It's Labor Day, let's go to work. Poker is work, right?

It's a holiday and I've been pretty lazy. I did take a look at my pre-rankings for a fantasy football draft tomorrow night with some other bloggers (23skidoo, mattyebs, bono, Matt C and some others whom I can't think of right now).

I also played a little online poker in a low-price MTT.


Final table and I was the chip leader. Unfortunately, I finished 4th.

The first level with blinds still at T5/10, I picked up ♠5 ♣5, presto! I limped in and a player raised to T45 (if he knew I had presto, he wouldn't raise so frivolously), two others called and I did too.

The flop was ♦5 ♠9 ♠J. (Presto is gold.) The blind checked, I checked to the raiser and he bet T190. The other two folded and I raised to T680 which was called. The turn was an 8 and I moved all in for T1030 more. The other guy had J 10 and called with his top pair and open-ended straight draw. The river was another 9, giving me a full house and a nice juicy T3250 pot.

Here is one more hand where I just sat there and collected chips. The blinds were T50/100 and my stack was T7720. I held ♥A ♥8 and limped in; there were two more callers around to the blinds. The small blind completed and the big blind checked and the pot was T500. The flop was pretty good for me: ♥K ♥10 ♥9. What would you do?

I bet out 60% of the pot, T300. It went fold to the next guy who went all in for T3265. The next player called and there were two folds back to me. There's a lot of money out there, so no use fooling around -- I moved all in. This was called. The first player had ♥J ♣Q for a flopped straight. He obviously was hoping no one had a flush yet and was trying to take the pot down before another heart came. The second player already had a baby flush, ♥7 ♥6.

The turn was the ♦10 and the river was the ♦7. S-W-E-E-T! I took down a pot of T18,745. It was all skill, I'm sure.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hand #56591062-68 at 2pmNLH-006 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Started at 01/Sep/08 15:14:25
slicksdaddy is at seat 0 with 3075.
bobfan is at seat 1 with 3425.
kilorider is at seat 2 with 2465.
wagsoja is at seat 3 with 3365.
Kamron42 is at seat 4 with 1140.
XxSlixterxX is at seat 5 with 7540.
seg rat is at seat 6 with 2900.
LawKang is at seat 7 with 3460.
pmcbar19 is at seat 8 with 920.
Memphis-Mojo is at seat 9 with 7720.
The button is at seat 5.

seg rat posts the small blind of 50.
LawKang posts the big blind of 100.

slicksdaddy: -- --
bobfan: -- --
kilorider: -- --
wagsoja: -- --
Kamron42: -- --
XxSlixterxX: -- --
seg rat: -- --
LawKang: -- --
pmcbar19: -- --
Memphis-Mojo: Ah 8h

Pre-flop:
pmcbar19 folds. Memphis-Mojo calls. slicksdaddy
folds. bobfan folds. kilorider calls. wagsoja
calls. Kamron42 folds. XxSlixterxX calls. seg rat
calls. LawKang checks.

Flop (board: Kh 9h Th):
seg rat checks. LawKang checks. Memphis-Mojo bets
300. kilorider folds. wagsoja goes all-in for 3265.
XxSlixterxX calls. seg rat folds. LawKang folds.
Memphis-Mojo goes all-in for 7620. XxSlixterxX goes
all-in for 7440. Memphis-Mojo is returned 180
(uncalled).

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

wagsoja shows Qc Jh.
XxSlixterxX shows 7h 6h.
Memphis-Mojo shows Ah 8h.

Turn (board: Kh 9h Th Td):
(no action in this round)
River (board: Kh 9h Th Td 7d):
(no action in this round)
Showdown:

wagsoja has Qc Jh Kh 9h Th: straight, king high.
XxSlixterxX has 7h 6h Kh 9h Th: flush, king high.
Memphis-Mojo has Ah 8h Kh 9h Th: flush, ace high.

Hand #56591062-68 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
Memphis-Mojo wins the main pot 10395 with flush, ace high.
Memphis-Mojo wins the side pot 8350 with flush, ace high.