Guess I need to update more often...

Seems I already mentioned my Taylor Lanes experience in post prior to yesterday's ramblings - whoops! Anyways, 2 weeks ago Dino's had it's season finale, and it turns out it could be an historic, so let's get right to it.

Once I got a look at the table layout and positioning, I quickly decided that for a while I was going to pound on the blinds of Slow Joe, Mike M, and Volcano Ron with any 2 reasonable cards, and build my stack that way...and it worked out even better than I could hope for, as I was getting calls and quick folds post-flop from continuation betting. Good way to gain a few grand with little work.

Dan was first one out of the tourney when the short-stacked WTP National champion had his K-10 run into Slow Joe's K-Q. A couple of hands later, I nearly took out Mike M after my 7-6 flopped two pair, but after all his money got in with A-7, turn and river were matching kings, and my 6's were counterfeited, so a nice little 2500 chip hit to me. Luckily, I was able to get those chips back in separate hands versus both Patrick and Volcano Ron. Sharon busted Bernie when she boated on the river, to make his river-bluff easy to snap-call. Soon after, I broke the 10K mark when I busted out a short-stacked Andy with my K-K versus Q-J or some connecting hand like that.

Volcano Ron and Sharon busted out a short while later after this, and then we were down to five. My chipstack at this time was going up and down, and the only one who was going up was Slow Joe's, who was employing his usual "gross overbet of the pot" strategy that works only when your opponents have nothing to call you with...and which is exactly what was happening.

Donkey Call of the tournament that ended up working for me was a button raise 5-handed with K-8, followed by an immediate shove by Mike M, who's a fairly tight player. Considering that I would be down to 4 BB if I lose, tough call for me here, but after a minute or 2 in the tank, I say "Let's gamble!", and make the call against Mike's 9-9. Flop a King to take the lead, and it holds, and Mike is out in 5th.

Big hand of the tourney turned out to be Donald getting 6-6 in versus Slow Joe's A-9 after Donald 5-bet all-in. 8-8-7 flop, 2 turn, and 7 river meant Slow Joe's ace-high takes down the massive pot, and Slow Joe has a massive chip lead. A few hands later, I raise on button (blinds 500/1000) with K-9, flop my 9, but see Slow Joe bet 14K into a 7K pot on a board of 3 low diamonds (of which I had none)...think about it for a minute, tell Joe his flush is good, fold my 9 face-up, and Joe flips over a made flush. I chuckle and tell him, "Nice value bet", and because Joe isn't bright enough to know that I am being sarcastic here (that, and he has no concept of what a value bet is) says, "Thank you", in total seriousness. Patrick and Cheryl, our tournament director, just roll their eyes and shake their heads at the idiot.

I go out a few hands later when I try to shove a flopped pair of nines into his pair of jacks, and so long me in 3rd. A couple of hands later, Patrick busts out, and Slow Joe wins our tourney.

Sadly, the historic part of it all is because most likely we have played our last game at Dino's...for sure, we'll be off for a couple of months. Conflicting stories out there, but this much we know:

The next day, Slow Joe posted a message on Facebook, and linked to the bar's page. In this post, he mentioned the gift cards being handed out as prizes, which is a no-no according the Michigan Liquor Commission...and ghey as that sounds. Dino says that, allegedly, Ferndale police made a call about this...a couple of people I have talked to in the days after said that never happened. Either way, Dino was pisssssed about the Slow Joe post, and since there was talk he wanted to end the poker nights, he had a great excuse to do so.

Irony of ironies, in that Slow Joe probably a grand total of ZERO dollars in this establishment in the year or so he played here...way to support the bar, yo! But in a matter of sweet justice, turns out that the waitress goofed when ringing up Slow Joe's new gift card, and had to void the transaction...and when she went to get a new card, Slow Joe was gone! So for those who can't keep score, our league that has been running for 4 years is probably over due to mention of a gift card that doesn't really exist. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

In the meantime, I'm looking (especially when April and year-end at work are over) at some World Tavern Poker events around here...just too bad there are none within 20 minutes of me.

First of a few updates

WOW, lots of updating to do here, so let's get right to it.

Had the chance to play the Friday night deep-stack over at Taylor Lanes two weekends ago, and just missed the final table of 9 when I finished 12th out of just under 60 players. 100K chips to start, which is 500 BB, and the structure allows a good 3 hours of play til it becomes push or fold mode for most players. Mostly an older crowd, with a few drinking younger donkeys mixed in. At 3rd hand of 500/1000 level (after first break an hour in), this hand happened:

Sitting at 150K or so here, and was easily the most active player at the table, which lended itself to some serious ups and downs the first hour, and look at pocket 3s in the big blind. With 4 limpers in, decided to bump up to 4K and narrow the field - which I managed to get 1 person out.

Flop was a beautiful 3-3-A rainbow for quads - remembering my flopped full house fiasco from earlier in the week, I led out with a small bet of 6K, which got 3 callers. Turn put an 8 (second heart) on board, so next bet was 16K (about 1/3 of pot), which got 2 callers. River was a 4, and also put a flush board out there - with 93K in the pot, what to bet....a bet of 50K seemed like a good value, and was proven to be correct when I got called down by both players with A-J and K-Q hearts - a huge nearly 1/4 million pot at this stage of the tourney! Both idiots were left with under 30K, and busted within the next 2 levels.

Guy on opposite side of table with A-J tries telling me what a horrible play I made on all streets, even though he (and whole table) didn't come close to putting me on quads (4th limper who got out after turn thought I boated with 8-8)...then shut up when I dropped the "I'm sorry, I was too busy stacking your chips" line on him. Well, of course it was a shitty play getting paid off by 2 players or more on every street :-\

Went a spectactular 0 fer 5 in races in the last 3 levels I played to fall short of the final table and ultimate the last 6 spots that paid the money, but was very happy with my play...live poker is so much easier to read than online, I tell ya.

It's finale time!!!

So last week I play at Dino's, and with a field of over 25 (first time in months it's been that high), had a solid 4th place finish to finish up at 2nd place overall in the point standings. Donald, with 5 2nd-place finishes (but no wins, ha!) managed to take the season points lead by 5 points...well done, Donald!

This week it's one of our league season finales, with a final 10 of:

Me, Donald, Sharon, Andy, Mike M, Volcano Ron, Dan, Bernie, Slow Joe...and I have no idea who the other person is. Could make for an interesting final table - not the most aggressive one (I'll be the 3rd most aggressive player at this table, eeeeesh!), so I expect a lot of cheap flops, a few semi-bluffs, and a couple outright attempts at grand larceny here.

Played Friday night at a new poker room (for me), Taylor Lanes, in their Friday night MegaStack event. $50 buy-in, but register 90 minutes prior to start and get $10 off. 100K chips to start, and that's worth 500BB. 50-something people started, finished 11th - but was really on my game (just an unlucky 0 for 5 in coin-flips in last 1/2 hour of tourney), so while I can piss and moan about getting some bad luck at the end, can't be upset with my play. I'll play at that place again in the near future, no doubt.