House of Bad Beats lives up to its name.... AGAIN

January is pretty much over. New year is awesome. You generally start with a lot of new goals, new beginnings, new this and that and your expectations are high. I guess that explains the increased memberships at the YMCA and I'm guessing most of the other gyms where many of us are trying to live up to the resolutions made in the new year. Well, my goal was simple. To get off to a good start in the Park Ave Poker Tour (self named based on location - aka Tuesday night poker tourney league). So, in reflecting back in January, how did I do? Zero cashes, no points. Disastrous. And the streak, of course, continued for me tonight when I failed to come in 3rd (which would have given me a point), and needless to say, another $25 out of my wallet. Aaaah, good times. Key hands? Key hands related to mine were probably as follows.

Early on, I was doing fairly well. I was making well timed raises, I was getting decent cards and I was playing them well. Poker is a funny game. When the deck hits you, it's an easy game. Well, there it was, and I was up to about $250 in tournament chips (we all start with $175) when the following hand came up. I believe the blinds were like 4-8 and so it was raised to $16 by JT who was sitting in middle position. RC (I'm gonna go with initials now) calls and I'm on the button with KQ. So I call. We see the flop 3 handed and the flop comes K-9-x. Exactly what I wanted. Or so I thought. Until I heard "all-in" and then a "I'm all in". And this was like quick. There was no pondering the call. And they both had the same amount in chips which was like $70 more maybe, and so it wasn't really a factor in terms of the chip stack. So I go into the tank. Everything about the way it played out tells me I'm ahead. Even to the point where I think that maybe they both have K-J. I think some more. Then an interesting thing happened. They decided that they would show each other the card. And the reaction actually screamed that they either had a same hand or not much or both. And then RC goes, "we're waiting for him to donate to the pot." Um, can you say Mike Caro 101. Strong = weak, weak = strong. If there ever was a tell, that was it. But, oddly enough, I decided to play it safe and fold. Stupid. JT flips over Q-T (he must have really wanted to go home) and RC flips over A-9. A-9 holds up and he doubles up (I would have won and knocked two guys out had I called).

But, we move on, I'm doing ok and the blinds are increasing steadily. JJ (initials, not cards) is nursing a very low chip stack of about $50 when the blinds are like 5-10. Well, I don't know how it ultimately ended but the poker gods were smiling down on him tonight. Initially, he goes all in with like A-J vs pocket pair (by "devilsad4c8") and he catches the ace on the river to double up. Few hands later, we knew the poker gods were on his side. The blinds now were like 7-14 or 8-16. "Devil" makes it 60 to go. I look down and see AJ from the button. So, I call thinking it will be a heads up match. Then I hear JJ from the small blind go all-in for $110 more. And the big blind, RC, calls. "Devil" and I look at each other, "devil" mucks and I have a decision to make. $110 more into a pot that is now over $360. I'm getting killer odds but an all-in and a call makes me think my AJ is beat. So, I fold. And what a relief it was when I saw that JJ had AJ also. RC turns over his pocket 9's. "Devil" shows his AQ that he folded. So RC is actually a huge favorite at this point. What looks like a coinflip is actually more like 80-20 because JJ only has 3 outs (only 1 ace remaining and 2 jacks remaining in the deck). Well, he hits is miracle 3 outer on the turn to take down a monster pot. Remember last week, he hit a 2 outer on the river.

So, we're still recovering from the monster pot that he raked in by getting ridiculously lucky. It gets 3 handed (at this point, I'm out but watching the entertainment that is the PAPT) and another lucky hand for JJ. JJ was tired of being pushed around and he goes all in against RC. RC calls and flips over his AQ. JJ turns over his Q-10 of clubs in disgust. RC 70%, JJ 30% (if WPT cam was there). Flop comes J-9-x. RC 62%, JJ 38% (with the straight draw, his odds actually increased). Turn is a blank. RC 75%, JJ 25%. River. Of course, a 10. To give JJ the pair and knocks out RC. Brutal. That left JJ and "devil" as the last two players and that's when I decided to call it a night. Crazy karma. And of course, without this, it wouldn't be the House of Bad Beats I guess.