Mixers, 6/19

Due to the trip to Phoenix and stuff going on last Thursday had not played in 2 weeks so was really looking forward to playing...and hoping to get a fun table. Well, Roman was there...and his wife came...and her boss has started playing. Then Bob also sat at our table so it was a solid, fun table. We also ended up with Jeff, Greg and Dawg so I knew everyone's style.

Early on everyone was limping. I had a debate with myself; I could raise the good hands and just play those, make people play a style they were not comfortable with...or I could limp with them, play a lot of hands and trust my reading skills. Limp it was.

I hit a few hands, missed a few, was up a bit. Then Dawg started raising so I went into raise or fold mode and folded a lot of hands. At one point I limped from the small blind (Roman very seldom raises from the big blind so it was a pretty safe move) with Dolly Parton. Flop came with K/9/7, all diamonds. I raised the pot, everyone folded...including Bob who showed his 9/K to point out he hit part of the flop. I showed my 9/5 to throw them off balance. Twice I raised on Flush Draws, both times people folded the pot to me.

Meanwhile, Juan (Amanda's boss) was playing a strange game. Even when we were all limping he had seldom played. But when he played he almost always raised on the flop. He had won 7 or 8 hands without showing one down so I had nothing on him. Actually, I was getting no read on anyone.

Finally I picked up Q/J. Flop gave me a Jack and I bet it. Juan called. Turn was another diamond putting 3 on the board. He checked for diamonds so I did the same. My Queen was a diamond. River was another diamond. I raised to 500, he re-raised to 1000, I cam over the top all in. He thought for quite a while. If he had a King or the Ace of Diamonds I was in a world of hurt. He must not have because he folded and I took down a nice pot.

By the time we hit the final table I had about 8800 chips. Bob returned to our table with a HUGE stack and sat down to my right again. Greg was to his right and Eric (?) the mad bluffer was now to my left. About 10 times someone would raise and he would come over the top all in. It finally got to where I decided if he was yet to act it was either all-in or fold. I hate that type of poker because any skill element is gone and it becomes "who gets lucky". If I want to play a pure luck game I will play War.

I was getting blinded pretty bad and so with A/10 suited I went all in for my last 5200. Greg called with Jacks. When I hit the Ace he went ballistic, totally railing against the game. Dude...it happens. It was one of the few times I got in with a worse hand and people suck out on me regularly. It did not help that he mis-calculated my odds. He rightly stated I was drawing to 3 cards in the deck but incorrectly assessed my chances at 6%. 6% was correct...FOR EACH CARD TO COME. So 6x5=30%...in other words, I was only about a 3-1 dog. Admittedly, the 2 jacks will trip up about 1 in 8 times on the flop and about 8% on each the turn and river to retake the lead for him so on occasion I will hit an ace and it won't matter...but it was not the bad beat he made it out to be.

Eric was back to all-in after all-in. I thought about calling him but didn't. At one point I had A/J and was going to call him but Jeff called ahead of me. I folded...and saw Eric flip up K/10 and Jeff flip up A/7. I would have tripled up. Soon Eric was gone but I was getting trash hand after trash hand so I was blinded down to about 5000 by the time we reached the final 3 with blinds of 500/100. I needed chips and knew I would have to gamble to get them so I picked a good drawing hand (j/9) and went all-in for my last 5. I actually figured they would both call but only one did...and he had the worst hand for me I could see, pocket 10s. My straight draw was all but eliminated since he held 2 of my outs. When I hit the 9 on the river it added insult to injury and I was out in third. Overall, a fun night but not the finish I wanted.