7 Years of Poker

So here I am sitting on a decent story of going to Vegas last Summer to play in a bracelet event.  I finished day 1 sitting next to Matt Matros which worked out well for me having him to my right.  I then had an unexpected day off before returning for day 2.  This was due to the 4000+ player field having two "day 1" starting days.   

This bonus day off just happened to be my birthday. My friend, the good doctor Blerge magically appeared.  If one is forced to face the indignity of spending a birthday in Vegas, Blerge sure ain't a bad person to do it with.

Various debauchery ensued all over that small town in Nevada.  Good memories were instantly created.   My birthday would eventually end early that next morning with me finishing up what began as a late night Main Event satellite.

It's not too often I get to play in a second live tournament while still being alive in the first. This also seems like a good time to mention that I am one of those people who believes that if you step on a butterfly in Brooklyn, someone coughs in Forrest Lake.

Well it could actually be a sneeze.  Lets just say that it's one of those noises from a human being where the other person in the room doesn't know whether to say "God bless you" or not.  You know. Cause sneezes are worthy of blessing and coughs are not.

This is all my roundabout way of sharing that the events of my birthday completely changed the luck I would experience the next morning on day 2 of the bracelet tourney.  That's right.  The power of someone calling an all in raise with their king queen close to the bubble for a $10,000 seat has that kind of residual effect.  

I'm still not sure why he makes that call.  We were pretty equal in chips so basically he was risking 10K on king queen. Friends tell me that some call all in with king queen there hoping the other plays has jacks or smaller.  Still that's taking the worst of it.  And the fact that I could easily have ace king makes the king queen call not so likable to my stomach.   Like I may not make that call with ace queen.  And he's calling with king queen.  Because how can you ever fold king queen?

Despite this late night setback I still had to wake up and play Day 2.  Yet clearly I was no longer on the same rush.  Suddenly my ace king was losing to ace rag.  Suddenly my pairs were watching smaller pairs flop sets.  Poker stopped being easy.  And my stack fluctuated....like a stack that fluctuates.   How's that for a metaphor?
  
The highlight of day 2 was my knocking out David Sklansky.  I raised preflop with ace king and Sklansky pushed all in from the blinds.  Such a fun moment in that there is no way I can be ahead here.  He sure ain't making that move with ace jack.  On the other hand there is no way I can fold.  It was for a small percentage of my chips and more importantly we've got a story at stake.   Sklansky had queens.  I flopped an ace.  Which only means that at that moment he was running worse than I was. 

After dinner I sat with Alex Jacobs at two tables.  The first table was tough with him to my left.  The second table was easier with him to my right.  When they broke our table with around 250 players left I still had hope.  At my new table I picked up pocket 7's on the first hand but doubled up a guy who pushed behind me with ace nine.  Soon after I picked up ace 10 suited, got the rest of my chips in but could not overcome pocket 6's.  And just like that my month long ride of running well was officially over.  

I had really wanted to go into detail about many of the hands that took place.  Just like the good old days.  But right now that's not possible.  So I am going the other way with it. 

This entry is me ending the story and reclaiming my blog so that I can post again.  There have been moments over the past few months where I had something to say but felt I couldn't because I hadn't finished this other story.  Well now I have.


In 2010 I did not have enough time to write about poker.

However that's not the real shame.

No, the real shame was I didn't have enough time to play.