Artichoke Joes Part III

So this all actually happened the week before, March 8th, but I never got around to posting. My third shot at the $25+$5 Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. After getting down to about 200+ in chips get dealt KK. I put in a raise and get plenty of callers. The flop is all unders with a possible straight draw. I am first to act so I figure better to bet and get callers then to check with the intention of raising and just give everyone free cards if they check around. Thankfully, after a caller, someone has to go all in but they can't raise the full amount. It gets back to me, I ask if I can reraise the full amount and do, get same caller. Turn, bet and call. River bet and call, at this point I am concerned for something like low two pair. I show my cowboys, caller mucks his fishhooks. This put me up real nice. Take down a couple more pots. Gets four handed, I look at KK again in the BB. Only small blind calls and I of course put in a raise, I thought about limping but it's limit so what the hell, and of course I get called. Flop is something like 2T6, checked to me, I bet to not give away a miracle card and I get reraised! I am completely stunned and simply call. The turn is a blank and my opponent comes out betting, I call. The river is another Ten, by now I am feeling pretty beat but I have pots odds to call in case my opponent was on a bluff (very doubtful), had only pair of two or sixes or low two pair or better yet JJ or QQ. The worst case scenario was a set of Tens but I was prepared for the worst. He shows T6o for the boat! I was pretty upset when he showed, he had called my raise preflop with a T6o. I lost $480 on this hand and what had seemed like a possible victory now seemed like a hopeless try for third place. Well, I got some lucky cards and was able to outlive the other short stack to get third at my table and win the free roll for next week's tournament. This time I hope to suck out on some other lucky flop.

Lucky Chances, Lucky Indeed

On Saturday a friend talked me into going to Lucky Chances Casino in Colma. I had never been there but had heard about their 1-1-2 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em table. The maximum buy-in is $100 and apparently this is the only casino that offers this kind of table, I guess you are rewarded for building a good chip stack when people can only buy-in for $100. So I met up with him at LC's, thinking that I was just about to lose the quickest $100 ever. They only have two tables for the 1-1-2 NL so I had to wait a good hour before finally getting my spot, not at the table my friend was at. As soon as I sit down I am asked if I want to be dealt in, I of course reply that I do and a second later the dealer asks me for $6, so like 5 seconds in and I'm already down, sweet. I tried to get a good feel for the table and went in wanting to play disciplined. I picked up that there were a lot of unwarranted raises and lot more calling than I expected. People were raising with unsuited Ax in early position and calling with worse it seemed. I was frustrated as I found myself folding two hands that would have been the nuts on the river (both straights) but I couldn’t call the raises with these kinds of hands, KTo etc. Before I know it, I’m down to about $55 and find myself looking at QQ in mp. I raise to $20 and get 4 callers! I figure one of these people must have an Ace or K and my Queens can’t possibly hold up. I needed the perfect flop and I got it, all under cards with no draws whatsoever. It gets checked to me and I go all as there is already enough money in the pot and I don’t want people drawing out on me. I get two very hesitant callers. The turn is another Q and now I feel pretty good about my hand, one of the callers bets the other one out of the pot and shows T8, he had flopped top pair (8) with a Ten kicker, I was shocked these were the hands that called me. Anyhow, after that win I was well over my buy-in and went on to win a couple of other hands and decided to cash out about 1.5 hrs at that table for $205. I’ll definitely be going back to that table in the future.