Pocket aces five times!

Click to enlarge this image of a sign welcoming players to Harrah's Casino.

I played at Harrah's tonight and saw something I haven't seen before in one of these weekly tournaments. I had pocket aces five times! Unfortunately, I lost with them twice. Also, unfortunately, I didn't play very well.

The tournament was a $100 buyin and we started with 38 players. We began play with T10,000 in chips. This sounds like a lot, but the blinds and antes shoot up extremely fast, so you can't play true deep stack poker.

When the blinds were T50/100, I had ♥A ♦A. I raised to T400 and had one caller. The flop was 10 high, so I bet T600 into a T900 pot. She called. The turn was a king and I bet T1100 and again she called. The river was a 7 and the board had a possible straight so I checked and she bet T2000 into me! I called (no doubt a donkey play) and she turned over ♠K ♠7! She called a 4 times the BB preflop, two-thirds of the pot bet on the flop, and caught runner, runner for two pair.

About 20 minutes later, I again picked up ♦A ♣A, this time in the small blind. The blinds were T100/200 with one limper, so I made it T700 to go. The big blind called and so did the limper. The flop was ♣J ♥J ♠4 and I led out for T1100, fold by the next guy and all in by the limper! Then he said "I'll show." I'm not sure what that meant, but I folded and he did show: ♥Q ♠J for trips, as advertised.

At this point I had only around T5000 in chips. Again I had AA and made a raise to T1700 with the blinds at T400/800 and got two callers. The flop was 10 9 4 and I moved all in. One guy called and turned over K10, for top pair, second kicker. My hand held up and I was back in business.

A fourth time I got pocket aces. The blinds were now T500/1000/100, I'm not sure) and I raised to T3100. A hand behind me reraised all in and I called, of course. Unlucky for him, he had KK and my hand held up.

When we were down to two tables, my stack was around T25,000. For the fifth time, I had AA. This time I raised and everyone folded, so I picked up the blinds and antes (which were not insignificant).

We had played for three hours and the blinds were T800/1600/200. I made a raise to T6000 with ♠9 ♣9 after one player limped. The limper called. The flop was three low ones (I don't remember which ones, but all lower than a 9), and she moved all in. I called and she had hit a set of 2s and my stack was down to T7500. I moved in the next decent hand I had and ran into AQ who caught an ace on the turn, and I was drawing dead.

Not my best effort, and not a very good tournament recap (it's hard to get too excited when you don't do well). To make up for that, here are three interesting photos. You can click on them to enlarge.


Harrah's Casino at night. The casino is surrounded by a canal. Look at the reflection in the water. Click to enlarge.


I took these during one of the breaks. All three images have a reflection in the water that I liked.


This photo is taken looking away from the casino towards one of the many large hotels at the Tunica (MS) Harrah's property. It shows a reflection in the water like the other two.

EDIT: I forgot to mention this. I'm leaving tomorrow for St. Louis. Sunday, I have tickets to see the (NFL) St. Louis Rams get creamed by play the Buffalo Bills. I'll post some photos when I get back for my millions both of my readers -- stay tuned.