Up and Down like a Yo-Yo

Me (A-A) Qc 7s I bet, and Chau called again- fifth street: Chau (x-x) 2d 10h Kh
Me (A-A) Qc 7s 8c Chaui checked, I bet, Chau raised, I re-raised, and Chau re-raised! At that point I figured Chau had to have kings up or something so I stopped raising. Sixth street: Chau (x-x) 2d 10h Kh 6h
Me (A-A) Qc 7s 8c As I caught my best card, but was 100% certain Chau would bet so I check-raised him, and he re-raised me again! Oh man, now it looked like he might just have had a pair of deuces with a flush draw on fifth street, but I actually felt like I had the best hand. Nevertheless, I just called. The River: I didn’t improve and checked. Chau bet, and at this point I hated my hand, but just had to call. Call I did, and Chau turned up K-K-2 for kings full on the river! Chau started with pocket kings, sucked out on fifth street, I re-sucked on sixth street, and he crushed me on the river. Pretty big pot for heads up stud. Ming pulled his usual hit n’ run and I jokingly said, “How much you win Ming, $4000?” I had absolutely no idea and was just kidding around. Ming counted down his chips and said, “How you know. Exacley. I win exacley $4000.” Ming is feeling great about being a “champion” now having won a WPT event, and the needle was out from the table. We all called him a TV player, blah, blah, blah… all in good fun. When asked where he was going, Ming cracked us up with this, “I’m businessman now. Play the poker business. Make the movie. People follow de batroom. I’m swear. People follow come to de batroom talk to me for the magazine!” That’s Ming speak, and apparently I’m the only one who understands him so I have to translate for the rest of the table. Before Ming quit, Johnny Chan showed up in a Halloween costume, or so we thought. It was actually a Versace shirt that made it look as though he had tattoos on his arms. Very colorful. By the time he got into the game, I was killing it. I enjoy short handed poker and feel like my edge is enhanced against fewer opponents, but this wasn’t a case of me outplaying anybody, it was a pure card rush. I was up $240,000 before I knew it. Then, I started to get a little sloppy thinking it was easy. I wasn’t happy with the way I played Stud tonight at all. I was being far too lazy and just going through the motions. Very quickly, after a few tough beats I’d lost back $200,000 and was winning just $40,000. Making a wheel in a three handed, jammed stud H/L pot put me back on track, and after a 6 hour session I walked away winner $128,500. It’s almost 9:00am as I finish writing this blog and I haven’t slept yet. I finally got motivated to clean the house and do some laundry and went on a cleaning rampage. It had been a while since I tidied up around here and it was looking a little too much like a bachelor pad! I even picked up groceries on the way home. When I’m in “poker mode” the rest of my life gets put on hold usually. I focus not on shaving or what I’m going to wear, but how quickly I can get to the poker room. I love being in poker mode, but it’s also important to have balance. Tonight I’m going to have some fun and attend Todd Brunson’s Halloween party. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get any sleep before the party, though, as I have a lot of errands to run. Have to take the Lexus into the shop, dry cleaning, Mushu needs to go to the “salon,” and most importantly I have to shop for my costume. I already know what I need: -A black curly mullet wig
-tight white jeans
-pointy white boots
-about 10 fake gold necklaces Everything else I’ll need for the costume, I already have… baby!]]>