Horrid July so far... and I'm not talking about the weather!

July has been horrible, apart from the recession doom and gloom I had the worse month since February, poker-wise. I took ill suddenly at work and was blue-lighted to hospital. After a day or two I was fine, but they fcuked up on some tests, so I ended up being kept in much longer, 8 days longer, than I should have with the meds spacing me out. I was so bored on sick leave I played far more poker than usual - nothing to show for it...

Went to the Fitz for the Sunday freeze-out games - never really got going in either. Jackpot re-buy had just started so Susie and I went to check it out. With only two tables - I played solidly. Tracksuit Tommy came in when this hand happened: I was UTG+2, UTG and UTG+1 limped in, I was sitting on 15/16k Ah4h and called to see the flop. Two other limper and the blinds came for the ride, blinds were 300/600 and we were down to one table at this stage. Flop comes 6 high two hearts plus gut-show straight for me. UTG checks, UTG+1 (one of the Jackpot reg) throws in 3.5k, more than 2/3 the pot... I elected to flat call, the other player folded. Turn brings the heart I need to complete my flush. UTG+1 checks, I fire out 5k, he starts muttering angrily then makes the call. River is another heart UTG bets out 3k, I shove for 6k, he had me covered by 3/4k. Turning over my hand he insta-mucks then attacks my play, "How can you call my 3.5k bet with that shite?!" I pointed out that he had limped in, which allowed me to see the flop for cheap, there was this HUGE discussion on whether he made the 'right call' on the turn/river with all the Jackpot regs agreeing in his favour bar one who consiprationally whispered to me that the particular reg was 'a sore looser' who HATED being put in his place by a 'woman poker player'. Tracksuit Tommy jumped on the bandwagon and started criticising both Susie's and my standard of play, obviously thinking he was taking advantage of our deafness. But Susie was able to hear every word and of course relayed it to me. Needless to say that tosser lost my respect big time. As the Sore Loser lost the rest of his chips and stormed over the cash table - he kept going on, and on, and on about his poor Kings(!) But the incident didn't do us much favours - as we went down to the last 5 players, the game went very slow over 2-3 hours. I exited in 5th place, after losing my chips to a slow-played trips and Susie got raped into 3rd place by the blinds; with just two cash prizes (€210 & €410) we tried in vain to make a deal but the Regs were having none of it. It was really agonising for Susie to bubble like that... We don't play that often in the Jackpot, but a wee bit of consideration would have went a long way in ensuring we go back to play there a more. Between the Sore Loser and the Faithful Regs we declined the cash table and called it a night.

Vegas Night had a €35+5 game in Clonee with a 2k guarantee prize fund. It was my first time attending, I've dealt for Nick a couple of times, he runs a brilliant game. I was very happy with how I played it had a great image on the tables and had garnered a LOT of respect, until we reached the last three tables. At that stage I had a 58k stack (average stack 32k), the game had turned into a crapshoot. On reflection I should have settled-in and tightened up at this stage, as the majority of the players were in 'all-in or fold' mode. As it was I lost with three hands AIPF: AQs v A3 that caught a straight on the flop, AK into JJ turned trips and 77 into 10,10. Great game though... I'll be back to play it tomorrow, knowing what to expect but with a better game plan that hopefully will work!

I had to go home to Roscommon at the weekend, between grave cleaning and turning the turf (oh my back!) I managed to find time to check out a couple of local games, plus the 2009 Roscommon Championship. The pub game was a strange one - the game was the traditional NLHE but the betting structure was similar to 7-Card Stud. Confused? Yes I was too and missed several key points trying to get my head around it! The player to the left dealer (in SB) puts out the 'blind' (which doubles every 15 mins! 5-10-20-40-80-160-320 etc) and the Blind is the first to act! He/She opens for a minimum of 5, other players who want to play must call or raise this amount. If the Blind checks then all the players will see a flop for free and can win the blinds money(!) If there is a re-raise pre-flop, then the action starts with the raiser post-flop. Aside from the confusion it was an enjoyable game, the standard was awful, lots of limping and giant stacks going to war with all-ins on J4 and K6... and hitting of course! The most embarrassing thing was: I knew everyone sitting on that table - among the 10 were two ex-boyfriends, one teenage crush object and two 'not-wee-any-more' boys that I actually used to babysit(!) LOL! Cue free drinks for moi all night...

After the pub game ended, I joined my mother in another pub before walking home together. She was playing 5 card draw for 50c. One player had to leave early so Mum took his place and his cards ordering me to take her hand for the 'last hand' of the night. Picking up the cards I got 6-7-7-9-9, I was informed that "6s and 3s were wild and we needed 3s or better to open".... "Sure, I can open..." the remaining players all started at me. "You have 3s or better?" I nodded, as they discarded/collected cards, I declined any cards. Cue more hard looks, then one player points out that I was to 'open the bet or check' seeing €7.50 already on the table I picked up €2 from my mum's stack of coins. She frowned crossly at me, I replaced it, picked up €1, she shook her head took it off me. "50c bets only!" "Oh... Okay I bet 50c..." one by one they all called with their various explanations:
"No offence, don't think you have anything there... Call"
"She's making mistakes, doesn't know what she's doing... I'll call"
"Tut-tut, I shall call her bluff too... "
Mum folded of course, she was looking nervous at this stage... As I lay my house on the table - one by one they all folded, you could have cut the air with a knife as the €9 pot gets slided over to me! Not one 'Well Played' or 'Nice Hand' did I get(!) LOL - reminds me why I left the bloody town in the first place!

The Roscommon Championship game was in Boyle, 18 miles away over treacherous roads that two school friends met their deaths on, I had spent the morning cleaning my dad's grave for the annual cemetery mass that afternoon so by the time I found the place I was feeling very melancholy. On my first table the standard was pretty average with couple decent players and one eejit calling to see every flop without checking his cards! Going down to 8k from the 11k starting stack, I built my stack back up to 13.5k and had earned a lot of respect when I got moved to the Table of Death. Here there was 5 players, 3 monster stacks, I learnt that 4 players had been dispatched already from this table! Plus the standard was far worse than my previous table!

After raising pre- with two key hands, winning one/losing the other, I was on 15k in going into my 2nd orbit when I got A8s UTG. Limping (blinds 100/200) in to see the 8 high flop (2 spades) with 4 other players, I opted to check to see what would happen. Action checks around to Button who fires out 800, more than 2/3 the pot. I made a bad play, instead of re-raising as I would have done, given the standard I had decided to 'play safe' and flat call. Turn was 9c checking back to button who fires 2k, smelling a rat, I flat called. River was 10d, he fires out 4k I should thrown my cards away and declared myself finished with this hand but no, I made a brain-fart donkey call to see 9s10s. WP sir.

Next hand I'm in BB with AhKc, UTG a loose lag limps in, CO(previous Button villain in above hand) raises to 600, button & SB folds as I re-raise to 2200. UTG calls as does CO. Flop comes J high all hearts, I bet out 2,900 and UTG insta-shoves all-in for 5,600 more, CO folds. I've 5150 behind and tanked. My mind was racing - 12k plus in the pot, with half my money already in I was almost committed. I had no fold equity here had I? Calculating my outs, I had 15 with my nut-flush draw plus two over cards; I had a low opinion of the villain's standard at this point, I knew he played a very wide range. Putting him on a J-7 to JQ, two hearts, low pair 22-55, Plus still tilting from previous hand I felt I couldn't fold. Calling to see villain's J10off I was disgusted! I was more sick when the turn and river bricked on me, not one Out did I hit(!)

After watching the game for another hour, I walked over to the cash table. Here the standard was way worse than the ME! Losing couple of raises when I missed the flop, I With just €48 left, I raised UTG pre- holding QQ and got 6 callers. Flop came 985, rainbow. As blinds checked I shoved with my remaining €40 got two callers, A9o and 97s(!) The latter hit his gut-shot with 6 on river... LOL I had enough of bad beats for one day and drove home feeling worse than I arrived.

Well Done to Stephen (AKA Carfax) who was to my left on the 'Table of Death'; he struggled with a below average stack all day but "luckboxed" (his words not mine - but as it was, only a luckbox would have gotten as far in this game! LOL!) his way to heads-up and split 1st/2nd prize 50-50. WP!

On 8th August IDP are hosting a Tribute game to Ciarán Moloney (AKA Get In There) who is off to Deaflympics and then on his travels at end of August. Cee, as he is affectionately known, is on a strict training regime so alcohol and partying are out! The Jackpot has kindly agreed to allow us have the game there, the buy-in has been kept low to allow the deaf players to come as well as Cee's hearing friends. To make it fun we have a bounty on Cee's head. So far there's 21-23 players confirmed I think we can get 40 players approx. If you are interested in playing, please add your name on facebook or Boards Poker Forum we need to arrange food/dealers.

In the meantime there's 3 days of July left and one game to play. If I bomb out of that... I'll blame the July blues... meh!