Instant Karma!

So on my way home for lunch on Friday, I was waiting at the stop light coming off of the highway, and there was this homeless/hitchhiker guy standing up there with a sign asking for money so he could get something to eat or to get his drink on, whatever :) He looked like a early 70's John Lennon, long beard and all. I was first in line at the stop light, and I actually looked over and said to myself, "Whoa, it's John Lennon!!" The last couple months, I have been back in my classic rock phase, with the Beatles and John Lennon solo stuff being at the top of the list. I had actually listened to some John Lennon stuff earlier that day.

So I took it as a sign, rolled down my window, and gave the guy some money. I said, "Here ya go, Good Luck" and he thanked me and said "You too".

I attribute this to my big winning session at the online tables on Saturday night. Instant Karma!

********************************

Things finally turned around this weekend, as I am now out of the red for the month. Though of course, this morning brought me right back near even, blah.

The weekend started off bad, with me trying 100NL full ring for a little while. Man, was that a mistake. 200 hands and 1.5 buy-ins down quickly convinced me to never play full ring again. Ran QQ into a short stacks Aces, and bet a couple big draw hard that never got there.

So later that night, I was determined to turn things around. I grabbed my Beatles records (I have the Red and Blue Albums on Vinyl), and decided to put in a good session with a few tournaments with as many 6 max cash games as I could play.

The tournaments went pretty good. It started off with me winning a seat into the nightly $100, 30k guaranteed Full Tilt tournament. I was doing ok for a while, with about 1.5 times the starting stack until I ran KK into AA all-in PF. This is a 6 max tournament, so that hurt even more. What's up with me running KK into AA so often lately? I think it has been at least 5 times in my last 9000 hands or so. pathetic.

Then I played in the $24+2, 26k guaranteed at Full Tilt. I was playing nice and tight and had won a few pots to keep me around an average stack. Then about an hour and a half in, I get AQ and raise it up and get called. Flop is Ace high, and I get it all-in against some donk who flips up AJ. Jack on the river, and I go home. Am I surprised? No. This tournament is chock full of donks.

Then I played in PokerStars $10 Rebuy, 55k guaranteed madness tourney. I didn't get many good starting hands, and I didn't want to play like a maniac and burn through 20 re-buys. I got all-in on an all low cards flop with KK vs AQ, only to have an Ace fall on the river. I did a double re-buy, and right before the end of the re-buy period, I was able to double up with QQ vs AQ against the same guy. I took the add-on, and was in for $50.

I played extremely tight the rest of the way. With re-buys, there are a lot of chips out there, so you still can have a really high M in the 2nd and 3rd hours. I only played my really big hands, and occasionally stole the blinds when it was folded around to me in the CO of Button. And then all of a sudden the money bubble came and went (top 180 out of 1100 or so got money). I was able to double up a few times with Aces once, and Kings once. It seemed that every big hand I got, I was UTG, so I would push, and there was always someone there to call me with their 88 or KQ or 87. It was great.

Down to 55 people left, and I have just over 2 Big Blinds left. I'm UTG, and figure I have to push any two cards now, cause I will for sure be all-in the next hand. Wouldn't you know it, but I get dealt QQ. So I push in my 19,000 ( I think blinds were 4,000/8,000; ante:250) and the CO pushes his small stack in. Then the SB pushes his stack in! Then the BB calls all-in too!!!!!! They show KJo, AKo, and AK0!! Ya baby, I'm going to quadruple up! I'm 66% to win here. There is one Kings, and two Aces left in the deck. If I win this, I'm back up to an average stack, and have a shot at the final table (First place gets over 11 G's). But the flop bring one of the Aces, and I'm done. 55th paid out about $145, so I made a pretty decent $95.

**************************************

Cash games on Saturday went really well. I won just over 5 buy-ins at 100NL. And that was with a couple bad beats too. I was running really well. And it doesn't hurt to play with the drunkards that find their way to the poker tables on a Saturday night. Here are some of the more interesting hands:

Both alphagator and ITguy were total fishes. ITguy was super agro post flop, and alphagator was playing at 95/40. He would limp PF, then when someone would raise, he would min-re-raise. I'm not sure if I should have pushed or raised on the flop there. I had the nut flush draw and two overs. Turn card is a great card for me, and I raise, and ITguy folds, even though it is just $37 more to call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071901

***********************************
This one is just sick. Again, it is against alphagator. Not sure why he didn't bet river there. I'm glad I checked behind there.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071917

***********************************
Another river suckout. Calls my flop re-raise with top pair, 5th kicker.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071926

***********************************

Yahoo, I win a set over set! First time in a long time. The first I can remember for the year actually. I wonder if I should have just called the flop re-raise and maybe get the donk behind me to tag along? Na, don't get too greedy.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071941

***********************************

Standard

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071948
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071953 (Maybe should raise that river?)

***********************************

Pretty standard. Not sure what he is doing with J9 here. I checked river because it doesn't get a better hand to fold and if I do bet, it lets hands I beat fold. I think 2 pair probably checks behind because of the flush possibility and I save my self $33. And even if he bets, I only need to be right one time in five to make this a profitable call (I'm getting 4:1 on my money). As you can see, he had air, and I won a big pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071957

***********************************

Another standard hand. You can't play KK much worse than how he did. Yikes!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1071993

***********************************

Nice flop for me. I think I played this one well. After seeing what he had, I could have probably gotten his whole stack. oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1072001

***********************************

This morning it was more of the same though. A couple nasty beats. QQ vs AQ all-in PF against a half stack and lose. JJ vs 87o all-in PF against another half stack and I lose.

And this one takes the cake:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1072026

***********************************

What do you people think of my posting hands over at pokerhand.org? Or should I just post the condensed hand history here (like I was doing in the past). It's possible that some people can't get to that website from work or something, so if that is the case, let me know, and I will post hands like I did in the past.

Cheers!