Monday fun at Dino's

Picked Harry up and headed to Dino's, hoping to do better than last week, which shouldn't have been too hard. Harry, Ronnie, Tim and his wife were at the table with me, then Nicole joined us after one table broke up. Donked away down to under 1400 early, then picked up a good-sized pot against Tim after hitting a straight on the turn.

Picked up a couple of good pots at the 50/100 and 100/200 levels pre-flop after reraising Tim first with A-K, then the second time with Q-Q. Tim plays odd for this game - limps in with big pairs, raises with junk. Not all the time, but enough to be able to exploit as long as he doesn't pick that time to get creative.

Big hand for me came when I limped in from MP with 7-4 hearts, then flopped a set of 7s - Tim's "bingo card" of a 9 on the turn paired one of his rags, but no improvement for him, and and I was up over 5K at this point.

A couple of hands later Harry picked the wrong time to jam a pocket pair, as Ronnie took him out when his A-A held up against Harry's 7-7. An orbit later or so at the 200/400 level, I busted out Ronnie when I raised on the button with K-J, Ronnie jams with 9-8, and after I call Ronnie hits a 9 on flop (but I get a flush draw), I rightfully get a Jack on the turn and take classless fukker out - dude huffed and puffed and left table without shaking hand...next time I bust him I'll punk him out, or at the worst, do something awfully obnoxious so the whole bar can hear it.

Cruised to final ten after that, and after doubling up players about 6 times (and doubling up a couple of times later), get down to 4 players. Pissed myself off at 2 hands I misplayed (or, in one case, made wrong decision on...been a problem for me lately on 50/50 plays, for some reason not able to pull the trigger on it, even when my instincts are correct), but wouldn't have mattered if shortstacks could have busted out. Just amazing how many times the dog would river his card to stay alive.

I busted out 3rd with 9-7 against Pat's pocket 10s, but at this point it was 12:30, and I was getting tired and ready for bed. Better luck next week.