Change Man

Not a bad poker weekend 'round these parts. Made a solid showing/cash in a $20 MTT on Saturday (35 of 911) going out in the same manner I got sent packing in the WSOP (my pre-flop re-raise all-in with QQ losing to AJo for those of you new to this space). I played an excellent tourney. Stayed just barely ahead of the blinds most of the afternoon. Made a big play midway through the second hour when I was a below average stack. Limped along with 3 others on the button with A9s to see an AKQ flop. Got check-raised by a big (though not very good) stack and used my full bank to take him off KQ and JT (the latter which he would have most surely played slower). I re-raised him all in thinking he had a naked ace and a split was comin'. I was right. Sorta. He showed A7o and the beautiful turn 5 and lovely river 3 gave me the whole shebang.

I also laid down JJ in MP when on the bubble. A smaller stack pushed in front and I had him out-chipped by just over 5K, or 3 big blinds. I folded, mainly to make the money, but partly because of the loose calling big stacks behind me. Um, one of those big stacks woke up with aces.

My last good move was limping on the button with AQo (three limpers in front) and having the SB raise 5x. Folds back to me and I pushed. Pushed him right off whatever he had. I figured it was a semi-steal, settling on a medium pair for him. Not that I wanted a call. I had enough chips to make it a tough decision for him and I was happy he folded.

Basically, I played it pretty straight the whole way through with the occasional wrinkle, something I'm getting better at as far as picking the right time and right player to pull a move. Baby steps.

Also pulled a small profit out of the Baddest Home Game in the West, which is about as simple as pulling an abscessed tooth out of a crocodile, but infinitely more fun. Thanks as always to HDouble and MrsHDouble for the hospitality, which, sadly doesn't stretch to the latter knocking me out first in the SnG portion of the proceedings. The three times I've managed to attend the game, I've finished last twice in that part, though I won it the other time.

Strangely enough, my exit was on the exact same type of hand that fueled my last win, against the same opponent. Last time, my 88 held up against her KQ. This time, my 77 failed vs. her KTs. So, the percentages pretty much work out.

Got my buy-in+ back in the cash game, basically by out-flopping people all night. The good thing about having the aggressive Lance (Pants) to your left is that you can pretty much assure he's calling any pre-flop raises out of the blinds, so you know you're getting a good price on looser calls on the button or in the SB. Such knowledge allowed me to win pots with 42o (flopping two pair) and ATs against Ryan's jacks. Of course, Lance isn't just a LAG. People's exhibit #1 is when I couldn't con him into a bet when I slow-played my flopped set of Kings. In fact, there were very few big pots. It's the nature of the game. People don't try to draw out because they don't have the odds to draw out. It is, above all else, a great time and an excellent learning experience. Wanna get better? Play with better players.

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I'll say this about my soccer game today:

FUCK

That pretty much sums it up.

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Sitting at Starbucks this morning with the family, we were approached by a local homeless guy. We use a Starbucks debit card and were devoid of any cash. When appraised of our situation, said change-seeker continued to linger and stare. After a couple more minutes of this, the dear and patient wife dearly and patiently re-stated our position, finally convincing him to walk away and prompting AJ to say, "Mommy, when I grow up, I don't wanna be a Change Man."

I need to get the little bugger a sitcom.