Goodbye 2011, hello 2012

I can hardly believe I've had this blog for a year now. I know I haven’t written in several months, mostly due to the holidays and missing a few weeks of league, leaving me with little to write about. This should catch me up to date with my results.

The fourth quarter of the poker league at Starsky’s was fairly good for me, but not great. I retained my overall points lead for the year, but was a distant 2nd for the quarter. I started off ok, but I was unable to play every week, and poor turnouts led to a few sessions being cancelled, so I had less opportunity to make up points. While I consistently finished 2nd or 3rd, Jerry fared better, including winning both sessions on one of the nights I wasn’t there. Fortunately, in the last week of the year, I was able to break my streak and won both sessions, facing the same player, Tim, heads up. I had the chip lead going into heads-up at the end of the 1st session, but had to come from behind in the 2nd session.

One hand from the last night of league that stands out, started with me holding 78o UTG. I raised, and got 2 callers, Tim, who was dealing, and Jerry in the BB. The flop comes 56Q with 2 clubs. I bet my draw and they both call. The turn is a blank. I don’t remember the exact betting sequence, but I believe it was either checked around, or Jerry led out and both Tim and I called. The river is a 4 of clubs. Jerry bet, I called, and Tim pushed all-in. I wasn’t positive what he had, but I was fairly certain it wasn’t the flush. Jerry has us both well-covered, and talked himself into calling. That convinced me that I had the best hand and so I shoved over the top. Jerry calls, and Tim shows 23o for the low end of the straight, Jerry had Queens up, and I take down a big pot with my straight.

The new year has also started well with good results in the quarterly and year end tournaments, where I finished 2nd in both. In the quarterly I was doing well, but had two straights lose to rivered full houses. I had a big chip deficit heads up, and couldn’t mount a come-back. In the year-end, I had the lead with over 300k, about half the chips in play, when get go to 3-handed. I was fairly sure that I would take it down, but shortly after I tweeted as much, the blinds go from 5/10k to 10/20k and I got a bad run of cards. I made it to heads up against Tim, but I was certain that I wasn’t going to win 3 in a row against him. He and I are two of the best players in league, and without getting good cards, I knew I couldn’t pull it out. In the final hand, I raised with QJo and he re-raised. I shoved, he called and showed AKo. We both hit top pair on the flop and I miss on the turn and river, giving him the win. Out of the 5 league events for which I qualified, I played in 4, I won 1, and finished 2nd in the rest. Not too shabby.

On the first night of regular league, I resumed my solid results, winning the first session and taking 2nd in the 2nd session.

My belated New Years resolution is to update more often, hopefully with casino results along with my regular league recaps.