CMPPA Team Event

This past weekend was the CMPPA annual Team Tournament. Easily the most fun event of the year. As I am not playing as much bar poker any more it was difficult to come with a team this year. My first player was easy. I asked a guy that is a solid player and he said yes, so one down. I was having trouble with the other when I saw a guy I thought might be another solid player. I asked him and he also said yes. How'd it turn out you might ask. Well, we first out in limit Holdem. Now, I don't blame my partner that got taken out as he had a full house and ran into quads. In omaha we had fairly quick exit also, but I am part to blame for this as I consider myself a good Omaha player but was mostly card dead during my times at the game. Now in No Limit we actually had a chance to win. I more then doubled us up early to give us a giant stack and command of the table. Unfortunately our weak link showed up in the later rounds and we ended getting knocked out in fifth place. It was still a fun day and I have at least half of a team for next year. There were several interesting things that happened during the day. The limit tournament was won by one of the weakest teams playing. It just goes to show that because it was a limit game, this team was never able early as in the other games to be forced to put all their chips in because of the limits with not that good of hands. It just confirms that poker is as much a game of luck as it is of skill. The other interesting thing is that Omaha was won by a team that had one player that had no idea how to play Omaha and won many pots not even knowing what she had. Lastly, we ended up with a tie for the overall champions. What I did was track each team as they were knocked out of each tournament by place and then added them together and the low total is the winner. Each team totaled 13 points. I decided to do a heads up playoff with each team changing players every 5 minutes. It was a fun heads up and lasted almost an hour. In the end the better team ended up winning, of course that is my opinion. Congrats to Shank, Redfish & Tiny (team Any Two Cards) on their win. It was good to see Redfish as he doesn't play that much bar poker anymore. He was a former partner in many of my past poker ventours. At least now he will have to come and play next year as defending champions.

Vacation

I haven't had much to talk about lately after having taken a really nice two week vacation to California and then cruising to Mexico, but here goes anyway. I did get a chance one night on cruise to play some 1-2 no limit cash game. On cruise ships they use the Poker Pro tables that are electronic with no dealer. It kind of like playing online but with the players right in front of you, so you can get tells. I watched for quite a while before playing and it clearly was a no foldem game, but I knew that going in. I put in $100 which was probably a too little for the pot sizes but that was what I was willing to lose. Every hand was raised preflop from $7 to $12 and  most players called. I had decided to play very tight and try and win a few big pots and get out. My first hand that I played was QQ. I raised to $12 and got two callers. Flop was all unders. I fired out $25 and got two callers. Turn is a K. Lady bets out. I fold. Hand plays out until end. She has K-J and other guy has 8's and calls all the way with second pair. Down $37. A few hands later, I am big blind for $2. It is raised to $7. I have KQ, so I make the call. Flop is K-Q-10. I push all in for my last $64 and get two callers. Turn is a small card and river is a J. I'm done. Same lady bets out on river other guy calls. Lady shows A-5 and other guy has K-5. So, lady calls $64 with Ace high and a gut shot draw and hits and other guy call with top pair and a 5 kicker. What did they think I had? That was the end of my cruise card playing. If I had brought a $1000 with me to play poker, I think I could have won a lot of money. But, I was on vacation and didn't really want to spend it playing cards.

                                              6 Corona's and Chips & Salsa for $10!

My hyper aggressive play continues to work well for me. It creates lots of table tilt and seems to work well for bar poker games. It's the chip big or go home mentality.

CMPPA Team event today. That should give something new to blog about.