First let’s talk about poker and how insane it really is.  Sunday was our biweekly PokerWorks H.O.R.S.E. tournament.  It was actually my third or fourth tournament of the day.  I had qualified earlier in the week to win a piece of Chino Rheem in PokerStars Million Dollar Men Challenge and actually won a seat in a satellite that I bought into with frequent player points.  That is one of the few times that I’ve been in a tournament that I started out with a huge amount of chips.  One of the few, out of the ordinary, strange events type of starting out with the huge amount of chips. The very first hand of that tournament I was in the big blind and looked down to pocket aces.  As amazing as it seems three people went All-in before the action got back to me, and obviously, I called.  Not only did I have the best hand all the way through I also picked up an Ace on the River giving me a set and it didn’t help anyone else.  I started the tournament with 7500 in chips on the first hand.  Mind-boggling.

I sat for an exceptionally long time without ever playing a hand or finding one to play.  And I don’t even remember how many players registered to play that tournament but we play down to 70 and that’s how I got my seat.  I really didn’t make a lot of big hands after that first hand and just sort of hung on without getting too involved.

So the piece of Chino Rheem tournament was up today and I played in it.  There were around 12,000 players registered and 4000 players got paid real money.  You had to finish in the top 100 to get a piece of Chino Rheem.  I finished it in about the top 3000, although 4000 players got paid, I made nine bucks from my frequent player points buy-in.  That’s a good thing.  But if you can make it into the top 10 in that tournament, you could make some serious dough – like 1st place was worth $10,000.  Oh well.

I also played the Sunday 200 K. guaranteed tournament.  I can’t tell you how ugly that was.  I held onto some chips and got past the first break, and finally picked up two Queens to put all my money in the pot with.  I raised it to 1000 before the flop, the blinds were 100 and 200, I got one caller that had ace king suited.

I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to be so impressed I want to puke.  The flop was 5-8-7 rainbow and I went All-in for almost 6000.  Mr. Ace King called and that left them with about 1500 if they missed or didn’t have the best hand on the river. As the card fairy always seems to come into the mix, the little bitch made sure an Ace came on the river.  I was out.  Somewhere around 1000 or so out of the money from over 22K plus players.

There is one thing I really like about online poker, you can set at your computer and swear until you turn blue and you won’t get 86’d or escorted out by security.  That’s about what I did.  I still find it hard to believe, with that flop, that some clown would put that much money into the pot on a call with no draw other than an ace or a king.  But WTF do I know?

By the time we got to the PokerWorks H.O.R.S.E. tournament, I was brain fried and toally twisted.  But…that tournament is fun and a lot of chitty chat going on.  And I find it relaxing to play.  They blinds go up fast enough that we aren’t going to be locked in for 3 or so hours of play.  The brief report is up here.

I still ended up playing more tournaments late into the night.  It’s hard to put anything together when I’m putting my chips in with K-K and getting called by A-K and he finds an Ace and then K-K and getting called by A-Q off and they catch two aces.  Go figure!

Sometimes I really do hate poker but I love this…looking out my window: