You have to win the races

I played in the tournament at Harrah's Casino tonight. It's a $100 buyin and you start with 10,000 in chips. There were 53 runners who signed up tonight. The rounds last 20 minutes and the blinds start at 25/50.

We had a break after the first hour (three levels). My stack was around 13,000. Nothing much had happened and I had managed to stay out of trouble. We played for another hour and my stack moved up to 15,000.

For level 7, the blinds were 600/1200/100a. A short stack moved in for 3025 and I called with ♣5 ♠5 -- presto! Now another guy moved all in. He had around 6,000 or so. I called and we turned our cards over. The short stack had bad news for me ♠6 ♦6, while the other guy had ♠A ♥Q. Both of the villains improved. The AQ flopped an ace, but the 66 hand turned a set to win the main pot.

I continued to play tight, but was aggressive when I had something. Under the gun, I picked up ♥J ♦J and bet 4000 (slightly more than three times the big blind -- there were antes out there). A short stack called, and a stack about my size moved all in. I had to call with the extra money from the short stack. Also with the blinds and antes, there was 2600 more dead money in the pot. The short stack had ♠J ♣10. He didn't have much of a hand, and he had no fold equity, so I'm not sure what he was thinking. The other guy had ♦A ♣Q. This time a queen came on the flop and I didn't improve.

When the blinds and antes start shooting up, you have to play when you have a premium hand. My biggest leak tonight was I couldn't win a flip.

I have a new camera. I'd like to take a second to thank OhCaptain who gave me lots of good OhAdvice to help me pick one. Props to him. His knowledge of cameras and photography is amazing. His patience with a noobie like me was remarkable as well. He's just an all-around good guy and plays a mean hand of poker to boot. Here's a link to his photo web site.

I took this photo two weeks ago with my point-and-shoot and it didn't turn out very well. Here is the same shot with my new toy.


I took it at about 9 p.m. tonight, and you can read the sign! Go ahead and click on the image to enlarge it.