2 solid weeks in a row at Dino's

Had two more super weeks at Dino's the last 2 Mondays. Last week, took down 4th place in a wild finish to our final table.

A commanding 2nd in chips with 5 to go, and the fun starts with Brother Bob going all in for 3200 UTG. Big Bald Brad (chipleader at about 25K) shoves all-in - trying to isolate. I look at pocket aces, and insta-call for last 16K or so. Hands, in order, are 5-5, 10-10, and A-A. Brother Bob hits a set of 5's, but 3 hearts hit the board, giving BBB the only flush draw. If I can at least dodge a 10 or a heart, I'll do a "near double-up"...but alas, 4th heart hits on turn, no help on river, and Brother Bob (5th) joins me on the rail. Pat and Sharon go out on the next 2 hands, meaning we went from 5-handed to done in 3 hands!

Pretty sure I was 2nd (or 3rd, at worst) for the season so far, so one more strong week and I'm in with no problem.

This week, we have our usual 26 or so players there, and (has been my luck lately) got me a nice table draw. Richard and Gary to my left (will never raise out of blinds unless they have a big hand), Steve (loose player), Sharon and some dude I don't know (but who's a major fish, I do know this much).

Start off by taking down a solid pot to start the day, and chip up to about 4100 (from 2300 starting stack) pretty quickly. At 50/100, I eliminate the aforementioned fish with J-J, then see the same hand again the next hand. Raise to 350, Wannabe Comedian Steve calls with a "what the hell" comment, and Q-4-3 flop hits...check from WCS, and after betting out 500, he thinks for a moment, then smooth-calls. King hits the board, which slows us both down - queen on the river means trouble for me, since I don't believe he has a queen...call a 500 bet on river and watch WCS flip over Q-8 for trips, sheesh. I non-sarcasticly call him a donkey, then stew over it for the next hand.

2 hands after this, I get 1000 of it back from WCS after slow-playing 3-3 on a 3-9-9 board, and we're back in business....table move time!

We're down to 14, move to a new table, and pretty much stand firm at my 3500 chips or so...pick up a couple of blinds, lose my blinds, and then I see we're down to 10, final table time again...at 300/600 and about 2900 chips, need to make a move quickly.

After Harry and WCS (who went from 9K to out in 2 hands thanks to donkey calls) are eliminated in 10th and 9th, I jam my last chips with 9-9, and after a board of 8-5-2-2-7, I knew before anyone else that I was going to triple up through Donald and (Some Asian Guy who's name I forget - or SAG), who both call with A-J and K-Q and miss.

Soon after, Donald is out when I get my only suckout of the night - A-4 beats hit A-J by hitting 4 on flop and turn for trips. Gary is soon gone, and we're 6 now.

Steal more blinds and smallish pots to get up to 16K, when (for the 2nd week in a row) I get in the middle of the biggest hand of the week. I'm UTG with A-K, and blinds at 500/1000, I raise to 3,000 - Bunnie calls, and John (relatively new player) calls for his last 1,100. Mike (BB) goes over the top for 8,500, and I have a decision to make here....so let's think this out:

In pot already - 15,600, with only 5,500 to call. Factor in Bunnie calling anything here, and the price is too good to fold (3 to 1...hell, 4-1 if I factor in Bunnie here). I am positive that I have John beat, and Bunnie beat (she would have raised with a big hand), but is Mike beat? I put him on a pair of Jacks, and make the call. Bunnie thinks about it, and merely calls here.

Ace is the door-card, and as soon as I see no face card, I jam my remaining 7500 or so into the middle. Bunnie thinks for a minutes, and calls...and as soon as I turn over A-K, I know I'm gold from her disgusted reaction. John turns over A-7, Mike Q-Q, Bunnie A-J (sorry, I'm thinking horrible call pre and post-flop here) - thankfully, no one gets any help, and I win an absolute monster of a pot.

SAG goes out in 4th, and Bernie and I grind Bunnie down to where she's all-in in BB -I call her out of SB in the dark, and happen to flip over J-J, which win hand once I hit set on flop.

At HU, Bernie grinds me down, induces a loose call out of me to double him up and give him the chip-lead, but then I get it back the next hand by having 10-10 hold against his A-5. A few hands later, he shoves with Q-6, I call with K-Q, and K's and Q's end up holding out...Win number 11 for me this week at Dino's!!

I have figured that I am already easily in the finals after this week - now it's time to just see how many points I can get here. :-)

First post of the new year

I sorta forgot I had this little thing here, but need to update it. After having a pretty rough run in the live Dino's game, I seem to have straightened things out the last 2 times out. Putting a bounty on my head (basically, anyone who busts me at the original table I am sitting at gets a beer - the minute I switch tables, the bounty is gone) has given me a focus that's probably been lacking for a couple of months.

Although I think that playing a lot more aggressive (in this game, my TAG style is considered a about in the middle, as far as aggressiveness goes) with the willingness to push even harder on perceived small edges is not a new concept or much of a revelation, at all. Rather, just something I noticed was missing from the repertoire for a couple of months.

Which is odd, because in my live charity poker games I have no issues with that "controlled aggression" - maybe it's because I can't get excited about a freebit tourney, who knows?

Pretty successful last couple of weeks for me, both online and in live game. 3 final table finishes (out of 30+) in a row for me - 5th, 6th, and 2nd. A couple more decent weeks in next 2 months, and should be golden for the final.

Online, however, is running even better. Stars is up and down with SnGs lately, but I can look back at HHs and say that, with odd exception, that my decision-making and thought process has been right-on...sometimes the gods don't go your way, but if you're making the proper reads/decisions, you're in good shape. Even with making a few bucks, chalk it up to "variance"

Absolute Poker, however, showed a great week for me. Thursday night I played in 2 forum games for Suited Pockets: A $5 buy-in tourney (35 people or so), and a $100 freeroll (just under 500 people playing) at the same time. Only reason I got in the freeroll was because I wanted a 2nd table to play while the $5 was going on - good choice! At 2 am, when I finally decided to go to break, 4th hour completed and down to 5 players - I kindly sat out and let myself be blinded out because I didn't feel like donkey-jamming every hand just to bust out. 3rd place was won in the $5 buy-in MTT - guess my total was about $40, which for that site is a nice bump in fundage...run that to $110, and it's cashout time, baby!

On a personal, wish my wife (Kelley) luck on Monday - she is having 2 separate biopsies performed, and we're hoping everything comes out smellin' like roses here!