Lucky 44 and a late tart

I was all ready to play in the Blogger Bracelet Race last night. I decided that I would try and win a token as opposed to buying right in, so I fired up the laptop about an hour and a half before the start of the tourney. I logged into FullTilt and decided to see how many people were already registered. Hmmmm. No $24+2 tourneys starting at 9:00. Strange.

A quick visit to Al’s blog and I see that I got the start time wrong by 2 hours. So here I am, thinking I’m logging in early at 7:30, only to see that the tourney had already been running for half an hour. Ooops.

Congrats to whoever took it down!

Part of me wasn’t really in the mood to play, so I guess it was for the best.

I wasn’t in the mood, because Banky and I got in an argument on Saturday night over how I played….it boils down to this – he doesn’t think I take it seriously enough when I play online (I gamble too much), and I feel too much pressure when he watches me play, because I feel like he’s judging me and if I make the wrong play and lose, then I’ve disappointed him. It’s silly that we argued, but it just soured me on playing online for awhile. I don’t want the fact that I lost $5.75 in an OHL game and a $6 token tourney to result in an argument with my husband. Besides, online poker is rigged! ;)

Live poker, however, is the shiz.

We played in a 60-man bounty tourney in Guelph this weekend. I busted out early (between 45th-50th I think). I think I played fine…but I was card dead and couldn’t make anything happen. I think my biggest downfall was I slipped into passive mode when I got short stacked. But it was what it was, and I busted out when I was all-in with pocket 6’s against pocket Aces and AK. I hand over my lovely pink bounty chip to the AK (who caught a straight), and head downstairs to the $1/2 NL cash game…and that’s where the fun begins!

There’s one empty seat (UTG) at the table, I quickly sit and buy-in for $100 and get dealt cards…I ask the dealer if I have to post and he says no. Okey doke!

I get dealt 44 and limp in. A few more limpers and the SB raises it $10. I know this player, and know he’d do this with any 2, and figure if I catch a set I can get his stack, so I call the 10. There’s 1 other caller behind. Flop is…

2 2 4

Is this a dream?

SB bets out $18, and I, idiotically, say “$30”. The dealer says it’s an illegal raise and says I can only call. Ok…I thought I’d be committed to make it a legal raise since it almost was, but whatever. I make the call.

The player behind me, then says “30 on top” and I am flabbergasted.

He knows I love my hand, yet he’s still raising. What could he have? Please, oh please, don’t let him have pocket 2’s!

Now unfortunately my mistake of attempting to raise chases out the other player. Had I just called his bet, I’m sure he would have come along for the extra $30, but since he knew I was staying, he decided to fold. I go all-in, and my opponenet quickly calls. Oh lordy, he called so fast I started seeing quad 2s flashing in front of my eyes. But no. He didn’t have quads, he had A2 for three of a kind.

Another player said he folded a 2, so I knew the hand was mine. But I got a 4th 4 on the turn anyway. Woot! As I scooped the huge pot, people started commenting on the high hand…and I was told that the organizers were doing a high hand jackpot for the day, and that I’d qualified. Double Woot!

I cashed out about an hour or so later when Banky busted out. By then I was up $90 (lost a huge pot with JJ when a guy overplayed his AK preflop and caught a stinking Ace on the turn – bah!). But still…up $90, and a potential for more with the high hand. I found out the next day that my high hand did hold up, and I was $225 richer!

My cash game winnings covered the cost of our buy-ins, plus a tidy little profit – definitely a good day for the Tart.