Here's The Nuts Mr. Blind Squirrel

After a couple of weak outings, last night I tried my luck at the Riverchasers monkeyfest in Hatboro. It was a long night, so let's get to it.

On the third hand of the night, a player in EP makes a healthy raise and I find KK in MP. Knowing where I'm playing, I choose to just call in position and make sure there's no Ace on the flop. Problem is, the button and both blinds also call. Oops. Flop comes KQx with two clubs. SB bets out, BB calls, and the initial raiser comes over top for 3x the current bet. Now, the pot is already almost 80% of everyone's starting stack so there was no way I was going to smooth call and give one of the draws proper odds to hit their flush. I reraise all-in, chase the blinds away (one of whom would have caught his 3rd club on the river) and find myself heads up against middle set. Set over set at a bar poker game. No way he was getting away from the hand and the 4th queen doesn't come. Live poker is so rigged.

Now having chips, I was able to play the TAG game that I really like and continue to grow my stack. It's always nice to be able to semi-bluff your strong draws and have it not hurt too much if they don't get there. I crippled a guy with a strong value bet on the end when I checked my turned flush and he called with just top pair. Then I got a free look at a flop with Q4o out of the BB. When the flop came Q33 it checked around and another Q on the turn. I check called a healthy bet and then overbet the rivered Ace. Sorry dude. Serves you right for slow playing your flopped trips. Also serves you right for being in the pot in the first place with that garbage in MP.

Then it was like someone flipped a switch. Level 4, level 5, level 6, level 7, level 8. Barely a playable hand. When there was one it was in EP and the desparate were pushing so frequently that +EV plays were just not to be found. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't getting blinded away, but I wasn't continuing to amass chips. We get to 50/100 and I'm still sitting on 4 starting stacks which is now just 8 BB. Ugly. Pay a round of blinds and down to 650.

I get the button and blinds are up again. We get in all of 6 hands at this level and suddenly I'm the first BB at 150/300. There goes half my stack. Until I get to see the flop for free, amazingly, and flop trip 7's with my 73o. SB checks, about 1200 in the pot, in goes my last 350. Fold, fold... call. Jack and the case 7. Fawk. Turn is an A, making the board T77A. I have 3 outs to win but, more importantly, have 14 more outs (any TQKA) to chop the dead mo, ney in the center. River 3. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! So I almost triple up and am sitting on a 5BB stack. At this point, no one really has a comfortable stack so I feel incredibly lucky that I start picking up some pretty decent final table hands. I bust Mr. J7. AQs > QTo. ATo steals the blinds.

We get down to 5 and I'm holding a slight chip lead. Blinds are 200/400 and I'm in the BB. UTG folds, UTG+1 folds. Button shoves for 1400, SB over shoves for 1500. I find TT. The 1100 is about 1/2 my remaining stack, but I have to believe that the 3:1 odds justify the call in that spot. If someone woke up with a monster, so be it. More likely, I would need to dodge a couple overcards and maybe someone's underpair. Half right. 44 and 66 respectively. 6 on the flop but a T on the turn seals the fate of players 5 and 4.

Then AKs > Q8s and we're heads up with me holding about a 7:1 chip advantage. That would be a more powerful stat if there were more than about 20 BB's total on the table. We traded a few small pots and then I checked J3s from the BB. Flop was QJ7 and I bet out 3/4 of the pot. Opponent was very loose and frequently called only with draws or tried to take pots away on the turn. I forget what the turn was, but it could not have helped him so I doubled the flop bet, now 60% of the pot. At that point, now that he had called away all his fold equitry, he decided to go all-in. I was not pleased, but I was getting 5:1 with 5 outs to improve. He tabled KQs but was punished with a J on the river. GG me.

So what's the ROI on a $70 first prize with a $0.00 entry? All in all, it was the best day I've had in weeks.