3/1/07 Mixers

Fresh off my admittedly horrible performance I returned to Mixers determined to play smart but aggressive. I almost limped the first hand but refrained. The third or fourth hand (all folds prior) the guy under the gun raised it 200 (blinds were 50/100), 2 callers. I was in the small blind and looked down to find the cowboys. I properly re-raised to 800, the original raiser called, everyone else folded. The flop was ugly...a couple clubs, possible straight draw...all low. He checked. I raised. He called. Another low club added to the straight draw. Ugly. He raised. I went all-in. He called. I shrugged said, "well, if you hit the straight or a set, I am done." I flipped up my Kings. He laughed and flipped up....pocket Kings. And I had the king of clubs, so I had the only shot to outright win the hand. We chopped.

The next hand I picked up pocket 10s. Again I raised, only one caller. I ended up hitting a straight, but he was all in before that. Well...sort of all in. Even though I had far more chips he somehow decided he still got to keep 500. Well, it wasn't worth arguing over so I let him keep them which earned me a lot of good will.

Tonight I was sitting at the table with the guy I twice read correctly and did the wrong thing with a couple weeks prior. We got mixed up in several pots. I continued reading him correctly and put him on a short stack very quickly.

Then I got involved in a pre-flop all-in with a guy down to his last 1500 or so when I had A/Q. I lost. After that I could not catch cards worth playing so it was fold, fold, fold until the final table.

Once there I was fairly short stacked with only about 4K after a couple rounds and ended up all-in with 7/10 which (deservedly) lost to a J/5 when it paired Jacks. Overall my 8th was not terribly embarrassing. I played fairly well, played my big hands correctly and got paid when I had them. My next step is arriving at the final table with enough chips to play back at people.

Record so far at Oregon Trail:
4th (out of 24ish)
5th (out of 24ish)
12th - 15th, somewhere in there (again 22 - 24ish)
8th (out of 27)

3 final tables, 1 early bust out.