Stormclouds Gather

My first few days in Montreal felt like summer. They were hot, sunny, and sticky. Autumn came suddenly over the weekend, though, and it feels like it is here to stay.

I woke to grey skies on Saturday morning. With the $109 NLHE WCOOP starting at 11, I had time for a quick to the grocery store before I started playing. Here’s one interesting hand from that event:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 109 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t4682)
UTG+1 (t7710)
MP1 (t4550)
MP2 (t3757)
MP3 (t3160)
CO (t4377)
Hero (Button) (t4535)
SB (t6080)
BB (t6064)

Hero’s M: 37.79

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q♥, A♦
3 folds, MP2 bets t184, 2 folds, Hero calls t184, 2 folds

Flop: (t488) 6♥, 6♣, 5♥ (2 players)
MP2 bets t280, Hero calls t280

Turn: (t1048) 7♣ (2 players)
MP2 bets t640, Hero calls t640

River: (t2328) 9♠ (2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets t3431 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t2328

Results:
Hero didn’t show Q♥, A♦ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t2328

Villain was a fairly straightforward regular I’d played with before. I was sure I was beat when he bet the turn, but he tanked for a while before betting. I was pretty sure I knew his dilemma: he didn’t want to go the felt with his pocket pair, and he was trying to decide whether to bet turn and check river or check the turn and bet the river. The river was nice in that it completed a possible draw, but mostly I was trying to represent a full house.

The tournament didn’t last too much longer for me, though, as i lost AA to 88 all-in pre-flop and then got coolered in a spot where I mayyyybe could’ve gotten away and certainly should not have jammed the river:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 109 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t9996)
Button (t5455)
SB (t15414)
BB (t4496)
UTG (t24340)
UTG+1 (t30701)
Hero (MP1) (t14644)
MP2 (t9182)
MP3 (t8111)

Hero’s M: 18.08

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 5♦, A♦
2 folds, Hero bets t600, 4 folds, SB calls t450, 1 fold

Flop: (t1860) Q♦, 10♠, 10♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t888, SB calls t888

Turn: (t3636) 8♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t2222, SB raises to t5700, Hero calls t3478

River: (t15036) A♥ (2 players)
SB bets t5700, Hero raises to t7416 (All-In), SB calls t1716

Total pot: t29868

Results:
SB had 10♥, Q♥ (full house, tens over Queens).
Hero had 5♦, A♦ (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: SB won t29868

In the early afternoon, the rain began to fall, and it came down on and off throughout the day.

Despite a mediocre outcome, my day stretched into a long one because the $300 NLHE started just before I busted out of the $100, and I managed a shallow cash in that one. Things had rolled along nicely for about seven and a half hours when a good player on the button open jammed for just over 6 BBs. Expecting him to be on any two cards, I re-jammed with Q5o from the SB and lost to his ATo.

That by itself wasn’t so remarkable, but at least one player at the table called me an idiot, so I was glad to pick up KK a few hands later. I min-raised, someone made a big reshove on me, and I lost to his 88.

Although I played for a long time, I’d started early, so it wasn’t terribly late when I finished up. It was still raining, though, so I wasn’t inclined to do anything outside. Instead I decided to see what was on Canadian television.

Not much, as it turns out. I settled on a PBS special featuring classic comedians performing on the Ed Sullivan show. Although I didn’t find them that funny, I do really enjoy stand-up comedy, so it was interesting to see performers whose names I recognized but whom I’d never actually seen, at least not in their heyday: Rodney Dangerfield, Carol Burnett, Red Skelton, Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, Phyllis Diller, etc. I was hoping to see George Carlin and Richard Pryor, but the constant begging for donations got to be too much for me.