Corporate Bureaucracy Sucks... or does it?

Currently, I'm on a filler contract (3-4 months) to pass the time until the next longer term gig is ready to go. The original contract was set for 3 months, but needed to be extended by a month due to circumstances beyond my control.

Of course, the original 3 months expired on Friday. No one told the admin or security people. Once I managed to get myself in the door (courtesy of a guest badge), I realized that my unix account had also expired. Now as far as my job description goes, no unix access means no work is getting done. Period.

Being that this is a Friday, the folks who actually had the position/authority to approve the reinstatement had decided to take a long weekend. Ok then.... It just so happened that there was a riverchasers freeroll starting at 1PM. Done and done.

I roll into Limerick just a few minutes before 1, and we start with 4 mostly full tables. By the time we reach the halfway point of level 1, a 5th table started and the final field is set at 37.

Early on and I'm grinding along when I find QQ in the SB at 2/4. Now, as far as I'm concerned, QQ needs to be played with kid gloves at these free rolls, especially early. So I complete. BB checks and 6 people see three cards. Flop comes jack high with 2 spades. At this point, with 5 people still to act, I opt for the check raise. EP player min bets into 2 folds and the button calls. I raise to 20 which causes the BB to fold. EP player under calls all-in and the button calls after some thought. Turn brings me top set, but also completes the flush if that's what button boy's thought was about. I'm not about to play scared and give the pot away, so I bet 20 again and the button folds. EP actually bet out BPTK on the flop and I drag a nice pot.

A short while later, I pick up JTs on the button and decide to see a flop. Out comes a double belly draw which doesn't fill and I fall back down to slightly better than when I started.

We go to 3/6 and an aggressive EP player raises to 16 on my BB. I find my nemesis, JJ, and decide to just call. I have won and lost more money with JJ over the years than any other single hand. Flop comes ten high, rainbow, and although EP is aggro, he's also fairly perceptive. If I bet right out, he might fold to the tight image. Instead I check. Expectedly, he c-bets and I decide that the pot is now sufficiently large compared to my stack and I shove. He folds, but I pick up the extra bet.

I'm feeling really good about the table I'm at. I have the image I want and the players are playing atypically non-donkey like. So, of course, our table breaks. Good news is that I realize pretty quickly that my new table is even better. Even though there is usually a call of a raise pre-flop by one player, it is usually followed by a check/fold if they miss the flop.

We go to 10/20 and I'm still slightly ahead. An EP player (the only big stack at the table) limps who I have seen limp just about every hand and fold to a raise. There is 50 in the pot and I have 120 left, so I shove with AKs. Folds all around.

I find KQs UTG and raise to 50. Only the BB calls. Flop is Q33, the BB checks, I min bet and the BB folds.

Then I get to see a free flop out of the BB with 2 limpers, the SB, and 84o. Flop comes 88x and it checks around. Turn comes with a 4 and it checks around again. Damn it!! Finally, no flush draws get there and no one seems to want to call my 50 down with A high, but I still drag a nice pot.

Alas, this table is now done and table #3 is mega-tight but most are pretty short-stacked and are in push mode. Mind you, short-stacked is a pretty relative term when there are only about 4000 chips total in play at 2 tables and blinds are 30/60. Of the 14 players left, probably only 3 or 4 have more than 10 BB in their stack. So with survival pushing left and right and no hand to even come close to playing, I pretty much fold for an entire orbit at which point a final table of 9 is started.

I only have 140 chips left now and have A4s in the cutoff. Everyone folds around, so I push, but the BB has TT and calls. I end up with a rivered wheel and the BB is not happy as he is just about crippled. Now my 310 gets chipped up to 350 as we start 50/100.

SB is all-in blind for 50 and the BB is sitting on a monster stack as I understand she had been a card rack for the last hour. When I see 88, here we go again... I shove, and everyone folds, including the big blind who actually had Q9s. SB actually had a dry ace and flopped an A, so I broke even. Would have doubled up through the BB if she would have called. Oh well.

Here come the blinds and I see A6d UTG and push. This time the BB does call with a suited Kx and spikes a K on the flop. A river 5 would have straightened me out, but instead paired my 6 and IGH in 7th place.

Bleh. Not as good as the last 2 times when I played there when I finished ITM (2nd and 3rd), but the live game seems to be coming along a bit. Hopefully the trend will continue during my weekly night out.