A little recap of my poker life

NDPT #16 took place this past Sunday at the Eagles. Erik P. was the big winner, while yours truly had to settle for 3rd place in the outing. Erik took me out when his 10's bested my Queens, due to a flopped 10. (Must be the oompa loompa luck thing or something like that.) No, I kidding... I kidding... Congratulations on the win Erik, and like we talked a few days before, I do believe the blind structure changes were an incredibly relevant factor. I had a great time, and hope you all did too. The company was good... and the beer was cold, what more could one ask for? Once again, thanks to JR, for putting this together for us. We look forward to many more outings...

The next game on tap for extended poker-dom is the Yanok's game to be held on November 1st, at 7:00pm-ish I believe. Beyond that JR will play host to the monthly NDPT game, he is deciding whether or not that will be held at his house, or if he'll opt again to hold it at the Eagles, since his basement has been "temporarily" turned into a wood shop. Either way, there will be a game to be played. We'll also need to make some decisions about when and where the last two games of December will be held. We will have the final NDPT regular season tournament, and then the End-of-the-Year $50 buy-in tournament. There are just a lot of other poker games, and some pesky holidays to work around! : )

Of course all of this planning and scoping out next games, says nothing about planned or unplanned trips to Cross Lanes. There's fish with chips to give away... the dogtrack and the newly opened table gaming area. The pit area boasts all of your casino favorites. On my last trip there, the pit area (on a weekend night) had Blackjack as low as $10 and Let It Ride as low as $5!!! Wait times were not bad either. In the poker room, you will seldom wait longer than 10-15 minutes for a seat, if that long. The Poker Room Staff at The Big Easy Poker Room is to be commended for running a top notch room. Of particular notice is the fact that when around 10 people are on the waiting list to play... and new table is opened and the cards get in the air! Also, as I've said before the room is much more open and inviting than is Wheeling Island's. The bar boasts $2.50 draft beer on Saturday nights, and it's not a skimpy glass. I have really only one complaint so far about my experiences at Cross Lanes... There is one floor person/supervisor (whatever he calls himself) that I witnessed on a number of occasions getting on to his dealers in front of the players. I found his demeanor rude... and while I recognize he has a job to do, some of the things he was getting on to his people about should have been handled outside of the earshot of the general public. Berating a dealer while he is in the process of "dealing" is also BIG "NO-NO" in my book. A little more professionalism in this area is needed. Treat your "new" dealers with a little more respect.

I don't know what got me off on this Cross Lanes tangent, other than the fact that I'm always excited about taking a trip southward, but it got me to thinking about the last time I was down there and this hand in particular:

I'd been sitting in the number 6 seat at a $1/$2 NLHE table for a couple of hours playing a stupid ridiculously tight game by all accounts, including my own. Nearly 95% of the hands were being popped to $10-$12 preflop and 5-6 people seeing the flop. I had been seeing my usual grouping of "blackjack" style hands perfect for doubling down, but less than useful at the poker table. I did commit some scratch to the pot when I flopped a nut flush draw with an AJs, but never got there. A pocket pair of 7's also ended up in the muck, when a raise and reraise preflop had it to $25 before I even knew what hit me. Sorry, obviously there were overs out there (and there were.) No the hand that really got me was this little beauty. I'm first to act on this hand, which I looked down at after 2 hours of my fold-a-palooza. Two beautiful Red ACES! Recalling that nearly every hand was getting a raise preflop and knowing that my appearance was rocklike at the table, I opted to just call the $2. And it was called around to the 10 seat who, stupidly made it $4. It made it's way back to the BB, next to me, who insta-popped it to $12 straight, and as I was reaching for my chips the $4 raiser jumps ahead of me to make it $24, so instead of me shoving, I call the $12, and let him continue with the bet. It folds back to the BB, who immediately shoves it all in. He has me covered by a long shot here, but it's irrelevant. I call, and put myself all-in for all of the $60 I have left in my stack. The 4 green chips in my right pants pocket are burning a hole in my thigh as I'm doing it. Now the #10 seat friggin' wakes up and realizes something is amiss, and stares at me and folds. The bald headed kid in the #3 seat who isn't even in the hand, says "I know he's got Aces since he ain't played a hand since he sat down." That was actually a pretty fair assessment, although his ability to judge that was hindered a bit by his three lengthy outside smoke breaks. So... whatever!?! Regardless, you aren't in the hand, just shut up. Anyway, the dealer counts things up a bit, and the BB, takes back what he is due and he asks if I got 'em, which I admit... without smiling. He flips over his Kings next to my Aces, and they table groans collectively. The dealer brings cries of "OUCH" and gnashing of teeth with the flop, as he places "K-3-3" on the table (all black by the way.) And whatever the turn and river were, well let's just say I don't remember but neither was one of the other aces, and cheer_dad headed for the rail. The chips in my pocket now silent, although I think I might have heard one of them murmur, "dude, that sucked." I head for the bar, and order an Amber Bock draft to cool off. Next bad beat, comes in the form of a killed keg, and so I can't even get the dark beer to match my mood. Whatever, just friggin' pour me somethin' sweetheart. I wondered around for a bit to collect my thoughts... I later returned to the poker room, to a decidedly different table and played my last $100 down to around $55, when I started debating whether to play on or cash out and drink the rest of my bankroll. But opted to stay and ordered another beer. Somehow went on a run, and I'm not talking with great cards either here boys and girls, just some mediocre cards, but meeting up with some pretty damned stupid players willing to call down with air. By the time the poker room was shutting down at 3:00am, I found myself sitting on $263. A comeback which I was ecstatic about! A $213 rally is just fine by me!!!

I had relief, and just sat back and relaxed on the trip home, buzzed beyond belief. Erik and I in the backseat egging JR on to "wing" our empties out the window at the interstate signs, while Frank did battle with the alignment of his vehicle. Sorry guys, I don't know why I took so long to post that up. But I took this as the opportunity.

Regards,

cheer_dad