Who doesnt love a New Year?

2007, Wow.

As a kid, I used to read those fascinationg books from Nostradamus, Nuclear Winter, Global Warming, and Terrorism authors. Talking about the end of times, the fall of man, the death of Mother Earth.

Alot of this stuff was supposed to happen in 1999, right? Well, thats what the "experts" said was predicted. Ha! Maybe someday the Earth will be consumed by fire and brimstone, but hopefully that will happen after I get to see the Redskins win another Superbowl, or I finally learn how to play poker the winning way. What will come first?


Lets start off the year right I suppose.

Went to Pops house for his first hundred dollar tournament of the year. Finally got my Father to tag along. My father is a pretty solid tournament player, and I figured he would make a good showing.

One of the reasons he has given in the past for not coming out is the bullish style he sees from alot of the younger crowd thats taking over poker these days. He says he doesnt think he has enough patience for that style of play.

He attempted to go to a poker boot camp towards the end of last year, but was unable to complete the function because of a nasty little heart attack that popped up at the wrong time. My father told me last week that he wasnt scared of the heart attack, he was pissed because he couldnt complete the boot camp, his exact words were "this has to happen now?"

Yes, my father is a degenerate.

Anyway, we both arrive at Pops, make a few introductions, and get down to business.

As fate would have it, my Father and I are both seated at the third table, upstairs, but luckily on opposite ends of the table. I finally got to see how my father plays tournament poker, and vice versa. Hes tight aggresive, seeming to pick his moments at the right time, and got lucky once on an all-in, when he thought his top pair of Jacks was good, only to see the other guy (Rob, from the Md-poker curcuit) flip over Aces. My father was dealt a luck out on the river to hit trips and take down the hand.

I wasnt so fortunate, and that hand between my Father and Rob happened after I had busted out.

Its maybe the fifth hand into the second round of the tournament. And I look down to K/J suited. I had K/J earlier UTG, and the flop came K/K/J. I remember, because I told Rob I had that, and he said no way, because Id have raised it, even under the gun, or atleast limped in. I told him I felt it was a good fold, but this kind of motivated me to atleast limp in on this particular hand.

So, I limp, I believe Jeff, SB completing, and BB checking see a flop of K/4/9.

SB checks, BB checks, I bet out 400. Jeff reraises to 1000, SB and BB fold. Gets back to me, and I think. I decide to make it 3000.

Jeff twitches a little, and says. Im all in.

This is where it gets bad. Because the first thought in my mind was he limped in with a small pair, and hit a set on the flop.

But do I listen to the first voice? Ofcourse not. Why would I ever think of making the right decision and following through with it? Stupid voices.

The second voice in my head tells me he has K/10, or K/9, and that Im ahead. I ask Jeff, "do you have a set", to which he replies Yes.

Jeff is too honest for his own good, that, or he decided telling me he was ahead was motivation enough to produce my call.

Either way, I got another case of non-beliverism, and called. Jeff shows me his set of 4's, and I tell him Im drawing dead, he must not have heard me, because he thought I had outs. I think he had me on a pair of Aces, because an ace hits the river, and I think he asked if he just got sucked out on. I show my second pair, Jack kicker. And walk downstairs for a breather.

I told my father about this hand, after he won the tournament. Well, he chopped with another guy, but he had a slight chip lead, so they pretty much awarded him the win for the tournament.

If you ever read this, good job Dad.

So, I tell my Dad my thoughts on the hand later, and he tells me that I need to smack myself really hard, and alot, if I cant learn to listen to my first instinct, because that is always, always right.

Anyways, I decide to jump into the cash game, even though I have no business in it, and take my chances.

I didnt dissapoint. I ended up shipping half of buy in on the second or third hand of the game when I didnt think the guy had an A. Well, he did, with a duece kicker, that kind of pissed me off, because I had the better hand pre-flop with Jacks. And he kind of acted like a dick about it when I showed him that I wasnt raising with crap.

At that point, Im down to around 120 or so. And praying for the right hand for a double up.

I got my wish, and then some.

Im on the button, and I look down to 9/10 of spades. I limped in, along with I believe four or five others. And get to see a flop of 4/5/8 of spades. I cant remember exactly how it went down. But I do distinctly remember a bet of around 40 dollars or so, my all in, with Mikey, who was in the SB making an insta-call.

Mikeys instacall had me a bit worried, because I thought I was behind.

Mikey askes to see my hand. I show mine, and he shows me 7/2 of spades. We both hit the nuts, but Mikey has a redraw, at the time I thought was a two outer for a straight flush, which turned out to be only a one out because I had his 9, and he had my 7.

Luckily for me, that original bettor calls, and I show the winning hand. I dodge Mikeys one outer, and scrape in a nice pot. I pretty much didnt look back after that.

After awhile, we were all able to move downstairs, and play at the luxury table Pops reserves for the cash game.

Im up and down most of the night. A hit here, a miss there. A few well timed bluffs when I miss some draws.

Later on during the afternoon. Im sitting somewhere around 450 or so. Im on the button, and I look down to Q/J of hearts. I limp in, along with Kenny in the SB, and the A/2 dude UTG, on the rock. (rock= forced 4$ straddle in our 1/2 game)

So, A/2 guy raises to 20, Kenny and I both call.

Flop comes Q/3/7 two hearts. A/2 guy bets 40, I call, Kenny goes all in for somewhere around 100 dollars. A/2 guy calls, I call.

Turn brings the 10 of hearts. A/2 guy checks, and I go all in. And I make the mistake of standing up, and looking a little too confident in my hand, which in turn, makes the A/2 guy, after a little bit of deliberation, fold.

I show Kenny my Q high flush, and he flips over K/3 of hearts. And takes in the huge pot.

My first mistake was not pushing on the flop. I know Id have gotten an instant call from the A/2 guy, because he says he had a set of Queens, and he knew I was on a draw.

Oh well, I lost half my stack, but still managed to claw to somewhere around 430 for the night. I think I hit 700 at one point, but I gave some of that back.

After paying my board of 200 to Pops, and finally being able to pay off the Redkins bet of 150. I walked out with an 80 dollar profit. My father took around 950 for his trouble in the tournament.

For the first time ever, Father and Son walk away winners. Hopefully 2007 sees alot of double wins for the both of us. And hopefully for a long time after this year as well.