Poker Action

Today I'm heading over to Texas Station to play in a big poker tournament. It's a free tourney that I qualified for by playing 30-plus hours of poker at Red Rock. Everyone who qualifies gets $75 and if you survive the first day you receive $200. Top prize is $40,000 and everyone who makes the final table gets at least $1,000. Hundreds of players will be there. I need to focus on good thoughts and good cards, especially in the wake of yesterday's rough treatment at the Ballys poker room. I have not played in almost two weeks, but decided to make one last trip to the Strip before we leave town on April 28. So I went to Ballys, arriving about 10:30 and immediately got into a 1-2 no limit game. Within the first 30 minutes or so, I had run my $100 buy-in up to about $160-70. Life was good and I swore that if I hit $200 I'd take a break for lunch. That never happened. A series of bad cards like Q-7, K-4, A-6 melted down my chip stack. Over the next 2-3 hours I hovered around even, but then a couple of pots got me back up to $170 and again I eyed the $200 goal. Then I got dealt K-J of hearts, always worth seeing a flop in my opinion. I was pretty pleased when the flop came 3h, Js, 8h. Top pair and a nice flush draw! I bet $15 and got only 1 caller. Then turn was a 2 of clubs - no apparent help and I bet $25 and the same guy called. The river was the 5 OF HEARTS - whooo hooo, hit the second highest possible flush. I pretended to think about it for a while, then bet $50, hoping the guy would call. I was still pretty happy when he thought about it for a few seconds, then whispered "All In" shoving his stack of over $200 into the pot. Maybe he has two pair, maybe even a small flush, maybe three of a kind. I flopped my K-J, already thinking that this pot would put me up between $350 and $400... He showed the A-9 both of Hearts - besting my K-High flush!!!!! I stood up from the table and left, feeling a little nauseous after losing that hand. I tried to rationalize the loss. I was walking out with $100 less than I started, but really felt I dumped off $170, a pretty substantial setback for me. It was a sad, sad drive home from the Strip. Aaaaargh. When I got home, I made nachos for Helen and I for dinner. She had kept busy emailing some friends and talking on the phone with Anna. She also did laundry and started getting ready for our trip back to TC. I've rented our storage unit, but our regular moving guy may not be able to help us this year. He's taken another job and may have to work that day. We should know for sure next Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm already looking into gettting another mover in case of Plan B. And so, as it dwindles down, our LV adventure continues...