Catching Up

sorry, this will be a brief and relatively uninformative post. i have to do a better job of keeping up before the shape and nuiances of sessions begin to slip away. i do not have the recall that joe sorge seems to have for recalling the details of hands and sessions. we put in about eight hours in at the horsehoe on friday to accumulate hours. the horsehoe runs a regular tournament and a player can either buy-in for $500 to receive T5000 in chips or earn freeroll chips based on hours played. minimum hours to qualify is 30 which translates into T1000. maximum hours are 90 for the full T5000. additionally, if a player opens the game for the day s/he receives double hours. any play after midnight also counts as double hours. we finished with over 65 hours a piece to earn T2800 in chips. I can't say that i recall many specifics of the day. i won about $150 and steven lost $60. so we didn't post a loss, but it was a long day to clear $90.

saturday was a short day for us. the early blind levels last only 15 minutes which is all fine and good for our home game when the winner is going to clear $60 tops, but in a tournament with about 20 players in which top prize is close to $3000 that just isn't cutting it. steven went out first. the blinds were already beginning to rise and he had only T1400 when he flopped second pair with a king kicker and moved all-in. the problem was that one of the chip leaders flopped top pair with a king kicker leaving two outs for steven that never showed up.

my exit involved my first truly donkey play since i have been down here and as usual it was not the hand that knocked me out, but the last hand i played before that. much worse, it was a bad lay down. this hand took place several hands before steven's exit. wayne, a solid player, opened for a raise from early position. i called with Qd Jd from middle position. the flop comes Kd 9d X. he bets T300 which was slightly less than the pot. I decide to attempt to push him off his hand. i figure if he does not have AA, KK, 99, XX, or AK and this is a garden variety continuation bet i can pick up the hand right now. i raise to T1000. he moves all-in. obviously, not a continuation bet. in retrospect, i should have smooth-called and seen what happened on the turn or pushed all-in right away and put the pressure on wayne. when faced with my decision, i was more concerned about possibly being the first one out thn i was about the pot odds of the situation. i decided to conserve my last T1400.

i will never make this mistake again. the pot is laying more than 2.5 to 1 on my money and i have as many as 12 outs -- 9 diamonds (including the ten of diamonds) for the flush plus 3 additional tens for the straight -- which is very close to even money. if he is holding the Ad i lose one out or if he has a set then the diamond which pairs with the X card is not an out. 11 outs still puts me close to 45% so this should have been a no-brainer. In the immortal words of amir vahedi, "in order to live you must be willing to die"and in this situation i wasn't. A couple of orbits later my pocket fours lost to pocket tens. steven said something to the effect of, "if i had known that was your hand i would have taken you outside and kicked the shit out of you". the adjustment of playing for real money was had an impact on my play. this was the most glaring example. sitting at the table in my house or playing a sit 'n go on party poker i make this call in a heartbeat. i don't believe i need to learn this lesson again.

after our early exit we went to the grand opening of motor psychos in santa ana. the place looked great. there were burgers and hot dogs cooked outside on a grill with excellent baked beans. the three owners are all gringo bikers. richard, the man in charge of the food, has already been involved in many successful restaurant ventures down here. there is a glassed encase section in which Tak will build customed-made bikes for at least $20,000 a piece. there is also a little boutique section with t-shirts and numerous other motorcycle-related accessories. trust me, one does not need to be a biker to enjoy this place. there are about 15 to 20 tables up front and a bar in the center section with a handful of bar tables. oiut back there is an open courtyard with a covered section to the side with a pool table. We did not try any of the food from the kitchen, but steven assures me that richard always turns out great fare.