A valuable lesson learned last night. I was officiating a freshman boys basketball game. Team A lead Team B 38-36 with 6.5 seconds to go. I handed the ball in to Team A knowing there was going to be a quick foul. He throws it in, there's the foul, and I raise my fist and start blowing....problem? The whistle is not in my mouth! It won't make any noise that way. What an embarrassing feeling...we were able to correct the clock and the game finished reasonably. Sigh...
I'm loving officiating. I think I am doing pretty good calling the game. I just need to be more confident in my calls and I still need to continue to get my mechanics cleaned up. I think the coaches pick up on my hesitancy in my calls at times. Obviously, in my mind anyway, I need to work on my communication with the coaches as well. I notice as I work higher up the ladder that the coaches are a lot more vocal and demonstrative. They have a passion for the game as do I; I just need to make sure that I stay on an even keel and not let their "excitement" affect what I am doing.
As for Poker, our league just played our Main Event. 40 minute blind levels and 107,000 in chips on the table (10 guys). We had a ton of fun. I took a few bad beats, including the last hand (trips on the turn vs 2 pair, all-in; 2-outer full house on the river...) and got down to 1200, but fought my way back to 2nd before the 2 outer hit...I'm 0-5 in that tournament which really bugs me, but this was my best finish and I think I played really well. A couple of breaks, as opposed to runner runner beats, and I may have very well crushed the tournament.
One hand, I felt I set up really well. I limped in early position with 9/10 offsuit (yes that sounds stupid, but keep reading); I believe the blinds were still 50/100 (I probably started the hand with 10,000). One of the more aggressive players in our league raises to 300, 2 people call in front of me, so I feel like I am getting decent odds to call, so I do; there is one more caller. Flop is J Q 4. Checks all around. 4 of us still in to the turn. 7. Check, Check...hmmm...I bet 600, my follower calls and the other two players fold. River is an 8. Bingo! I'm trying to come up with a bet that he will call and put 700 out there. He thinks about it and says "All in." I check to make sure there are no flush possibilities or that I missed something and basically insta-call. He says "I got the straight." I say "So do I, we must be splitting." Nope, he had 5 6. He was very surprised by what I had. I believe he thought I had KQ or QJ. Tough hand for him as he was the host and he was out about an hour and 10 minutes in...
Anyway, that's about all I have. There were some other hands, but I don't want to just talk about my bad beats. On a side note, IU gets their two big guys back for the Butler game this Saturday, Hanner Perrea-Mosquera and Peter Jurkin. IU just got deeper! Mark my words: Jeremy Hollowell is going to go off some game this season for like 20-25 points and people are going to wonder where that came from. This kid is a stud.
Bum
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Officiating and Such
I read my last post again and, wow, I was a bit angry. I'm not saying it wasn't the truth, cause it was, but still it was pretty aggressive.
Anyway, high school basketball has started, which means I have started officiating again. I'm really enjoying it again. I have officiated 12 games to this point and I have 7 more games this week. I officiated my first boys game last week and as I have often said "somebody is going to get the first T." I didn't hand out a T all of last season. I should have, but I didn't. Well, I call a jump ball and 20 seconds afterwards (after the ball has rolled away from the 2 players) one of players jacks the other one back down onto the floor. Whistle, T. Then he comes over and says, "What did I do?" Really? I told him what he did and then I said "you know exactly what you did. Get away from me." I explain it to the coach and move on. It wasn't near as dramatic as I had anticipated. I was talking to one of the parents after the game from the same team as Mr. T. and I said, "I hated called that T." He said, and it meant a lot to hear this from a fan, "it was a good call right there." Nothing more than that. It was really nice to hear that.
To this point, I am only working Middle School, Freshman and some JV games (this is my 2nd year). I am very anxious to move up the ladder and see how far I can go with this. But, I need to make sure that I don't move up too soon. I gotta make sure I have my mechanics down and that I learn how to properly interact with the coaches first. It's hard to wait, but I'm enjoying learning. I have 3 Freshman Boys games this week and then my first JV Boys game this Friday.
My son ran 17:38 this Saturday at the Footlocker Midwest Regionals to set a personal best in the 5K. I was so happy for him as he has worked so hard. It was great to see the joy on his face that showed that all that work was paying off.
Poker? Eh...won my league again, but I was so blitzed that night that I can't really tell you much about it. I know that I had the nuts (and that I practically told the caller what I had) on the hand that I went out on (against my follower...) but he caught runner runner to beat me. Oh well, I am not sure I could have survived that tournament without making everyone mad anyway... :)
Otherwise, I have been watching IU basketball and boy do they have a depth of talent that I doubt any other team in the nation has. And, they are only going to get deeper! 3 games from now IU gets 2 of their big men back (6-8 and 7-0 Freshman) and sometime this month they get Elston back. Wow, where are all the minutes going to come from???
Anyway, high school basketball has started, which means I have started officiating again. I'm really enjoying it again. I have officiated 12 games to this point and I have 7 more games this week. I officiated my first boys game last week and as I have often said "somebody is going to get the first T." I didn't hand out a T all of last season. I should have, but I didn't. Well, I call a jump ball and 20 seconds afterwards (after the ball has rolled away from the 2 players) one of players jacks the other one back down onto the floor. Whistle, T. Then he comes over and says, "What did I do?" Really? I told him what he did and then I said "you know exactly what you did. Get away from me." I explain it to the coach and move on. It wasn't near as dramatic as I had anticipated. I was talking to one of the parents after the game from the same team as Mr. T. and I said, "I hated called that T." He said, and it meant a lot to hear this from a fan, "it was a good call right there." Nothing more than that. It was really nice to hear that.
To this point, I am only working Middle School, Freshman and some JV games (this is my 2nd year). I am very anxious to move up the ladder and see how far I can go with this. But, I need to make sure that I don't move up too soon. I gotta make sure I have my mechanics down and that I learn how to properly interact with the coaches first. It's hard to wait, but I'm enjoying learning. I have 3 Freshman Boys games this week and then my first JV Boys game this Friday.
My son ran 17:38 this Saturday at the Footlocker Midwest Regionals to set a personal best in the 5K. I was so happy for him as he has worked so hard. It was great to see the joy on his face that showed that all that work was paying off.
Poker? Eh...won my league again, but I was so blitzed that night that I can't really tell you much about it. I know that I had the nuts (and that I practically told the caller what I had) on the hand that I went out on (against my follower...) but he caught runner runner to beat me. Oh well, I am not sure I could have survived that tournament without making everyone mad anyway... :)
Otherwise, I have been watching IU basketball and boy do they have a depth of talent that I doubt any other team in the nation has. And, they are only going to get deeper! 3 games from now IU gets 2 of their big men back (6-8 and 7-0 Freshman) and sometime this month they get Elston back. Wow, where are all the minutes going to come from???
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
What a Day....
Well, despite Florida still being up in the air (surprise!) obama (no capitalization is intentional) has been re-elected. Part of the reason is that people apparently blame obama's failures on George Bush...Really? When does obama take responsibility for his own actions? Bush didn't put us $4 TRILLION more in debt, obama did. Nothing Bush did caused that stupidity. We now owe China $.40 of every dollar we have...well, that was last week, so it is more now. 4 more years of this and we will belong to China and have to ask them permission to use the shitter. Women for obama? What has obama done for women? Nothing. Women (a majority, not all) vote for democrats every time thinking they are getting some benefit. Of course abortion is only about women, it's certainly not about the child being murdered...but, again, was changing the abortion laws an issue at all? Absolutely not. Unions...the next time obama does something for the unions in this country will be the first time. Romney wouldn't have killed the unions; the unions are too busy killing themselves and too self absorbed to even notice it.
And obamacare? What a piece of crap that is. Every healthy American will experience their cost for health insurance skyrocketing in 2014 so that Health Insurers can protect themselves from all the sick people they will be required to take on as "customers." Health Insurance companies will also have to pay a $8B fee just to exist...really? Why? I thought this was a capitalist nation? So, health insurers aren't allowed to continue to bring in that 5% of profit huh? Oh, don't confuse health insurers with hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies...these organizations will be able to continue to post profits in the 40% and upwards range. Apparently, these organizations lined obama's pockets enough to be ignored in his "brilliant" plan for socialized health care. Oh, and don't think obama can pay all the subsidies within his current budget. Taxes will have to increase to upwards of 40%-50% to cover these costs; or, I guess we continue to sell ourselves out to that communist nation...
Thanks to all of you lazy ass Americans that couldn't be bothered to think before you voted. Or maybe you thought that the only chance your lazy ass had for help was to vote for obama? Here's a thought: get off your lazy ass and start working like our forefathers did! Quit using our Constitution as toilet paper. It was meant to be a guide for how this country operated forever, not just until it got a little difficult. What a bunch of pussies this nation has turned into. When I was a kid, my parents would have worked 3 jobs before suffering the indignity of asking the government for help! Now, obama voters see how much they can game the system to screw the government out of money that they were not owed. People like this are an embarrassment to themselves, their families, their race and to our country. This country was founded on Christian beliefs and should remain grounded in those beliefs. I don't care what religion or non-religion anyone practices as long as they are not allowed to change how our country operates and is grounded. Take God out of our country and you will have a country that exists without God's grace. This country has been the recipient of God's grace throughout the last 200+ years; why throw that out the window now?
If you want to live in a Socialist State, there are plenty of countries that will take you. This country was formed as a FREE country and should remain that way. The Socialist party gave up running long ago because the Democratic party was doing their job for them.
Well, there, I've said more than I should, but it still needs to be said. Someone said today that we should all be united and accept obama as our "leader." I laugh at that. obama is not my leader and never will be. Besides, 20 years from now, or whenever it happens, we will find out who is backing obama and I guarantee the people that voted for his ignorant butt are not going to be happy. I mean, seriously, what non-political job has he held since college? Where did his money suddenly come from? Yeah, great role model; we elect a guy who has never worked a day in his life in a real job. On top of that, only the democrats have to bus the least educated Americans to the polls to win; if they had an education and understood what was going on and what the issues were, they wouldn't be democrats then would they?
Alright, alright, I'm done. Basketball season is upon us and I would expect some basketball blogs if I were you. IU just lost 2 players for 9 games because a guy who donated $185 20 years ago (before said players were born) was considered a booster (because of the $185 in donations over a 7 year period, 20 years ago) and paid for travel expenses for two foreign players while they were in HS here in the US. Yes, NCAA, that is what is wrong with college basketball...idiots.
And obamacare? What a piece of crap that is. Every healthy American will experience their cost for health insurance skyrocketing in 2014 so that Health Insurers can protect themselves from all the sick people they will be required to take on as "customers." Health Insurance companies will also have to pay a $8B fee just to exist...really? Why? I thought this was a capitalist nation? So, health insurers aren't allowed to continue to bring in that 5% of profit huh? Oh, don't confuse health insurers with hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies...these organizations will be able to continue to post profits in the 40% and upwards range. Apparently, these organizations lined obama's pockets enough to be ignored in his "brilliant" plan for socialized health care. Oh, and don't think obama can pay all the subsidies within his current budget. Taxes will have to increase to upwards of 40%-50% to cover these costs; or, I guess we continue to sell ourselves out to that communist nation...
Thanks to all of you lazy ass Americans that couldn't be bothered to think before you voted. Or maybe you thought that the only chance your lazy ass had for help was to vote for obama? Here's a thought: get off your lazy ass and start working like our forefathers did! Quit using our Constitution as toilet paper. It was meant to be a guide for how this country operated forever, not just until it got a little difficult. What a bunch of pussies this nation has turned into. When I was a kid, my parents would have worked 3 jobs before suffering the indignity of asking the government for help! Now, obama voters see how much they can game the system to screw the government out of money that they were not owed. People like this are an embarrassment to themselves, their families, their race and to our country. This country was founded on Christian beliefs and should remain grounded in those beliefs. I don't care what religion or non-religion anyone practices as long as they are not allowed to change how our country operates and is grounded. Take God out of our country and you will have a country that exists without God's grace. This country has been the recipient of God's grace throughout the last 200+ years; why throw that out the window now?
If you want to live in a Socialist State, there are plenty of countries that will take you. This country was formed as a FREE country and should remain that way. The Socialist party gave up running long ago because the Democratic party was doing their job for them.
Well, there, I've said more than I should, but it still needs to be said. Someone said today that we should all be united and accept obama as our "leader." I laugh at that. obama is not my leader and never will be. Besides, 20 years from now, or whenever it happens, we will find out who is backing obama and I guarantee the people that voted for his ignorant butt are not going to be happy. I mean, seriously, what non-political job has he held since college? Where did his money suddenly come from? Yeah, great role model; we elect a guy who has never worked a day in his life in a real job. On top of that, only the democrats have to bus the least educated Americans to the polls to win; if they had an education and understood what was going on and what the issues were, they wouldn't be democrats then would they?
Alright, alright, I'm done. Basketball season is upon us and I would expect some basketball blogs if I were you. IU just lost 2 players for 9 games because a guy who donated $185 20 years ago (before said players were born) was considered a booster (because of the $185 in donations over a 7 year period, 20 years ago) and paid for travel expenses for two foreign players while they were in HS here in the US. Yes, NCAA, that is what is wrong with college basketball...idiots.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Conflicted...
Interesting week to be honest. I will jump to some poker stuff first. Been playing on Black Chip Poker on-line. Can't get money on there because now they take no credit cards and I'm not doing Western Union. So, been playing some free rolls and such to try and get so I am playing for money that way eventually. Tough row to hoe! Playing several Punta Cana tournaments which if I finish in the top 5 I get an entry into another $1.10 Punta Cana tournament and if I win that one I get an entry into the $5.50 Punta Cana tournament; I have made it that far as I won one of the entry events and then on my 2nd try I won a $1.10 event. I haven't played the $5.50 event yet, but I believe that just moves me up to a larger dollar event. I am hoping at some point this leads to some real money...the poker in these events is pretty mediocre, so barring bad luck, which I have certainly experienced, one should be able to move on through. I have also been playing a $200 free roll that "hands" out real cash without much luck; it moves much faster and while the play is worse the variance is much higher. I played the PL Omaha event and much like PL Omaha I got my money in good with the nut straight on the turn only to lose to a full house on the river...sigh...but alas, it is fun and hopefully I will see some further progress soon.
As to being conflicted, I find that as I advance in age things get complicated. People get intertwined in your life and then something happens and you have to untangle that "intertwining." I don't want to be specific here but I have several situations that have come up this week that have really put me in the middle of things that I don't want to be in the middle of. It's hard not to take sides and it's hard to keep people happy. I don't have an answer for it. Sometimes I know one side is right but I'm still "intertwined" with the other side which leaves me in a difficult situation with difficult decisions to make. Like next spring, I want to play softball, but there's a situation where my best friend on the team may not be asked to play...I'm not going to play if that happens, but is that fair to either of us? Yeah, yeah, I hear you people out there saying that I need to retire anyway, but, hey, I have a blast playing. Maybe they will come to their senses and realize they need a pitcher...I don't know, that's not even the most annoying/serious of the issues this week, but it's the only one I can share.
I went to my first basketball meeting last night in preparation for the upcoming HS basketball season. I am a basketball official if you have forgotten. It was interesting. The points of emphasis are on elbows and excessive contact. At this point, the powers that be are trying to turn basketball into a non-contact sport. I understand that there are too many fights and too many head injuries, but c'mon this game was meant to be a physical game in some instances. When I played, you got real physical with your opponent and then shook hands afterwards. You respected the fact that they didn't back down. Also, there weren't many cheap shots; it was clean, hard basketball. Now...sigh...it's just not the same anymore, but I still love officiating basketball and being part of the game I love. Hopefully, in some small way, I make the game better while I am on the court.
Thanks for reading follower(s)!
Bum
As to being conflicted, I find that as I advance in age things get complicated. People get intertwined in your life and then something happens and you have to untangle that "intertwining." I don't want to be specific here but I have several situations that have come up this week that have really put me in the middle of things that I don't want to be in the middle of. It's hard not to take sides and it's hard to keep people happy. I don't have an answer for it. Sometimes I know one side is right but I'm still "intertwined" with the other side which leaves me in a difficult situation with difficult decisions to make. Like next spring, I want to play softball, but there's a situation where my best friend on the team may not be asked to play...I'm not going to play if that happens, but is that fair to either of us? Yeah, yeah, I hear you people out there saying that I need to retire anyway, but, hey, I have a blast playing. Maybe they will come to their senses and realize they need a pitcher...I don't know, that's not even the most annoying/serious of the issues this week, but it's the only one I can share.
I went to my first basketball meeting last night in preparation for the upcoming HS basketball season. I am a basketball official if you have forgotten. It was interesting. The points of emphasis are on elbows and excessive contact. At this point, the powers that be are trying to turn basketball into a non-contact sport. I understand that there are too many fights and too many head injuries, but c'mon this game was meant to be a physical game in some instances. When I played, you got real physical with your opponent and then shook hands afterwards. You respected the fact that they didn't back down. Also, there weren't many cheap shots; it was clean, hard basketball. Now...sigh...it's just not the same anymore, but I still love officiating basketball and being part of the game I love. Hopefully, in some small way, I make the game better while I am on the court.
Thanks for reading follower(s)!
Bum
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
I folded the nuts, etc.
Hey "All"
The Poker League got together Saturday to play two tournaments: Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold'em. We played Omaha first. I was involved in several interesting hands but will go over a few.
First hand: I have AA7x, 2 hearts. It's early, so the blinds are 25/50 (we start with 5000) and there are 6 people seeing the flop. I did not raise because this early in the tournament most people will call anyway and I don't want to create a big pot at this point in the tournament when my aces may very well be worthless after the flop (this is a 10-person tournament); obviously, as the blinds increase and the number of players decrease, then I become much more aggressive with AA in Omaha.
Flop: A 9 J (two hearts): pot is 300 before any betting. Checked to me. I'm way ahead here. I bet 200. 2 callers.
Turn: K (not a heart): Yippee...pot is 900 before any betting. I check. Lefty bets 600 and Buffy calls; I sigh on the inside and call; I still have outs afterall and I'm getting 3.5 to 1 on my money with the nut flush draw and full house and quad draws.
River: shit (not a heart): this sucks...Pot is 2700 before any betting...I don't know how the betting went but Lefty bet, Buffy called after trying to figure out how his nuts could get beat and I folded quickly. Nothing I could really do here, it's just PL Omaha and that is just the way it is; extremely volatile game.
So, then I end up a bit short, but I turn it around partly on one huge bluff on a straight board where I just had a pair of 2's and the other guy had 2 pair. 2 pair suck in Omaha and with a straight staring you in the face it is tough to call. I had a pretty good read on him and if he called I was going to be amazed.
Later in the tournament we were down to 3 players and I was probably the big stack by then and getting bigger all the time.
My Hand: A 8 9 10. Blinds are 400/800 I think. The dealer folded and I called; BB checked. I had been raising a lot so I just tried to sneak in here.
Flop: A A 7. Check, Check.
Turn: 9: Yahtzee right? Not so fast. 1600 in the pot before any betting. I bet 1200. He bets pot which makes it 2800 for me to call and when I look at his stack, I know it's either all in or fold...you say "fold? You have the nuts!" Yeah, yeah, but I was overthinking and not thinking at the same time. I knew I had 3 aces and I knew I had a straight draw. However, I did not connect that my 9 that would help me with a straight also made me a boat...I asked if he would show. "Sure." I folded after convincing myself that he had a boat, making my straight draw worthless and he flips A 4 5 Q...I say "nice hand," a little annoyed that he didn't have the boat but had a higher kicker than me...The dealer looks at my hand and says, "You just folded the nuts!"
Well, the good news is that I eventually won the Omaha tournament and I have won 4 of the 5 Omaha tournaments we have played this year. Wow, I have never done that before and next month we play PL Omaha 8 which can be much more confusing than just standard Omaha. I hate making that mistake, but I think I learned from it and it certainly added to the fun of the evening.
It's 9/11; Let us never forget!
Bum
The Poker League got together Saturday to play two tournaments: Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold'em. We played Omaha first. I was involved in several interesting hands but will go over a few.
First hand: I have AA7x, 2 hearts. It's early, so the blinds are 25/50 (we start with 5000) and there are 6 people seeing the flop. I did not raise because this early in the tournament most people will call anyway and I don't want to create a big pot at this point in the tournament when my aces may very well be worthless after the flop (this is a 10-person tournament); obviously, as the blinds increase and the number of players decrease, then I become much more aggressive with AA in Omaha.
Flop: A 9 J (two hearts): pot is 300 before any betting. Checked to me. I'm way ahead here. I bet 200. 2 callers.
Turn: K (not a heart): Yippee...pot is 900 before any betting. I check. Lefty bets 600 and Buffy calls; I sigh on the inside and call; I still have outs afterall and I'm getting 3.5 to 1 on my money with the nut flush draw and full house and quad draws.
River: shit (not a heart): this sucks...Pot is 2700 before any betting...I don't know how the betting went but Lefty bet, Buffy called after trying to figure out how his nuts could get beat and I folded quickly. Nothing I could really do here, it's just PL Omaha and that is just the way it is; extremely volatile game.
So, then I end up a bit short, but I turn it around partly on one huge bluff on a straight board where I just had a pair of 2's and the other guy had 2 pair. 2 pair suck in Omaha and with a straight staring you in the face it is tough to call. I had a pretty good read on him and if he called I was going to be amazed.
Later in the tournament we were down to 3 players and I was probably the big stack by then and getting bigger all the time.
My Hand: A 8 9 10. Blinds are 400/800 I think. The dealer folded and I called; BB checked. I had been raising a lot so I just tried to sneak in here.
Flop: A A 7. Check, Check.
Turn: 9: Yahtzee right? Not so fast. 1600 in the pot before any betting. I bet 1200. He bets pot which makes it 2800 for me to call and when I look at his stack, I know it's either all in or fold...you say "fold? You have the nuts!" Yeah, yeah, but I was overthinking and not thinking at the same time. I knew I had 3 aces and I knew I had a straight draw. However, I did not connect that my 9 that would help me with a straight also made me a boat...I asked if he would show. "Sure." I folded after convincing myself that he had a boat, making my straight draw worthless and he flips A 4 5 Q...I say "nice hand," a little annoyed that he didn't have the boat but had a higher kicker than me...The dealer looks at my hand and says, "You just folded the nuts!"
Well, the good news is that I eventually won the Omaha tournament and I have won 4 of the 5 Omaha tournaments we have played this year. Wow, I have never done that before and next month we play PL Omaha 8 which can be much more confusing than just standard Omaha. I hate making that mistake, but I think I learned from it and it certainly added to the fun of the evening.
It's 9/11; Let us never forget!
Bum
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Poker
Well, it's been awhile since I wrote in this blog. I kinda missed it.
Friday night our poker league finally got back together after about a month and a half layoff. We had 7 of our 10 members there and a couple of subs. Unfortunately, a couple of our members are dropping at the end of the season and are basically unavailable during the rest of this season making organizing these events difficult. One is moving to KY, which sucks cause he's as good a friend as I have and the other plays in a band that keeps him busy every weekend for the most part.
Anyway, first tournament. Relatively early in the game (4th level I believe: 100/200). I am either the chip leader or pretty much right there. I have raised relatively frequently, enough so that one of the subs has even commented on it. Anyway, I believe I was in the cutoff. There are 2 calls to me, one from the sub (let's call him Karl) that commented on my raises and has proven to be pretty aggressive to this point and one from a member (let's call him Toby) who is a relatively aggressive player that could have called with just about anything. I look down at AA. I would like to get down to just one player, so I raise to 700. Karl insta-calls and Toby thinks for a minute and then calls as well. (pot is 2400)
Flop: 8 5 2 (rainbow)
Dream flop for me it seems, right? Karl checks. Toby starts counting chips, which makes me happy initially and then he does something different than normal. He says, "I'm all-in." He's not short stacked in the least. I rub my hand through my hair and ask for a count. "5700." Really? I go into the tank. Normally, it wouldn't be surprising for Toby to try to steal here but he would usually make a large bet just under the size of the pot. This is different. Everything about this seems different. Now, I've played in this league with Toby for 2 1/2 years, so we have probably played 45 tournaments against each other, easily 160+ hours of play...after a few minutes, which is long for me as I usually don't take more than 30 seconds even on hard decisions. Seriously, other than having an A hit the flop, what could be better than that flop? But, I gotta quit thinking about that and think about what just happened and how it happened. Something tells me I am way behind here: 8-5? surely not. It's gotta be 22 or 88, right? All this time and Karl still has to act behind me. I imagine all my gyrations made his decision pretty easy. It just kinda dawned on me that somehow Toby knew I had a huge hand and he figured with that flop I couldn't lay it down. So, I asked if he would show if I folded and showed him after the hand was over. He said he would. I show a lot more than I should and sometimes it pays off in situations like this.
So, I say "fold" and drop my cards by my chips and Karl quickly folds. I flip over AA. He shakes his head and says something like he can't believe I folded that and shows 55. The whole thing is weird. I had him covered by a couple of thousand maybe but with that flop, I don't know how I convinced myself to fold. I somehow knew I was beat. Maybe it was a betting pattern or maybe he made some facial expression or gesture or something that I picked up. But I got to wonder what I did to tip off how big a hand that I had that he was that confident to make that bet, cause you don't make that bet with that hand unless you are confident your opponent is calling. I mean I had raised previously with Q8, K4, A5, etc, so it wasn't like I had sat there and done nothing and suddenly jumped out of my skin. I will have to think about this one for awhile and attempt to fix whatever I did. This isn't the first time that I have felt that Toby had a read on me. He will probably read this and laugh but somehow I think I tipped my hand a bit.
On a side-note, I ended up winning the first tournament and then took 5th in the 2nd. I know there were other interesting hands and such but this one I just haven't been able to get out of my mind.
Outside of poker: the Reds are kicking buttocks which is awesome. They have been doing so without Votto. Dusty said "nobody is better than Rolen at 3B." Uh...Todd Frazier is!
Friday night our poker league finally got back together after about a month and a half layoff. We had 7 of our 10 members there and a couple of subs. Unfortunately, a couple of our members are dropping at the end of the season and are basically unavailable during the rest of this season making organizing these events difficult. One is moving to KY, which sucks cause he's as good a friend as I have and the other plays in a band that keeps him busy every weekend for the most part.
Anyway, first tournament. Relatively early in the game (4th level I believe: 100/200). I am either the chip leader or pretty much right there. I have raised relatively frequently, enough so that one of the subs has even commented on it. Anyway, I believe I was in the cutoff. There are 2 calls to me, one from the sub (let's call him Karl) that commented on my raises and has proven to be pretty aggressive to this point and one from a member (let's call him Toby) who is a relatively aggressive player that could have called with just about anything. I look down at AA. I would like to get down to just one player, so I raise to 700. Karl insta-calls and Toby thinks for a minute and then calls as well. (pot is 2400)
Flop: 8 5 2 (rainbow)
Dream flop for me it seems, right? Karl checks. Toby starts counting chips, which makes me happy initially and then he does something different than normal. He says, "I'm all-in." He's not short stacked in the least. I rub my hand through my hair and ask for a count. "5700." Really? I go into the tank. Normally, it wouldn't be surprising for Toby to try to steal here but he would usually make a large bet just under the size of the pot. This is different. Everything about this seems different. Now, I've played in this league with Toby for 2 1/2 years, so we have probably played 45 tournaments against each other, easily 160+ hours of play...after a few minutes, which is long for me as I usually don't take more than 30 seconds even on hard decisions. Seriously, other than having an A hit the flop, what could be better than that flop? But, I gotta quit thinking about that and think about what just happened and how it happened. Something tells me I am way behind here: 8-5? surely not. It's gotta be 22 or 88, right? All this time and Karl still has to act behind me. I imagine all my gyrations made his decision pretty easy. It just kinda dawned on me that somehow Toby knew I had a huge hand and he figured with that flop I couldn't lay it down. So, I asked if he would show if I folded and showed him after the hand was over. He said he would. I show a lot more than I should and sometimes it pays off in situations like this.
So, I say "fold" and drop my cards by my chips and Karl quickly folds. I flip over AA. He shakes his head and says something like he can't believe I folded that and shows 55. The whole thing is weird. I had him covered by a couple of thousand maybe but with that flop, I don't know how I convinced myself to fold. I somehow knew I was beat. Maybe it was a betting pattern or maybe he made some facial expression or gesture or something that I picked up. But I got to wonder what I did to tip off how big a hand that I had that he was that confident to make that bet, cause you don't make that bet with that hand unless you are confident your opponent is calling. I mean I had raised previously with Q8, K4, A5, etc, so it wasn't like I had sat there and done nothing and suddenly jumped out of my skin. I will have to think about this one for awhile and attempt to fix whatever I did. This isn't the first time that I have felt that Toby had a read on me. He will probably read this and laugh but somehow I think I tipped my hand a bit.
On a side-note, I ended up winning the first tournament and then took 5th in the 2nd. I know there were other interesting hands and such but this one I just haven't been able to get out of my mind.
Outside of poker: the Reds are kicking buttocks which is awesome. They have been doing so without Votto. Dusty said "nobody is better than Rolen at 3B." Uh...Todd Frazier is!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
In case you missed this!
Lisa Loeb 2 weeks ago doing one of her hits (er, her one hit; whatever): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS-Cb8UGay4
Started reading the 2012 Baseball Rules Book today so that I can take the test to become licensed to umpire HS games in that sport too. Still frustrated by the lack of resolution regarding my banning...Anyway, work is killing me and I don't have much to say. Enjoy Lisa Loeb, maybe I will have something to say later...
Bum
Started reading the 2012 Baseball Rules Book today so that I can take the test to become licensed to umpire HS games in that sport too. Still frustrated by the lack of resolution regarding my banning...Anyway, work is killing me and I don't have much to say. Enjoy Lisa Loeb, maybe I will have something to say later...
Bum
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