First post - Douchebag Poker at Dino's in Ferndale

Last night I went back to Ferndale to play my weekly tournament at Dino’s (bar where free poker tourney is held every Monday night) to try to defend my victory from last week, and put up another good showing. Here’s how it went down:

Before shuffling up and dealing, I spent some hard-earned loot from the gift certificate on a tasty dish of fish and chips, then make some gentlemanly (because if I am nothing else, I am a gentleman) small talk with the waitress working the bar about a dog she wants to adopt. This helps set me up with free refills of Coke the rest of the night, which is never a bad thing – as Jim Rome might say, RACK me!

Started off with 26 players this week, 5 tables…and I’m sitting at probably the toughest starting table at the game. Directly to my right is Scott, uber-aggressive player who doesn’t like to miss flops. To my left is “Calling Station” Andy, a chaser who seems to hit his 4-outer more often than most (and is the one guy at the table who tells everyone that if he hadn’t folded his 9-3 offsuit to that second raise before him, he would have hit 2 pair – a true sign of a donkey). PJ is to the left of Andy, and he’s looking to get back at me for last week. Remaining players are John (senior citizen calling station) and Vic, who seems to be at my table every week, lately. 3 of us from here would make the final 5 tonight, as well.

Splash around a few pots early, get a bluff of K-J picked off by John after the river when he felt his 7-5 was good enough to not only call a pre-flop raise to $70 at the 10/20 level, but check/call all the way to the river on a board of A-Q-5-9-7. The ability to not be bluffed out of a pot kills John every week, so I’ll just wait my turn and get his chips later.

Win a good-size pot early in the 25/50 level in the BB with 10-3 after flopping a 10, and somehow dodged 3 other players with 9-9-10-K-A showing on the board. Promptly gave away about 700 to Scott a couple of hands later when I folded Ace-high to Scott’s bluff of King-high…came pretty close to calling his bet there, however. All I know is if I would have called and won that hand, I could have pulled a Kenny Tran on him and told him just how sick and great I was.

Once we move to 100/200 level, I get my first knockout (out of 2 for the night) when Q-8 with a flush draw is good enough to call John’s all-in with K-3 after a King hit the turn (I hit a queen on flop). Short-stack John is out.Take a couple more small pots, then in one of the first hands of the 200/400 level, I shift gears and play one hand really loose against Dennis, who had just sat down at the table a few hands earlier.

Dennis min-raises UTG to 800, and in the small blind with K-4 this is normally an insta-fold, but for some reason decided to play along. 3-K-J hit on the flop, and Dennis check-called my 800 bet after the flop. After another 3 hit on the turn, it was checked around – I’m thinking someone has 7’s-10’s here. An Ace on the river brought a bet out of 1200 by Dennis, which smelled like a bad attempt at a bluff. With only about 2500 chips left, I came over the top of him, and getting a ridiculous 6-1 to call my bet on the river, Dennis insta-folds. Don’t know if my read was right on him or not, but I’ll take the pot.

Lose a couple grand of chips, then get moved over to another table – and the good-natured trash-talking with Stev-O and I officially commences. I knock out a lady at the table who’s short-stacked when my Q-10 outflops her A-4, and somehow we’ve gone from 12 to 9 in about 4 hands…nice! We get 2 knockouts early when a flush hits on river – WHEEEE…final table points for 3rd straight week!

I’d love to be able to say MY final table play was exciting, but rags are still rags no matter when you get them, and even with a couple of pre-flop pushes on great hands like J-6 and 6-high (both on the button), had to try to wait for me.With Stev-O on my right just itching to get a hand to try to take me out, a 3-way all-in involving Andy, Scott (big chipleader at this point) and myself (with pocket 4s) takes place. Way I see it, I couldn’t call half my stack off and fold if I miss the flop, so only prayer is to push and pray that Scott puts me on a big hand and folds, but I don’t see that happening. It’s not a great spot, but I really have no fold equity here, anyways, so I might as well take a stab at it here.

Andy flips over K-Q, Scott flips over A-10, and I have the slight lead with my 4-4. Ace on the flop is no good, but on the river I have 6 outs (need a 4 to make trips, a 3 to make a straight), but no dice, and Andy and I are out – 4th place for me this week, which wins me…nothing.

Funny trick took place about 20 minutes into HU with Stev-O and Scott: Duma, who had sat down and started dealing for the guys, decided to stack the deck while both players took a bathroom break. Both players were to be dealt pocket kings, and the board was to read A-Q-A-Q-10 – making sure that no one got burned by a flush here. A few of us kept a straight face during this, then after the hand we let the 2 combatants in on the joke. One of them moments that probably plays better after actually seeing it. Congrats to Stev-O for making a comeback and taking it down last night, as well.

Sooooo, if my math is right, I should already have 20 points for the year – one more decent week, and I should be in the final tourney again. More gooooooooood eatin’ to come to me next week…pork chops, yum!