+38 @ The Commerce Casino

As you might guess from my playing poker two days in a row, Jennifer is still out of town. I showed a little after 1:00 and took seat 4 at a new table. Loc - the player from yesterday - took seat five, but he left soon thereafter to play with a
friend at another table. In seat one was Pam, a lady I had played with a couple times before. Being a solid and tight player, she is a welcome change from the normal wild play. Seat nine was occupied by a very cantankerous old fellow. He was constantly shouting for a new player, he asked a floorman to get the supervisor because he wanted to file a complaint about another floorman, and he used any excuse to berate the dealer. He eventually left and the table was happier for it.

• Q,7 as big blind. It turned out to only be me and cantankerous seat nine and we both checked it all the way. I actually made a straight on the river, and took the big pot of $4.
• K,Q spades in early position. I raised and got Qh,spade,spade in return. After betting the entire way I slowed down and checked on the river, because not only did my top pair not improve, the dealer put two more hearts onto the table. Pam bet and I mucked myhand. She had the two hearts including the A.
• Pocket 8s as small blind and a flop of 5,7,A. I checked and then folded when it came back to me as two bets. Of course an 8 came on the turn, but to make it more interesting, an A fell on the river. Two of the folks who bet the flop had aces.
• And now for my bad play that was saved by a miracle card. I had A,Q in late position,raised and the flop came 5,A,K. It was bet, I raised and the fellow who started the betting just called. The turn was another K and he checked to me. I bet and he called again. Bad play on my part as he certainly had a K. But the river gave us another A, and I knew that I was in front. Again he checked, again I bet, again he called. What did he turn over? Pocket 5s. I didn't see that one coming. Why didn't he re-raise on the flop? Maybe because I had raised before the flop and he was worried about pocket A or K.
• I was down about $50 at this point, but two hands in a row changed everything. With pocket K in middle position, I raised before the flop and capped it when it came back around. The next three cards were K,7,7. I again raised the bet. The turn was a blank and I raised it again, but this woman re-raised. Of course I capped it. There were just two of us at that point, and she checked the blank river. I bet, she raised, I re-raised and she called. Throughout all this I have to admit that I was a bit concerned that she had pocket 7s, but in the end she just turned over a single 7. I don't know what she thought that I had. But if that weren't bad enough, it turned out to be the both of us again on the next hand. I had the nut flush on the turn and she kept betting into me! We made it three bets on the turn, and when I raised her on the river I actually looked at her and shook my head when she went to call. She didn't pay any attention and her king high flush didn't surprise anyone. She left the table for a bit after that, but came back continued her self described "crazy" play. These hands left me up nearly $60.
• The last hand I'll mention is when the whole table each put in $5 (an all-in situation) before the flop. I had A,6 suited and the flop came 2,3,2. We all checked, then checked both the turn of 2 and the river of 3.With my A I thought about betting on the turn, but if anyone had any pair my money would have been wasted. We all ended up playing the board resulting in a 9 way split!