Where to begin...

Have taken a few days since the last tournament to think this blog entry through, and I think now, I am able to get thoughts down in a somewhat coherent manner.

First: League Event.

The last one of the regular season went ok for me. Short field (only 23 players), and I was still vying for the Player of the Year award. Well, I picked up a few nice pots early (a flopped flush with my K-1o vs. an AQoff--the AQ raised and I flat called hoping to get lucky, which I did), another flush when my pocket 10's ran itself into a diamond flush....a re-draw against a pair of Q's post flop. The night started going south when I picked up pocket 9's in middle-late position (of a 7 handed table). UTG player shoves all in for 1000 or so chips, and I call, knowing their hand is no better than AK. They had AQ--my reads were actually pretty good. Problem was, the flop crushed me with an A and Q coming out. Ack.

I get mixed up in a couple other pots I had no business being in, and my stack was sitting at around 1400 at the break. Come back, shove allin with AJ, and get called by A-10...it holds up, I double, then I shove later on the button with the same hand, same player calls, but this time they have AK. He doubles through me, leaving me with 125 total chips. My next hand: JJ

LOL

Figured they were about to get run down and knock me out, but instead, I FLOP QUADS!!!! WOOT! So I tripled my 125 (plus antes) up to what, 600? And then get moved to another table. 2 hands into the next table, I am knocked out, and done. Earned enough points to lock up my TOC seat, which was the bottom line goal going in.

We ended up playing a side tournament, and I took home 2nd in that (with a decent payday). One hand of interest to share...on BB with 87 suited, early player goes all in for 1300 (or so--may have been more). At the time, I was sitting on about 6K in chips (after busting 2 players out in the first 10 or so hands). 87 suited is no monster by any stretch, but the drawing possibilities were just too sexy to let go. 3 spades makes a flush, connectors make a straight--heck, I could end up making a pair or 2. I call, and the all-in shows A-7. Player in seat 2 shows he mucked K8, so there goes one of my outs....but on the flop:

8-x-7

Ouch. Just playin' my rush, baby....

There was plenty of discussion about the league scoring system, and how it rewards players, and punishes others. I am not getting into all that here, but I will say this. As a member of the decision making team in our league, I stand behind the points system we had in place, and will have going forward.So.....now that the regular season is behind us,. we actually have a 5 week break before we play again as a group. Our Tournament of Champions won't hit until June, as we have a montrously busy month of May in our area. To the league members reading this--PLEASE show up to TOC day. The satelite tourney will be fun, the company will be good--it's a fun day of poker. We should be announcing our League Player's Rep that day (that is the plan anyway), and also any changes to be implemented for next season.

For me, no poker planned unless I end up playing at Irish Jim's sometime in May, trying to nab a day off here or there. Gonna be a long stretch, but I have my hand ranking card, just in case I forget what beats what.