Another day at the poker room

So yesterday I went to the poker room at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs and had another good day to say the least. I got there around 11:30 again and played 1/3 NL until the 2pm tourney. I only really remember two big pots I won so I’ll describe those. I make sure before I sit down that there are fish. There usually are at this time because the people bust out of the 10am tourney on Sundays go and play cash games and they aren’t good. I also like to make sure there are fish with a lot of chips. This helps me decide which table I want to sit at as I usually have a few options. Sure enough, this table had a lot of old people and one woman in her 30’s with a lot of chips. I bought in for the maximum $200 and got up to $300 really quick. Now I was at the point where I want to get involved in pots with the woman in hope that I can double up. She doesn’t raise without a good hand, so every time she raised, I would call with the hope of hitting something and double up through her. I knew she would pay me off. This hand came up that I was pretty fortunate on. She raised utg her standard $13. One guy called, and I called in late position with K2hh. The flop comes 852 with the 5 of hearts. She bet $20. Other guy folded and I called. Turn was a Qd. She bet $20 again. I thought she looked really weak, so I raised to $60. She beat me into the pot with a call. I knew she was extremely strong now and I was done. River 2! She checked to me and I knew she would call almost anything. I decided on betting $100. She snap called, I showed, and she mucked in disgust. I probably could have gotten more out of her, but I wanted a call for sure.

The next hand was is without a doubt my most memorable live hand I have ever played. I have about $500 in my stack to start the hand. I have QTdd utg. I limp. Other people limp and we see a flop 6 handed. Flop comes Jd 8d 7c. Checked to me and I bet $10. The guy right after me quickly calls and the guy after him makes it $25. Others fold and I call. The guy after me then pushes all in for $97 total (he bought in for $100 a few hands earlier). The flop raiser is disgusted and thinks about it for two minutes before finally calling the $72 with about $215 behind him. I then pushed all in with the thought that this guy was going to fold and even if he didn’t, I had a lot of outs (I thought he KJ, AJ, or maybe even QJ or JT). After I pushed, the guy goes into the tank. He starts talking how he knows one of us has T9. I am sitting over thinking why he is taking so long to fold. Finally after over 5 minutes, he calls and flop over 77 for bottom set. The other guy, to my delight, then flips up J7 for two pair. So I have all of my outs plus the board will have trouble pairing if I hit. Before I could even think about how much money was in the pot, the dealer turns over the fabulous 9d to give me the straight flush. The river was an uneventful King. I shipped the over $700 pot. Also, I won a high hand jackpot that they have for all 4 of a kinds and straight flushes. My Q high diamond straight flush was good for $245. Some of the jackpots are low, for example, the Q high diamond jackpot went to $0 after I hit and, and some of the jackpots are high (the Ten high diamond straight flush is at $2200 because no one has hit it in a long time). So I was in cloud nine after that pot, which was only 15 minutes before the tourney started.

I entered the tourney and built a huge stack early again winning most of the pots. Then in the middle levels after the first break, I lost some pots, lost some flips, and had to push with 6 bbs with 98hh. I was called by A10 and A9. Flop came 976, but I missed my draw and was eliminated. Nothing could ruin the day though! After that I found at seat at a 1/3 table with an old fish that had $900 in front of him. I decided to sit down. The other players there were pretty solid, but I had to stay with the fish. He left after one orbit and I decided to leave a $15 winner in the game and a $850 winner on the day. Woohoo!

I went home to watch Duke take down the ACC championship and selection Sunday. What a day! This week I am going to pick up my sister at the Denver airport when she gets back from visiting our brother in Pensacola. I’ll then hang out with her at CSU in Fort Collins for a few days before going back down to Denver to see Leah and other friends for a few more days. It will be nice to take a little vacation! I filled out my bracket. Duke won’t win it, but I still have them going all the way haha. We’ll see.