Sorry sports fans

sorry sports fans for the delay.

i took a long weekend off and have had internet cable problems…

so laying in bed sunday night 11:30ish, after about a half hour of tossing and turning, i decide that the golden nugget will help me sleep.

i play tight for an hour or so, then get 1010. call raise behind a true asian gunslinger. this guy made my top ten list for gambling on a draw. side note: general observation about asians and texans; they are either really big gamblers or very solid when it comes to poker. this guy was the former, at least this night. he splashed his money around for the better part of 3 hours and lost big pots on some sort of draw to every player at the table except for me and the tight old man at other end of the table.
flop comes dds all under cards to my tens. he leads out, i double his bet. call. turn comes d, he goes all in. i instacall. diamond comes on the river. he says jack high. turns over Jdks. now i knew that he was on a draw and didn't have a made hand because that was his tell. if he had four to a draw, he was all-in. so on the turn he had 4 diamonds and this modus operandi took over.

i fight back for like the next 3 hours to make it back to 100, 2 short of my 300 i brought to the game. playing with this man and wife who bring in like 1500 to the game. she indirectly brags that she is the highest ranked player at the table. i'm pretty sure i've seen her on tv before. she is really solid at best from what i've seen. i was wondering how true she really thought that ranking was in relation to the table at the time. i had her third at best, in the list of people i was looking out for at the table. her husband was an open book and she wasn't afraid to jab at him about it either. after he was called on an all-in bluff, she says to the caller. "caro's book of tells, any time a guy says save your money he's bluffing. strong means weak." she was clearly disgruntled about her husband's lack of poker skills. 25 years she kept saying.

i only tell u this because it just gave me the idea to have a marriage counselor play poker with a couple and he could learn more about their relationship in a few hours that would take him weeks to discover normally.

i guess he'd have to be a good poker player then too.

i go home tired now with my comp. 10 dollars off. the highest comp ticket i've seen. usually they're like 4 bucks.
next day i play at mgm and earn back my 200 plus 50 on top.

i saw in that game one of the best cut-ups i've seen in a long time. best part is that it was against one of those cali-pricks i have come to love. cali is on the button with ak, business dude who looks like matt holiday calls raise, flop comes qsq6. cali bets 25, check raise to 50. turn comes spade. dude says i'll put you all in. his last 65 bucks. cali, clearly disgruntled about the fact that his superior ak is now worth about two shakes of a lamb's tail, and as showing flips them away in as quick of a fashion. after a pause to confirm that the muck was official, as cool the other side of the pillow, he shows 23s. he smirks in a manner that only a good player could spot and rakes the pot. the table erupts instantly at the surgical precision of this quick slice and dice.

the matt look-a-like was a really good player. i hope to remember him not for his masterful bluff, but also for two other things i picked up from him. he came to the table looking like a total tourist, right out of a convention meeting. he even had a really shit bag dumper come with him. this guy didn't even know how look at his cards without anyone else seeing them. dumps 100 into the game within 30 minutes and leaves.
the other thing that i liked was that he was on a total bluff, he still had outs; turning the flush draw.

i leave up 50 for the day and go back to the nugget for dinner, to use my comp. turned out to be an expensive meal that was really bad. chicken noodle soup and chilly cheese fries. the buffet was closing in like 10 minutes and didn't look that appetizing. and no i wasn't drunk. i haven't had a drink while playing in like 5 sessions. a habit i plan to continue.

the level of play out here is a lot higher that it used to be. every table is like 5 solid players minimum. it's like when they chum for sharks. we all have to fight over only a couple fishes.

back to the nugget. i play for a couple hours and get cold decked and blinded down. i don't remember playing a hand to the river. down 150, i go play in the tournament. 65+40rebuy. 25 players. i make it to the final table. first hand i get jq in the bb. button exposes a 8, 9, or a 10, one of the three as he looks at his cards. then raises. i go all in knowing that at worst i have a race. he has a10, and i make 2 pair. i'm now the chip leader. my plan is to just milk the blinds until the money. only one other guy had as many chips as me and no one else even had half as many. the guy with the same amount as me, just showed 67 when he went all in, and was just cut off, so i'm lovin life.

then drunk raises 6k and i peek down at aces. shocked i have to give a total tell and relook at em before i go all in. he calls with k8s. flop comes aqj, turn 6, river. ah, the requested card by the fucking dirt bag i had to sit next to this whole tournament. he was in worse shape than every bum i've given money to since i've been here. he had not showered in a week at best. he looked like a snow globe with dandruff pile. his nails were long and black. he smelled 3 seats away and whined the whole time how he didn't get any good cards, even though he kept playing bad and winning, pot after pot, after pot. at least, he was brought out of the grasps of all-in death 7 times.

if you hadn't guessed yet it was a 10 giving the drunk a straight.

i have like 3k left. double up. i start the chop talk. every one wants it but the bum and this other dirty old man. "i want to keep playing". like 2 hands later the dirty old man check raises all-in with kk and the drunk calls with a8 off and flops and turns an ace for the overkill.

chop talk resumes all the way until 6 players left. bum doesn't want it.
2 hands til blinds that will put me with 1 chip left so i go all in with k10off. called with aa and a10h by drunk who catches runner runner flush to knock us both out on the bubble.

drunk cracked aa twice and won vs 99 with em in like 30 hands. amazing.
to show the other side of the coin, i did catch a one outer earlier that day. it was for less than a hondo though. flop was qd10dblank. i slow played kk, button raised. 2nd to act bets his kq and button goes all in with a set of 10s. i catch case k on river for the win. a true 1 outer.

monday i got a filling redone that had fallen out. i liked them, and the insurance covered it, so i went back the next day for a checkup and cleaning. the most enjoyable dental visits i have ever had. that's good because i now have 4 more scheduled. fillings and a wisdom tooth extraction. nothing major.

back to mgm. 6 hours of even play then win 260. play this big lovable gay guy who sounded so familiar. i put him as a director or actor. michael m was his name, but he was very nice had a hot bitch behind him. so he had to be some kind of somebody. who knows i was only on 4 hours of sleep, so i went home when i was exactly up 200.

not sure where i'll play today.

MN