+256 @ The Commerce Casino

After a busy morning of chores and errands, I was sitting down to play at about 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon. My third hand gave me A,K suited. A,K,9 on the flop with two hearts. I called the raised flop then raised the blank turn. I was a little worried about the flush until the A came on the river. It also possibly gave someone a flush but that's now ok with me. I had one caller who had, in fact, made the flush. Up $90 in just 15 minutes.

Red pocket 6 in early position. I called, then called again when it came back to me as three bets. Of course I was fully prepared for it to be capped. It was. 6,A,9 with two spades. I bet then called the raise. I checked and called the turn (missed a bet there; there was a lot of commotion at my end of the table and I got distracted. Bad play on my part). Just like the last nice hand, the river paired the board and made a possible spade flush. There were still a couple people behind me so I tried being greedy. It worked as I was able to get a couple people to come along with my check raise. Up $160 in about 90 minutes. When the floorman (floorwoman but no one ever calls them that) Gigi walked by she asked how I was doing, then encouraged me to play tight and cash out soon so I can ensure I went home a winner. I told her that I would make sure that happened.

Pocket Q with a board of J,5,2,A,2. Nasty, but I came out it with the pot. Up $220 in an hour. My next set of pocket Q didn't turn out so well though. The board was 7,8,10,8,10. When the second 8 hit I knew that I was toast but I still (stupidly) went all the way. I have a hard time getting away from those big pocket pairs. However, the memory of the Queens did sink in. A few hands later I had black pocket A and the board gave me a inside straight draw on the turn but someone else probably already had the K with how they were all betting. I bailed and was right.

A,5 in late position with a board of A,Q,7,J,A. I was concered about my prospects until the second A hit. Another guy was betting and I figured him for a middle A. I was wrong; he had pocket 7. D'oh.

Later on I had J,K suited in early position. I called then called again when it came back as two bets. The flop was 3,10,10, none of them my suit darn it. Two guys on the other end of the table loved it and they were having a field day while the rest of us bailed out. 6 on the turn. More betting. One of hte guys was asking "why are you raising me? I got you beat" The other guy said he didn't think so. The river was another 3. A quick check then call and the two guys turned over pocket 10 and pocket 3 respectively. Jackpot! The whole table stood and cheered. The winner got $1000, the loser got $3000, and the rest of us at the tale split $1000. That's $143 dollars for just sitting around. Gotta love it.