I've played plenty of poker since my heads-up match with Roy, but for some reason I've been totally unmotivated to write about it.  It's not that the poker hasn't been worthy of being written about- on the contrary, there are a bunch of stories I need to tell, but I am a lazy lummox who watches far too much baseball.

A quick synopsis of how I've done from mid-May to yesterday: Visited the Oasis, a local cardroom, with Tom shortly after getting back from school.  Sat with $100 in a 1-2 NL cash game, only got involved in two hands, both of which I won, and left with $223.  The play is amazingly loose and bad over there, and it seems like I could support myself and six kids if I had the time to go there regularly.  The average preflop raise was $15, which is insane at 1-2 blinds, and some raises were as big as $40.  So all you have to do is sit tight and wait for a monster.  I picked up pocket kings right as Tom came over to tell me what was going on at his table. I raised it $15, and three players called.  The flop came king 7 4 with a couple of diamonds, and when it checked to me, I bet $40.  I figured there was no point slowplaying, as people call with nonsense.  Plus, these guys hadn't seen me, so they didn't know if I was making a move or not.  One guy called, and the turn was a blank.  I moved all-in for about $45, and he called without too much thought and flipped up 4 10 of diamonds, for a pair of 4s with a diamond draw.  Just horrible.  The river gave him trips, but made me the nut boat, so I took fishie's money.  Later on I limped with ace queen under the gun, and saw a 5-way pot of ace 10 6.  I checked, the guy to my left bet $10, and two others called.  I raised it another $35, and they all folded, so I took another nice pot.

I played in a couple smaller tournaments in the meantime, without any cashes.  I lost a $25 tournament at Charlie's against a bunch of loose maniacs who called everything preflop no matter how much you bet.  I also lost a tournament at Erik's, and lost some money playing with my family in their psycho wild card games.  Just to give you an idea of how bad I was running, I had a straight flush in one hand and lost to a higher straight flush.

I had been in a rut for the first few weeks of summer after my Oasis outing, and I needed something to change it up for me.  I had played poorly at Erik's first summer tournament, finishing in 10th out of 12.  I got some good hands busted, but I played lousy and had some signs of rust.  The only big pot I won all night was when I made a steal raise with 2 7 off in the big blind, and got one caller, and UTG limper.  The flop was 3 6 7, I check-raised all-in, and beat his pocket 5s, hitting two pair on the river for good measure.  I then lost a coinflip to Tom with 6s against his ace queen, then he used my chips to take me out with ace king against my ace queen.

Tom told me about a tournament run by these old men at the Stuart Thomas Manor in Bethpage.  The buy-in was steep, $150, but he assured me they were terrible players.  To validate that, he told me his dad was playing, too.  At the last minute I decided that this was the type of thing that could be my slump-buster.  I played.  On the very first hand a guy got knocked out when he flopped two pair with king 3 (the krablar, pinch pinch) and lost when the board paired on the river to give pocket aces a higher two pair.  On the second hand of the tournament, I had 7 10 of diamonds in the big blind.  Five players limped, and the flop came down 8 9 jack.  WHACK.  I could already tell that these guys were awful, so I bet out 150 out of my starting stack of 1500.  One player called.  The turn was a 4, and I bet out 250.  He went all-in.  I looked at him and said, "Do you have queen ten?  I call."  He flipped over pocket aces, quite proudly I might add, and then I force-fed him my straight.  Hooray for drawing dead!  That doubled me up right away, and I had time to sit back and wait for another big hand.

To give you an idea of how bad these guys were, on the first 9 hands,  7 players busted from our table.  They kept bringing new players from other tables, and they would get mugged on their first hand.  I've never seen anything like it.  The guy with the aces in the first hand took out four guys by himself, and this Goodfellas extra look-alike with lots of jewelry took out a few himself, like when he hit a gutshot straight after calling a bet on an all-spade flop without a spade in his hand.  The event started with 26 players, with 5 getting paid.  Tom, his dad, and I all sat at different tables to maximize our fish-catching ability.  After our table eliminated another, we got combined to two tables.  I hadn't played a hand except for my straight, but I was sitting pretty.  I got moved to Tom's table, where he was also in OK shape.  A few hands in, I woke up with 10♠10♥ and raised it up after Call Man limped under the gun.  Call Man was very strange.  He called everything preflop, and then bet out on the flop, turn, and river with almost no regard for what his cards were.  Somehow, he had amassed a lot of chips using this tactic.  The flop came down J♠8♠9♠, giving me an open-ended straight flush draw.  He checked to me, and I bet about half the pot.  He had this confused look on his face, then he looked at his cards (holding them up off the table near his face like a big fish), then raised me the minimum.  What?!  I could have pushed, but he had me covered, and I didn't want to get all my money in in an uncertain situation against a player like this.  I called.  The turn was a red rag, and he checked.  I was really confused, and I checked, too.  The river paired the jack on board, and after looking confused, he finally went all-in, a huge overbet.  This put me all-in, and I was almost sure my hand was good.  I still had a lot of chips, though, and I thought that if I got away from it, I could still wreck these guys.  I decided to fold.  The guy later said he just had a pair of 4s, but I don't know.  I didn't really care, to be honest.  In a cash game I would have called him in a heartbeat, but I had to maximize my chance of surviving.

The blinds were getting higher, and all of a sudden I was shortstacked after I missed a few flops.  The card of the night was the 9.  Don't ask me why, but if you had a 9 in your hand, you would win.  Pocket 9s, 9 10, ace 9, they all worked for everyone.  After two guys limped, I looked down to see pocket 9s.  Not that it mattered that 9s were working, because I didn't have much money and I had to pick a spot to move.  I went all-in, and the chip leader on my right called when it got back to him.  He flipped over 9 10 of diamonds, and I had a bad feeling.  The flop came 5 7 king, with two diamonds.  The turn was a black 6, so going into the river he could hit an 8, 10, or diamond to beat me.  The river was the Black Mariah, though, and I doubled up.  I stole a couple blinds, and was back above average when we combined for the final table.  By this time, Tom was in good shape, his dad was done, and Mr. Call had lost all of his chips calling an all-in with bottom pair.  The first hand of the final table, I was in the small blind, and it got folded to me.  The big blind had been at my previous table, and he was pretty tight.  I looked down to see ace king.  I didn't have enough chips to make a decent raise, so I just went all-in, even though it was a bit of an overbet.  There's no sense betting half your stack and giving a guy 2-1 to bust you, I figured.  He thought for a second then called.  Oh crap.  I turned over ace king and he tabled pocket deuces.  "Oh God, don't let me lose to this," I said.  I really don't understand how you call with deuces there, but some guys just can't fold pairs, I guess.  The flop gave me an ace, and now I was in great shape.  This left the guy with just a couple chips, but he tripled up twice to get back in it.  One guy who I hadn't played with yet had a monster stack of chips, about three times the closest competitor, and he was raising like a maniac every hand.  I would have done the same thing, because we were now down to 6 and on the bubble, so everyone was playing tight to make the money.  He came in raising on my big blind, and I saw ace king.  After thinking forever, I tossed it.  Tournament poker can be brutal sometimes.  I could have called and then moved or folded on the flop, but if I missed I would have been down near the two shortstacks, so I figured it was better to wait for them to bust before I made a move.  Plus, the chip leader could have had any random hand, not a dominated hand like I would usually figure him for here, so I would only be about 62-38 on him against two random undercards.  After what seemed like forever, the shortstack finally went out, and we were in the money.  I doubled up when I flopped a straight with queen ten against the chip leader, and then me and Tom made a deal.  No matter where we finished, we'd split our winnings.  Tom had me outchipped by a little, but with my double up I was pretty close to him.  Another guy got whacked, and we were down to four.  Tom was second in chips, while me and the guy with aces on the first hand were at the bottom.  I picked up king jack in the big blind, and after aces guy and chip leader limped, I checked.  I should have pushed, in retrospect, but I figured to get at least one call and I wanted to see a safe flop.  It came down queen 10 5, and I made a bad play.  I checked, even though there was a ton of money in the pot from the blinds, and I had not much.  I had to play this straight, and the correct play was clearly a push. Aces guy bet, chip leader folded, and I called with my straight draw.  It didn't pan out, and his bottom pair turned into trips to boot.  If I had pushed on the flop, he probably would have folded.  I took 4th and $220.  Tom ended up in second and got $440, so we each got $330.  First placed payed about $1100, so it's too bad we couldn't hit that, but the blinds were ludicrous, so you had to just push and pray by time it got heads-up.

I'll post a new entry tonight on yesterday's game at Erik's.  It will be quite extensive, I promise.