Dino's Fun - 10/07/08

Played again last night at Dino's, and actually was quite proud of my play - mainly from a decision-making standpoint. No "last shorter" bet with Stevo last night, since he waved the white flag of surrender early last night. Errrrr, actually, I think he overslept, but whatfukkinever...the action junkie in me was disappointed.

Very happy with my table draw last night, as I had Andy, Gary, Pat, Donald, and Richard there. Other than Andy, I'll be able to push the around pretty easily. First hand in I flop the wheel, and take down a nice pot when the other 2 miss their 2-pair draws.

Lose a few hands, then hit a big against Gary when my 6-4 hits a straight on the turn - but also gave Gary a wheel. Since Gary never raises unless he has a monster, I slowed a bit after the turn, fearing that I was up against a full-house (since there was a pair of 3s on the board in an unraised pot), but got the ol' "crying call" with a value bet of 300 from Gary after the river.

A couple of hands later, I raise from the button with K-K to 200 (25/50 still) with only one caller (Pat), and bet it strong under the Ace of Hearts hit the board on the river. Pat loves to play calling station with Ace-anything, and is like Gary in that she loves her flush draws. After she check-calls all the way, she puts a bet of 400 out that stunk to high-heaven...and I know I'm beat. I make some speech about chasing all the way to the river, then fold my Kings face up - and later told by Pat that she hit the nut flush on the river (with K-Q in her hand). Good read, me.

I take a medium pot off of Andy when my 8-4 hits trip 4s on the flop, then lose those chips back to Gary when he chases a flush and hits on the river. 6-1 to call on the river with low 2-pair was easy, solely for information. At this point of the tournament, however, I'm feeling great about my reads (so far spot on) and how I'm playing, but just not getting the breaks.

Win a big pot off of Richard soon after this when I DB my 9-8 all the way to the river to catch a straight (J-10 left me open-ended after the flop) after Richard failed to properly bet me out of the hand (min bets of 100 into 500 and 700 pots don't usually work in that regard), and we're back in business. Bluffed away about 500 chips to Donald on the next hand, but he couldn't throw away his J-2 on a K-10-2-3-3 board.

Crippled Andy shortly after this when we get to 100/200 level when his Q-Q were no match for my K-10 after I flopped trip Kings, and after winning a couple of hands at 200/400 by firing first post-flop into the pot, I get moved to another table...where Tim, some Skinny Dude (SD), Bernie, and Nicole are holding court.

I double Nicole up after her A-J beats my 8-8 in a race...took about 2-3 minutes before deciding to call her all-in:

1) Because I was UTG + 1 - 3 players left to act made me almost throw them away.
2) Because I know Nicole's range is a lot wider than a lot of players in the game, but I needed to convince myself that 8-8 was the best hand

Sooooo, even though I didn't win the hand, I did make the proper decision to call here, and take the slight edge in my coin-flip. Nicole went on a rush soon after, knocking 2 players out, and we were down to 10, so it's final table time.

Pick up K-K UTG on the first hand of the final table (400/800), and shoved my 3225 into the middle. Everyone folded to PJ in the BB, who thought his Q-6 was live. He was drawing dead after the turn, but K on river gave me a meaningless full-house to knock him out.

Went card-dead afterwards, then on the next orbit picked up A-Q UTG....jammed for same amount or so, called by Jay's 9-9 and Pat's J-10. J on the turn puts Pat ahead, nothing on the flop for me, and I get my 1 bonus point in 7th...bleh!

All things considered, very happy with my play today - so I won't complain much at all.