7 FEB: Viejas Casino, Alpine, CA. $20 Buy-In with $10 RB/AO.

It's rainy season in Paradise. The weather must have scared off people as only 30 players show up. Starting Stack is 4000 chips with my Re-Buy.

I am at a short table with 5 players. I elect to lively it up with a lot of first-in vigorish type steal attempts with relative junk like Q3, K5, and J4s. It doesn't pan out too well as I get callers and 3-betters (with AA), but I don't incur too much damage. We get moved to a full table and I finally get pocket Aces. I get one caller and spike a set, but even with slow play, I don't get paid off. Near the end of the re-buy period, I limp in with 66 and call a 4X raise (Blinds 200/400). I hit another set and mined an All-In with Top Pair. That put me up to 10,000 chips going into the break.

I run good getting Pocket Queens and Kings in succession. My stack is around 40,000 chips with 17 players left. I am kinda sorta Table Captain right now. Eight get paid. Then a table breaks and we get some new players to the table. I despise table changes. One of the players who moves to our table is a scraggly-looking dude wearing a Full Tilt T-shirt (like why give those crooks any promotion). Full-Tilt Dude is doing a lot of raising. With Bilnds (1000/2000), FT Dude makes it 5000 pre and I call at the with KhQd; the small blind is short-stacked and makes the call too. The Flop comes 8h9hTh. FT Dude bets out 5,000. While I considered shoving, I couldn't be certain that I was drawing dead so I just called. The short stack calls the rest of the chips. The turn is 8c. FT Dude make it 10,000 to go. I bail out. FT Dude shows 76 and the short stack got the nut flush.

A couple of hands later, I open raise to 8000 with 77 (Blinds 2000/4000). I look directly at FT Dude inviting him to make a play. He thinks, smiles, and mucks. I am at 31,000 chips and get AdQd in the Big Blind. Another of the new players is a dude who had gotten some lucky rivers and he goes All-In. I make the academic call. Shover had Pocket Deuces. Give me a break! Risk your tournament life on the equivalent of a "Don't Come" bet.

In 2012, I've been winning the races I have lost so often in years past. I flop 2 diamonds, so I'm felling pretty good with my 17 outs. But a crappy deuce makes the turn. No diamond on the river (just to twist the knife, a Queen makes the river; so I would have won the hand if he didn't make his Gay Set). I am left with 2,000 chips which I lose on the next hand. My 5-tournament cash streak is snapped.

Looking at my hand stats, I have played 22 606 times, won just 38% of the pots I entered with them and have an estimated equity of $75 for every $100 bet. I don't even play them much anymore. But it worked for dude. I am cool with it as I got to play an active tournament. Sometimes, the data you collect in a tournament is almost as good as the cash.

After my recent score, I played two more tournaments. I'll just present some key highlights here:

Date: 24 JAN, 2012

Casino: Fort McDowell, Fountain Hills, Az

Tournament structure: $5 Buy-in for 2,000 chips, $5 rebuys and $20 Add-on for 20,000 chips. (75 Entrants)

Summary: The first thing I want to discuss is my tournament selection. Though fully aware that you "get what you pay for" when you play micro-stakes live rebuy tournaments with a fast blind structure, while a juicy $160 deep stack tournament was happening at the same time down the road at Casino Arizona. My decision process for playing the Donk-Fest had absolutely nothing to do with the delta in the buy-in, but more to do with the following:

1. Though I am an out-of-towner, I know nearly everyone who plays the tournaments at Fort McDowell after 6 years of play. I know nobody at the other place. This knowledge of players is a valuable commodity.
2. It's just like why change your seat when you are at a hot table. I have cashed the last two nights. At Casino Arizona, I have zero success and was knocked out before the first break the last time I played there (and it was a deep stack tourney, too).
3. Main reason: Casino Arizona is resplendent with dooshbags. Rude shitheels. The closest I ever came to wanting to clock someone at a poker table was here. Yes, CA is far nicer than "The Fort," but you can't polish a turd.

So I play the Re-buy rounds, endure cracked Aces (Big Slick made a straight on the turn) and had to rebuy when my pair of Queens got set-mined by a trey of tens. But I double up shortly before the end of the rebuy period (A4 beats KQ when the board gave me a Boat).

In the Freeze-Out rounds, I am playing good and am sitting nice with 150,000 chips with 2 tables to go. I had a chance to become chipleader with I went All-In holding Pocket jacks, but I lost a 3-way race against AQ (Ace on the Flop) and Pocket 8s to drop half my stack. Fortunately, I push my last 60,000 with KQ and get called by an Ozzie Dude with K9. We each hit our kickers, so I am back to 130K in chips as I get moved to another table to even them out at 7 + 7. Blinds are 20,000/40,000 with 1000 Antes

My objective is to make the Final Table, but after blowing a great opportunity to pick up blinds and Antes when I folded K9 at the cut-off (blinds both checked down 5-2 ofsuit), I am angry at myself for accepting a "coward's cash." We get down to 12 and the young dude to my right just took it on the chin to drop down to like 4,000 chips. I'm Big Blind and he's small and the rest of table looks to me to do mop up duty. But Dude gets A3 against my J2. We both make full houses, but his is bigger. And he gets up to 14,000 chips.

I am now the small blind and get 74s. The Dude to my right opens with a button shove for his last 14,000. Now I could have just folded and stay above 100,000 chips, but thought I would help the big blind "flyswat" the mini-stack. The big blind, a dude in his mid-50s pauses and announces "All-In." I m about ready to have a seizure as I muck. Button has Pocket 4's and Big Blind has A-T. Of course, the fours held up and I would have spiked a 7 on the turn to bust him out. As the Big Blind was cursing out his luck, I gave him a brief lecture in a calm tone on the strategic advantage of just checking the hand down to take out the small stack. He considered my instruction and replied, "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I'm doing?"

I kind of see how this Greek tragedy is going to play out. Young Dude doubles up again and now he has like 70,000 chips. Now I'm the posting the 40K Big Blind with around 50,000 behind me. I have J6s. It's folded to Young Dude in the small blind. Of course, the MOFO shoves. I am faced with a horrible decision. I could just fold here and just pray that someone busts out (we are at the bubble now and the numbnuts to my left is pretty short too). But while J6s is no powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, it might be good enough to race with. So I call. Dude has Pocket 3s. The Crabs hold up.

I am forced to play for all my chips with T2-off. The chipleader raises and we go heads up. He has J9-off. While T2 works wonders for Dolly Brunson, it does nothing for me. And I am the Bubble Boy. I would be totally despondent, but Fort McDowell players do a classy thing each pays the bubble 5 bucks. So I invested $35, walked out with $40 (two dudes stiffed me). So at least I can say I now have 4 straight tournament cashes.

Date: 25 JAN, 2012

Casino: Fort McDowell, Fountain Hills, Az

Tournament structure: $30 Buy-in for 10,000 chips, $20 Add-on for 10,000 chips. (32 Entrants)

In the first hour of the tournament, I made it up with the chipleaders when I called a raise with 55 and hit a set. The Dudess went All-In when she made trip Queens on the turn. But my Boat torpedoed her. I more or less played a fairly active tournament and was trending upwards. There was a lot of drama going on around me as one one of the guys I chopped with a couple of nights ago went ballistic when a guy who looked like a biker called his pocket Jacks with 87 and hit a straight to bust him out. The guy called Biker Dude "stupid" which was probably not a smart thing to do. Then the friend of the guy who busted out did not take well to Biker Dude's playful banter and launched a fusillade of F-Bombs at him and pretty much called him out right there (and I'm between the two). Biker Dude calmly replied, "Before, I was scared of you. Now, I'm doubly scared of you." I liked Biker Dude.

Unlike the other tournaments I played this week, this one would only pay 5. I was fortunate enough to win three flips (TT vs AJ, AKs vs TT, and 66 vs AJ) to make it to the Final 5. F-Bomb Dude went out in fifth and Biker Dude followed suit. Down to 3, I had less than 1 Big Blind and went All-In from the Small Blind with 6-3. Big Blind had AQ and flopped a Queen to put me out of my misery. I collected $200.

With 5 straight cashes, including a technical win, I am happy with 2012 so far. My simple ingredient to success has been to get out of the mentality of "Level I, I'll just play Pocket Aces. Level II, I'll play AA, KK, QQ, AK. And I'll never play 7-2-off." and just have the intuition when it is right to play, regardless of cards, when 6 years of experience dictates it is warranted.

This is a continuation of my Scottsdale, AZ Business/Poker trip

Date: 23 JAN, 2012

Casino: Fort McDowell, Fountain Hills, Az

Tournament structure: $50 Buy-in for 10,000 chips, $40 Add-on for 20,000 chips. (50 Entrants)

Summary: The Fort McDowell $50 Deep Stack is one of the best values out there for live tournaments. Early on, I got pushed around some, but did nothing to cost me much in chips. My first big hand was Pocket Queens at Level III (100/200). Two players limped and I raised for 1000 to take the pot pre-flop. From that point, I was able to chip up for awhile without facing tough All-In decicions.

As we got down to 2 tables, blinds were 2000/4000. At that time, I had about 100,000 chips and had a clear road to the Final Table. An older gent joined the table. I'll call him "Grandpa Charlie." He went about 350 bills and looked a bit like Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel. His stack was also quite fat. My first encounter with Grandpa was a hand where I limped in with 87s. Stefan, the player to me left who I was having intelligent conversation with also called (He had just survived an All-In set-over-set encounter with a flush on the river). Grandpa checked his option at the Big Blind. The flop came town K-Q-7. I bet my bottom pair for 8,000 and Stefan folded. Grandpa raised and got me to fold. At that point, I knew Grandpa was going to be my advesary for the rest of the tournament.

A few hands later, I raised with AQ and had a dude with a chip stack equal to mine shove. I made the call and he was the dog with AJ. My hand held up and I shot up to 160,000 chips. A couple of hands later, I raised it up with AJ and Grandpa Charlie called at the button. An Ace with 5 and 7 flopped and I went All-In. I was nervous when the old coot called, but he was in deep kimchee with A-T. A 7 and Queen filled the late streets and Grandpa escaped with a chop. Nice hand," I said sarcastically.

With 13 players left, blinds went to 8000/16000. Grandpa looked to be chip leader. I had just doubled up a short stack and dropped down to 100,000 chips. I was now Big Blind. An Asian guy who I played against at the Final Table the night before was to my right now. When faced with tough decisions, he would flip a coin to decide what to do. He raised me out of my Big Blind while I had A3. Now at the small blind, I held A7s. The coin-flipper raised me again, but this time I put him to test and went All-In. He called with KQ, but had me covered. Though I was a 60-40 favorite, my apprehension was summarily rewarded when he flopped a King, along with 2 and 4. But I caught a miracle wheel when 3 and 5 hit the board. He was apoplectic after that. I made one more bust out with Big Slick and made it to the Final Table with around 180,000 chips. I was probably 2nd in chips with Grandpa Charlie the leader. Stefan, the coin-flipping Asian and one dude who actually was chip and a chair at one point joined me.

My Final Table was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I made the first bustout when my Pocket Queens at the Big Blind beat someone's A2s when his steal went awry. I busted out the Asian guy and another when my AJ (with an Ace on the Flop) beat KQ and the Asian's 88 (Heads you lose, Tails you lose). My steamroller was temporarilly derailed when I got in with AT against Stefan's A7. But he rivered a 7. Still had 300,000 chips. Down to 4 players, I busted out the chip-and-chair guy's "Any-2-cards" vs my A2s.

And now it was Me (350,000 chips), Grandpa (450,000 chips) and Stefan the shorty at 200,000 chips. Blinds were 15000/30000. After a Safe, First went from from $1000 to $800, with 2nd and 3rd $500 [We had to twist Grandpa's arm to get him to agree]. The Final 3 encounter went for almost an hour and was a interesting battle of styles. Grandpa (at my right) was very aggressive and raised 2.5 times the Big Blind nearly every time Stefan was out of the hand. He put me to the test every time and I chose to fold most of the time, but would do timely pre-flop shoves which got him to fold to stay afloat. Stefan chose to play flops and was tough to play going in. He got me to fold a pretty large pot and showed a bluff. I seemed to be getting it from both ends against these two and managed to survive with shoves when I was the button.

We were now at 20,000/40,000. Like a tough boxing match, I was taking too many blows and was down to 200,000 chips. Stefan had 300,000 and Grandpa had half-a-mil. I was Big Blind with Pocket Eights and Grandpa did his obligatory raise for 100,000. I was ready and went All-In. For the first time, he actually called and showed KQ. While wired 8s has always been a Death Hand for me, for once they held up and I was now chipleader. By now it was 1:00 AM and we finally got Grandpa to chop. We each took in $600 and they gave me the remaining 10 bucks and declared me the "Winner."

So for the first time in four years of blogging, I am happy to say: "WINNER WINNER. CHICKEN DINNER."