Thursday Night in San Diego

Thursday morning was exceptionally tough getting up after a long night at the Paradise tables. God I love sleeping in my own bed these days. (Huge shout out to Suzanne York for making my house immaculate for my return. Yes I do the dishes Greg Sturtz!) I needed to get up early enough to make it all the way down to 32nd St Naval Station to make sure the offload was going according to plan. There are just too many things people will try and pull over on a young Corporal that they won't try if he has a little back-up down there. I made it out of the house by 0700 and was on my way to San Diego. Fortunately for me I realized when I looked down at my cell phone on the drive that I gain an hour going West so that hooked me up nicely. I arrived and everything was actually moving along nicely and all of our gear was nearly off the good ol USS Peleliu. God I never want to see that ship again!

After about an 4 hours of hanging out pier side I decided to start the trip back and stay the night at Viejas (For those that don't know Viejas is an Indian Casino about 20 miles from downtown that has a rather large Poker Room). There wasn't really any need for me down at the pier anymore but I certainly wasn't going to leave San Diego just in case something came up. I went to my usual hotel, The Ayres Inn. Maybe it has a little apeal to me due to my history with Calvin Ayre and Bodog. Wait... Nevermind it's just the only hotel inside of 25 minutes from the casino. lol Fortunately it was only like 2pm so I had plenty of time to hang out. I knocked out the blog from the night before in Yuma and then went and hung out at the pool and hot tub for a couple of hours and made some phone calls. Although only two hours, it was exactly the kind of relaxation I have been looking for for months! Now it was time to relax at the tables!

I got to the poker room at about 5pm. Sidenote: Valet parked my ride right by the front door with some sick cars. Good lord it was sitting next to a $400,000 Lambo! Someday right! Ok I walked into the poker room and fortunately they were just starting up a $2-$5 NL game and I bought in for the max $1000. I sat and watched people as they took their seats to try and decide who I wanted to have position on. Jesus did I ever take the right seat! I chose to move in right beside a 60 something year old man who had a wad of 100's a foot thick in his pocket. If nothing else this dude HAD to have experience. Oh he had experience at the tables alright AND breath that would knock out a Kuwaiti Camel. Jesus that made for a long night. The table was a tough one for quite awhile but we still saw our majority of big hands throughout the night and I will touch on a couple key ones.

I had built my stack to nearly $1,500 over the first two hours grinding it out when the following hand came up. Very important to this one is the fact that the two gentleman beside me were Iraqis that came to the US back in 2002. The crazy part about this is I don't think they have taken a bath since the day they arrived 6 years ago and are on TILT bigtime after taking a couple of losses over the past 20 minutes. Everyone at the table is chomping at the bit for a chance to take some cash off of these two. MY TURN! In the big blind I look down at Jh 8h and call a raise to $35 from Iraqi #2. ( I will called these dudes #1 and #2, and yes he is reminiscent of a very dirty Adam Arriola) #1 calls as well and we see a flop 3 handed. Flop 10c 9c 7h. What a monster for me. Stone cold nuts (absolute best hand possible) with two maniacs to act behind me. I check as does #1. #2 bets out $75 and with little debate I toss in a raise to $175. I decide to keep it nice and small so that they can hang themselves with big mistakes. Out of nowhere #1 comes back at us with a three bet to $300. #2 instantly pushes in for $1000 and of course I insta push for my remaining $1,200 or so. Of course having half of his stack already committed, #1 calls the rest of his $600. Here we go $2,600 pot and my chance to finish off both of these smelly bastards. #1 shows 99 for middle set (three of a kind) and #2 show a terrible pair of QQs remember I said he was tiliting BAD. All I have to do is avoid the board pairing. Unfortunately for me, as I am screaming for the board to not pair, the turn comes a 2 and the river comes a 2 and I lose this monster pot when my straight can't outlast the full house. Good for me was dipshit with the QQ, I got $400 of his so in the end I only lost about $200 but still an enormous swing!

Immediately after that hand #2 was all pissed off about losing his stack so he asked to up the stakes and of course everyone agreed immediately and we were now playing $5-$10 NL with a max buyin of $2,000. This guy Paul and I both added another $1,000 to our stacks and #2 bought another $2k. Very first hand I get dealt AsAc. Folded all around the table to this lady who was a complete nit (Very Tight Player) who had folded to reraises from me the last 4 times I raised her. She made it $30 to go and I raised to $130 preflop. I expected an instant fold from her but she thought and made the call amazingly enough. I immediately had her range between JJ, QQ, KK, or AA. Maybe AK. We see a flop of 9h 8h 3s. She check and I fire $150. With little thought she tosses in $300. I still had her on the exact range that initially popped into my head and I started on a little acting piece to look like i was in serious deliberation while I was really just wanting her to push all in for her last $400 or so on the turn. I eventually made the call and a 9d came on the turn. She pushed as I had hoped and holy jesus was I ever wrong with my read on her. After my call she tabled 88 for a full house. As I stood up in complete disgust at my misread the dealer burned a card and placed the AMAZING ACE OF HEARTS for me on the table. Yes I hit a 4 outer (2 aces and 2 nines would win the pot for me) on the river and took down a nearly $2,000 pot. I chalked this one up to karma for losing that other monster pot earlier.

I certainly made some amateur mistakes early on but in the end I got my money in good once and lost and got my money in REALLY bad once and WON so go figure that one out. That's why I love poker I guess. The emotional rollercoaster is one that may rip another hole in my stomach or further my desire to sit with the big dogs in a place we call Sin City.

Vegas here I come!

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Session +$1,350 over 6 hours = $225/hour

Total +$2,420 over 15 hours = $161/hour