Monday Night Madness - 2/14/11

It's Valentine's Day, and what spells "LOVE" more than taking your wife out to the bar for dinner, then staying at the same bar to play some poker? Anyways, it was nice of Kelley to join me for dinner last night, although it would have been better if she stuck around a little longer. But hey, she's not a poker player, so I don't blame her.

First 3 levels or so I pick up a small pot here and there, and lose a few more pots here and there, but just plodding along quietly with just-below starting stack of 2100 chips. Take you to down to 13 players (started with 20), when my night officially picks up. 100/200 level, and a family-pot is a brewin, until I look down and see A-K in the big blind. Gotta think my hand is best here, and with 1400 in the pot, the only move is to shove...if I take the pot there, I'm fine with it. I'm happier when Cheryl calls me out of the SB with A-2, and I hit a king on the turn to double up.

Promptly decide to donk 1200 away to Kid Dave, but on the next hand I get my first knockout of the night. 2 limpers, and Cheryl raises to 800. Her non-standard raises usually indicate A-rag or small pair. I eyeball her remaining stack, see about 1000 left, then look down and see A-Q on the button. Shuffle the chips a few times, glance to see Cheryl giving me the big staredown, figure that I'm ahead, and reraise to 2K - Volcano Ron instafolds A-Q (so he says), Cheryl turns over A-9, and when no 9 hits, Cheryl hits the rail, and I'm sitting at about 7K now.

Merge down to 9 for final table, and A-10 is good for a chopped pot with WendyDonk, followed by a knockout of Rachel when my K-K held against her 10-10. Take down a couple more pots post-flop to get to 11K, and we're rolling...which means it's time for a Brian implosion to take place.

Yup, implosion happens in the form of K-9 donking off 70% of my stack to Darren, new guy to the game (and friend of 2009 WSOP champ Joe Cada)...well played A-A, sir! At 6-handed, I grind away the next couple of orbits to hang around, then I get a fortuitous run at 300/600 level.

Down to 5 now, and after watching Kid Dave and Bernie trade chips with each other for an orbit, I look for anything to push with 3 BBs left...and when Dave and Bernie fold around, I blind-shove from the button for 1650. Dave, with 15K, folds K-7 for only 1K more to my Q-8. Hmmmmmmm

I steal another set of blinds a couple of hands later, than knock Volcano Ron out when my blind-shoved A-4 holds off his Q-J - lose that hand, and I'm crippled, but now I have 6100 or so to play with.

Kid Dave min-raises UTG on the next hand, and I look and see A-10, and with blinds now at 400/800, time to push again. Dave goes into the tank for a minute, calls, and lets out a huge sigh of relief when he sees my A-10 matches his A-10.

Win about 6K on the next hand in a 3-way pot, then the #2 hand of the night for me takes place. K-6 in BB (4-handed now), and in a 3-way pot a K-5-3 (2 spades) flops. Bet gets Bernie out, Dave sticks around. An 8 on the turn gives me a flush draw (king), and by this time I am feeling confident my hand is best. Dave surprises me by shoving all-in, and it's decision time. after a few seconds of deliberation, I say taht his "low pair - flush draw" is behind, and confidently flip my hand over, and see his A (spades) with a paired 5...dodge the outs, and a 25K+ pot is mine.

Soon after, Dave exits, and after Bernies loses most of his stack to my set of 4s, Richard takes him out, and we get to heads-up with a 3-1 chip lead. Andy tells me that I shouldn't take offenseHU took about 30 minutes to go through, and was an up and down grindfest for - although I never relinquished the chiplead. #1 hand of the night, was winning a large pot on a bluff after the river put straight and flush potentials out there...only way to win the hand was to bet a ton to get Richard off his pair, and even then he reluctantly let his hand go.

A couple of hands later, my trip 8s beat his pair of 9s, and win #16 is mine, bitches!!!