No love for cheer_dad : (

Well, the Yanok tournament is over and there was no love for cheer_dad. The poker gods spit in my general direction! I can't say completely card dead, but very card inconvenient. I was folded to in the Big Blind once with pocket aces, without even seeing a flop! I got clobbered with Big Slick, even when I hit my King. My opponent rivered a backdoor flush on me. I had pocket 7's once and flopped K-K-7! and everyone checked to me, and I bet out a measly $5 and all 4 folded to me. Later again with pocket 7's with 3 people in, flop comes all low (highest 8) and of course someone had it. In all of these cases, I never lost a great deal, just "enough." I simply watched my stack dwindle away. The only 2 short stacks at our table were able to effectively snipe chips away, when folks were mildly interested, by pushing all in. You knew they had nothing, but your nothing was smaller than theirs. Hey, it happens. I can't really fault my play with "maybe" the exception of the Big Slick example above. I could have saved $45 there I suppose. Also, late in the tournament, when I had pocket 8's in the small blind, it was raised and reraised before it got back to me, the reraise was an all in by Julie M. Scott B was the original raiser. I mucked to get away from the coin flip (a call would have put me all in.) In hindsight, I would have taken it down, but I thought I might get a better opportunity. The original raise was by Scott with a pair of ducks. Julie, of course never to be trifled with had A-Q. She did not improve and the ducks waddled away with it. My snowmen would have been good after all. Sally was right for slapping me in the back there. : ) But then again, I'm in to the pain thing! The blinds skyrocketed soon, and I ended up getting it all in with A-9 suited. Jenny hit a Jack with her K-Jos, and the rest is history. Cheer_dad became the bubble boy! On a positive side, Big Red played well, and managed to profit at the other table, early on, and came to the final table with a good stack. She was able to take down the #4 spot and $70, yes she went out right after me! I guess I took one for the team huh. (Yeah, that makes it feel SOOOO much better. ) Chris S took 3rd, Jenny 2nd, and congratulations to Scott B for taking down the top spot! His pocket 4's turned into a monster against Jenny, when 4 CLUBS showed up on the board, and he was the only one who had another. I enjoyed it...despite being a big loser. It happens. It was good to get together with good friends. I'm sure we'll all do it again real soon. Even Frank, Julie, JR, Nikki, and Sally came over to spend time with us, despite the fact that they weren't playing. I guess they just can't get enough!

Tonight we're heading over to the Wolfe's for dinner and games, no poker this time. I'm thinking Scattergories, charades, and pictionary. It's prolly not going to be a naked twister kinda night! : ) (OOh look how bendy!)

Heard last night from Brian Y that he played and lost in Wheeling yesterday at the blackjack and craps tables. He didn't care for the continuous shuffle blackjack and did I hear correctly that the minimum bet was $25 at the blackjack table!!! Recall casino operations that this IS West Virginia, sheesh!!! Maybe it's just because it's all so new. I didn't expect $5 tables, but hmmm $25 minimums rivals some of the upper crust Las Vegas casinos in minimums.

Time to go get motivated.

Regards,

cheer_dad