the rest of the weekend

only 1 online tourney this weekend, no luck there. Still the beginning of the month, so the pattern continues.

We played our normal Friday night live game - did very nicely there to make up somewhat for Thursday. A part-time player checked in, and I took him for quite a bit of money. In one hand, I had the nut straight on a flushless board in Omaha with a JK, and was in early position. I kept leading out and he kept raising. Better yet, a tight player in the hand kept calling. I knew that this player was not raising on the come - he had a hand he liked. I also knew that there was as good a chance that he had the J8 straight or trips than he had the same had that I did.

I kept calling the raise as opposed to reraising - I knew there was a good chance he couldn't see my hand out there and was building a huge pot with a second best hand. I was right. Both he and the tight player had J8, and I dragged a $50 pot.

Then, in our little $10 tourney, the poor player gets moved to my right. He limped in - I reraised him with AJ. He called. The flop came with A 4 5 - he leads into me. I'm 100% positive he's got an Ace, and I'm 75% positive my kicker is higher. The only thing I don't know is if he's got two pair or will hit it to beat me. I call. Turn comes a 7 - he leads again, I call again. River comes a 9 - he leads yet again, I call yet again and ask "did you hit your 2 pair?". He turns over A8. Nope. I take about half his stack. Tony takes the other half a couple hands later.

Then, a play I'm very proud of - we get to 3 handed - me, Tony, Kevin. Kevin's the big stack and Tony and I are fighting for 2nd. Tony limps into my BB, I've got J8 and call. Flop comes A 9 T. Tony leads out. This is a key hand - the loser will be under 5 BB and not have much of a chance to place in the top 2 (only 2 get paid). I sit for a second and try and figure out what Tony has. I decide that if Tony had an Ace, he would have almost always raise preflop in a BvB battle. I've got an open-ender and I don't think he's got top pair, so I shove all in. Tony thinks and I know I've got him when he says "I'm just trying to figure out if you didn't raise with an ace in your hand". He's got a Ten. He eventually folds and gets knocked out a couple hands later, putting me in the money. Kevin crushes me soon after with trip queens, but the net $10 along with the cash game winnings make it a decent night overall.