Celebrity Poker Sighting?

Spotted Greg "FBT" Mueller in a restaurant sitting at the table next to mine in San Jose while I was up there on business. Guy looks still pretty buff, considering he's an ex-professional hockey player.

Bay Area 1-outer?

Got back from San Jose on Friday evening late. Got to play a bit at the Bay-101 before my flight left. The 20/40 and 40/80 limit games boards were extremely long when I got there a little after 6pm. I also put my name on the 8/16 game, and finally got called for the 8/16 game around 7:10 pm. The first hand I played, I raised a kill pot (Bay 101 8/16 plays with a half kill, which was odd to me, to be suddenly playing a 6 chip/12 chip structured game, but whatever), with two nines, flopped top-set, got 3-bets in on a 9 8 5 two tone board. Turn was the ugly 7, but it got checked through, and river paired the 5, and I got a river raise in.

Then the next substantial pot I played, I raised in the hijack with pocket jacks, again in a kill pot, with like 5 way action preflop. Flop comes K J 7 two tone. SB donks, BB calls, couple of folds, I pop it, SB 3-bets, BB calls 2-cold, I pop it again, SB calls, BB calls. Turn is T that completes the flush. SB bets, BB 2-bets, I call, SB calls. River is a 7. SB bets, BB calls, I think, make a small speech, 2-bet, SB smoke 3-bets, BB folds AQ faceup, I cry-call and get shown quad 7's, which along with K7 suited, is the only other hand that makes any sense. I suppose he could have had pocket kings, but from the preflop action, and from what I had observed of the player, he was not the type to slow play pocket kings pre flop.

So I guess in theory I got one-outed, but I wasn't technically even in the lead on the turn. So it's technically hard to say that I got a bad-beat.

10!

Don't ask me how, but I collected 10 W-2G's all in the span of about 5 hours. I hit 10 four of a kinds playing $10 jacks or better. Apparently, the law is if the payout is over $1200, they have to issue you a W-2G. I think that's kind of lame, because hitting a 4-of-a-kind in this game only pays back $1250 for a $50 bet. Including the bet of $50, the payout is exactly $1200. I would think that for larger bet amounts, they should increase the limit, to say something like max($1200, 300*x), where x is the amount wagered. So even though I "won" $12,500 according to all the W-2G's, in actuality I only won something like $5000, since I was recycling the money through the machine in chase of the elusive royal flush.

Bay 101

Was in San Jose last week on business. Got to play some pokers while out there. Played the 20 and the 40. Won $30 in the 20 game, and lost 1k in the 40 game. In the 40 game, I lost to a turned set of sixes and a rivered set of threes. Win both of those pots like I am supposed to and end up a little winner instead of a loser. I also ran into quad queens with my ace-king suited, where I made broadway on the river, and that got expensive. My river raise and call of a three bet was probably bad.

In blackjack exploits had a meltdown on Saturday night and shot it off into space.

A little recovery

Won a little less than 7k in my last session. As has seemed to be my recent custom, got buried early and had to make a comeback. Got up as much as 12k, before I gave some back and then colored up and quit.

The last 3 sessions prior to this one were pretty horrid. I decided to take a big shot in the two previous sessions to this one, and started betting really big to try and make a big score. Didn't work out so well.

Easy come, easy go

On a bit of a downward spiral. Still up quite a bit, but have had three horrid sessions in a row, where I have given quite a bit back. Hopefully next session I can turn it around and make a big score.

Heater of a life time?

I think so! 20k video poker jackpot. I got dealt 4 to the royal flush and had an open-ended straight flush draw and pulled the ace of diamonds to nail it! I was only playing since the pit critter decided it was time to change out the cards at the table I was playing. And I picked up 25k playing black jack too!