Fiftieth of One Hundred Ninety One

Take off Friday morning in search of a tournament. To late for the pre-dawn tournament the garden, barely enough time to make it to the lake for their friday morning omaha, if I speed. So I speed even more. Well, until traffic where the sixty and the fifteen met. Ended up a half hour late with no seats left. They were already eleven to a table with the button being dealt out. So off I head up the mountain on state seventy four. Beautiful view of the lake from three thousand feet up. I'm going to have to take my camera up there in a couple of weeks or so. Just as I hit the county line, there is a construction zone and highway traffic is down to one lane. So I wait my turn to go a couple of miles on the wrong side of the road past the construction zone. This makes me late for the eleven thirty tournament at hollywood park, but I still have time to catch the one PM hold'em at the bike. Up the seven-ten I go from the four-o-five. I make it a half an hour early, sign in and grab a magazine from the rack and a sandwich from the shop. Eventually we sit at our tables and there is still a long line of folk signing up. This is going to be a big one. Normally I've seen ninety to a hundred sign up for this one. Today, a hundred and ninety one at twenty tables. They started taking tables from the cash game area to seat all of us. Poor dealers were staying for an hour per table before being pushed. Two very chatty and two some-what chatty folk were tearing up the table. Raising pre-flop, betting big on the turn, and scooping at the folds of others. One old man wasn't having any of it. Reraising on the turn and the river to scoop in his. It took an hour before someone called him and he finally showed a set of fives. I was folding most of my hands, and when I did raise, everyone else folded, so all I would get were the blinds and antes. Did get to knock out a few players. Even two at once. By the second break even had a nice stack of chips in front of me and could settle back into my game. Boy, was that the wrong idea. Should have stayed tight. When some others were moved to my table after theirs broke up, I did not have the same rep with them. Already knocked out the very chatty ones. And the somewhat chatty ones were starting to irk me. I usually ignore getting caught up in table talk, but when it is directed at you, it's tough. Smile, stare, exchange pleasantries is usually as far as I go. They want to know how your smile and eyes look when you are talking about something you like as opposed to something you don't like to try and help them guess what your cards are. If you give them the same look everytime, you are a pretty good actor. If you give them a different look everytime, even in similiar situations, you are a better actor. I am not that good of an actor. My brother in Houston will tell you that he can read me very well. He always seems to fold when I holding at least a pair of queens. In any event, After three hours of this and a new person at the table with a chip stack about sixty percent of mine, went all in after the flop. That same flop also gave me two pair. When the rest of the table folded around to me, I called his bet. He showed a set of threes and my two painted pair did not look so good anymore. Without another king or queen on the turn, nor the river, I was down to forty percent of my stack. Darn. Folded a few more rounds and finally called another all-in with my king ten hoping to beat out a random pair in a race. After no one else calls, He shows two nines, and with no king nor ten on the turn nor the river, I'm out in about fitieth place. At least I got past a hundred and forty others, too bad it only paid down to twenty seventh place. We'll try again soon. Did get to drive through three counties and see a lot of sights from the desert, to the hills, to the sea.