SCW June

I almost turned back. Traffic was BRUTAL. On GPS there were no fewer than 4 red flags. It took an hour and 45 minutes to get there.

For me, playing poker is more about mind-set than anything. When I am patient and interested, I usually make pretty decent reads and end up playing well.

Not that results equal playing quality...you can be at the top of your game, get someone on the verge with a 1-outer and watch them hit it.

But when I play poorly, then I typically do not enjoy it and when I have been in traffic that long...well, I know I will be frustrated, irritable, and not enjoy it.

But I went. And we ended up having 11...we were expecting 7 maybe. So that was nice.

I was at the tougher of the two tables. I had Kev to my right, Eric to his right, and to my left were Rick, Josh and Joe.

First hand was exactly what I needed...a couple limpers, I raised and it went to the flop heads up with Eric.

The flop was Q high and he came out betting. I raised him, he called. I figured he probably had A/Q and if another Queen fell, I might have folded to a min-bet. But the board stayed innocuous, he called big turn and river bets and my pocket aces held up against his...A/8? He called all that with a dry ace, no pair?

I won a couple more hands and had a nice stack when I picked up pocket queens. Again Eric and I took the flop heads up and it was pretty good for me...Jack high, I think with two babies. He called. Turn was maybe a 10 or so, river was a 7-type card...and gave him a straight. He stayed in with a 3/4 against a raise.

Oops...I did not even see the straight potential and never would have put him on that hand. He doubled through me and, a few hands later, took another chunk from me when he again rivered a straight.

I picked up a suited A/K, raised, and yet again it was Eric and I. All low on the flop, he raised, I almost folded but then called. Turn was a blank, he raised, I called. River...a King. He checked, I checked...and he rolled over A/K. Split pot.

Followed by I believe three more split pots when it was he and I heads up. Weird.

Well, I was down to about 2500 chips (we started with 5K) after he doubled through me the two times and I was in super tight mode looking for a chance to double up.

Blinds climbed, I was treading water, and with about 15 times the blinds I opened with pocket 3s, thinking I had a good chance to pick up the blinds. Instead, someone min-raised, 3 people called, and I was getting better than 8-1. I called all-in.

Flop was 6/4/2. I picked up a potential straight draw...and might need it, because after 2 checks, the third guy bets...and I get a re-raise and a call. Uh-oh...

Turn paired the board. More action. Fascinating. I figure a 5 is probably good as then only holdings containing a 6 beat me...and with this action, the ONLY one I would believe would be pocket 6s, and that would be questionable.

River is a 3 so I am pretty happy...I have a full house. Pocket 6s, pocket 4s put me out, otherwise I look good.

Jacks win the side pot and the raiser had...A/2? He was trying to push people off an all-in with that?

So I nearly quadrupled up and now I am able to play a couple speculative hands.

I get in a few more heads-up with Eric, but now I just check-call, and now his luck has turned. He hits nothing, I take a few hands.

I limp with A/2 suited, about 3 of us see a flop. I pick up the nut flush draw, he min-bets, I am getting about 12-1, I call. Turn misses, he makes same bet, I call. River, I missed, he makes same bet, I...fold? Yep, only think I can beat is a king-high bluff. He shows...a Jack high bluff. He got me.

But that is okay, I take chips from lots of people with solid play.

I notice people are tightening up.

I raise with K/4 from under the gun, why I will never know. What a junk hand. Actually, I know exactly why I raised...people were folding to raises, we were playing 4-handed, and I wanted to see what response I would get. They had folded to my last couple raises...which had been legitimate stuff like pocket 9s and A/K. Time to steal.

And Joe called. Uh-oh.

Joe is tough for me because he likes to bluff-raise the same way he makes nut raises. What I mean is, when he has a good hand, he has one size raise, but when he has the nuts AND when he bluffs he makes big, big raises...so he might have a great hand or might have nothing.

And sure enough, on the flop, he makes a big raise. I call for no apparent reason, he checks the turn, I bet, he folds.

We get down to 8 people, one table, and they start falling like flies. I lay back waiting for good hands.

By the end of the night we get down to 3 players; Phillip to my left, Kevin to my right.

The lead changes a couple times, I have the lead by about 1.5-1 over their combined stacks. Blinds are 500/1K, Phillip has about 6.5K, Kevin about 11K.

Phillip opens utg to 3K, Kevin goes all in. I have garbage, an easy fold, especially knowing Phillip is priced into calling by his raise.

And Phillip goes into the tank for a long time.

At the time I thought it was an auto-call. He has to have a pretty narrow range there...pockets, A/J or better. That looks good against almost every hand.

Except Kevin, seeing him raise and knowing he is committed, came over the top with another player...the chip leader...to act. So he HAS to have something.

Ignoring the rule it takes a stronger hand to call than it does to raise, I put him on the same range. So now Phillip is in a tough spot.

We now know he had pocket 4s. His hand is an underdog against half the hands Kev could have and at best a coin flip against anything except some random A/3 or A/2...which do not fit Kev's move.

But if he folds, he has maybe 2 circuits left, about 5 or 6 hands.

He called, Kev had Queens, and it was heads up.

Kev is very tough for me heads up. He plays different every time, so it is hard to tell where I am. I had the lead, so I wanted to get into it when I had an above average hand and other than that play small pots.

I let him have a couple where I had nothing, he let me have a couple, so I think he was playing a similar strategy.

Then I picked up I think Jacks and he had something...and by the river, I got a straight and took a commanding lead.

Ended up winning for the third time in four months...a pretty good run I think.

And best of all...even when my early chip lead became short stack to a couple river straights, I was having fun. So it is all good.