4-8 Limit & Tourney Results

Timing is everything. A zig here when you should have zagged can leave you frustrated and asking yourself that all too familiar question: "Why?". I asked myself that very question today. The morning was routine, everything in stride- I had done this a million times, right? Ok, maybe not a million but you get the point. Woke up like usual, got all of the things that I would need, ID, etc and I still missed my chance to act or close when the time came. Did this happen at the poker table? Yes and No but I missed my flight. Would have, could have, should have. Woke up 2 hours before my flight, made it out the door, got to security and was put into the slowest security line that I have been through. The individual checking IDs took at least 3-5 minutes per person. To make matters worst, the two people in front of me were newbies and had never flown before. I was stuck in this line and not a darn thing that I could do. Yes, maybe I could have been an AH and skipped ahead of them but I chose to be patient. Long story short, I missed boarding the flight by 1 minute exactly. Thanks, newbies! or Chewey could have slept at the airport the night before.

So, I was able to sit and stew for the next 60 minutes about how the morning's events transpired and this led to my experiences of my Day 2 from the April Ballys Invitational Trip. I had been observing this 4/8 Limit Table for 30 minutes and was ready to put my name on the list, since there was no wait list- I would be immediately seated. The table was fairly timid and not too many raises at all pre or post flop. I go to the restroom and come back 5 minutes later; there is now a list 5 deep and a new table has opened. Dude, WTF- why? Again, I fell into my routine of waiting casually and doing what I always do and it did not work out this time. Lesson: don't be stubborn- put your name on the list and you can always go after you're seated.

One hour later, I'm finally seated at my new table and there is lots of action, 2-7, J-3, 7-4, were a few of the hands that people were playing with from any position. Two players were on a steam roll and were literally getting slapped with the deck. I managed to win maybe 2 or 3 hands the whole time I sat down at this table. Pocket Aces- got cracked, Trips- got beat by higher trips and King high flush beat by a higher flush. The biggest pot I won was worth over $150. The hand of the night occurs with me having $170 remaining in my stack. I call from mid position behind 3 other limpers and the small and big blinds check. Small blind bets out 4, Big Blind raises to $8 with 10d, 7d and I reraise to $12, everyone calls. The pot is now at $72. The flop is 9d, 4d, Ac. The two callers and the big blind in front of me check and I bet $4. The button, small blind folds and the big blind raises to $8 and I make it $12. Pot is at $96. The turn is a 8c. Again he bets out $8, I make it $16 to go, immediately he repops to $24 and I flat call. All night long, I had witnessed this player stealing pots on the river with his big stack. Even thought this is limit- there are no limit to the number of betting exhanges/flurries as I like to call it. The river is a 2h. Pot is at $144. I flat call the $8 river bet, in order to minimize the size of the pot and to take away the check raise move from the big blind. I state that I want to see his cards and he flips over 10d, 7d and says out loud "you got me- I missed my draw" and I turn over J, 3d and scoop in the pot. There you have it, my Jack high story and I'm only down $140 for the night but realized that it could have been worst. As tempting as it was, I did not ask myself the proverbial question "why?"

As for the tournament, I busted out early in Day 1 and missed several opportunities to bet people out of pots and ultimately it led to my demise in the tournament. The trip was full of "whys" and huhs? but it brought me back to square one and the realization of "timing is everything". Lately, I've been extremely busy and have not had time to play much in the form of live poker. What I have lacked in live poker playing, I've made up for with online poker. I recently took consecutive 2nd place finishes on Bodog and PokerStars on Sundays in the multi table freeroll tournament and $2 rebuys respectively. Being extremely busy with work and devoting a ton of time to the launch of the new version of this website have led to my playing online more. Take a look at it, there's much more to this site besides my blogs but you can always come back to the blog and get your dose of Cheweytainment. You can find tons of information on buy-in poker tournaments, charity tournaments, casinos, poker retailers and even poker news. Don't forget about our 2008 PAA Poker Sweepstakes which ends May 15, 2008. maybe you can win and play with me in Vegas at one of the events at this year's WSOP.

Come back for my next entry on how I am able to finish in 2nd place back to back at different poker sites on the same night. Why Not?
Chewey