Poker tales

So, those of you who know me know that I love to play poker, and I'm pretty good at it.

I'm also friends with a handful of the guys who play at the "Big" No-Limit Hold'em game ($600 minimum / no max, as opposed to the "little" or "baby" or "training wheels" game which is $50 min / $200 mx), where the average player sits down with about $2k median.  I normally play $10/$20 structured hold'em and sometimes play the baby NL game, where I mostly lose my money.  The guys I'm friends with are good, so when they do their usual 'why don't you sit down and play?' lines, I say "thanks, but I'm still sane".  They take it in stride, and I come over there and be their groupie and they let me see their cards and how they play them (which is awfully nice of them, those of you who are poker players who play NL know that you never really want to show anyone your hand).  I give them the occasional shoulder rub in exchange.

(for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a decent explaination/tutorial.  Basically at No-Limit, you can bet any amount in front of you, even all of your chips.  At Limit hold'em (my usual) you can only bet a certain amount (hence, limit or structured). )

So, anyway, last Friday I went to the Casino a little earlier than usual, and put my name on the 10/20 list as well as the baby and medium NL list (medium is $200 min / $500 max).  The Big Boys were having problems getting enough people for their game, so they said they'd run a medium game because they'd get a couple more people playing.  I was hesitant to join, because 4 of the 8 players were regular big limit players, but I decided to go ahead and do so, after my friend SS talked me into it.

about 20 min into the game, I get QT off-suit, I put my $10 into the pot, as I'm in somewhat early/middle position, and AD makes it $30 to go.  I toss an extra $20 in because AD raises on a lot of junk.  The flop comes down K J 5, with no flush draw.  So, I've got a nice open ended straight, meaning either the 9 or the A makes my hand.  The next card that comes down is an Ace! Woot!  I merely bet $30, because I don't want to look like I have the nuts (best hand), but just an ace.  AD grabs a bunch of $25 chips and tosses them in.  I get to say what every poker player wants to day "Well, I'm all-in".  AD calls, I flip over my MONSTER and AD says "oh boy I'm drawing dead." best words I could hear! and then he says, "Oh wait, I have outs" - he had Ace-5, so the 2 A or 2 5s left in the deck would have made him a better hand.

The river was neither of those, so now I have $1200 in chips in front of me.  EE!

At this point a couple of the guys at the table REALLY want to play the big game, but you have to have agreement from everyone to change it, and they keep saying that now that I have doubled up, etc, I should be ok to play.  SS (also sititng at the table) was trying to stand up for me, but I finally gave into peer pressure and said ok.  I stayed for a while that night and ended the night up in an amount that had a comma in it.

The next day I went back and was still insane, so I sat down at the big kids table, and managed to get my pocket queens cracked on the river by a fish who couldn't lay down his Ace-King.  I was then stuck a good amount, but managed to rally when the table got more short handed and ended up for the night.  Plus, I got a shoulder rub from the cute really good poker player out of the queen cracking.

Then, I decided to go to play poker last night (Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are when the big game runs), with the greatest intention of NOT PLAYING the big game and getting my sanity back.  I, like a good girl, sat down at the $10/$20 - despite the fact that SS and R were sitting at the big game and there was a seat open and a couple fish there.

I had regained my sanity.  Or so I thought.  SS said "hey, when you lose $180 over there, you can come back over here" in a joking tone.

But wonder of wonders, my $10/$20 game?  So.  Boring.  Literally.  Part of it was due to a rain delay (what we call those people who take 10 minutes to decide if they're going to put $10 in or fold), and part of it was that is was just slower.  I went up to SS and said "aaaagh, I'm SO BORED", and he laughed, and tapped his arm like a fake heroin addict.  I laughed, and sadly, that open seat had gotten filled.

So, SS said 'go put your name up on the list'.  I told him that I already had. :)

I ended the night up $1300, so that's not a bad run for 3 days.

I might actually be better at this No Limit thing than I thought...