Friday Nights Alright.......

I'm at the Sons of Italy tourney on Friday after work....and somebody pulls me aside...."Are you PokahDave"?...aaahh..wha? He could tell right away. I was taken aback. Not by him knowing who I was....but that somebody actually read my blog....and still sought me out! Anyway the tourney had about 60-65 people playing...not that many but much more than the previous one. I took 5th in the previous one for the 100.00 buy-in to Friday night’s tournament. I was starting to get a sinus headache early in the tournament. I asked "does anybody have any aspirin"? That way I can calm the headache down and still drink beers. Some lady (who appeared to be the gambling Grandma that mixes it up at any opportunity to gamble) says "I have some"...I was glad to hear it...she tosses a prescription bottle to me from the other side of the table (She's also sipping either scotch or bourbon from a glass straight-up). I took a look at the label and it says that this prescription "Should not be taken with alcohol" in at least two places. I said "this is Vicadin"!...you're not supposed to take this with alcohol...I'm just looking for some aspirin"!....She's like pie-eyed and says "it works for me"!....much laughter around the table...but then I could see that there were more than a couple people that were thinking the same thing I was. 'I hope I'm not on the road when she is"!

There were a few people who play at the Thursday night bar-league in participation so I knew that there were a few good players. I got some good hands fairly early to build up a modest stack of chips. Not close to the leader but good enough to stick around to the final table. I did get lucky twice while I was short stack with two tables left. I had about T2000 left and the Blinds were 1000-2000. I was under-the-gun and picked up Kings. I tried to make it look like I was totally screwed so I could get a couple of callers to triple up and it worked. Then I saw what probably was the worst call in the history of tournament poker. I had about T7000 left after the small blind was out. So I'm in the SB and there's a guy next to me in the BB(who had about T14000 left after the 2000BB)who's certainly going to make the final table with a large chip stack. The guy to his left (eventually finished 2nd) goes all in for about T13000. The guy next to him calls....and I folded my T1000SB. The guy in the big blind goes into the think tank...'he must have a great hand I thought'...he starts by convincing himself that he has to call this..."I gotta call this" he says....and proceeds to call 13000 of his 14000 left...with 2-3of fucking diamonds!! Everybody turns over their cards to see the flop, turn, and river. The table fell silent...everybody is staring at this guy in disbelief. He of course lost the hand and was out the next hand. I turned to the guy that won the massive pot and said "that was the worse call I’ve ever seen" and everybody agreed. I got lucky one more time right before the final table. I had pocket 6's with about T5000 left in the SB. I went all-in to take the BB and he called. He had pocket Q's I think...I couldn't remember because the flop was 3x-4x-Kx...the turn was 7x...and the river was a 5! I Rivered a fucking straight!

The final table was 10-man and I was the short stack. Come to think of it I was probably the short stack for most of the last two tables. (It's not the size of the stack its how you use it!) I survived to place 7th for 150.00. By the time I played my last hand I had half the BB which was at T4000. I swear I just didn’t get any good cards at the final table. I called all-in with Qs-3s looking for another lucky grab. No luck but still got 7th for a paid spot. Not too bad for two hours with a short stack. Aces were cracked by 9's when the two big stacks decided to battle. The guy to my left had 9's and decided to go all-in after some ribbing by the other big stack who just so happened to be holding Aces. The River does him in when the 9 completes the set....the guy with Aces goes ballistic (He was the same guy who was going ballistic on me when I won the bar league and had to chop with the points leader a few months ago...he kind pulled a 'Hellmuth' if you know what I mean). I had to agree with him though on this one...he was the chip-leader after coming back from T1300 in chips. He was in total control with the big stack at the final table and gets his aces cracked by the second chip leader....that was no doubt a bad beat. The tourney winner got 1,000 for first prize. Not bad.

I was probably going to Rockingham park in Salem if I didn’t last in the tournament (Their opening night for the new card room was taking place on Friday and is only a couple of towns away)….but then I thought….that old lady who’s lit up on Scotch and Vicadin is on the road right now….Run away!!!