Tales of an Poker Grinder

I was surprised we only had 11 players for the first game with the Jackpot Bounty at $170, but the weather was great last night so I do understand. I had a happy hour that I spent about 45 mins. before my poker game. I had one and half long island ice tea's so I had a little buzz going into the game. Roo had the Bounty on his head and really early on in the game he took down a lot of chips. The action was fast, loose, and furious, with me playing aggressive. I won my first hand but lost a second, then a third. I went all in with King Ten with about $125 in chips with the blinds being at $20/$40. Micah had limped in and I wanted to be heads up with him and I knew the blinds would fold if they didn't have a hand. Sure enough they folded and Micah calls with Jack Ten. A Ten hits the flop and then Dan calls for the Jack on the river and it hits, I was mad at Dan for not even being in the hand and calling cards, oh well. The thing is I was relaxed and believe it or not I was focused with having a little buzz. With me out the final table was set and it even went fast to the final five players at the table. Beth would go out in 5th and Wayne would be the bubble boy taking 4th place, not bad from coming back from $95 in chips early in the game. So the final 3 were Dan, Heshima, and Roo. Dan would go out in 3rd and Heshima and Roo battled for about 30 minutes heads up. In the end Roo would win the game, his second win of the year but of course taking down a huge Jackpot Bounty walking away with a cool $250! Not bad for $13 investment.

The second game Heshima would end up having the Bounty on his head. Could he win the $9 Jackpot Bounty? LOL! Not between the Hart's. Beth would end up taking Heshima out. So the Jackpot once again starts over at $9. Let's see if it can get over $200. Wayne would go out in 3rd place, but I should mention some crazy hands that took place up until this point. At one point in the game JD limped into the pot, Roo went all in, Scott went all in, Beth went all in, both Heshima and I in the blinds prayed for aces but both folded. JD went all in. JD held pocket Kings, Roo Jack Seven suited, wrong time to bluff, but he did just win $250. Scott had pocket Aces, and Beth pocket Queens. Beth would hit the turn to trip up and win this huge pot. Scott would take the side pot since he had more chips than Beth. JD lost twice tonight with pocket Kings. Wayne would later hit quad nines on the flop against Beth, he would also make a bigger full house on the river against Beth. But in the end it would be Beth taking out Wayne finishing in 3rd place. Beth had a huge chip against Pacman(me of course) heads up, and in Pacman style I would chomp away at her little by little until she only had $20 more than me in chips. With Beth first to act she went all in with pocket Eights I looked down at pocket Jacks, they held up and Beth was down to her last $20 and I won the next hand and the game. Beth had a great game and with her knocking out at 5 of the 9 people at the table. I just knocked out one player and during the whole game I would just win little pots which kept me second in chips for most the whole tourament. My reads were right on all night and played really solid poker. Normally I don't drink when I play poker, and most of my players don't drink either, a couple drink beer but it's rare to have a drunk at my game. But maybe one drink won't hurt, a little relaxing and for me I focused really well on my table. We will see.