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"It takes three 'Atta boys' to make up for one 'Aw, shit!'"
Mr. F#*@ the River

It was a wild night of poker at the regular game. The best part of the night is we doubled the buy-in to $20 and we added the 75/150 and 150/300 levels instead of doubling the blinds each time. It's remarkable how much more play we got with just that simple change.

I'm glad I went tonight because really needed to get some play in before this weekend. In fact, the way some of these guys play any two cards, I should be more than ready for Gavin Smith!

The first game got off to a good start when I put in a pretty big raise after the flop holding a flush and gutshot straight draw. The raise virtually committed me. I probably should have just pushed there. Instead, Mr. F#*@ the River called my flop bet and then pushed on the turn. The board was 6-high.

"Ugh," I said. I had missed my draw. "You've got pocket tens. Or maybe jacks." I wasn't pulling a Daniel Negreanu here, I think based on the play it was a pretty safe bet.

I counted up the pot and there was a little more than T1600 on there. I was facing a bet of about T500. Calling there would leave me with about T500. With about a 30% chance here, I decided to take a chance.

Mr. F#*@ the River turned over pocket tens, including one of the diamonds I needed. That made me a 3-to-1 underdog with just one card to come. Thankfully, my opponent lived up to his name and the deuce of diamonds gave me the pot.

I maintained a healthy stack throughout before flopping a set on the first hand of heads up play and busting my opponent's top pair.

The second game almost went the same way for me. Holding J6s, I flopped a flush and gutshot straight draw. This time I pushed. Unfortunately, I pushed into a pretty loose player with a lot of chips, and he called me with bottom pair and a gutshot straight draw. I was actually favored here, 57% to win or chop.

It didn't happen, and I was out two from the money.

The poker was almost secondary tonight (almost...). I had a really good time, especially since the poker was less of a push-fest than it's ever been. Hopefully it stays this way, because the all the players are getting better, making this much more fun.

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