Vacation Mondays are over

On March 19, I finished in fifth place in the Palace tourney.

On April 9, I finished in fifth place in the Palace tourney.

Guess how I did on April 16? If you guessed fifth, you'd be right.

Last Monday was my last vacation Monday; my vacation calendar's been reset, and I've got another 15 days to use within the next 12 months. It was a good finale, too. I ended up net +$25 in the Palace tournament, and played the $3/$6 ring game for three hours, with my $100 buy in varying from $45 to $215, ending at $105 (+$5).

In the tournament, solid, tight play (I folded AJo UTG with less than three orbits in chips left) and a good bit of luck (I rivered two poor souls twice) got me that far, but I'm thinking that I need to stay tight once I'm in the top five. My pocket fives were a racing hand, and I could have sat around a few more rounds before the blinds would have knocked me out.

In the cash game, a co-worker of mine was to my right. His style of play was a lot looser than mine, but he was also better at getting away from hands. I got burned a few times when I couldn't let go of overcards soon enough, but made a huge stack of chips with pocket tens and a board of JJT-x-x, when the button held another J.

I also made the same mistake two hands in a row. I was dealt pocket eights (yes, two hands in a row), and the quads jackpot for eights was an unusually high $800. After missing the flop, I figured I had the right odds to call a raise to see the turn. That's wrong. With a 2/47 chance of hitting another 8, there would have to be $141 in the pot to justify a $6 call (based on thinking a set of 8s would win), but the odds of hitting the jackpot -- getting runner/runner eights -- is 1/1081, meaning the jackpot would need to be $13K to justify $9 in bets. Of course, when I didn't hit an 8 on the turn, I got out, but that was money I didn't need to throw away.

The $45 hand

I'd been playing for about 90 minutes at a $1/$2 table on PokerStars, and was down about $25. I'm one off the button, and I'm dealt K&diams Q♥. I chose the table because it's super tight, and sure enough, it's folded around to me. I raise to $2, and OhBoyGolf, who is on the button and who hasn't let me steal a blind all day, calls me. Small blind folds, big blind calls, and three of us see the flop:

K♥ T♠ 5♥

I've got top pair with a great kicker, and when the big blind checks, I know that if I bet, OhBoyGolf is going to call me with anything -- he may even raise me back, thinking that I'm trying to steal the pot for the fifth time this afternoon. I do, he does, the blind folds, and I re-raise him, as if to say "hey, I've really got it this time." He doesn't buy it, and caps it at $4.00. I call. At this point, I think he's got a king with a weaker kicker, and I'm in great shape to take down the pot.

Two players, $14.50 in the pot and the turn is K♠. I've turned trips, and I'm thinking he's got trips as well, but with a lower kicker. I bet $2.00, and we go back and forth, capping it.

The river is 8♥. There's a flush possibility, but if he was going for the flush, he wouldn't have been raising. I bet, we cap the pot, and he turns over 5&diams 5♠, making a full house. He'd had me beat from the start. I lost $22 on that one hand, because I couldn't slow down and think about what he might be beating me with.

Sometimes, I'm quite the donkey.

I won another hand a few minutes later, only losing $40 for the session. I also hit the play requirements to collect my $37.50 bonus, so in the end, I was only down $2.50 for the day.

Weekend of tournaments, Event 3: Happy Days noon

The good news: At Happy Days' noon tourney, I won $40 using the blackjack match play.

The bad news: with 12000 in chips left, and blinds at 1000 and 2000, I bet 5000 with pocket fives. Another player pushed me all in, and I called, losing to his T9 when the ten hit.

Net: +$15