Pre-Holiday Holdem Part I

$10.00 Buy-In

Let’s get right to it. I was feeling pretty “first-rate” when I got to the game. By first-rate, I mean sharp. Before I play cards, I know whether I’m going to pay attention to the game and play my situations or whether I’m just going to set there and go through the motions. I think most players will tell you the same thing.

We were just a couple of pots into the game when this hand came up. Everyone was still in and blinds were at 25 and 50 cents. I was in the big blind and the aardvark was in the small blind. Everyone folded around to the aardvark who raised $2. I had a pretty good feeling that he was stealing my blind because I recall being told I was going to be “Run Through” in this game. I looked down at A8 and felt confident that I had the best hand. I decided to go ahead and raise it to take it down right there. So I did raise $6 more back to the aardvark. He took a few seconds and then said $12.50 more.

During all of this commotion I recalled a hand 2 weeks ago where this same player bluffed me out of a huge pot with 8 high and he showed it to me. In that hand I didn’t go with my gut, but I noticed that his mannerisms were the same. I wasn’t really expecting this move, but I had to stick to my original read, so I called. I rolled over my A 8 and he rolled over 10 6. The flop brought blanks and the turn and river were 8s. This crippled my greatest threat and I was very pleased about that.

I ended up getting heads-up with the elephant of the night. The blinds were at $3 and $6 so I started stealing pots pre-flop. I took the chip lead by a dollar or so before this hand came up. I was first to act but the elephant said all-in out of turn. I didn’t really even think about that as far as him having a big hand. I looked down at A 8 again and decided that I had him beat so I moved in “IN TURN”. And he called with J 2 of hearts. ??? I don’t know and don’t even care to speculate. The flop came A 6 10 two hearts. The turn brought the 8 of hearts make the elephants flush but it also gave me 2 pair. I had hope but it failed to materialize as the river brought a 5 and I finished in second place winning my entrée fee back.