Craziest Poker Night Ever!

I would like to call tonight another crazy bar poker night, but that would be the mother of all understatements. It was looking like another good night of poker at McCann's tonight. There was a nice turn out and the twins game was already going so that means cheaper beer. I got all the chips and seat assignments and headed to my table. I took a look around the table and the only thing that could come was " this is going to be an interesting table" My friend Fitzwell was nodding his head as fast as he could. It only took about 10 hands for two players to go on massive tilt. One when he was rivered by a flush, but to top it off he says he only called because he had a straight flush draw. Yes, he did have a straight flush draw on the river when he caught his flush. LOL! He had called a big raise preflop and big bets each street with the 3-4 of hearts to almost get a straight flush. I did take advantage of his tilt and take him out a few hands later when he pushed with what I suspected was a weak hand and was right. Then it really started to get worst. We had a beginner player on the table that was calling a lot of hands and running incredibly hot. In the whole night she probably played over 100 hands and called many all ins. Not one time was she ahead and she maybe only lost 3 times the whole night. Here is one of her losing hands. I am big blind. She is under the gun and raises three times the big blind. Now she has not raised almost the whole night, so I put here on a big hand. Several people call so I do also because of the pot odds. Flop is A-K-J all hearts. She beats out 1200. Someone reraises to 3200. Everyone folds. She calls. Turn is a blank, small card no heart. She bets 1200, raiser raises 3000 more. She calls. River is another blank. She checks. Bettor puts in 5000. She calls and turns over pocket 4's with the 4 of hearts. Other player has A-Q with the queen of hearts and wins. She gave up over 11,000 in chips with 4 overs and flush and straight possibilities, but it was ok as it was only 1/4 of her stack. Later she was asked why she had called so much with 4's. She says I thought I had the best hand.
BTW she ended up winning the tournament. I guess there may something wrong with how I play as I have never won on Saturday night!

My incredible hand of the night was late in the tournament. I am short stacked and need to move all in soon. My buddy Rod is dealing far across the table and exposes an ace as it is coming to my. Thanks Rod. I get my next card and of course it's an ace. Damn, I would have had pocket aces. I get the burn card and look at it and it's another ace. How about that I had three aces in one hand. I move all in and get called by Jacks and they hold up for a more then double up. I make the final table and move all in with A-K and get called by super card catcher and she has J-9 and ends up with a full house!

Tomorrows a new day and poker game. I am sure it won't be as interesting as tonight. If it keeps up like tonight, I may need to get a recorder or start taking notes as it is getting hard to keep up on all the bad beat stories! Maybe we need a new reality show called Bar Poker at McCann's!

Strange Incident

If you play a lot of poker you see a lot of strange things happen. I don't know if it is karma or just a weird coincidence, but here is a strange incident that happen to me last Tuesday.

I had a little time before my bar game to run that night and I hadn't played online for a very long time. I decided to play a turbo sit & go on Absolute Poker. I was quite a way into the tournament and had played very aggressive to this point. I had a little under 1000 in chips in a 1500 start event. I have pocket 3's under the gun and raise to 250 a little less then 3 times the big blind. Flop is 2-3-4. I move all in for my last 900 and get called by A-Q, so I am in pretty good shape. But, this is online poker and the 5 comes on the river to give other player a straight and knock me out.

I get to poker that night and end up sitting next to a player I had not seen for a long time. He lives in the cities and doesn't play much anymore. It was fun catching up with him. We are almost an hour into the tournament and we start talking about online poker and I tell him the story of todays online beat. We both laugh and make the comment about online play and how you can sometimes tell when you are going to river or be rivered by someone. The very next hand after the story, I look down and see that I have pocket 3's. Wow, I think. Is that weird or what. I raise 3 times the big blind and get 3 callers. Flop is 2-3-4. Unbelievable. Now what am I going to do. I make a big bet because after earlier I want to take this pot down right now. Player I was just talking to thinks for a long time and then finally folds his draw. Everyone else folds and I turn over my threes and explain to the table how bazaar that it was to get that hand and have that flop at that precise time. At least this time I won! That just shows one of the differences between live and online play. My friend probably would have called with his draw online as most people do, but is able to fold it in a live game. To make it more interesting later we were talking about A-Q and the very next hand I had A-Q and won another nice pot. I laughed and showed my cards to him and said now we better talk about aces. No such luck!

Opening Fishing weekend

What a great weekend for opening of fishing here in MN. The weather was exceptional. I have the sunburn to prove! Now if only the fish had been a little more cooperative. My weekend started on Wednesday with it rainy and cold. I headed up a couple of days early to get some work done so we could fish all weekend long. Luckily, the rain held off enough for me to get the mowing done and rake up the shoreline. We had a lot of relatives coming for the weekend , so I also needed to get our other RV unwinterized so people could use it. My wife had to work on Wed. and Thurs. so it was only me and ny dog tenpin. It was a relaxing couple of days. Went fishing once and went to town to play poker one night. More on that later. Friday came and the sun came out. Guests showed up and the fun began. Had several happy hours around the fire and did manage to catch a few fish. I pretty much caught one of everything throughout the weekend. Caught about a 3 pound muskie on opener and did manage one nice 4 lb walleye on Saturday night. I think it must have been the cold weather that we have been having over the past 2 weeks, because everyone was predicting a great opening weekend of fishing and it was the opposite. We had to work very hard to caught a few fish. Going again on Wed. and Thurs. this week and think it will be prime time for the crappies. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at the lake, so no pictures until Friday. Sorry.

Went in to town on Wednesday night to play bar poker at the local bowling center. It is a game a long time ago that I used to run. I remembered a few players, but how times have changed. They played on regular tables from Sam's Club LOL. They had a nice turn out about 40 players. Started with 3000 in chips with 15 minute blinds. It is always fun to play with new players. I played very well and was chip leader on table for most of the night until I made a bad read. Actually, I made a good read and bad read. I didn't think he had flopped a straight, but missed that he had flopped a set. Oh well, I had played for two hours and was out of beer. It was one of the few times that I made a call based on how much beer I had. I blame you Fitzwell!

Thanks to all my family for making it a fun opener. Hopefully next time the guide does a better job of finding fish!

Another Casino Trip

The weather was so bad on Wednesday and Thursday that we gave up on going to the lake and decided a trip to Hinckley sounded good! Wrong answer!!!!
I played in the Wednesday freeze out. A tournament that has a great structure, so I was excited to get a chance to play. I arrived at 5:50 with a 6pm start. It was not looking good I was the 6th person to sign up. At 6 there were only about 10 players but by 6:30 it ended up with 31, so not too bad. My bad luck continued again. In the second blind level, I raised preflop with K-8 suited. Got several callers. Flop is K-9-8. I bet about the pot and get two callers. Turn is a deuce. I bet 1200 and get reraised by 1200. Now I am worried. I call. Turn is a blank. I check. Player moves all in. I fold and he shows me a set of 9's. I lose about half my chips. I then get a bunch of small pocket pairs that I see a flop with and then fold when I don't hit. I am now down to 2000 chips and in bad need of a double up. I get A-10 suited, but decide to limp in and see If I can catch a flop. Guy to my right raises 400 more and several people ahead of me call, so I call. Flop is 10-6-3 rainbow. I push all in. Guy that raised behind me says he is probably way behind but that there is too much money in pot fold calls. Turn is a king and you can guess it! River is a queen and I am out! Didn't even last an hour. How depressing. I get a big hand and I still don't have the best hand or I lose to runner runner. Boy is this getting old. It makes me wonder if I am doing something wrong or I just stuck in one of those ruts we all get into.
It is not only hold-em. I couldn't win a hand at blackjack either. It was a winning trip for the casino this time. Better luck next time!

100th Post!

Wow, This is my 100th post. Thanks to all the bad bar poker play for helping me get there!

Last night my weekly Tuesday game was an unusually strange one. Turn out was great with 32 players on a nice night. Had a few 1st time players which can make things extremely interesting, especially when they ask questions about how to play. The strange thing is we didn't lose a player for the whole 1st hour. I am not sure, but don't think this has ever happened before. Now remember we are talking about bar poker! Here are a few strange events other then no one getting knocked out early.

Down to 4 handed with one good player, one fair player and two poor any ace type players. Good player is under the gun and moves all for a little more then big blind. Small and big blind call. Hand is checked down and board ends up with 4 hearts on it. All-in turns over A-J no hearts. Small blind turns over 6-2 hearts. He had turned a flush and continued check down. (that's a whole blog in itself). Poor player turns over 7-3 with the 7 of hearts to win the big pot. 6-2 guy goes on tilt for not raising after the turn. LOL! So know I am left with two bad players and a fair one. Good things blinds were high or I could have been there all night. It came down to 2 or 3 calls every hand and then a check down until someone hit a card and then a bet and everyone folds. This went on for many hands until one player finally went short and was all-in on blind and lost. Now to heads up. Even stacks with fair and bad player left. Bad player will only bet if they think they have a good hand or hit the board. Bet and you will win. Fair player decides to start calling dark when he is small blind. What a move. He has taken away his ability to raise and the other player will check every time. He has taken away a chance to take the blinds down or two find out the strength of the other players hand. Fair player finally bluffed at a pot after the flop with a low end straight draw and was called by the nut high end. At least my agony was finally over. I tried to explain to fair player what he had done wrong and his answer was. You know that makes sense. Enough said!