would have been all-in next hand in the SB with J3 offsuit when he has to call a raise. He catches the runner runner broadway flush. Amazing. Now the old calling station is almost equal to us in stack size. He's called almost all of it off. The joke about him a few weeks ago when he only got 1 card by mistake was that he only needs 1 card. This week the joke was "Joe calls in the dark." after 1 player checked in the dark.

Now comes the toughest decision of the game. I have KQ in MP and nobody has opened yet. BUT the 2 older gentleman who I know will call (probably both of them) are in the blinds. I decide to get out of the way, just because I had a feeling, and if one of them has A2 I'm behind here. It gets folded around to small blind. He goes all-in and BB of course calls. Here we go. KJ for SB and KQ for BB. The best hand holds up and we are in the money!!! True I would have split the pot here, but I still feel I made the right decision because I knew he would eventually knock himself out if given the opportunity.

Smallest stack to my left eventually goes out 7th and I'm pretty sure I'm next when I move all-in w/ 8T offsuit. One person had limped in EP and I would have been blinded off a few hands later. Was just hoping I had live cards. Older gentleman in BB calls as does limper and they agree to check it down. I get up to leave, but flop comes 588 and I sit right back down. The checking agreement didn't last long as the BB put the limper all-in on the flop which was called. BB turns over 67 for OE Str8 draw and limper turns 2 overcards. The 5 on the turn was beautiful. Now I can't lose and limper wins the sidepot to stay alive. A few hands later one of the larger stacks managed to go on tilt and bluff his entire stack off in 2 hands. I've now moved into 5th.

And that's how it ends. 5th place. No more miracles when I move all-in with pocket 10's. The same 2 players call and this time they do check it down. Combined they had 3 overcards and I knew I was dead. The K on the turn finishes me off. If I would have won that hand I probably would have moved up yet another spot. As is was I took home $100 minus the $25 buy-in and felt pretty good about it after losing half my stack in the 1st hand and struggling to stay alive almost the entire way.

On a side note, my friend, who cleaned up in one of the side games almost got into a brawl with a heavy set man. He took down a pot with a big bet on the river and mucked his cards. The other player went into the muck and picked up his cards. What a pair of $*#&!!! My friend said "Go ahead, turn them over." The guy showed the table that my friend did indead of a boat. Then he said "Don't ever F**:in do that again!" So actually it turned out great because they saw he wasn't bluffing and everyone was now against the other player as they knew what he did was absolutely wrong.

At the end of the night my friend was complaining that they should regulate the sidegames better with a set of standard rules posted. I asked him how much rake he had to pay tonight. None. How many times did he have to tip a dealer. None. Well there's your answer. Start raising a fuss and they'll tell you to go the hell home and stop the cash games altogether. Yeah it sucks, but that's what you give up to save a few bucks in rake and tips.

Briachek, they ain't the sharpest tools in the shed. That's why I play in this game. The number of bad players here overwhelms the large and quickly escalating blinds. You do have to put up with ignorance and sometimes a blatant disregard of standard poker rules, but this is a "friendly" game where not much is frowned upon. The sheer number of just horrible players makes up for these things. Plus, it's the closest live game to my house. AC is an hour and a half drive away. This is 15 minutes. Would I like it more organized? Yeah, but I don't want to be the guy that rocks the boat that nobody wants to play with. I think opening my mouth would result in negative EV for me in the long run.

Friday night game. They're letting anyone in the doors tonight. I think I saw one kid get dropped off by his parents. What the hell are we playing here?

Anyway, 3 hands in and I got pocket Aces. Raise to 100 (blinds start at 10/20) and get 2 callers. Flop is junk and I bet out 300 and take it. At least I can say I was up at one point.

Not much of anything for the next 40 minutes. I stole one pot, but didn't catch anything on the hands where I saw a flop for the most part.

Blinds are 150/300 and I have 77 in CO. I open for 900, but big blind raises me to 1800. Normally I would let this hand go, but I only have 1800 behind and blinds are about to move up soon so I have to push and pray. He calls and turns over AK offsuit. I feel ok until the the flop comes..............blank................K.........(S***! - I get up to leave).......7 (YEEHAAAAAA!!!). DOUBLE UP!

The momentum didn't lead anywhere as I had about 20 more minutes of folding ahead of me. New player moved to our table and he looks like he's about 17 at the most. Other players ask for an ID check, but he's not there long enough to pull it out of his wallet. First hand he raises to 900 and ends up all-in on the flop. Forget what he had, but he lost a hand where he way ahead preflop and I almost felt sorry for him after the look he had on his face.

Next up in his seat, a girl that couldn't have been much older than he was. What the heck is going on here. And guess what.....first hand, she raises to 3xBB and then pretends not to know the chip denominations. Yeah, right. Nice try honey. No challengers for her, but a few hands later she is busted as well. NEXT!!!!

We were busting players right and left and incidently the guy I setted earlier who was almost out after that hand is now the table leader. He's on fire. I kinda helped him out when I doubled him up with my KJ in the SB and put him and his A2 all-in preflop in the BB. How's this for a board.....AAK......2......J. Ouch!!!

We are down to 4 tables from 14, about 30 people left and 3 brand new players to our table, including another young lady that I know is a shark. Blinds are 300/600 and I have close to nothing. Folded to me on the Button with Q8 offsuit. All-in!!! No callers and the steal works. Very next hand it's folded around to me again in CO w/ [Kd]. All-in!!! The pretty young lady huffs and puffs at me as she folds her BB blind. Yeah that's right. I'm a bastard, I steal blinds from young kid, college girls, and even the elderly when I get the chance. How do ya like them apples? Very next hand, folded to the elderly man on my right who limps, I go all-in for the 3rd straight hand. Again no callers.
"You guys probably all think I'm a bully, huh?" as I can just feel the looks so I flip up my AA.

I know have 5800 as the blinds move to 400/800. Not great, but much better than I was. This entry is continued in my Live Game post in the MTT.

I skipped last Monday's session because there was really nothing to talk about. You can't win a game when you aren't getting any cards and they aren't folding. I never even saw a pair, nevermind top pair. Meanwhile, the guy to my immediate right saw pocket Q's and the nut flush 2x each during the 1st go around the table.

This Monday was a different story. Place was packed and many people didn't even get in. Guess everyone took off for the holiday. Glad I got there early just in case. Besides, I wanted to watch the Mets and Braves. Lots of 1st timers and as you can guess there was some friction when it came to the rules. As I've previously written here, standard rules are followed here, but enforcement of the small things doesn't really happen and this week we had a number of problems.

Very 1st hand we have a new player against a "veteran"? in a hand that goes to the river. New player bets $150 on the river, veteran calls, but only throws $100 into the pot and flips up the winning hand. New player says "Your hand is dead. You didn't put in the correct amount." An arguement ensued after which the veteran was allowed to keep the pot.

A few hand later, another newcomer, who I couldn't wait to get rid of for personal hygene matters got into a dispute with another veteran. There was a raise to $150, but when it got back to the veteran in the SB, he didn't see the raise and only threw in $25 to complete. When he was told there was a raise ahead (it's usually pretty loud and sometimes tough to here raises) he said fold and took his $25 back. The newcomer flipped out saying that his $25 belonged in the pot. A much more heated arguement took place and the smelly guy eventually prevailed. I was soooo happy when he was moved to another table. Not only did he stink, but he kept having to stand up and lean over the table to see the cards. It was a horrible experience. A friend of mine once purposely called an All-In vs. a smelly player with garbage cards just because he couldn't take the smell anymore. He said one of us had to go and I couldn't understand it until Monday.

Onto the more important stuff. I made 2 raises early with ATs and AQo. Both were called and I had to give it up after I completely missed the flop and continuation bets were no good. I got back to even with [9c], when my pair of 9's was good in a 4 way pot that included 2 Queens and 3 diamonds.

I'm sitting on about $1900 with the blinds 75/150 when I'm dealt Q9o in the BB. 2 callers and the SB make it a 4 way flop. Q9Q w/ 2 clubs. Now the hard part begins. Keeping a straight face and calm demeanor. It gets checked around and the turn is . PERFECT!! Checked to 1st limper who bets 250, 2nd limper and SB fold. I put on a BB flush chasing performance and reluctantly call. River is a 4th club. I'm not sure if this card is good or bad for me. I hope he has an Ace or King high flush and weakly bet $300 into an $1100 pot trying to represent a weak flush. He bites and raises to $1000. I push and he calls. Had I known he was sitting on pocket 2's, I would have been much more aggressive. I actually felt bad for the guy when I saw the pained look of disbelief on his face. "But he only bet $300 on the river." I actually contemplated even checking the river, but was afraid of making nothing at all so I put out a bet that I knew would at least be called.

Very next hand I pick up AKo and a short stack moves all-in for about 500, called by a MP player and myself. Flop comes 7QK rainbow. I bet $500 more and MP pushes all in for another $1000. I have to call. He turns over a set of 7's and short stack all-in turns over KQ. What could I do? I still have almost 2500.

Next round, with a few new players at the table I open-raise from MP w/ [8h]. One of the new players, someone I actually know through a friend, an absolute fish, calls my 3xBB ($900) bet. SB moves all in for 2200 total. There is 4300 in the pot and I need to call 1300. He's sitting on 7xBB so I know he has to make a move soon, but maybe not yet. He probably has a decent hand, but it may be worth it for the size of the pot. The only problem is that the fish starts throwing money into the pot before I make my decision. I know I can't be ahead of both of them with this hand so I fold. The fish calls and they both turn over KQ and I want to kick myself even though I know I made the right decision. It's even worse when an A hits the turn and they split my 900 while the fish can't stop laughing. This one hand is probably the difference in the tourny.

To be continued later........... Coming up, a tough decision with pocket 7's.