Actually Winning

The last 4 days have certainly been nice. Saturday I went to a water park with Danielle and her dad (which would have been awesome had I not managed to lose my iPhone....details are obviously not completely known, but long story short that shit is gone), and on Friday, Sunday, and Monday I posted 4 figure wins at various Bay Area casinos. Friday I took my car in for service and played some Artichoke Joe's 15/30 (not losing and finding the game to be lol soft), then went up to The Oaks, took some play money in the 1/1/2 No Limit game (which again was just like, whoa, you guys are bad level play), crushed the 15/30 for over 2 racks in under 1 hour, then broke even in the 30/60 game all afternoon. Winning in the 15/30 game was fantastic. I just absolutely crushed it for the entire 45 minutes (winning 200 chips in a 3/6 chip game pretty much requires that), and remembered what it's like to run good. My favorite hand of the day though was a fold I made at no limit. I limped along like a good little boy with KT suited, and proceeded to watch a flop of T64 with one of mine hit the board. The pot was 6 ways and I was out of my element. One of the blinds donked for 10 dollars (there was something like 20 out there...it's 1/1/2 but 4 to go), and the next player raised to 25. I sat for a moment thinking with the gears turning, realizing that in limit this is a pretty easy 3-bet. In no limit...I mucked. They got it all in and showed JT and AT, and I felt pretty darn good about myself.

Sunday opened with me playing 15 minutes of 6/12 with Mila and a couple of other 20/40 regulars. My friend and softball captain Andrew walked by and commented "Worst 6/12 game ever....". Curiously I raised my first 4 hands (KT suited in the big blind 6 ways, AQo in the sb that I 3-bet, aces on the button that I got 5.5 bets in with as the dude was going all in, and 99 that I 3-bet, got capped, and mucked a QJX flop and eventually saw the capper's KQo) and was involved in a few hands after that (remember, I played for 15 minutes), managing to lose about $70. Next I spent 6.5 hours in the Neal Game at Bay 101, winning something like 3 racks (actually probably more like 4+, since I was stuck before he sat down). It was just one of those dream spots, where Neal sits down on my immediate right and just starts hemorrhaging money. Eventually he switched from the 1 seat to the 6....but wait, the guy in 5 wants the 1. Oh, well in that case Neal wants the 5. Now the lady in 4 thinks she's taking the 6 to which I respond "Oh no no no....I'm first up" while flinging my Steeler's chip to the 6 hole. Neal managed to take 3 hands with me jesus seating him. Eventually I left to take care of our dogs (that's a funny part too...Ed was next up to switch to the Neal game, but his table was short and he was gonna have to wait, possibly never getting the seat if his game couldn't fill up. I offered to switch with him so he could move immediately just as a gesture of good will to the Ed-JS-Jeff triumvirate, and Ed shipped me $20 for my troubles) and waddled my 7 racks away from the table happy as a clam. As usual though, I had bought an extra 2 racks after my 2 rack start, signaling the chip runner with two fingers and, upon the delivery of $200, saying "No, no, no...two RACKS. Do you know who this is? I can't be buying two hundred in the Neal game" while gesturing at Neal. He came back with the full grand.

Today was more of the awesomeness. I had a ton of things to take care of though (I started the morning with a trip to the AT&T store, followed by a haircut and a trip to the gym) and made a deal with myself that just for today I could protect a win. I decided that if I got up $1000 (not much in the 30/60 game), I'd rack up and go home. Well 2 hours into my session as I stared at a board of:

As Jd 3d 8d

With two red aces in the hole and two opponents of the original four still calling my bets, I realized I was basically gonna make it. I made the nut flush on the river and Ben managed to fold his hand, so I wound up a few chips short, but I decided to pick up anyway. Then under the gun I found KQo, raised, got one call from the button, flopped Kc 3s 2s - 8s (again for good measure I held the K of spades) and took the pot down on the turn. And like a ghost I was gone, 2 hours and 15 minutes of poker played and looking at a solid chance to post a winning July. I spent the rest of the evening doing various odd jobs, such as taking Clint and Tyson roller-blading (separately), spending literally an hour downloading the latest iTunes and then putting the 3.0 operating system on Danielle's old non-3G (original? 2G?) iPhone, then wiping the phone and synching it, yada, yada, yada, doing 2 loads of laundry, planning a trip to Reno, and writing part 9 of the trip report. All in all, a very productive day.