Donkeyfest

There was a birthday party poker tournament at The Mark's last night. It was a ton of fun. Ms. Allin was a gracious host as always. She successfully avoided all conversations about vaginas, no matter how many times I brought up the subject. And she has delicious balls. Meatballs. On a sandwich. Delicious.

I ate dinner before the tourney, and ate the aforementioned Meatball sandwiches, so I was able to avoid the same situation that I experienced at Falstaff's Invitational. That's right, I remained mostly sober.

The tourney had a two full tables. The 10 minute blinds started out at 25/50, but with a sizable starting stack at 5000T. The rapidly increasing blinds didn't play too much of a factor for a while, but were murder towards the end. I think the hosts tried to set this up to last in the 3 hour range. I think it ended up taking around 4 1/2.

3 Bad Ones
I took some small pots early at an uber-tight table, and was a slight chip leader until I stupidly made a call with ATs against the rock that is The Axeman. When The Axemen reraises preflop, watch out! I knew to watch out, but called two big bets anyway before giving up. I slowly built my chips back.

I then lose a huge chunk when my semi-bluff bet is raised all-in by the short stack (The Rick--brother of The Mark) with a made hand. My biggest mistake here was not paying enough attention to The Rick's stack. I think there was around T700 in the pot when I bet into him T1000. He only had around T1800 left, so he pushed. At that point, I think I have to call the extra T800 here even though I know I'm beat. A T500 or so bet would have given me info, or scared him off, without pot committing me. Bad play on my part. I slowly build my chips back.

I commit almost the exact same mistake again with The Rick. The only difference was my hand wasn't a semi-bluff, it was top pair mid kicker, against slow played aces. But my play was similar, and I doubled him up again. Bad play on my part. I am crippled. I slowly build my chips back.

So, a couple of bad moves. Otherwise, I was really happy about the part of my play last night previously known as: "I slowly build my chips back." I was mostly making good aggressive moves that paid off. Sure, I sucked out on others a few times. Decent cards came my way often enough. Not especially great cards, but hands like KJo, or QTs, that I played aggressively and bought limps and blinds with. As with the earlier hands against The Rick, the aggression would sometimes backfire. My stack was up and down, but my play was consistent.

2 Good Ones
The tables combined, the blinds were climbing, and I was short stacked again. The table folds around to me on the button, when I spy pocket Aces. Ms Allin is on the Big Blind. I semi slow played with a min raise. Small Blind folds, she calls. Flop is K high rainbow (I think). Ms Allin bets, I min raise. She calls. On the turn, I am all-in, which is slightly more than a pot sized bet. Call again. I double up. I liked my play on that one. A big bet preflop, and she'd have folded.

Blah, Blah, Blah. I suck out a couple more times. I avoid real confrontation with the big stacks when possible. I become one of the bigger stacks as we get down to four people. Myself, Ms. Blood, Alan?, and big stacked Otis. Now comes my favorite hand of the night. Blinds are gifuckingnormous at T2000/T4000. I am on the small blind, with big stacked Otis on the big blind. The others fold. I look down to see the hammer. I have around T17,000. I know Otis will call an All-in. I can feel it. Instead I raise Otis to T9000. Otis likes his face cards and wants to call, but he can't figure out why I'd bet into the big stack over half my chips, but not push all-in. Otis tanks. Otis finally decides I must want a call, and so he folds. I show Otis the Hammer. Otis tilts. (Note: Rabbit Hunting showed a garbage board with a 7, and Otis would've lost. Knowing this, Otis untilts a little.)

Winning Otis' big blind puts us about even. Two hands later, I take out Alan? in 4th and Ms Blood in 3rd in a single hand, when I get pocket queens, and spike the set on the flop. They both played great. Ms Blood did a fantastic job. She and I had a side bet, that if she took me out, I'd shave off my beard. If I took her out, she'd cut her hair real short. I hope BadBlood likes her new short hair. On second thought, I'll take payment in the form of chocolate chip cookies instead. Ms Blood makes the best.

I now have a 5 to 3 chip lead over Otis, and we make a deal. I guess that makes me the winner. Woo Hoo!!! It was a blast.

Afterwards, I also did well in some Pot Limit O8. A notable hand there: Otis pushes all in with the Hammer in PLO8! He loses, and wishes Mark a Happy Birthday.

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE MARK!! And thanks for a fun evening.